"ASSISI, Italy In the silence of St. Mary Major Church in this central Italian hill town, a tour group of Polish teenagers files past a glass-sided tomb to look in on a child of their own age. His face and hands are reconstructed with silicone. He's wearing jeans, a tracksuit top, and Nike sneakers. He is Carlo Acutis, the first millennial saint and known in the Catholic Church as "God's influencer.""
"On Sunday, Acutis, who died of leukemia when he was 15 years old in 2006, will be canonized in a ceremony at the Vatican presided over by Pope Leo XIV that is expected to be attended by thousands of devotees of this first saint of the "digital age." Witnessing the rise of the internet, cellphones and social media as a teenager, Acutis harnessed these new powers of communication and coded a website to catalogue and promote eucharistic miracles."
"Assisi is home to the tombs of St. Francis and St. Clare. But now, for many of the nearly 1 million visitors who church officials say came to the diocese last year, Acutis is part of the pilgrimage. Shops sell his memorabilia the boy's face encased in a corona of holy light is on mugs, keychains, rosaries. Online, a wooden statue of Acutis sells for more than $14,000."
Carlo Acutis died of leukemia at age 15 in 2006 and will be canonized at the Vatican in a ceremony presided over by Pope Leo XIV, expected to draw thousands. He witnessed the rise of the internet, cellphones and social media and created a website cataloguing and promoting eucharistic miracles. His tomb in St. Mary Major Church in Assisi features a silicone-reconstructed face and is livestreamed 24/7, attracting pilgrims and online devotees who post prayer requests and report miracles. Acutis has become part of local pilgrimage life, with shops and online vendors selling memorabilia and statues.
Read at www.npr.org
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