By Roy Rasmussen | For On Mission
On September 7, 2025, Pope Leo XIV will canonize Blessed Carlo Acutis, along with Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. The following month, Catholic youth from around the world will gather for Saint Carlo Acutis Youth Day at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, recently visited by one of his relics.
What can Catholics of all ages learn from the example of this contemporary saint, already unofficially known as the first millennial saint and the patron saint of the internet (a title shared with St. Isidore of Seville)? The life of Acutis shines as a model of Eucharistic devotion, digital evangelism, and facing suffering with hope. Studying his life can inspire us to emulate these virtues and instill them in others.
Living out lifelong Eucharistic devotion
“The more Eucharist we receive,” Acutis said, “the more we will become like Jesus, so that on this earth we will have a foretaste of heaven.” He became like Jesus by staying close to the Eucharist throughout his life, accompanied by the Virgin Mary, who he called “the only woman in my life.”
Born May 3, 1991, in London to Italian parents, Acutis grew up in Milan, Italy. His parents, Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano, weren’t particularly devout Catholics, but they baptized him that May 18, with his extended family in attendance.
Acutis’s parents entrusted him, at the age of 3, to a Polish Catholic nanny, Beata Sperczynska, who nurtured his faith. She brought him to Mass and taught him to visit churches they passed to say hi to Jesus. When Acutis was 5, they visited the Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii in Italy, and he dedicated himself to Mary and prayed the Rosary with Beata before the image of the Blessed Mother.
On June 16, 1998, at the age of 7, Acutis obtained special permission to receive his first Communion. At that time, he wrote, “To always be close to Jesus, that’s my life plan.”
From then on, he exhibited a growing devotion to the Eucharist. He began attending daily Mass. Remarkably, as he did, family members and friends who hadn’t been going to church began joining him. He came to realize he had a mission to bring others to Jesus as well.
Promoting digital evangelism
By the time of his Confirmation on May 24, 2003, 12-year-old Acutis had become a catechist at his parish and was using his talents to serve the Church. He had a knack for technology, nurtured by his love of video games, although he limited himself to an hour of gaming a week to avoid addiction. He helped priests build websites for his parish, engaged in local volunteer work, and began building his own website devoted to documenting Eucharistic miracles and Marian apparitions.
With saintly diligence, Acutis spent two and a half years documenting over a hundred Eucharistic miracles, building a virtual museum exhibit. He included exhibits devoted to Eucharistic miracles; Marian apparitions; visions of hell, purgatory and heaven; and apparitions of angels and demons.
Acutis wanted to demonstrate the reality of the supernatural and the Real Presence as a remedy for empty churches, saying, “If people understood that Jesus is present in the midst of us, there would be such long lines that you wouldn’t be able to get in.”
Facing suffering with hope
On October 1, 2006, while 15-year-old Acutis was busy working on his website, he came down with a throat inflammation. He unveiled his website to the public a few days later.
Within a week, he was too sick to attend Mass. He was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia with an average survival time of less than a week. He was rushed to intensive care, placed on a ventilator, and given Anointing of the Sick.
As Acutis lay dying, the doctors asked him about his pain, and he replied, “There are people who suffer much more than me.” He offered his suffering up, saying, “I offer to the Lord the sufferings that I will have to undergo for the pope and for the Church.”
Comforting his mother, he told her, “Mom, don’t be afraid. Since Jesus became a man, death has become the passage towards life, and we don’t need to flee it. Let us prepare ourselves to experience something extraordinary in the eternal life.”
Those were his last words in this life. Acutis slipped into a coma, dying of cerebral hemorrhage on October 11, 2006, at the age of 15, a week after finishing his website.
Continuing the mission of St. Carlo Acutis in the Diocese of Green Bay
While Acutis finished his earthly ministry in 2006, the work he began is just getting started. Others have continued to maintain his website, carloacutis.com, which is available in seven languages. His site offers virtual museum exhibits for viewing, downloading, or physical display through a traveling photo exhibit. For several years, his exhibit has stopped at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, last passing through in March 2025. One of his relics has also been available for veneration, last visiting this August.
In April, several members of our diocese attended an early screening of the documentary “Carlo Acutis: Roadmap to Reality,” originally scheduled to coincide with his canonization, which was postponed due to the death of Pope Francis.