On April 27, 2025, Carlo Acutis will be canonized as the first millennial saint of the Catholic Church. He died of leukemia at the age of 15 on October 12, 2006, in Milan, and is entombed at the Santuario della Spagliazone, also known as Santa Maria Maggiore, in Assisi. Last year, more than 1 million pilgrims poured into this town made famous by Saints Francis and Clare, to venerate the soon-to-be Saint Carlo.
In an age of declining religious affiliation, Carlo was notable for his spiritual precociousness at an early age. Although his parents were not devout, at the age of three he would ask to go into churches to say “hello” to Jesus and Mary, and was devoted to the Blessed Sacrament. A computer prodigy, he taught himself code in elementary school, and developed websites promoting the causes of saints and sacramental piety. He also developed and maintained websites for religious charities in Milan, earning himself the informal title of “patron saint of the internet.”
Although his love of Jesus was intense, he was otherwise an ordinary kid. According to his mother, his faith was expressed through simple acts of kindness and generosity: being willing to talk with anyone, defending kids who were bullied at school, caring for the poor. He was so impressed by St. Francis’ commitment to the poor that he requested to be buried in Assisi.
Carlo met his diagnosis with terminal cancer with calm acceptance, confident of eternal life.
"Carlo wasn't an alien, he was a normal person. But if it's illuminated by the light of Christ, a life becomes extraordinary," his mom, Antonia Salzano Acutis, told The Associated Press. "We always pray to the saints, and in the end, what did saints do? They opened the doors of their lives to Christ."
She quoted one of her son's favorite phrases: "'Everyone is born an original, but many die photocopies."
"The saint is one who didn't die like a photocopy, who realized that project of holiness that God established in eternity for each of us, as we all should," she said.[1]
Saint Carlo and his mom, Antonia, are telling us something important about this “project of holiness.” Holiness is often equated with moral seriousness or perfectionism of a sort that only a heroic few can obtain. I was taught that saints are holy people in the sense that they are able to overcome temptation and resist sin. I remember being dumbfounded when a college professor, Luke Timothy Johnson, once told me that “the only thing worth doing is becoming a saint.” That might be for monks or nuns, but not for me! Impossible!
But saints are not perfect in a moral sense (which is not to say that morality is unimportant); they are perfect in an ontological sense: they are complete, an integrated whole. They are fully themselves – not a photocopy receiving their identity from others. They have “opened the doors of their lives to Christ” so that they may recover their original identity, the imago Dei, which always is expressed in the unique unfolding of each person.
This is what made Carlo extraordinary – his capacity to open his heart to Christ at such a tender age and become fully, comfortably, immutably himself; not just a carbon copy of his parents, or his peers, or his culture. This is what draws millions of people, especially young people, to Assisi to see him. When we see the real thing – a genuine saint – we want what they have. We want to be comfortable in our own skin and courageous in our unique expression of the divine. That is how the ordinary becomes extraordinary.
Holiness is a result of falling in love with Jesus. That is what Carlo did. When we fall in love, we want to become like the Beloved; but as the relationship develops, the Beloved mirrors back to us the parts of ourselves that we can’t see clearly, allowing us to become more fully ourselves, inviting us not to blind imitation but to creative integration. We live and die as an original, rather than a photocopy.
This unification, this receiving of our identity from God, releases energy for service to others. Instead of being preoccupied with our identity and whether or not we “measure up,” we are free to express our unique gifts without worrying about what other people think. We gently let go of anything that impedes the flow of divine energy. This capacity to serve as a conduit of God’s love emerges during our life and extends beyond our death. Commenting on the cult of Saint Carlo, Bishop Domenico Sorrentino said, “I’m seeing here a volcano of grace erupting . . . I can’t believe my eyes.”[2]
Antonia notes that what is most important about her son, Carlo, is not the miracles attributed to him as a saint, but rather his “being a bridge to Jesus.” Or as another one my teachers, Br. Thomas Schultz, OHC, once said to me, “There is nothing wrong with being holy for other people.” The project of holiness is not one of ascetical heroism but rather of humble transparency to the transforming power of Jesus’ love.
It only takes two or three such saints to make a congregation a vital center for the project of holiness, where people can fall in love with Jesus and reclaim their originality. They are post-holders for a culture in which people are comfortable being themselves. Two sure signs that you have found such a congregation is the capacity for people there to cry readily and to laugh unselfconsciously without shame.
No person and no congregation is perfect. But we can become perfectly ourselves as together we open our hearts and become bridges to Jesus. That is the witness of Carlo Acutis.
Blessed Carlo, pray for us.
[1] Giovanna Dell’Orto, “Crowds flock to newest Catholic saint in Assisi – a millennial teen whose ordinariness is the draw,” National Catholic Reporter (March 27, 2025).
[2] Ibid.
Fascinating story about Carlo and love the line “gently let go of anything that impedes the flow of divine energy”. Thanks for your post!