Blessed Carlo Acutis
Born May 3, 1991 in London and raised in Milan, Carlo’s wealthy parents were not particularly religious. Upon receiving his first communion at age seven, Carlo became a frequent communicant, making a point of praying before the tabernacle before or after every Mass.
Always helping those in need
At school Carlo tried to comfort friends whose parents were undergoing divorce, as well as stepping in to defend disabled students from bullies. After school hours he volunteered his time with the city’s homeless and destitute.
Carlo spent four years creating a website dedicated to cataloguing every reported Eucharistic miracle around the world. That website is still active and can be viewed here.
Carlos also enjoyed films, comics, soccer, and playing popular video games.
Diagnosed with leukemia, Carlo offered his sufferings to God for the intentions of the sitting pope—Benedict XVI—and the entire Church. His longtime desire to visit as many sites of Eucharistic miracles as possible was cut short by his illness.
Carlo died in 2006 and was beatified in 2020. As he had wished, Carlo was buried in Assisi at St. Mary Major’s “Chapel of the Stripping”, where Francis had returned his clothes to his father and began a more radical following of the Gospel.
Among the thousands present for Carlo’s beatification at Assisi’s Basilica of St. Francis were many of his childhood friends. Presiding at the beatification service, Cardinal Agostino Vallini praised Carlo as an example of how young people can use technology to spread the Gospel “to reach as many people as possible and help them know the beauty of friendship with the Lord.”
His liturgical feast is celebrated on October 12.
Purchase a Blessed Carlos Acutis holy card here.
"Our aim has to be the infinite and not the finite. The Infinite is our homeland. We have always been expected in Heaven." - Carlo Acutis