The data was released on July 10 news release by Exton-based Ascension, a multimedia Catholic network and a leader in Catholic faith formation and digital content.

The audience response makes this Father Schmitz's most "viral video ever, more than doubling his previous one-day record of 160,000 views set with his 2022 review of ‘The Sound of Freedom,'" the release said.

Father Schmitz, a priest of the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, has gained a national following for his popular "The Bible in a Year" and "The Catechism in a Year" podcasts from Ascension.

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"How incredible is it that we live in an age where we have this this tool… in that sense of just being able to say, ‘oh my gosh, I can help people that never would meet me [in person]," the Catholic priest and Ascension Press' ‘Bible in a Year' podcast host, who got his start in the digital space back in 2007 recording homilies, told Fox News Digital.

"That's a big piece of the impetus behind this. There's something to be said, and there's good news to be shared," he added, following the beginning of this Lenten season.

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"I did not like going to mass. I would say I hated going to mass," Schmitz said. "(But) when I was 15 years old, I had this awareness … I believe it was the gift of the Holy Spirit."

Going to the next step of becoming a priest took some self-convincing.

"I thought, ‘God, you've given me so much. If you ever ask for me to do anything for you, I'll do it,'" he said. "My second thought was, ‘If you want me to hear someone's confession, I'll do it.' My third thought was, ‘Oh, she's really cute.' Which, priests don't get married."

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