• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Antonia Salzano Acutis, mother of Blessed Carlo Acutis, prays in the shrine dedicated to her son at St. Dominic Church in Brick, N.J., Oct. 1, 2023, the day it was dedicated by Bishop David M. O'Connell of Trenton, N.J. Pope Francis formally recognized a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Acutis, a 15-year-old Italian teenager whose birth in 1991 will make him the first "millennial" to become a saint. (OSV News photo/Mike Ehrmann, Diocese of Trenton)

Carlo Acutis’ canonization news leaves U.S. devotees ‘over the moon’ with joy

May 24, 2024
By Gina Christian
OSV News
Filed Under: Feature, News, Saints, World News

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

News that an Italian teen could soon be canonized — the first from the “millennial” generation — has enthralled his devotees in the U.S.

On May 23, Pope Francis formally recognized a second miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Carlo Acutis, clearing the way for him to be formally recognized as a saint of the Catholic Church.

Along with Acutis, the pope also advanced the sainthood causes of a group of Franciscan martyrs, six men and one woman in the same promulgation.

Acutis — who is credited with interceding for the 2022 healing of a head injury in a young Costa Rican woman — died of leukemia in 2006 at age 15, having lived a brief life of extraordinary holiness that was marked by a profound devotion to Christ and the Eucharist. Acutis’ desire to foster awareness of the Blessed Sacrament, along with his formidable computer skills, led him to create a database of eucharistic miracles throughout the world.

Pope Francis formally recognized a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Carlo Acutis, a 15-year-old Italian teenager whose birth in 1991 will make him the first “millennial” to become a saint. He is pictured in an undated photo. (OSV News photo/courtesy Sainthood Cause of Carlo Acutis)

The sunny-faced teen — who was born in London in 1991 and grew up in Milan, Italy — displayed an early attraction to the spiritual life, reciting the rosary and attending Mass daily, serving as a catechist, volunteering at a church soup kitchen and tutoring children with their homework. At the same time, Acutis was known for his enthusiasm for typical teenage interests, such as video games, pets, soccer and music.

“Blessed Carlo Acutis is an inspiration and intercessor for all young people, but especially for those who are drifting away or alienated from the church or who are skeptical about religion,” Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minn., chair of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth, told OSV News. “He demonstrates that having a clear reference point in Jesus Christ opens up the possibilities of a joy-filled and creative mission, but also and most importantly imparts a holiness through which the meaning and purpose of life is revealed.”

“Carlo really was a regular kid,” said Michael Norton, president of the Malvern Retreat Center in Malvern, Pa., which is home to the Blessed Carlo Acutis Shrine and Center for Eucharistic Encounter.

The center, which is seeking to attain diocesan shrine status, contains a permanent exhibit featuring 100 Eucharistic miracles as well as a Blessed Carlo Reading Room and a permanent altar for group Eucharistic adoration during scheduled events.

In October 2023, the center hosted the teen’s mother, Antonia Acutis, who shared her reflections on being the mother of a saint who speaks especially to the younger generation.

Norton told OSV News he is “over the moon” about Acutis’ pending canonization — as is Malvern board member Mary Bea Damico, who was what Norton called the “visionary” for the Acutis center at Malvern.

Damico told OSV News that the evening prior to the Vatican’s announcement, she and religious directors of education from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia had gathered at the Acutis shrine for “a very joyful night” that proved to be “prophetic.”

“And then I got a message in my inbox before 6:30 a.m. this morning (about the canonization),” she said. “I can’t even tell you the joy.”

Both Norton and Damico said that Acutis models how holiness is attainable, even in a world where it can seem more impossible than ever.

“If you look at some of the pictures with him and his friends, he looks like any other normal teenage kid. … He’s in blue jeans with sneakers on and with a backpack and a computer,” said Norton. “These kids are saying, ‘Wait a minute, I’m just like him. … The kids can just look at him and say, ‘I can be strong in my faith and I can lead a normal lifestyle. … I can do this.'”

Acutis inspires kids and teens “to live in hope,” said Damico, helping them to “understand that we were all created to be saints, and sainthood isn’t just something that’s for other people. It’s for each and every one of them. I talk to (teen visitors to) the shrine, and it really brings me to tears, because you should just see how they’re so open to that. They’re so hungry for a message of hope.”

The announcement of Acutis’ impending sainthood also has thrilled Catholic schools named in his honor.

