Carlo Akutis will become the first millennial saint of the Catholic Church of a solemn liturgy for canonization on April 27 at St. Peter Square. But the crowds of worshipers are already flocking to the church in Assisi, Italy, where his body, carrying sneakers, jeans and a sweatshirt, is located in a sanctuary.
Here’s more about the teenager who generates unusual devotion.
Who was Carlo Akutis?
Carlo Akutis was born on May 3, 1991 in London in a wealthy Italian family and grew up in Milan. His prevailing journey with Faith took off after he received the first communion of a young 7 -year -old and regularly visited a daily liturgy, prays at the rosary and participated in the Eucharistic adoration.
As he enjoyed regular fun for his age – tourism, video games and joking with friends – he also taught a catechism in a local parish and dealt with the homeless.
Akutiis used his condition on his computer to create an online exhibit for more than 100 Eucharistic Wonders, recognized by the Church for many centuries, focused on the true presence of Christ, which Catholics believe is in lit bread and wine.
In October 2006, at the age of 15, he became ill. Ten days later, he died of acute leukemia at a hospital in northern Italy. Later, his body was transferred to Assisi’s cemetery, as Akuti, as he requested because of his devotion to the medieval luminaries, St. Francis.
Why is he about to become a saint?
His journey to the saint – the process of canonization – began more than 10 years ago at the initiative of a group of priests and friends, and officially flew shortly after Pope Francis began his papacy in 2013.
Akutiis was called “Honorary” in 2018 after the church recognized his virtuous life and his body was taken to a sanctuary in Santoario della Assisi, a major site related to the life of St. Francis.
He was then declared “blessed” in 2020. After the Vatican, the dicastery, which studied the processes of the sanctity, recognized a miraculous healing through the intercession of Akutis, a child in Brazil, which recovered in a “scientifically inexplicable” way.
Last year, the church made its way to Senta by attributing him a second miracle – the complete healing of Costa Rica student in Italy from a major head trauma in a bicycle crash after her mother prayed in the Akoth tomb.
The canonization liturgy of Akutis will be on Sunday, April 27, at 10:30 am in front of the Vatican Basilica “St. Peter”, in connection with the holiday of the anniversary anniversary for teenagers during the Holy Year.
How popular is Acutis, the first millennial saint?
Reverend Domenico Sorrentino, the Bishop of Assisi, said in the last year a million worshipers have made their way to the Akutis sanctuary in this medieval city on the hill in Central Italy.
The images of Akutis, usually depict it with a backpack and smile wide, are in stores all over the city, from pockets with pocket sizes to statuettes. A religious souvenir shop near the Vatican recently showed an acute statue in its window near one of the mother Teresa from the Kolka.
For many worshipers, withdrawal is Acutis’s relativity as a teenager of that time.
“It is amazing this saint, a young man – we can offer it to our people to imitate, because anyone can be a saint,” says Rev. Yakinto Bento, a Portuguese priest who runs a group of 30 jubilee worshipers from the Azor Islands to Assisi this month.
On the same day, Tomasso Barbon of Treviso, in northern Italy, visited the sanctuary with his wife and three children, two of them teenagers.
“He looks like one of our children,” Barbon told Akutis. “A special prayer for him is really welcome.”
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