Ep 101 - Last Minute Christmas Gift with Gerard Morales

Gerard Morales, creator of the St. Michael action figure, shares his inspiration and journey in bringing the Catholic faith to children through toys. He discusses the importance of St. Michael as a protector and the characteristics that drew him to create an action figure of the saint. Gerard also highlights the need to teach children about the intercession of saints and the power of prayer. He emphasizes the mission of his company, Saints of the Kingdom, to give back to Catholic organizations and support charitable causes. Gerard encourages listeners to pray to St. Michael and consider donating action figures to those in need.

Be sure to purchase yours today at Saintsofthekingdom.com! 

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Saints of the Kingdom
St. Michael the Archangel action figure. Need I say more? Perfect for the little boys in your family

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Transcript

The Manly Catholic (00:56.694)
Hello all, welcome to another episode of The Manly Catholic. This is James, your host, and with me tonight, we have Gerard Morales. Gerard, welcome to The Manly Catholic Podcast.

Gerard Morales (01:00.651)
the

Gerard Morales (01:18.494)
Thank you for having me.

The Manly Catholic (01:20.298)
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, Gerard is we'll get into this obviously in a little bit later, but he created this amazing action figure of St. Michael, which is just phenomenal. And, you know, but when we're recording this, this is a little less than a week before Christmas. And I have two for my boys. We're just waiting under the tree. I'm going to wrap it up as soon as we're finished here. And I can't wait for them to because they always have, you know.

stuff to play with, boys love, you know, I grew up with GI Joe's and army men. I love that kind of stuff. But this is so cool. You made an action figure of a saint and Saint Michael nonetheless. But before we get into that, let's start with the Saint Michael prayer, which is as the I always do. And I think that's very fitting giving the topic we are discussing tonight. So sorry, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Saint Michael, the archangel defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him. We humbly pray.

into thou a prince of the heavenly host by the power of God cast in hell Satan and all evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls amen in the father son and the holy spirit amen say michael the archangel pray for us well gerard one of the question i always start off with all my guests just to get to help us to get to know you a little bit better if you could be the patron saint of anything what would it be and why

Gerard Morales (02:40.884)
Definitely a patron saint of protection of children, 100%. It's with my background, I was a Marine police officer and now we're giving this St. Michael to children, as many children as we can. So definitely would be a patron saint of children and as a father, have that protection instinct also.

The Manly Catholic (03:07.53)
I love that. Well, first of all, thank you for your service being a Marine and give our audience just a little bit more background. I mean, obviously you just mentioned you're in the military, but kind of transition that into well, first of all, we have to flash the action figure Gerard and I have this big box. I said it's so big. I can't I can't flash the box. So I'll let you hold it up. So there is st. Michael. Look at that. Look at that shield and the sword for those of you on YouTube who are seeing this obviously, but those of you who are just listening to audio. I mean this thing is.

Gerard Morales (03:19.593)
Thank you.

Gerard Morales (03:25.804)
There he is.

The Manly Catholic (03:36.63)
It's a man's man. This is St. Michael with military and he's ripped, he's ready to go. But no, I love that. So yeah, tell us, I mean, because I'm assuming, I mean, based on what you just said, St. Michael has probably a near and dear place in your heart, but just give us a little more background and what made you want to start this.

Gerard Morales (03:38.934)
Go.

Gerard Morales (03:55.892)
Well, you know what, as a young child, I remember seeing my father pray. My family prayed the rosary together. We grew up in a big family. I have six brothers and one sister. And so big family, mom and dad prayed the rosary as we needed the prayers too. But I saw my dad pray and I just, my dad was a Marine also, he was a Vietnam veteran. And so I remember telling my mom, my mother saying, hey, you know what, I wanna be part of

St. Michael's Army when I grew up, you know, and he said, no, not, not yet. You know, not yet, son, you know, you have a long life to live, but, you know, yes, of course, and so it was me as a child thinking of St. Michael, you know, uh, and being in his army or years down the road, you know, I became a Marine and, and I went to Iraq and oh three and oh five was a combat Marine there, uh, got out, became a police officer, uh, for 12 years here at San Antonio police department.

and I was a SWAT team for five years and then I was a detective for two years. So I seen a lot of guys, a lot of tough guys and you'd be surprised, they have the St. Michael necklace, they have their tatted up, they have a Velcro, St. Michael protect us on their vest. A lot of men do. And whether they're Catholics or Christians or...

you know, any religion, there is some type of devotion to him as a protect us. So just growing up, seeing that, you know, being involved with these tough guys, knowing that, you know what, this is something our children need. You know, this is something that young men, you know, especially this generation need to see and learn from.

