St Carlo Acutis (ILMODB)

On September 7^th 2025 year Pope Leo canonised the first millennial saint, a teenager. This teenager is often depicted as wearing tennis shoes with a video recorder or computer in his arms. He is dressed in jeans and trendy top and is a famous web designer who’s site is visited by millions every year.

He was born in London on the third of May 1991. In September of that year, he moved with his Italian parents to Milan where he was raised and attended school. Although he was an average student he liked to read and pursued other academic areas independently, including computer science, so much so that his friends considered him a computer geek due to his passion for and skill with computers and the internet. Before he died, he created a website dedicated to cataloguing each reported Eucharistic miracles. It is well worth visiting as it gives an account of miracles taking place over the centuries in various parts of the world. It was launched in 2004 and unveiled on 4^th October 2006 only a few days before the soon to be a saint’s death.

Carlos Acutis died on 11^th October 2006 from leukemia. He was fifteen. During the sufferings he endured between his diagnosis and death he offered his sufferings for the Pope and the Church. His final words to his mother were: “Mom, don’t be afraid. Since Jesus became a man, death has become the passage towards life and we don’t need to flee it. Let us prepare ourselves to experience something extraordinary in the eternal life.” His witness had an extraordinary effect on his mother who went from being a lukewarm Catholic to a devout one; and who gained a master’s degree in theology after her son’s death.

Already then, we can begin to appreciate the extraordinary in this young saint’s life. Indeed, after receiving First Holy Communion at the age of seven he was a daily communicant, cajoling and encouraging the other family members to attend Mass with him.
                                                      
What was so wonderful and inspiring about Carlos was his real love and life-giving relationship with Our Blessed Lord. He saw, in cataloguing the Eucharistic miracles, the hope of leading others to discover that life-changing encounter with the Lord that he enjoyed in his short life: He left large portions of theological notes on his computer: The longest are on the Eucharist, the sacrament that Carlo called the Highway to Heaven. He wrote:

“And so the Eucharist, which is a second incarnation, truly becomes not so much a Sacrament in the ritual sense but rather a Sacrament in the supernatural sense. For this reason, when we take Communion, Jesus pauses among us for fifteen minutes; hidden in the form of bread and wine, substantially present, truly residing… He shares this day with us and continues, after the forms of bread and wine have decomposed, with His grace, His residence with us. So, we become his house, his home, and so Jesus, present, alive, and real, is not only a fact of faith, not only a fact of sacramentality, but a fact of Life!”

Blessed Carlos Acutis remember us and pray for us in heaven this day.

God Bless, Fr David Tams