“We prayed this day would come, but never dreamed it would arrive less than two years after opening Blessed Carlo Acutis Academy, an online, Catholic school for students in grades 5-12” located in the Diocese of Madison, Wisc., said Michael Lancaster, diocesan superintendent of Catholic schools, in a statement to OSV News.

The diocese’s assistant superintendent, Therese Milbrath, said she is “looking forward to changing the name of our online high school to St. Carlo Acutis Academy upon his canonization.

“His life of faith and his devotion to the Eucharist are incredible examples for teens,” she told OSV News in a statement. “We have a first-class relic of Blessed Carlo in our Catholic schools office to remind us that, no matter a person’s age, we are all called to holiness.”

Lancaster noted that the diocese had named the school for Acutis (who beat out St. Isidore of Seville, patron of the internet) as “a natural fit” and “someone to whom our students could more easily relate.”

He added that it is “no coincidence” the school’s opening and the advancement of Acutis’ sainthood have occurred within the three-year span of the National Eucharistic Revival.

“The Holy Spirit is at work!” said Lancaster.

For Blessed Carlo Acutis Catholic High School in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, the canonization’s timing is especially ideal, since construction has only just begun and the name can be easily updated from “Blessed” to “Saint.”

“We chose Blessed Carlo Acutis as the namesake for this school so that our students could easily see themselves living out their faith in this modern world,” said Sandra Palazzo, board chair of Edmonton Catholic Schools, a publicly funded school division in Edmonton. “He was a shining example of sharing the love of God. We look forward to having the students of Edmonton Catholic Schools journey alongside Carlo Acutis on the path to sainthood.”

But inviting more young people on that journey “depends on us,” said Father Francesco Maria D’Amico, pastor of St. William Parish in Philadelphia and a friend of Antonia Acutis, whose 2023 U.S. speaking tour he coordinated.

Father D’Amico, a native of Asssi, Italy — where Acutis’ body lies in entombed in the Church of St. Mary Major — told OSV News “it’s important” to make the teen’s life and legacy known in order “to show the world” that sainthood is attainable.

He added that he’d had “no doubt” that Acutis would one day be declared a saint.

Asked if she plans to travel to the Vatican for Acutis’ canonization, Damico said, “One hundred percent. I’m going; there’s nothing that will stop me.”

Read More Saints

The fisherman and the pharisee

Visiting Upstate New York’s National Shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs

How a Norbertine nun’s visions led to the feast of Corpus Christi

Fox Nation announces second season for ‘Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints’

Pope sets Sept. 7 for joint canonization of Blesseds Acutis and Frassati

Fathers of the Church: The Greek (or Eastern) Fathers

Copyright © 2024 OSV News

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Gina Christian

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • 3 North Americans named to Vatican dicasteries for ecumenism, interreligious dialogue

  • Archbishop Lori announces clergy appointments, including pastor and associate pastors

  • St. Mary’s purchases former Annapolis Area Christian School

  • St. Clement Mary Hofbauer adapts to times, cultures as it celebrates 100th anniversary

  • Augustinian prior opens up about papal vacation, first encyclical, appointments and tennis

| Latest Local News |

Archbishop Lori announces clergy appointments, including pastor and associate pastors

DUAL ENROLLMENT

Double the learning: Dual enrollment provides college credit to high school students

St. Mary’s purchases former Annapolis Area Christian School

Radio Interview: Exploring the Nicene Creed – Part Two

St. Clement Mary Hofbauer adapts to times, cultures as it celebrates 100th anniversary

| Latest World News |

Judge blocks Trump birthright citizenship order as part of class action lawsuit

Ukraine religious leaders issue ‘desperate cry’ to world to end Russia’s war

care of creation

Pope Leo wears Chicago-made vestments to July 9 ‘care of creation’ Mass

sorry baby

Movie Review: Sorry, Baby

ICE

ICE deports Iowa parishioner to Guatemala homeland as supporters pray for his release

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Judge blocks Trump birthright citizenship order as part of class action lawsuit
  • Ukraine religious leaders issue ‘desperate cry’ to world to end Russia’s war
  • Pope Leo wears Chicago-made vestments to July 9 ‘care of creation’ Mass
  • Movie Review: Sorry, Baby
  • ICE deports Iowa parishioner to Guatemala homeland as supporters pray for his release
  • Come away and rest awhile
  • French woman hopes sharing mystical encounter with Minnesota Benedictine helps sainthood cause
  • Pope: Vatican still ready to host peace talks between Russia, Ukraine
  • Archbishop Lori announces clergy appointments, including pastor and associate pastors

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en