Carlo Acutis: Learn More About This Extraordinary Young Saint

Carlo Acutis (1991 — 2006), the inspirational teenager who devoted his short life on Earth to the Holy Eucharist, is set to be canonized to be a saint by Pope Francis. An official date for the canonization has not been set yet.

Born into a well-to-do Italian family in 1991, Carlo devoted his life to his Catholic faith almost right from birth, despite his parents not being particularly religious. Not only did this caring young boy attend mass multiple times a week, but he would befriend homeless adults on the street and give them whatever food and spare clothing his family had.

But it was the Eucharist that Carlo became especially passionate about, so much so that he wanted to spread the joy he felt in taking it himself with the entire world. To that end, he created a traveling exhibition that detailed all of the Eucharistic miracles he could find from history and from all over the world. Accompanying the exhibition, Carlo also created a website with the same information.

Sadly, Carlo died at age 15 in 2006 before he could see his first public exhibition of Eucharistic miracles. Carlo suffered from a rare form of leukemia. So devout was his faith that he even offered up his extreme suffering to Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic church.

To learn more about this extraordinary young man’s life, you can read his biography written by the person who knew him the most intimately: his mother Antonia. My Son Carlo is a loving account of Carlo’s life and his deep and fervent faith in God and Jesus. Carlo’s devotion to praying the rosary and receiving holy communion inspired Antonia to grow deeper in her own Catholic faith. You can buy My Son Carlo on Amazon.

Or, if you are looking for just a brief introduction to Carlo, Voyage Comics has published one-issue comic Digital Disciple: Carlo Acutis and the Eucharist. In a beautifully visual way, you can witness Carlo’s creation of his traveling exhibition of Eucharistic miracles. You can buy this comic directly from the Voyage Comics website.

In order to be declared a Saint, two approved miracles need to be officially attributed to prayers devoted to the subject. For Carlo, the first miracle occurred in 2013 after a young boy was healed of a birth defect called annular pancreas. It the boy’s mother who prayed specifically for Carlo’s intercession.

The second approved miracle occurred in 2022 after a young woman, Valeria, suffered extreme head trauma in a bicycle accident. She was not expected to live. Again, it was the mother of the nearly-fatally injured woman who prayed specifically for Carlo Acutis’s intercession while visiting his tomb in Assisi, Italy. Valiera almost immediately started breathing on her own and in a few miraculous days was able to begin rehabilitation therapy.

On July 1, 2024, Pope Francis will declare the date on which Blessed Carlo, along with several other candidates, will be officially declared a saint.

For a bit more information on this topic, please watch the below story from EWTN News Nightly.