Saint Carlo Acutis

He was born in London on May 3, 1991, where his Italian parents, Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano, were living for his father's work. ²³ The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints says he was baptized on May 18 in the church of Our Lady of Dolours; the canonization booklet says two weeks after his birth. ²³ That autumn the family moved back to Milan. ²³

After three months at another school he went to the primary school of the Marcelline Sisters at the Istituto Tommaseo, because it was nearer home. ²³ He was allowed to make his First Communion early, on June 16, 1998, at the age of seven, with the special permission of his spiritual director, Ilio Carrai, and of Archbishop Pasquale Macchi, who had been Paul VI's secretary. ²³ It was celebrated at the monastery of the Hermit Sisters of Saint Ambrose at Bernaga di Perego, near Lecco. ²³ From then on he went to Mass every day, and on days when school kept him from it he made a spiritual communion. ²³

Leo XIV, canonizing him, said that Carlo met Jesus first in his family, through his parents, and then at school, "and above all in the sacraments celebrated in the parish community." ¹ His parents were at the canonization with his brother and sister, Michele and Francesca. ¹ He was confirmed on May 24, 2003, in his parish church of Santa Maria Segreta in Milan. ³

At fourteen he moved to the classical high school of the Istituto Leone XIII, run by the Jesuits. ²³ He also taught catechism to children preparing for Confirmation at Santa Maria Segreta. ²³ Working with a computer engineering student on the parish website, he learned to design and build web pages, and in the summer of 2006 he designed a site for a volunteering project at his school and worked on the site of the Pontifical Academy Cultorum Martyrum, with which his mother was involved. ²³ He used the computer, too, to lay out a scheme for praying the Rosary, which he prayed every day. ²³

His best-known project was about the Eucharist. The Dicastery describes an international exhibition on Eucharistic miracles, a photographic survey with historical notes on some 136 miracles recognized by the Church in many countries; Vatican News describes it as a website. ³⁴ The Dicastery says he used the stories of those miracles to explain the mystery of the Eucharist to his schoolmates and friends. ³ It adds that he was devoted to Our Lady of Fatima and, like the shepherd children, offered small sacrifices for those who do not love Jesus present in the Eucharist. ³

Pope Francis wrote about him in 2019, in his letter to young people, Christus Vivit, when Carlo was still Venerable. ⁵ The digital world, Francis said, can isolate and empty a young person, but there are young people there who show "creativity and even genius," and Carlo was one: he knew how to use the new technology "to transmit the Gospel, to communicate values and beauty." ⁵ Francis quoted him: "everyone is born as an original, but many people end up dying as photocopies." ⁵

The family had a house in Assisi, and he spent most of his holidays there. ³⁴ The booklet says that in Assisi he took to heart the Franciscan spirit of joy, contemplation and respect for creation, the pursuit of peace and closeness to those in need. ² The Dicastery and Vatican News say that Francis and Clare drew him toward the poor, the homeless and the immigrants he met, whom he helped with money saved from his weekly allowance. ³⁴

The booklet describes him as a cheerful and outgoing teenager with a good heart, who did not hide his faith, helped a classmate in difficulty and was a friend to the poor of his neighborhood. ² It quotes him: "To always be close to Jesus, that's my life plan." ² Leo XIV said that he grew up "naturally integrating prayer, sport, study and charity into his days." ¹

In October 2006 he fell ill with an M3 leukemia, the most aggressive form, which was at first taken for a bad flu. ³⁴ He was admitted to the De Marchi clinic in Milan and then, as he grew worse, moved to the San Gerardo hospital in Monza, which had a center for that kind of leukemia. ³⁴ A few days before he went into hospital he offered his life to the Lord for the Pope, for the Church, and to go to heaven. ²³⁴ In hospital a priest gave him the Anointing of the Sick. ²³ The Dicastery says some of the nurses and doctors were struck by how he accepted his illness and his suffering. ³

The Dicastery records brain death on October 11, and his heart stopping at 6:45 on the morning of October 12, 2006. ³ He was fifteen years and five months old. ² His funeral was held at Santa Maria Segreta on October 14. ³ He was buried first in the family tomb at Ternengo, near Biella, and in February 2007 moved to the town cemetery of Assisi, because he had wanted to stay in the city of Saint Francis. ²³ On April 5 and 6, 2019, his remains were moved again, to the Shrine of the Spoliation, the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Assisi, where the booklet says the faithful come from all over the world to venerate him. ²³⁴

On March 24, 2011, friends and priests who had known him founded the association Friends of Carlo Acutis in Milan to promote his cause. ²³ The diocesan inquiry opened in Milan on October 12, 2013, and closed in 2016, and on July 5, 2018, Pope Francis declared that he had lived the Christian virtues to a heroic degree. ²³

The miracle for his beatification was the healing of a boy in the Archdiocese of Campo Grande, Brazil, who suffered from a malformation of the pancreas, continual vomiting and severe malnutrition; the booklet dates the healing to 2013. ²³ He was beatified in the Upper Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi on October 10, 2020, in a rite presided over by Cardinal Agostino Vallini on Pope Francis's behalf. ²³⁴ The second miracle was the survival and recovery of a young woman from Costa Rica, a student in Florence, after a severe head injury in a road accident in 2022. ²³

Leo XIV canonized him with Pier Giorgio Frassati on September 7, 2025, calling them "a young man from the early 20th century and a teenager from our own day, both in love with Jesus and ready to give everything for him." ¹³

None of the sources consulted for this page names a patronage for Saint Carlo Acutis, so none is given here. ¹²³⁴⁵ Leo XIV called him and Pier Giorgio Frassati "an invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to squander our lives, but to direct them upwards and make them masterpieces." ¹

Saint Carlo Acutis's feast is kept on October 12, the day he died. ³⁴ The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints gives it as his liturgical memorial. ³

Leo XIV said that what made Carlo a saint was available to anyone: daily Mass, prayer and above all Eucharistic adoration, frequent confession, and love for the saints and the Virgin Mary. ¹ He quoted him: "In front of the sun, you get a tan. In front of the Eucharist, you become a saint!" ¹

Carlo did not leave the ordinary life of a Milan teenager to become holy. He went to school, played sport, built websites and helped his friends with their computers, and the Dicastery calls him a true apostle in exactly those places: family, school, sport, free time, travel and games. ¹³

He was fifteen when he died, and the sources do not soften it: an aggressive leukemia, a few days' illness, and a boy who offered what was happening to him for the Pope and the Church. ²³ Leo XIV recalled that he liked to say that heaven has always been waiting for us, and that to love tomorrow is to give the best of our fruit today. ¹

Carlo also wrote, the pope said, that "the only thing we really have to fear is sin," and he was surprised that "people are so concerned with the beauty of their bodies and do not care about the beauty of their souls." ¹ His shortest formula is the one Leo XIV ended with: "Not I, but God." ¹