Blessed Carlo Acutis and the Many Miracles of the Eucharist

T he temptation to normalize sanctity comes from a good place. Relatable saints can be imitated. We have a desire to open whatever is the Catholic equivalent of US Weekly’s “Stars—They’re Just Like Us” and see St. Francis of Assisi watering his garden (while suffering from the stigmata). St. Ignatius of Loyola is just your average bro who wanted people to find God in all things (who happened to break out in tears every time that he celebrated Mass). St. Catherine of Siena is a fine example of a female leader who exerted power against corruption (and who also survived for years while consuming the Eucharist alone).

The closer the saint is to our day, the more we might wipe out the weirdness of sanctity. Blessed, soon to be Saint, Carlo Acutis is especially prone to this kind of treatment. When his canonization was announced, newspapers declared: the first Millennial saint. Statues of Carlo depict him wearing tennis shoes. He has a video recorder or a computer in his arms. He is dressed as Italian teenagers from the early aughts might have dressed. He was a web designer; he had a video game system just like I did (do). Who is more relatable than Blessed Carlo? #MillennialSaints.

Carlo Acutis died in 2006 from leukemia. He was fifteen. As it turns out, like the other saints of the Catholic Church, his “normalcy” is relative. Carlo asked to receive his First Communion at the age of six. From then on, he was a daily communicant. My son who is eleven and my daughter who will receive her First Communion attend Mass reluctantly on a weekly basis. Sometimes, I attend Mass reluctantly. Carlo lived an ascetic life. Yes, he had a video game system, but he played this system for an hour per week. As a forty-two-year-old man, I continue to play video games for a longer time per week than Carlo did when he was fifteen. If Carlo was given anything (a bike, clothing, or a new pair of shoes), he gave it away to the poor. His family was well-off, but anything he received, he sought to pass on to the homeless in Milan. His funeral Mass was full of people who were recipients of Carlo’s hidden acts of charity.

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