The first edition of the Cebu Metropolitan Catholic Mass Media Awards took place on 30 September 2024 in Philippines. Among the many categories represented: television, radio, print and digital media, Brother Samuel Mary, alias Father Sam, won the award for Best Social Media Influencer.
Father Sam’s testimony following his victory
“If anyone had told me when I entered the Brothers of Saint John that I would end up being a social media influencer in the Philippines I surely would have laughed in disbelief. Impossible!
One thing I’ve discovered at the heart of my vocation is that God has a way of bringing his disciples out towards the peripheries in ways we would never imagine. For me, this has taken the form of an exciting and surprising adventure into the digital world.
My journey started in March 2022 when I posted a video of me giving a simple reflection on the Sunday Gospel in Cebuano* on TikTok. At the time I thought, “TikTok is all about dancing and doing stupid stuff in front of a camera… but why not give it a try, right?” To my surprise, this video went viral and got over 200k views in just two days. I couldn’t believe it! What surprised me even more than the number of views was that people, especially the youth, were drawn to this simple and authentic content about God and the Gospel. No fancy editing, no dancing, no challenges, only a young American priest speaking Cebuano and talking about Jesus.
I had been experimenting with evangelization on social media for a few years already but the potential I saw for evangelization in Cebuano after several viral videos left me and my brothers with a firm conviction that I had to make this one of my principal apostolates.
My current mission is to reach out especially but not only to youth who are far from the Church and who are too afraid to come back before many of their questions about Faith are frankly spoken of. The Philippines is a culturally Catholic country but the youth often find themselves torn between what they perceive as a shallow devotional expression of Faith of their parents and grandparents and the ideologies of the Western world. These youth naturally turn to social media looking for answers to their often deep questions and that’s where I try to be a listening ear and an encouraging voice for them.
After two years of work, I currently have almost 250k followers on TikTok, 224k followers on Facebook, and am beginning to grow a YouTube channel. I also started a podcast called “Bros Unscripted” where Br. Jerome and I are co-hosts. Almost all of the content I post is short-form video content (between 1-3 minutes) where I speak about topics related to the Faith in a relatable and light way. I hope to branch out into long-form content in YouTube, be more organized in the content I make, and reach out to overseas Filipino workers through online recollections and sessions.
Besides the frequent encounters with followers who love to take “selfies” when they see me after Church, in the supermarket, or on the street, I have made many new friends and connections through invitations to preach parish recollections and giving talks at major youth events both inside and outside the Archdiocese of Cebu. Youth have also found their way back to the Church through the apostolates of our priory which they end up visiting after watching my videos. I have made friendships with other content creators around the Philippines and have been blessed with their guidance, ideas, and collaboration.
My apostolate has been very well received and supported not only by my brothers but also the local Church. I was recently given the “Best Social Media Influencer” award at the Cebu Metropolitan Catholic Mass Media Awards. This award was part of a series of awards covering anything from journalism and books to television shows and websites. It covered the territory of ten different dioceses that make up the Cebu Metropolitan region.
A valuable lesson I have learned from being an “influencer” is that this type of work is much more difficult, time-consuming, and frustrating than I imagined. There is such a strong image of famous influencers having lots of money and easy lives but experience has shown me otherwise. Dealing with negative comments, making almost nothing through monetization, and the constant process of trial and error has left me wondering many times if all this work was really worth the effort. Finding a balance between keeping up with trends, knowing what my followers are looking for, and improving the quality of my content while keeping a healthy distance from the digital world isn’t always easy. Despite all the challenges I firmly believe that the mission to evangelize with social media is something that we youth or “digital natives” must take extremely seriously. I hope to encourage and even accompany many more content creators in the future.
I confide this apostolate to your prayers!”
* Cebuano is an Austronesian language spoken in the southern Philippines by around 16 million Filipinos in some of the Visayas islands and certain provinces of Mindanao.
