Bl. Carlo Acutis

Feastday: October 12
Patron: of computer programmers and youth
Birth: May 3, 1991
Death: October 12, 2006
Beatified: October 10th, 2020, Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, Assisi, Italy, by Agostino Vallini
Canonized:

Blessed Carlo Acutis was born on May 3, 1991 in London, United Kingdom to Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano. His parents were financially well-off and worked in Germany and the United Kingdom before settling down in Milan, Italy in September 1991.

From a young age, around 3, he demonstrated great interest in Catholic churches and often asked to see them. At the age of 7 he received his First holy Communion at the convent of St. Amdrogio and Nemus. He was commonly observed praying before the Tabernacle before and after Mass. He also went to Confession once per week. He enjoyed visiting Assisi where St. Francis is entombed.

In addition to his love for the Church, Acutis was deeply interested in computers and taught himself how to code and build websites while still in primary school. His brief high school career was spent in the care of the Jesuits at the Institute of Leo XIII.

Acutis was also known to give away his pocket money to the poor and to speak up in defense of the disabled. He had a habit of inviting kids to his house whose parents were divorcing to support them.

Acutis used his knowledge of computers and coding to build websites for Catholic organizations. His most popular website was one that listed miracles from around the world based on a catalog he compiled since age 11. He completed the site shortly before his death.

When Acutis developed leukemia as a teenager, he offered up his suffering for Pope Benedict XVI and the Church. He was quoted as saying, "I offer all the suffering I will have to suffer for the Lord, the Pope, and the Church." As part of his devotion, Acutis asked his parents to take him to various Eucharistic shrines, although his declining health made travel increasingly difficult.

Acutis died in on October 12, 2006 at age 15, in Monza, Italy.

Exactly four years following his death, his mother gave birth to twins which she attributed to her son's intercession. She also said her son has appeared to her in dreams foretelling his canonization.

Carlo Acutis was labeled a "Servant of God" in 2013, one of the first steps towards canonization. A miracle was attributed to him in November of 2019. In that miracle, a seven-year-old child who was born with a pancreatic defect was miraculously healed. She prayed to Acutis, asking for his intercession and shortly after, the defect was miraculously cured.

Pope Francis announced the beatification of Carlo Acutis while visiting Assisi, Italy on October 10. He made another announcement on October 11, during his Angelus prayer.

Carlo Acutis's feast day is October 12, and he is a patron for computer programmers and youth.

Carlo Acutis (3 May 1991 – 12 October 2006) was an English-born Italian Catholic youth and amateur computer programmer, who is best known for documenting Eucharistic miracles around the world and cataloguing them onto a website, miracolieucaristici.org, that he created before his death from leukemia. He was noted for his cheerfulness, computer skills, and deep devotion to the Eucharist, which becomes a core theme of his life. He was beatified on 10 October 2020.

Life

Carlo Acutis was born in London on 3 May 1991 to a wealthy Italian family. His baptism took place on 18 May 1991 in the church of Our Lady of Dolours, Chelsea. His parents, Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano, who were not especially religious, had worked in London and Germany, but finally settled in Milan in September 1991, not long after their first son's birth. In 1995, when Acutis was four years old, his maternal grandfather died and was said to have appeared to him in a dream asking to be prayed for. When the child evinced a precocious interest in religious practice, his questions were answered by the family's Polish baby-sitter. Three years later he requested to receive his First Communion at the age of seven. After consulting a prelate and providing instruction, the family arranged this at the convent of Sant'Ambrogio ad Nemus. Thereafter he made the effort, either before or after Mass, to reflect before the tabernacle. Acutis became a frequent communicant and would make a weekly confession. He is said to have had several models as guides for his life, especially Francis of Assisi, as well as Francisco and Jacinta Marto, Dominic Savio, Tarcisius, and Bernadette Soubirous.

He was educated in Milan at the Jesuit Instituto Leone XIII high school. On the social side, Acutis would worry about friends of his whose parents were divorcing and would invite them to his home to support them. He defended disabled peers at school when bullies mocked them. Outside school, he did voluntary work with the homeless and destitute. He also liked films, comic editing and playing PlayStation video games. Although he greatly enjoyed travel, the town of Assisi remained a particular favourite.

Those around him considered him a "computer geek" on account of his passion and skill with computers and the internet. Acutis applied himself to creating a website dedicated to cataloguing each reported Eucharistic miracle in the world, miracolieucaristici.org. He completed this in 2005, having started compiling the catalogue at the age of eleven. He admired Giacomo Alberione's initiatives to use the media to evangelize and proclaim the Gospel and aimed to do likewise with the website he had created. It was on the website that he said: "The more Eucharist we receive, the more we will become like Jesus, so that on this earth we will have a foretaste of heaven".

When he developed leukemia, he offered his suffering both for Pope Benedict XVI and for the Catholic Church, saying: "I offer all the suffering I will have to undergo for the Lord, for the Pope, and the Church". He had asked his parents to take him on pilgrimages to the sites of all the known Eucharistic miracles in the world, but his declining health prevented this from happening. The doctors treating his final illness had asked him if he was in great pain to which he responded that "there are people who suffer much more than me". He died on 12 October 2006 at 6:45 AM from M3 fulminant leukemia. He was buried in Assisi in accordance with his wishes.

Legacy

Acutis's mother, Antonia, is said to attribute to his intercession the fact that, at the age of 44, she gave birth to twins, born exactly four years to the day after his death. Following the Catholic Church's recognition of a miracle in 2020, attributed to Acutis, Antonia told the press that her son had appeared to her in dreams saying that he will not only be beatified but also canonised a saint in the future.

In memory of Acutis, bishops Raffaello Martinelli and Angelo Comastri have helped to organize a travelling photo exhibition of all the Eucharistic miracle sites. It has since travelled to dozens of different countries across five continents.

Beatification

The call for him to be beatified began not long after Acutis's death. The campaign gained momentum in 2013 after he was named a Servant of God, the first stage on the path towards sainthood. The Lombardy Episcopal Conference approved the petition for the official canonization cause to proceed at a meeting in 2013. The opening of the diocesan investigation was held on 15 February 2013, with Cardinal Angelo Scola inaugurating the process, and concluding it on 24 November 2016. The formal introduction to the cause took place on 13 May 2013, and Acutis became titled a "Servant of God". Pope Francis next confirmed his life as one of heroic virtue on 5 July 2018, and declared him Venerable.

On 14 November 2019, the Vatican's Medical Council of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints expressed a positive opinion about a miracle in Brazil attributed to Acutis's intercession. Luciana Vianna had taken her son, Mattheus, who was born with a pancreatic defect that made eating difficult, to a prayer service. Beforehand, Vianna had already prayed a novena asking for the teenager Acutis's intercession. During the service her son had simply asked that he should not "throw up as much". Immediately following the service, Mattheus told his mother that he felt healed and asked for solid food when he came home. Until then he had been on an all-liquid diet. After a detailed investigation, Pope Francis confirmed the miracle's authenticity in a decree on 21 February 2020, leading to Acutis's beatification.

Within a month of the decree, the beatification ceremony was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, during which the country was placed on lockdown. It was rescheduled for 10 October 2020 and was held in the Upper Church of the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi in Assisi, Italy, with Cardinal Agostino Vallini presiding on the Pope's behalf. As of 2019, the postulator for Acutis's cause is Nicola Gori.

Since the beatification ceremony on 10 October 2020, silent crowds have been filing past the exposed relics of the blessed youth in the one-time cathedral of Assisi, the church of Santa Maria Maggiore.