The "Church Gets 1st Millennial Saint" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading about a young man named Carlo Acutis who was recently recognized by Pope Francis as the first saint of the millennial generation in the history of the Catholic Church.  The title of the story of Carlo read "Church gets 1st millennial Saint."  The sub-head read "God's influencer' who died in his teens, gets approved for canonization!"  In the Catholic faith, sainthood is reserved for those who have lived a life of heroic virtues, acted as a martyr or taken part in miracles.  The designation typically comes after the person has been dead for decades, even hundreds of years.  That changed last week, when Pope Francis recognized the first saint of the millennial generation in the history of the Catholic Church.  His name is Carlo Acutis, famed for internet evangelizing that earned him the nickname "God's Influencer."  The crowning achievement of the 15-year-old Italian, who died in 2006, was cataloging a database of miracles, which he used to spread the message of Catholic faith.  Acutis was born in London to Italian parents and later lived in Italy, but his impact in the Catholic community is felt worldwide, including in Miami.  In 2022, the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a religious institute in the Archdiocese of Miami, organized a two-day conference that featured an exhibit of the "miracle" database created by the young website designer.  The multilingual exhibit featured Arcutis' research of what are known as Eucharist miracles: Defined by the church as extraordinary events involving the Eucharist, or what the church believes is the body and blood of Christ, and the ritual commemorating Jesus' Last Supper.  Acutis chronicled 164 such events from all over the world in his digital database.   Acutis devoted his life to the church and had a fascination with the Eucharist from a very young age, famously referring to it as his "highway to heaven."  The event in  Miami included a life-size, life-like statue of Acutis, where visitors could pray.  Young people, at the request of the Archdiocese, attended the exhibit dressed in a polo shirt and jeans - an homage to his signature style.  Pope Francis and a group of cardinals approved the canonization - the last step in the process of becoming a saint - of Acutis and 14 others last week at a meeting at the Vatican, according to Vatican News, paving the way for Acutis to be proclaimed a saint at some point in 2025, during the church's jubilee year.  The years-long process of becoming a saint includes three stages: first a candidate becomes "Venerable," then "Blessed" and then "Saint."  For Acutis, this process began in 2013 when the pope named him a "Servant of God."  Acutis was designated "venerable" in 2018 and was declared "beatified" or "blessed" by the church in 2020 during a live-streamed Mass in Assisi, Italy, according to Vatican News, making him the first "beatified" person to ever go viral.  The Vatican says the first miracle attributed to Acutis was when he was said to have interceded from heaven in 2013 to save the life of a Brazilian child who was suffering from a rare pancreatic disease.  The second miracle attributed to Acutis came from a woman from  Costa Rica who prayed at his tomb in Assisi after suffering severe head trauma.  The woman, who doctors said had a low chance of survival, was said to have healed miraculously after praying for Acutis to intercede, according to Vatican News.  Acutis was a normal, popular boy with a good sense of humor, according to his mother, Antonia Saldana, who gave an interview during the Miami exhibit in 2022.  Salzanio said her son had a way of sharing his faith with people without being overly pushy.  She said she saw this in the way he spoke to his friends and classmates.  Acutis died of a brain aneurysm at the age of 15, on Oct. 12, 2006 - just 10 days after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia.  Sister Ana M. Lanza of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts in Miami said Acutis' use of technology - something that is so often used to spread hate - can bring a positive message to young people.  "Carlo Acutis is a young man that can bring the question in their hearts," she said.  "That, yes, there is hope.  If  he did it, I can do it.  If he was joyful in the midst of sickness, I can be joyful."  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  

Carlo Acutis