The millennial saint

Twenty years ago, this day, a 15-year old Italian boy died of leukaemia.  Born in 1991, St Carlo Acutis had a great love for Jesus in the Eucharist. He enjoyed football, computers, friends, films and ordinary teenage life. Yet he built his life around daily Mass, Eucharistic adoration and prayer.

He used his technical skills to document all known Eucharistic miracles. His devotion to the Eucharist inspired all those around him and enabled him to leave behind a beautiful testimony of his love for the Eucharist: his Eucharistic miracle website.

For Carlo, holiness was not primarily about extraordinary penances or mystical experiences. It was about frequent and loving union with Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. He saw the Eucharist as the direct route to friendship with Jesus and ultimately to eternal life.

He believed that if people truly understood the gift they had in the Eucharist, they would approach it with much greater devotion.

He famously remarked:

When we stand before the sun, we become brown, but when we stand before Jesus in the Eucharist, we become saints.

The phenomenon of eucharistic miracles may not appeal to all Christians. Nevertheless, using his computer skills, Carlo gathered accounts from around the world to help people rediscover faith in the Real Presence. His aim was not to sensationalise but to help lead people back to the Eucharist itself.

His was an extraordinary life of an extraordinary child who pioneered a Eucharistic path for millions who continue to draw inspiration, courage and renewed hope from a millennial. This is the greatest of  miracles among those catalogued by St Carlo Acutis.