Oct 10 The First Millenial Saint?

We remember today how in Monza in Italy a 15 year old boy Carlo Acutis died of leukaemia. He was a remarkable young man. He stated that "To always be close to Jesus, that's my life plan. As he was dying he offered his suffering for the pope and for the Church, his heroic virtues were recognized by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints when he was beatified on 10 October 2020. An enthusiastic web designer who documented Eucharistic miracles around the world. He may become the first millennial Saint.

Born in London, to Italian parents who soon returned to Milan. As a young boy when he was gifted a diary, he decided to use it to track his progress: "good marks" if he behaved well and "bad marks" if he did not meet his expectations. This is how he tracked his progress. In that same notebook he jotted down, “Sadness is looking at oneself, happiness is looking at God. Conversion is nothing but a movement of the eyes. He was educated in Milan at the Jesuit Instituto Leone XIII high school. He would worry about friends of his whose parents were divorcing and would invite them to his home to support them. He defended disabled peers at school when bullies mocked them. Outside school, he did voluntary work with the homeless and destitute. He also liked films, comic editing and playing PlayStation video games. His friends considered him a "computer geek" on account of his passion and skill with computers and the internet.

He admired James Alberione who founded a total of ten religious congregations, aggregated institutes, and lay co-operators who use modern media technology and published materials to spread the word of God and help in personal devotions. He put two teenagers, Desiderio Costa and Tito Armani, to work in a small pressroom under the guidance of a printer friend of his. Thus began the Society of St. Paul whose purpose is to "Live and to Give Jesus the Way, the Truth, and the Life" through the most modern means of communications, press, cinema, television, radio and other modern media. Carlo Acutis aimed to do likewise with the website he had created dedicated to cataloguing each reported Eucharistic miracle in the world, miracolieucaristici.org. He completed this in 2005, having started compiling the catalogue at the age of eleven. he called the Eucharist "my highway to heaven." Saying that "our aim has to be the infinite and not the finite. The Infinite is our homeland. We have always been expected in Heaven,"

He loved playing soccer, video games, and had a sweet tooth. Carlo couldn't say "no" to Nutella or to ice cream. He was a keen swimmer and would put on his diving goggles and playing “fetch trash from the bottom of the sea”. When he took the dogs out for a walk, he always picked up whatever garbage he came across. It was his way of improving his corner of the world. He was buried in Assisi in accordance with his wishes

Abbot Michelangelo Tiribilli, of Montel Oliveto Maggiore, wrote in the foreword to a biography of Acutis that "By looking at this adolescent as one of them and as someone who was captivated by the love of Christ, which enabled him to experience pure joy, [today's adolescents] will be in contact with an experience of life that doesn't take anything away from the richness of their teenage years, but which actually makes them more valuable." Rajesh, a Hindu who cleaned at Carlo's house, was impressed that someone "as handsome, young and rich” decided to live a simple life. “He captivated me with his deep faith, charity and purity,” he remarked. Rajesh decided to be baptized in the Catholic Church.

His Tomb is at the Shrine of the Spoliation, in Assisi, where Saint Francis ripped off his clothes in front of Bishop Guido and his horrified parents as a sign of his complete renunciation of the world. Carlo’s mother, Antonia, tells the story that a nun in Assisi assured her that her son would play a major role in the Church; A book by the current Bishop of Assisi, Domenico Sorrentino makes the parallel with the life of Saint Francis; the shrine Is visited by tens of thousands of pilgrims each day with a transparent coffin Acuti is dressed: jeans, Nike trainers, tracksuit top. His face is covered with a silicone mask