The Manly Catholic (05:42.642)
Yeah, I mean, gosh, Jarrod, that it's so true. I mean, us as men, we seem to be drawn, whether you're in the military or not, at one point in your life, obviously you were, but men seem to be to drawn to the military. And one way or another, like even men who, like for me, I was never in the military, but I've always been inspired by listening to men such as yourself, in their stories and what they went through.

and watching movies to that, to pick that, because I think as a man too, we're kind of drawn to that, the action part of it, right? Like we all want to be the hero, right? And I think again, that's why men growing up, boys growing up, they had like I said, before we started, I grew up with GI Joes and the army men and things like that. And we have like our little battles and stuff too. But what I love about this is actually what you said is St. Michael.

is the commander, I'm reading from the back of the box, is the commander of God's army. He is not an imaginary superhero. He is the real life ultimate superhero. You know, he is the patron saint of the military, police officers, firemen, first responders, and all people who are fighting evil. You know, and this was what's so good is that this is, you know, because boys too look up to the superheroes, but these guys are, Saint Michael's real, you know, and he's tangible, right? Like he, you could ask for his prayers and he will answer you. He'll come to your protection, your aid. So I love that you,

You created this company that is bringing, like you said, is bringing the Catholic faith to children especially, and especially boys, because again, when you have this really cool action figure that they're gonna wanna play with all the time, and then you can teach them about the faith too through an item such as the St. Michael figure. So how did you go from your background from...

The Marines to Detective to the SWAT team to, hey, I'm gonna make action figures for kids.

Gerard Morales (07:35.164)
You know what, very blessed. And so after, I mean, I was with SAPD and I ended up leaving because I have now a security company. So that's my day job. I have a security company and we hire veterans. We're called Texas Veteran Security. And so we have a lot of veterans that work for us and we do, you know, guard. We're actually protecting schools. We have some Catholic schools we're protecting, St. Luke's, St. John's, St. Mary Magdalene, kind of shout out to them that we protect them. We protect the children there.

So I'm doing very well with the security sector. And I just felt so blessed, you know, I felt so blessed that I have the opportunity to protect and also make some money. And in some of it I said, you know what? Let's give some to church, you know, let's do something to evangelize the young, you know, the youth. And so we came up with, it's Warriors of the Kingdoms, the company name, but the website's called sain

So it's sain That's where you can order your, uh, your St. Michael. So the websites there, but the action figure actually was a three year project. And you know, it was costly. Um, there was somebody that tried to make one in California before, and he was an action hero guy that made a Wolverine and all these, these other, you know, X man kind of, kind of, um, action figures. Well, he just fell short in it and he didn't finish the project. And I liked his, um,

The Manly Catholic (08:38.335)
Mm.

Gerard Morales (08:57.788)
his model of St. Michael. So I emailed him and said, Hey, you know, I'm thinking of this project, maybe I can kind of take over and say, No, you know, there's no interest in it. And there's no interest in it. So I'm not going to pursue it's not going to, you know, probably be successful. So I said, Okay, well, those are your thoughts. And then so I ended up taking on this journey and trying to find out who can make this for me. So I went through a couple manufacturers and people saying, Oh, I can make that for 60 $60. I said, Man, I

The Manly Catholic (09:14.775)
Yeah.

The Manly Catholic (09:26.752)
Hmm.

Gerard Morales (09:27.28)
Nobody's gonna be able to afford that, it was $60. So I said, okay, I have to keep looking. And then I finally found some of that could do it for me. And I had the vision of his bill. And it meant it's very, the articulation he can move. And I didn't know all these things, like you said, how do I get into action figure? I don't know. I said, God help me, Saint Michael, please guide me also to do the great representation I could of him.

The Manly Catholic (09:29.543)
Yeah, right.

Gerard Morales (09:56.684)
And I researched him and there was actually a story about in the Korean War where there was a siding of St. Michael where he helped another Marine. So I kind of used that story also about he was a big guy. He built like a big Marine. So that's kind of his built, he's kind of a big guy. His wings, we wanted to make him so different than any other toys, his wings 13 inches.

I mean, we just wanted to make him to where he dominated, as he should, as he should any other, because he's real and everybody else is fake, right? So we wanted to make sure that he's a big toy, that the kids will love him and that they'll kind of see his strength, kind of, wow, he's so big, he's so built. And knowing that really doesn't need to be physically built, but I wanted to teach our youth that, hey, he does have that strength, it's through God.

