Archdiocese hosts relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis

First class relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis on display at St Joseph’s O’Connor

Blessed Carlo Acutis is destined to be the Catholic Church’s first saint of the millennial generation. Now, our Archdiocese has had an opportunity to share in the growing worldwide veneration of the Italian teenager.

His relics are in popular demand but the Canberra parish of St Joseph’s at O’Connor was able to secure a relic for two days of veneration over the weekend of 28 to 29 September.

The relic – a strand of hair – was contained in a small reliquary that was the centrepiece of a temporary exhibition at the parish featuring Eucharistic miracles from around the world.

The display was drawn from the words and work of Blessed Acutis himself, a computer whiz who had developed a website cataloguing such miracles before his death within days of a diagnosis of acute leukemia in 2006. He was aged just fifteen.

Born in 1991 to a family of not especially religious leanings, the IT prodigy had attracted notice because of his piety, holiness, and daily dedication to the Mass, the rosary, and the sacraments. Through his direct influence many others had been inspired to come to the Catholic faith.

Many of his sayings are frequently quoted, with his ‘to be always united with Jeus, this is my plan of life’ perhaps the most well-known.

The display accompanying the relic showed work of Blessed Acutis

During his homily for the closing Mass to the exhibition, St Joseph’s parish priest Fr Anthony Riosa described Blessed Acutis as an “ordinary boy but with an extraordinary life”.

“He embraced the digital age to evangelise through the internet, spreading devotion to the Eucharist and showing that holiness is for everyone.”

Speaking later to the Catholic Voice, Fr Riosa said he had met many new faces over the weekend who had made a pilgrimage to the parish to venerate and seek the intercession of the inspirational modern-day saint to be.

Blessed Carlo Acutis (carloacutis.com)

In locations overseas, a stained-glass window, a sculpture, and a statue have been dedicated to Acutis and his Eucharistic miracles photo exhibitions and relics continue to tour the world.

His path to the sainthood had steadily progressed through the requisite steps with his beautification taking place in 2020. In online interviews his mother says the family regularly receives reports of healings and conversions credited to the intercession of her son.

Following recent official recognition of a second miracle attributed to his intercession Pope Francis presided at an Ordinary Consistory of Cardinals earlier this year which approved the canonization of 15 people, including Acutis.

Fittingly laid to rest in Nike sneakers and jeans in a glass tomb in the Italian city of Assisi, Blessed Acutis may be formally canonized sometime in the Church’s jubilee year of 2025.