St Carlo Acutis

This is the first time we’re celebrating the liturgical feast of St. Carlo Acutis, who was born on May 3, 1991 in London but grew up in Italy. He was devoted to the Eucharist from a very young age, even though his parents were not very religious. He was able to create a website about Eucharistic miracles, and even produced large posters, to be taken around the world as exhibits in parish churches, halls and schools. In October 2006, he developed leukaemia and was quickly hospitalized, and died on October 12, 2006. He was a normal teenager, loving Pokemon, video-games, but also was very caring towards the poor and homeless he encountered while walking to school or around his neighborhood.  Acutis, dubbed "the cyber-apostle of the Eucharist", was born in London to Italian parents, and moved to Milan with them as a young boy. Carlo was religious from a young age, despite his mother saying his family had rarely attended church. When he wasn't writing computer programs or playing football, he created a website to catalogue Eucharistic miracles and took care of websites for some local Catholic organizations. While still in elementary school, Acutis taught himself to code using a university computer science textbook and then learned how to edit videos and create animation. Carlo used the internet in service of the Gospel, to reach as many people as possible. He was known in his neighborhood for his kindness to those living on society's peripheries. With his savings, he bought sleeping bags for homeless people and in the evening he brought them hot drinks. He also volunteered at a soup kitchen in Milan. When he died, at the funeral, the church was full of poor people. Everyone else wondered what they were doing there. Well, Carlo used to help them in secret. The family knew about it, because his mother would go with him, since he was only 15 years old. He would give them sleeping bags and food, which is why they wanted to attend the funeral. Carlo is buried close to St Francis in Assisi, in a glass sarcophagus, wearing jeans and a polo shirt with sneakers. He was canonized along with another Italian youth, St. PierGiorgio Frassati on September 7, 2025.