I want him to see it. And as they learned, they'll say, hey, he really doesn't need biceps, as big as he is.

The Manly Catholic (11:00.082)
Yeah, but it looks cool. You know, it looks cool.

Gerard Morales (11:05.816)
So we went through a lot of trial and error and making sure that he looks the way he wants to. One of the stories is his curly hair. So St. Michael appeared in Italy in a cave and there's statues of him. So you can look them up and you'll see he has curly hair. Well, Father Peter from Poland was here in San Antonio and it was Lady of Atonement is where he was speaking at. So I went to go.

show him, hey, you know, he's St. Michael expert, you know, hey, am I, please guide me, am I doing it right? You know, and the father said, man, it's great. Love it. Just where's this curly hair? Cause I kind of had him a clean cut kind of hair. Right. And so, and he said, no, he has curly hair. And, you know, and he talked about St. Faunistina, how St. Faunistina saw him, you know, St. Faunistina saw St. Michael and we all know what he looks like because, you know, we have statues of him. So he's kind of reiterating to me.

The Manly Catholic (11:53.358)
That's a nut.

Gerard Morales (12:04.096)
Hey Gerard, make sure he has curly hair. So I have to go back to the manufacturer and say, hey, we got to change his hairstyle. And so that took another process, but just, man, it was a big project and I hope I did well and I hope everybody enjoys it.

The Manly Catholic (12:20.414)
I had no idea about that. There's so much about St. Michael. What I love about St. Michael, the one thing, not the one thing, but a very fascinating thing for me is obviously, you know, we know there's the hierarchy of angels, right? And St. Michael is the commander of God's army, and he's the one that thrusts Satan out of heaven, right? But, you know, it's thought that Satan or Lucifer was one of the top angels, essentially.

either a seraphim or a cherubim, right? If you look at the hierarchy, Saint Michael is one of the bottom tiers, right? So if this was quote unquote a fair fight, Satan could destroy Saint Michael, you know, typically. But, you know, how it goes is because Saint Michael chose to say yes to God, say, yes, I will serve. And Satan chose to say, no, I will not serve. Saint Michael was able to thrust him out of heaven because he had the power.

of the heavenly host of God, the glory of God at his back, so to speak, to thrust Satan on his love, because it just speaks to St. Michael. I mean, obviously we think about this ferocious warrior, which of course he is, but also that humility to just say, because all of the angels had to make a choice, right? Is yes, I will serve or no, I will not. And he had the humility to say, yes, I will serve, no matter what you're calling me to do. And that's what all of our angels, or even our guardian angels, think of our guardian angel.

If God's, you know, God's like, hey, you know, in 2023, you're going to be the guardian angel for Gerard Morales. And he could probably see the flash before him. He's like, I have to have to be that guy's guardian angel or like someone like me is like, I have to be I have to follow him and like, try to protect him and pray for him and stuff. But the humility of that is it's just I love the humility. And I think we often overlook that with especially St. Michael because again, he's always talked about with this, this warrior mentality, which

Again, you know, of course he has that, but the humility factor to something I think gets overlooked as well. And I want to kind of kick that back to you, Gerard, as you know, again, being in the military, you know, other characteristics about St. Michael that really stood out to you and really drew yourself or even your family to this particular figure in the church.

Gerard Morales (14:34.412)
Well, you know what, getting back to what you said though, about him humbling, you know, Satan, you know, look, here I am, you know, I'm not probably at your level, but with God's grace and authority, I'm gonna cast you down. So it's there in Revelations, it's on the box, guys. So that way, you know, you can teach your child, hey, there it is. It's in the Bible, guys, you know, it's, St. Michael did, he cast Satan down.

But I would say we can relate to definitely being called, being called to do God's will, and saying, yes, sir. And maybe when you're scared or things that, being in the military or law enforcement, being a man in general, you're put in situations and sometimes you're scared, but you do it. Training kicks in and you do what you have to do.

So I think we can definitely relate to St. Michael in that fashion where he just, he roged it up, right? As a man, as a father would to protect his children, you know, hey, I gotta do this and I'm gonna say yes, sir, and do it. So I think serving is definitely how we can relate, how I can relate to St. Michael and then continuing to serve, right? He stayed loyal to our guide and said, I'm here now, not only I'm gonna cast Satan down, but I'll be the protector for everybody. Anybody that calls me,

you know, any child that is in need, you know, that I'll be there, any man, you know, any man that's in a fight, whether it's physical or spiritual, you know, I think we all need it, you know, like you were saying, our guardian angel, he's there with us too, you know, duking it out. But hey, St. Michael, if you can help us too, the more the merrier, you know, more the merrier when in a fight, you know, I'll never say no to numbers. So I definitely, St. Michael and...

