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So, just like me, you must be wondering,” Who is this Carlo Acutis?” Well, ill be honest with you. After knowing about him, he is truly an inspiration to me. Blessed Carlo Acutis- the soon-to-be millennial saint. And what is even more amazing about his person? He is so young and yet has such amazing longing for Jesus in the Eucharist. I personally believe that people should be inspired to believe the truth about Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist. And thanks be to God! He gave us someone wearing a pair of jeans and a track jacket, who dedicated his entire life spreading this truth and is now beatifies to be a Blessed- Blessed Carlo Acutis.
Biography Of Blessed Carlo Acutis
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 babysitter. 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 favorite.
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 cataloging each reported Eucharistic miracle in the world, miracolieucaristici
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.
Let’s know more about the Beatification of Blessed Carlo Acutis
“To be always united with Jesus, this is my life program,” Blessed Carlo Acutis wrote at the age of seven.
The young Italian computer whiz, who died of leukemia at the age of 15 offering his suffering for the pope and the Church, was beatified Oct. 10 in a Mass at the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.
During the beatification Mass, Acutis’ parents processed behind a relic of their son’s heart which was placed near the altar. An apostolic letter from Pope Francis was read aloud in which the pope declared that Blessed Carlo Acutis’ feast will take place each year on Oct. 12, the anniversary of his death in Milan in 2006.
Masked pilgrims spread out in front of the Basilica of St. Francis and throughout the different piazzas in Assisi to watch the Mass on large screens as only a limited number of people were allowed inside.
Acutis’ beatification drew an estimated 3,000 people to Assisi, including people who personally knew Acutis and many other young people inspired by his witness.
Why was Blessed Carlo Acutis beatified?
After his death, townspeople began to attribute miracles to his intercession, including the birth of twins to his own mother four years after his death. His case was submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, one of the offices that make up the papal administrative structure – the Curia – of the Catholic Church. It initiated the process of his official canonization in the Roman Catholic Church.
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.
Prayer To Blessed Carlo Acutis
O God our Father,
we thank you for giving us Carlo,
a model of life for young people,
and a message of love for all.
You made him fall in love with your son Jesus,
making the Eucharist his “highway to heaven.”
You gave him Mary as a beloved mother,
and you made him, through the Rosary,
a cantor of her tenderness.
Receive his prayer for us.
Look above all upon the poor, whom he loved and assisted.
Grant me too, through his intercession, the grace
that I need (mention your intention).
And make our joy full, raising Carlo among
the saints of your Church,
so that his smile shines again for us
to the glory of your name. Amen.
Which Shrine is dedicated to Blessed Carlo Acutis
Santa Maria Maggiore (Sanctuary of the Spoliation), Assisi, Italy is where Blessed Carlo Acutis has been beatified. He has been venerated by the Catholic Church and declared a ‘Blessed’.
So, now you know who Blessed Carlo is. Are you inspired? I bet you must be. I still remember the day when I first got to know him and there were several videos being circulated all over social media about his life and his works. I was so moved by his life and by his works that I decided that one day I too, will let people know who BLessed Carlo Acutis is. I am so eager for the day when he will be declared Saint Carlo Acutis. Amen.
