St. Carlo Acutis (1991-2006), a Catholic Italian teenager, was an extraordinary youth who went to daily Mass, Eucharistic Adoration and prayed the Holy Rosary from the time he had received his first Holy Communion at seven years old. Saints stare at computer screens, too. St. Carlos was a genius at computer technology and used the media to evangelize. Saint Carlo loved Super Mario, Playstation, and Pokémon but he loved Jesus more. St. Carlo Acutis, a gamer and computer programmer who loved soccer and the Eucharist, has been the subject of interest around the world. Pope Francis referred to St. Carlo as a model of holiness in a digital age. Carlo’s life should teach today’s young people how to properly use and enjoy technology, including the internet and social media. His motto was “To always be close to Jesus, that’s my life plan.” Saint Carlo is showing young people how to be holy. Around the world, Millennials (born from 1981–1996) and Generation Z (born from 1996–2015) see a holy child/teenager they can easily identify with, imitate, and learn from. St. Carlo cataloged all of the Catholic Church’s Eucharistic miracles into an exhibit, which today travels around the world. St. Carlo had a devotion to the poor and children. He was diagnosed with leukemia days before he died in 2006 and offered his sufferings for the Pope and the Church. He was beatified on October 10, 2021 in Assisi.
St. Carlo Acutis was born May 3, 1991, in London though his family moved to Milan shortly after. From a young age, Carlo seemed to have a special love for God, even though his parents weren’t especially devout. His mom said she had been to Mass only for her First Communion, her confirmation, and her wedding but young Carlo’s unique and unexplained devotion led to her deep conversion. The priest promoting his cause for sainthood noted that Carlo “managed to drag his relatives, his parents to Mass every day. It was not the other way around; it was not his parents bringing the little boy to Mass, but it was he who managed to get himself to Mass and to convince others to receive Communion daily.” What an inspiration for a child to model faith witness to a family! He had a gift for empathy and was known for defending kids at school who got picked on, especially disabled children mocked by bullies. Like many Millennials, he saw peers battered by divorce, inviting young friends whose parents were divorcing to spend time at his home. St. Carlo loved soccer and video games. He tried to stay disciplined and only played games for an hour a week even though he really wanted to play much more. He also bought computer programming books and taught himself computer coding and animation. He had a great devotion to Mary loved to pray the rosary. He went to Mass and confession as often as he could. He loved the Eucharist and was fascinated by Eucharistic miracles. He asked his parents to take him on pilgrimages — to the places of the saints, and to the sites of Eucharistic miracles. Using his research, he began creating what would eventually become a website to catalog and share the information with others. He cataloged all of the Catholic Church’s Eucharistic miracles into an exhibit, which today travels around the world. St. Carlo was concerned by people growing distant to the Church and the sacraments and desperately wanted to bring them back. On the site, he told people that “the more often we receive the Eucharist, the more we will become like Jesus, so that on this earth we will have a foretaste of heaven.”
At age 15, St. Carlo Acutis was diagnosed with an untreatable leukemia. He offered up his suffering for others coping with illness and said, “I offer all the suffering I will have to suffer for the Lord, for the Pope, and the Church.” St. Carlo died from his illness on October 12, 2006. At his request he was buried in Assisi because of his love for St. Francis. Exactly nine days after his death, a Eucharistic Miracle occurred: a sister distributing communion in Mass found her eyes were filled with tears as the communion host began to ooze a red substance. Two scientific studies conducted over two years found the host had the properties of an interior wound of living human heart tissue. The different “certified,’’ fully investigated and approved the miracle that led to his beatification in 2020 occurred in 2013, seven years after his death. In Brazil, a boy named Mattheus overcame a congenital disability after Mattheus’ parish priest, Father Nicola Gori, had been praying for Carlo’s beatification. The priest held a healing service where they prayed for Carlo’s intercession on the anniversary of his death. Fr. Gori explained the miracle to Italian media: “On October 12, 2013, seven years after Carlo’s death, a child, affected by a congenital malformation (annular pancreas), when it was his turn to touch the picture of the future blessed, expressed a singular wish, like a prayer: ‘I wish I could stop vomiting so much.’ Healing began immediately, to the point that the physiology of the organ in question changed.’’ Fourteen years after Saint Carlo’s death, his body is on public display in Italy, incorrupt as is the case with many saints. His cause for canonization began in 2013 and he was designated “Venerable” in 2018. A healing miracle has been attributed to his intercession and he was beatified on October 10, 2020, and canonized on September 7, 2025.
His tomb has been opened and his intact body lies in repose in a glass tomb where he can be venerated by pilgrims until Oct. 17. He is displayed in jeans and a pair of Nikes, the casual clothes he preferred in life. The rector for the Sanctuary of Spoliation in Assisi, where Acutis’ tomb is located, called him a witness that holiness is attainable for teenagers. “For the first time in history we will see a saint dressed in jeans, sneakers, and a sweater,” the rector said. “This is a great message for us, we can feel holiness not as a distant thing but as something very much within everyone’s reach because the Lord is the Lord of everyone.” Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino of Assisi said “Carlo is a boy of our time. A boy of the internet age, and a model of holiness of the digital age, as Pope Francis presented him in his letter to young people around the world. The computer … has become a way of going through the streets of the world, like the first disciples of Jesus, to bring to hearts and homes the announcement of true peace, that which quenches the thirst for the infinite that inhabits the human heart.” We embrace “influencers’’ — Carlo is an “Influencer for God…’’ Saint Carlo Acutis is remembered for his cheerfulness and compassion for those in need. He is the patron of computer programmers and youth and was beatified on behalf of Pope Francis on October 10, 2020. His exposed relics can be viewed in Assisi. His feast day is October 12th.
QUOTES OF SAINT CARLO ACUTIS
☆ “What does it matter if you can win a thousand battles if you cannot win against your own corrupt passions? It doesn’t matter. The real battle is with ourselves” ~ Saint Carlo Acutis.
☆ “All people are born as originals but many die as photocopies” ~ Saint Carlo Acutis
☆ “Our soul is like a hot air balloon. If by chance there is a mortal sin, the soul falls to the ground. Confession is like the fire underneath the balloon, enabling the soul to rise again… It is important to go to confession often. ~ Saint Carlo Acutis
☆ “The more Eucharist we receive, the more we will become like Jesus, so that on earth we will have a foretaste of heaven.” ~ Saint Carlo Acutis
☆ “Our goal must be the infinite and not the finite. The Infinity is our homeland. We are always expected in Heaven. ~ Saint Carlo Acutis
☆ “I am happy to die because I lived my life without wasting even a minute of it on anything unpleasing to God.” ~ Saint Carlo Acutis
☆ “Continuously ask your guardian angel for help. Your guardian angel has to become your best friend” ~ Saint Carlo Acutis
☆ “The only thing we have to ask God for, in prayer, is the desire to be holy.” ~ Saint Carlo Acutis
Saint Carlo Acutis ~ Pray for us 🙏
The Canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis & Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati | https://dailyreflectionswithphilomena.com/canonization-of-carlo-acutis-pier-giorgio-frassati/
SAINT CARLO ACUTIS | https://dailyreflectionswithphilomena.com/saint-carlo-acutis/
Daily Reflections with Philomena | https://dailyreflectionswithphilomena.com/