The Manly Catholic (16:28.949)
Yeah.

Gerard Morales (16:32.436)
I'm so happy to be on here also and talk to other men because I mean, we all need this, and if we can give this to our children, I think the world would be a better place.

The Manly Catholic (16:43.23)
Oh, 100%. Yeah. And I have a funny story too about St. Michael. So I don't know if you know who Dan Snyder is. He works with Father Ripperger and his exorcism team. Anyways, he was telling a story. We had him on the podcast. And he was telling the story where he was in the middle. They were in the middle of an exorcism. And the individual was the demon was manifesting. And he was in charge of. Like the person's left arm.

like basically keeping them restrained as the priest was doing the prayers and stuff. And so he was, he was like really struggling. It's like, and this was like a petite girl too, that, that he was trying to, you know, restrained so to speak. And he said, gosh, I was like sweating and things. He finally, he just said, say, Michael, like, like put this arm down, like calm this arm down for me. And like immediately the arm like stopped and it was just like frozen.

And then, but like the hand was still moving or something. He's like, St. Michael. Like in his head he was just praying, St. Michael, like restrain this left hand for me. And they like immediately stop. But it's just like, it's so cool. Cause you know, again, the demons fear St. Michael too. Just like they fear our blessed mother and St. Joseph. And of course, Jesus as well. But well, one thing I wanted to highlight too, which I thought was awesome looking at your website here too. Again, that's Saints of the Kingdom.

Got.com if I can speak and I'll leave a link in the show notes for you guys as well But it said 50% of the proceeds go to Catholic charities. So I thought that was awesome that you guys are doing that To help support obviously charities and then you know the business side as well But do you guys have because I'm looking at the store right now I'm assuming are there other action figures in the works as well like st. Gabriel or

more just saints or you're going specifically for the angels as well.

Gerard Morales (18:38.888)
You know what, right now we're starting off, it's a new, it is definitely a give back. This is a thank you God for all the blessings I've had for my family, for keeping me safe, for protecting everybody that I love. And I just wanna give back. And so half the profits are going to Catholic organizations once we make profit. Right now we're in the beginning stages, you know, we are, we're pushing it out, you know, we have inventory left, you know, and we're trying to get out before Christmas.

The Manly Catholic (19:02.122)
Yeah.

Gerard Morales (19:08.832)
But yes, the idea is once we get going is to then everybody's requesting some here, everybody's request guys and y'all can email me. Uh, we'll respond pretty quickly. I have, uh, um, my, my soon to be a son-in-law and helping and, uh, which, what that's also a blessing, right? Who, who, who can have their son-in-law help them with St. Michael and, uh, so that's a blessing in itself, but, uh, he'll answer right away. He's helping me with inventory. So.

We're getting a lot of requests for the other angels. One of the ideas I had was Joan of Arc for the ladies. And she was so strong, you know, and she won battles, you know, physical battles, right? Not only spiritual, but, and so I was thinking of something like that. I just, we need to get this out first, get St. Michael going, and just prove that concept that, hey guys, at Reno Catholics.

The Manly Catholic (19:44.34)
Oh.

Gerard Morales (20:05.12)
that we can support this and we can push this out to our children, not because of anything else other than we're gonna evangelize and we're gonna help others know about him. So it's in the works about other action figures. Somebody asked me if I was gonna make his enemy. I said, no, not at all, not at all. I have no interest in that. There's many of them, pick one, go to any store, and you can find one of those. We will not make one.

The Manly Catholic (20:24.359)
Absolutely not.

Gerard Morales (20:34.125)
and but we are we will make saints angels and saints.

The Manly Catholic (20:39.386)
100%. Well, that's not the sad thing though. Gerard is that exactly what you said, like there's already there's already action figures of his enemy out there, but there's like none of Saint Michael. There's really none of saints in general. So, I mean, it's so funny because, yeah, your brother-in-law or brother-in-law, I'm sorry, your son-in-law, future son-in-law. He reached out. I was like, this is so cool. Like, I don't think I've ever seen.

action figures of saints before. So this is, I love this concept, so I will do my part in trying to get out the word as much as I possibly can. But I do have to ask you, Gerard, because in all the research that you did with this, is there one story that maybe, I know you mentioned the curly hair and things like that, is there one story that you have identified with Saint Michael that either surprised you or is it something that totally blew your mind that you could share with our audience?

