Carlo Acutis, set to change into the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint, is already drawing crowds of pilgrims to Assisi, Italy.
His stays, dressed casually in sneakers, jeans, and a sweatshirt, lie in a shrine, a testament to the unusual devotion he inspires.
A canonisation Mass, scheduled for April 27 in St. Peter’s Square, will formally recognise his sainthood.
But who was this teenager who has captured the hearts of so many?
Born in London on May 3, 1991, to a wealthy Italian family, Carlo spent his early life in Milan.
His deep connection to his faith began early, after receiving his First Communion at seven years old. From then on, day by day Mass, praying the rosary, and eucharistic adoration became integral parts of his life.
While he enjoyed typical teenage pursuits like climbing, video games, and spending time with friends, Carlo also dedicated himself to serving others.
He taught catechism at his local parish and actively worked with the homeless, demonstrating a profound commitment to his faith and community.
He used his computer savvy to create a web-based exhibit about greater than 100 eucharistic miracles recognised by the church over many centuries, focused on the actual presence of Christ that Catholics imagine is within the consecrated bread and wine.
In October 2006, at age 15, he fell in poor health. Ten days later, he died of acute leukaemia at a hospital in northern Italy.
His body was later transferred to an Assisi cemetery as Acutis had asked, due to his devotion to the hometown medieval saint, St. Francis.
Why is Carlo Acutis about to change into a saint?
His road to sainthood – the canonisation process – began greater than 10 years ago on the initiative of a bunch of priests and friends, and formally took off shortly after Pope Francis began his papacy in 2013.
Carlo was named “venerable” in 2018 after the church recognised his virtuous life, and his body was taken to a shrine in Assisi’s Santuario della Spogliazione, a serious site linked to St. Francis’ life.
He was then declared “blessed” in 2020 after the Vatican dicastery that studies sainthood processes recognized a miraculous healing through Carlo’s intercession – a baby in Brazil who recovered in a “scientifically inexplainable” manner.
In 2024, the church paved his solution to sainthood by attributing to him a second miracle: the entire healing of a Costa Rican student in Italy from major head trauma in a bicycle accident after her mother prayed at Carlo’s tomb.
When will he be canonised?
Carlo’s canonisation Mass will probably be Sunday, April 27, at 10:30 a.m. in front of the Vatican’s St. Peter Basilica.
It will probably be held along with the celebration of the Holy Year’s jubilee for teens.
How popular is Carlo, the primary millennial saint?
The Rev. Domenico Sorrentino, Assisi’s bishop, said that during the last yr, 1,000,000 pilgrims made their solution to Carlo’s shrine on this medieval hilltop town in central Italy.
Images of Carlo, normally portraying him with a backpack and smiling broadly, are in shops throughout town, from pocket-sized cards to statuettes. A spiritual souvenir shop near the Vatican recently displayed in its window a near-life-sized statue of the teenager next to one among Mother Teresa of Kolkata.
To many pilgrims, the draw is his relatability as a teen of this time.
“It’s amazing this saint, a teenager — we will propose him to our people to mimic because everybody generally is a saint,” said Rev. Jacinto Bento, a Portuguese priest who was leading a bunch of 30 jubilee pilgrims from the Azores islands to Assisi earlier this month.
The same day, Tomaso Barbon of Treviso, in northern Italy, was visiting the shrine along with his wife and three children, two of them teens.
“He appears like one among our children,” Mr Barbon said of Carlo. “A special prayer to him is admittedly welcome.”
