Carlo Acutis to be canonized

Another young saint will soon be canonized, most probably in the Holy Year 2025. Blessed Carlo Acutis was born in 1991 in London and died in 2006, at the age of 15, meaning he would be the first millennial - a person born in the early 1980s to late 1990s - to be canonised. Pope Francis just approved a miracle attributed to him. It involved the healing of university student in Florence who had bleeding on the brain after suffering head trauma. Acutis was beatified in 2020, after he was attributed with his first miracle - healing a Brazilian child of a congenital disease affecting his pancreas. Carlo Acutis died in Monza, in Italy, after being diagnosed with leukaemia, having spent much of his childhood in the country. His body was moved to Assisi a year after his death and it currently resides on full display alongside other relics linked to him. As well as designing websites for his parish and school, he became known for launching a website seeking to document every reported Eucharistic miracle, which was launched days before his death. His website has now been translated into several different languages, and used as the basis for an exhibition which has travelled around the world. Carlo called the Eucharist “my highway to heaven" and he did all in his power to make this presence known. His witness inspired his own parents to return to practicing the Catholic faith and his Hindu au pair to convert and be baptized. Many of Carlo’s classmates, friends, and family members have testified how he brought them closer to God. Carlo was a very open person and was not shy to speak with his classmates and anyone he met about the things that he loved: the Mass, the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, and heaven. 

Carlo's mother next to his body at Assisi church

He is remembered for saying many meaningful phrases, including these 5: “People who place themselves before the sun get a tan; people who place themselves before the Eucharist become saints.” “Continuously ask your guardian angel for help. Your guardian angel has to become your best friend.”  “All people are born as originals but many die as photocopies”  “Sadness is looking at ourselves, happiness is looking towards God.”  “I am happy to die because I have lived my life without wasting a minute on those things which do not please God.”