Gerard Morales (21:30.296)
Definitely was Father Peter from Poland, was one of them that I mentioned. I was just so, when he was speaking, he just talked about St. Michael and how even St. Faunistina listened to the priest as he gave him guidance, you know, kind of like, okay, Father, I'll do it. So it was just a long process. But another one would definitely be when I reached out to Jesse Romero.

And I said, hey, I have this project, you know, really want you to kind of help me, guide me, make sure that I'm doing my research. You have anything on St. Michael that I can look at. And one of the things was his wings. Are they white wings? Are they not wings? What kind of wings are there? So he gave me some, some stuff that he goes, this is some things I looked at. And one of them was a YouTube video. I don't know what it is, but I clicked on it. He shared with me. And.

right there, right when I clicked on it, he had gold wings, shimmering gold wings. And I was like, that's exactly what I was looking for. But normally YouTube videos, it goes all the way to the beginning. It doesn't start halfway or in a section where, you know, just it was really, really weird. And I just said, okay, well, gold wings it is, you know, God, and I was just trying to seek guidance in any way I could. And a lot of

And you can't call them coincidence, just a lot of things guiding us. You know, we look up and they're St. Michael or right. We got went to Guadalupe radio station and we're supportive for them. And they got me on there. And as soon as we got out, there's a St. Michael, you know, album that they had right next to him. And then we talked about Joan of Arc and there was Joan of Arc on the wall. And it's like, okay, just, I mean, what a coincidence. It's just a lot of little things like that we feel continue to guide us. And

And a lot of people are supportive of this, the people buying it and just, you know, sharing their story, uh, is still continue to guide our company and make sure that, you know, we're, we're doing, we're on the right path. So let's just say I've had a lot of things say that we're on the right path and we're doing the right things and we're doing it for the right reasons too.

The Manly Catholic (23:44.754)
Yeah, I mean, just it's amazing the ability that we have to pray to these incredible people and angels as well in heaven and how much they actually help us, how much they actually are hearing us and listening to us and interceding for us. All we have to do is ask. We have this whole choir of saints and angels, guys. We got to use them as much as possible because exactly what you said. You know, how much they're actually looking at. I mean, what was Saint Therese? Saint

near and dear to my heart at all, St. Teresa of Lesotho. And she says she wants to spend her heaven by doing good on earth. They want to help us, but we just have to ask. And same thing goes to St. Michael. So Gerard, you know, any, you know, obviously I will put the links in the show notes for all of our listeners out there so they can purchase this, especially right before Christmas. I'll make sure to post this before Christmas. Is there anything that you want to add about St. Michael? Any personal stories that you've had with your family with him?

and anything else I can do to help promote the product.

Gerard Morales (24:45.132)
That's just, you know, sain You know, that is the website, sain You know, the Saint Michael, I love that you said that and it's so true. You know, he intercedes for us, right? We ask him for his help and assistance and our children can kind of learn that from him. Say, hey, this isn't Batman. You know, this isn't Superman. You know, they're not real. You know, Saint Michael would take care of them easily. You know, they're not,

They're not real. Well, we can actually pray to you, Saint Michael. I mean, pray, but actually ask him to intercede for us and say, hey, please help us. And whatever it is, you know, whatever it is, a spiritual or physical battle. But definitely pray for us if anything, you know, you don't have to purchase one. But if you do purchase one, you don't have any person to give it to, email us and we'll give it to a shelter, somebody in need, okay? So say, there might be somebody that, hey, I wanna buy one, I'm just, I'm that action figure kind of guy.

I have no, I have nobody else to give it to you. So we can definitely donate it. Just let us know, email us. We've had those already. I want to say we got six already, six or seven donations. Said, Hey, just give it to a child, especially around Christmas. So we can do that for you.

The Manly Catholic (25:53.144)
Great.

The Manly Catholic (25:58.982)
I love that. Yeah, again, that saints of the kingdom dot com. And I'll leave a link in the show notes for you guys as well. Well, Gerard, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for the wonderful work that you're doing, not only in your day job, but also creating action figures that kids will enjoy, especially around the Advent and Christmas season. So thank you again, Gerard, and God bless you and the work that you're doing at Saints of the Kingdom.

Gerard Morales (26:25.964)
Thank you, thank you so much for having me.

The Manly Catholic (26:28.655)
Until next time everyone, go out there and be a saint.