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The curly dark haired teenager looks in the photos as if he is sleeping. He’s wearing jeans, a sports jacket, and trainers, but hey, young people sometimes think it’s superfluous to take off your clothes before bed. Italian Carlo Acutis does not sleep, however, he has been dead for 14 years, he died at 15 years of leukemia just three days after diagnosis. Last year his body was exhumed and “rebuilt with art and love”, as Domenico Sorrentino, archbishop of Assisi, says. In early October, Acutis’ body was publicly placed in a glass coffin in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore.
Acutis was beatified on Saturday, the first millennium among the blessed. The nicknames given to him by the Italian media are far from those of the martyrs and enlightened of previous centuries: they call him “Influencer of God”, “Cyber-Apostle” or “Patron of the Internet”.
An online database of wonders of all kinds.
Pope Francis had repeatedly praised Acutis as a role model for young people. He said last year that he knew “how to use new communication technology to spread the gospel.” At the age of ten, Acutis was helping priests create websites for their parishes and promoting their faith online. At the age of eleven, he began with great attention to detail creating an online directory of Christian miracles – his life’s work, if you will.
But simply listing the miracles of other blesseds and saints is not enough for a beatification. The strict rules of the Catholic Church require, if the candidate for beatification is not a martyr, proof of his own miracle. In 2013, the Vatican recognized the miraculous healing of a seriously ill Brazilian boy who had asked Acuti’s heavenly help in his prayers.
Due to the measures of the Crown, not all the pilgrims were able to find space in the basilica, the mass was broadcast abroad.
(Photo: Gregorio Borgia / dpa)
Since then, admiration for the deceased teenager has grown in Italy. Around 3,000 pilgrims traveled to the beatification in the Basilica of San Francisco de Asís, who, due to the measures of the Crown, not all could find a place inside. The ceremony was broadcast on a large screen in front of the church, and the service could also be followed live on various Internet platforms.
Carlo Acutis was a “completely normal, simple and pleasant boy,” said Cardinal Agostino Vallini, who celebrated the mass. The Italian media had previously reported in his numerous portraits that he loved football, was sometimes stubborn and liked to play on the console. However, Acutis, quite atypical for teenagers, is said to have imposed a limit of one hour a week for Playstation. “He had a surprisingly Christian maturity,” the cardinal said. Acutis attended mass every day and used the money in his pocket to buy sleeping bags for the homeless in his community. For him, the Internet was a means of meeting and dialogue, in short: “a gift from God”, and cyberbullying is an abomination.
After the beatification, the faithful made a pilgrimage from the basilica to the body of Acutis in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, the images show how some of them reverently placed their hands on the glass. The blessed will remain there in jeans and tennis shoes until October 17.
