Blessed Carlo Acutis was born in London and raised in Milan. Carlo’s wealthy parents were not particularly religious. Antonia Salzano, his mother, said that before Carlo, she went to Mass only for her first Communion, her confirmation, and her wedding. After Carlo made his first Communion, he went to Mass as often as he could, and he made Holy Hours before and after Mass. One of his famous quotes was: “The more Eucharist we receive, the more we will become like Jesus, so that on earth we will have a foretaste of heaven.”
Antonia spoke to EWTN News Nightly on Oct. 2, 2023, about her son’s devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. She said: “He used to say, ‘There are queues in front of a concert, in front of a football match, but I don’t see these queues in front of the Blessed Sacrament’ ... So, for him the Eucharist was the center of his life.” He prayed the Rosary every day, making the Blessed Virgin Mary his confidant. He went to confession weekly. He asked his parents to take him on pilgrimages — to the places of the saints and to the sites of Eucharistic miracles. In addition to Francis of Assisi, Carlo took several of the younger saints as his models, including Bernadette Soubirous, Jacinta and Francisco Marto, and Dominic Savio.
At school Carlo tried to comfort friends whose parents were undergoing divorce, as well as stepping in to defend disabled students from bullies. After school hours he volunteered his time with the city’s homeless and destitute. Considered a computer geek by some, Carlo spent four years creating a website dedicated to cataloguing every reported Eucharistic miracle around the world. He also enjoyed films, comics, and soccer. Carlo loved playing video games. His console of choice was a PlayStation, or possibly a PS2, which was released in 2000, when Carlo was 9. He only allowed himself to play games for an hour a week, as a penance and a spiritual discipline, but he wanted to play much more.
Diagnosed with leukemia, Carlo offered his sufferings to God for the intentions of the sitting pope—Benedict XVI—and the entire Church. His longtime desire to visit as many sites of Eucharistic miracles as possible was cut short by his illness. Carlo died in 2006 and was beatified in 2020.
As he had wished, Carlo was buried in Assisi at St. Mary Major’s “Chapel of the Stripping”, where Francis had returned his clothes to his father and began a more radical following of the Gospel. Among the thousands present for Carlo’s beatification at Assisi’s Basilica of St. Francis were many of his childhood friends. Presiding at the beatification service, Cardinal Agostino Vallini praised Carlo as an example of how young people can use technology to spread the Gospel “to reach as many people as possible and help them know the beauty of friendship with the Lord.” His liturgical feast is celebrated on October 12th.
His heart, which is now considered a relic, is displayed in a reliquary in the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi. St. Dominic Parish in Brick, New Jersey, also received a first-class relic from Carlo’s mom on Oct. 1, 2023. After the celebration of Mass, Salzano took the relic of her son from the hands of Bishop David O’Connell of the Diocese of Trenton, and together they processed to the narthex, where a new shrine to Acutis was blessed. In her remarks to the faithful gathered for the celebration, Salzano declared: “Sainthood is for everyone. Carlo became a saint by practicing the seven theological and cardinal virtues.” She emphasized: “This is what makes us all saints.”
“Saint of the Day: Blessed Carlos Acutis.” Franciscan Media. https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/blessed-carlo-acutis/
Fenton, Francesca Pollio “10 things you should know about Blessed Carlo Acutis.” Oct 12, 2023. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/46048/who-was-carlo-acutis-a-cna-explainer
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