Carlo Acutis, a teenager who is now a saint: the story of the Internet's patron saint

The history of Carlo Acutis es extraordinaria. Nacido el 3 de mayo de 1991 en el seno de una familia acomodada en Londres –porque sus dos padres italianos trabajaban allí–, murió el 12 de octubre de 2006, de forma muy rápida por una leucemia mieloide aguda.

Genio de la computadora, pero también un chico especialmente devoto, pese a que su familia no lo era –su madre contó que sólo había ido a misa para su comunión, su confirmación y su matrimonio–, Carlo no sólo vivió cristianamente, sino que used the networks to create a virtual showcase of the miracles of the Eucharist in the world. In addition, always thanks to his computer, where he used to play video games, like all boys, elaborated a scheme of the rosary that included the mysteries of the light.

After living for a short period in London, where she had a Polish nanny, Beata, a great admirer of John Paul II He moved with his family to Milan, where he first attended a Catholic school and, shortly before his death, a high school run by the Jesuits. There he first went to a Catholic school and shortly before his death, to a high school run by the Jesuits.

From the time he received his first communion at the age of 7 - before his time because he demanded it - he never missed his daily appointment with Mass. He prayed all the time, went to confession and asked his parents to take him on pilgrimages to places of saints and places of miracles of the Eucharist, which he defined as "a highway to Heaven".

As his family also had a home in Assisi, he used to spend a lot of time in the city of St. Francis, the patron saint of Italy after whom the Argentine Pope was named. Carlo liked Assisi so much that before his death he expressed his desire to be buried there.

Carlo Acutis un adolescente de nuestro tiempo

"Carlo was not a Franciscan. He was simply an adolescent of our time, in love with Jesus. –y especialmente de la Eucharist– y devotísimo de María, especialmente en la rosary practice. But in Assisi he breathed the charism of St. Francis," wrote the bishop of Assisi, Domenico Sorrentino, in a book entitled Originals, Not Photocopies, a phrase attributed to Carlo, a boy who surely swam against the current. He lived simply, got angry if his mother bought him a second pair of sneakers or brand-name clothes and used to help out at a soup kitchen in Milan.

The miracle in Brazil

Su causa de beatificación comenzó en 2013. En julio de 2018 el papa Francisco lo declaró venerable, título que la Iglesia católica le concede a quien, por la práctica de las virtudes ejercidas en vida, es considerado digno de ser venerado por los fieles. A Carlo se le atribuyó luego un milagro por su intercesión, paso indispensable para ser beatificado. Este se registró en Brasil, en el séptimo aniversario de su muerte, el 12 de octubre de 2013, en Campo Grande, capital del Estado de Mato Grosso del Sur.

Allí, un niño de 6 años se curó inexplicablemente de una grave anomalía que padecía desde su nacimiento en el páncreas. «Father Marcelo Renório invited the parishioners to pray a novena and placed a piece of Carlo's T-shirt on the little patient, who the next day began to eat and whose pancreas was suddenly healthy. without the surgeons having operated on him," said his mother, Antonia Salzano, in an interview with Corrierre della Sera, in which she assured that she also received miraculous signs from her son-baby.

"Carlo predicted that I would become a mother again, even though I was about to turn 40. And in 2010, when I was already 43, I gave birth to twins, Michele and Francesca," she said, noting that when she suddenly became ill in 2006, Carlo offered his suffering to Pope Benedict XVI and the Church, as well as "to go straight to Paradise without going through purgatory. The future Blessed, in fact, also had a great sense of humor and lived his final stage with great serenity.

«Carlo encarna la santidad de los nativos digitales», explicó en su libro el obispo Sorrentino, que aclaró que no era un fanático de las relaciones virtuales y que también fue un gran catequista. Fiel reflejo de esto, el empleado doméstico que trabajaba en su familia, Rajesh, gracias a él decidió convertirse del hinduismo al catolicismo. «Fue Carlo, con su entusiasmo, con sus explicaciones, con sus filmados, que me hizo nacer el deseo de convertirme en cristiano y de bautizarme», testimonió Rajesh en la causa de beatificación.

"Carlo knew how to speak about Jesus and the sacraments in a way that touched your heart."Bishop Sorrentino, who in his book drew a parallel between this teenager and St. Francis of Assisi, stressed that his body in 2019 was transferred from the city cemetery to the Sanctuary of the Expoliation in the church of St. Mary Major, the ancient cathedral of Assisi. It was there that the young Francis stripped himself, even to the point of nakedness, of all the goods of the world, in order to give himself entirely to God and to others.

Carlo's body

Visto que en los últimos días circularon algunas versiones impropias en los medios, Sorrentino hace unos días explicó que no es cierto que el cuerpo del futuro beato fue hallado incorrupto. «En el momento de la exhumación del cementerio de Asís, ocurrida el 23 de enero de 2019, en vista de la traslación al santuario, fue encontrado en el normal estado de transformación propio de la condición cadavérica», indicó.

«No obstante, no habiendo pasado muchos años de la sepultura el cuerpo, aún transformado, pero con las diversas partes aún en su conexión anatómica, fue tratado con esas técnicas de conservación y de integración que suelen practicarse para exponer con dignidad a la veneración de los fieles los cuerpos de los beatos y de los santos», precisó.

It was an operation that was done "with art and love," said Bishop Sorrentino, who mentioned the "particularly successful reconstruction of the face through a silicone mask. The prelate also detailed that thanks to a special treatment it was possible to recover the "precious" relic of the heart, which will be used this Saturday, the day of the beatification.

En Christus vivit (Cristo Vive), la exhortación apostólica que escribió a los jóvenes después del sínodo dedicado a ellos, de marzo del año pasado, el papa Francisco mencionó especialmente a Carlo Acutis. «It is true that the digital world can put you at risk of self-absorption, isolation or empty pleasure. But don't forget that there are young people who are also creative and sometimes brilliant in these areas. This is what the venerable young Carlo Acutis used to do.», escribió en el párrafo 104.

"He knew very well that these mechanisms of communication, advertising and social networks can be used to turn us into numb beings, dependent on consumption and the novelties we can buy, obsessed with free time, locked in negativity. But él fue capaz de usar las nuevas técnicas de comunicación para transmitir el Evangelio, para comunicar valores y belleza», siguió.

Acutis falleció el 12 de octubre de 2006 (fiesta de la Virgin of Pilar en España y Latinoamérica) y llegó a los altares con su beatificación el 10 de octubre de 2020.