Carlo Acutis was a young Italian boy who died at the age of fifteen from leukemia and who will become the first millennial saint probably during the Jubilee year of 2025.
Carlo Acutis was born on May 3, 1991, in London but his family moved to Milan shortly after. From a young age, Carlo seemed to have a special love for God, even though his parents weren’t especially devout.
He had a gift for empathy and was known for defending kids at school who got picked on, especially those kids who were most vulnerable. Carlo loved soccer and video games. He tried to stay disciplined and only played games for an hour a week even though he really wanted to play much more. He also bought computer programming books and taught himself computer coding and animation. He had a great devotion to Mary and loved to pray the rosary. He went to Mass and confession as often as he could.
He loved the Eucharist and was fascinated by Eucharistic miracles. He asked his parents to take him on pilgrimages — to the places of the saints, and to the sites of Eucharistic miracles. Using his research, he began creating what would eventually become a website to catalogue and share the information with others. Carlo was concerned by people growing distant to the Church and the sacraments and desperately wanted to bring them back. On the site, he told people that "the more often we receive the Eucharist, the more we will become like Jesus, so that on this earth we will have a foretaste of heaven."
At age 15, Carlo was diagnosed with an untreatable leukemia. He offered up his suffering for others coping with illness and said, “I offer all the suffering I will have to suffer for the Lord, for the Pope, and the Church.” Carlo died from his illness on 12th October, 2006. At his request he was buried in Assisi because of his love for St. Francis. His cause for canonization began in 2013 and he was designated “Venerable” in 2018. A healing miracle has been attributed to his intercession and he will be designated “Blessed” on 10th October.
Each child in school will receive a special Carlo Acutis medal in commemoration to him.
