(TheLastPatriotNews.com) – A smartphone app for Catholic Christian prayers has gone viral, beating TikTok and other social media applications on the Apple store in a surge at the start of Lent.
The app in question is called “Hallow.” It is described as a Catholic meditation, prayer, and sleep smartphone application.
On Ash Wednesday last week, “Hallow” reached the third spot on the list of the top free iPhone apps on the Apple store, The Western Journal reported, as cited by Breitbart News.
The Catholic prayer app thus surpassed in popularity not only TikTok but also Google, Instagram, Netflix, and Spotify, a development the report described as “remarkable.”
By Saturday, Hallow went down by one slot only to rank fourth. It was only surpassed by TikTok, the Chinese shopping site Temu, and Capcut, a video editing software.
On Sunday, the Catholic prayer app was still in the top 20 on the Apple app store.
“Pray with millions around the world leading up to Easter alongside Mark Wahlberg, Jim Caviezel, Fr. Mike, and more on Hallow, the #1 prayer app in the world,” the app website says, inviting new users.
The surge in the app’s popularity seems to have been fueled at least partly by Catholic Hollywood actor Mark Wahlberg’s appearance on NBC’s “Today Show” on Wednesday.
During that, Wahlberg discussed the importance of prayer and fasting and the app itself.
“God knows the things he wants you to detach from,” the actor told co-anchor Savannah Guthrie. On his forehead, he had a cross drawn with ashes.
Wahlberg declared that faith meant “everything” to him. He leads listeners in lessons on fasting on Hallow’s Pray40 Lent Challenge.
“God did not come to save the saints but to save the sinners,” he added.
“I checked out the app; it’s a great way to jumpstart your own reflections,” Guthrie said.
Catholic praying app Hallow was developed by three alumni from Notre Dame University who launched it in 2018: Alex Jones (not the Alex Jones of Infowars), Alessandro DiSanto, and Erich Kerekes.
“God is doing something pretty incredible,” Jones commented.
“We never thought in a million years that we might have this many people from all around the world gathered together in prayer,” he added.
“To be top 5 in the App Store is truly unbelievable. Praise be to God!” he said.
A Facebook post on the Hallow app’s page said it was “feeling truly blessed.”
This week a Catholic prayer app beat out TikTok and other major social media apps in an unlikely Lenten surge. https://t.co/zU7cRByBle
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) February 26, 2023
