CARLOS ACUSTI

Carlo Acutis (3 May 1991 – 12 October 2006) was an English-born Italian Catholic youth and amateur computer programmer, who is best known for documenting Eucharistic miracles around the world and cataloguing them onto a website which he created before his death from leukemia. He was noted for his cheerfulness, computer skills, and deep devotion to the Eucharist, which becomes a core theme of his life. He was beatified on 10 October 2020, two days before the 14th anniversary of his death. Carlo Acutis was born in London on 3 May 1991 to a wealthy Italian family.] His baptism took place on 18 May 1991 in the church of Our Lady of Dolours, Chelsea. His parents, Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano, who were not especially religious, had worked in London and Germany, finally settled in Milan in September 1991, not long after their first son's birth. In 1995, when Acutis was four years old, his maternal grandfather died and was said to have appeared to him in a dream asking to be prayed for. When the child evinced a precocious interest in religious practice, his questions were answered by the family's Polish babysitter. Three years later he requested to receive his First Communion at the age of seven. After consulting a prelate and providing instruction, the family arranged this at the convent of Sant'Ambrogio ad Nemus. After that he made the effort, either before or after Mass, to reflect before the tabernacle. Acutis became a frequent communicant and would make a weekly confession. He is said to have had several models as guides for his life, especially Francis of Assisi, as well as Francisco and Jacinta Marto, Dominic Savio, Tarcisius, and Bernadette Soubirous. He was educated in Milan at the Jesuit Instituto Leone XIII high school. On the social side, Acutis would worry about friends of his whose parents were divorcing and would invite them to his home to support them. He defended disabled peers at school when bullies mocked them. Outside school, he did volunteer work with the homeless and destitute. He also liked films, comic editing and playing PlayStation video games. Although he greatly enjoyed travel, the town of Assisi remained a particular favorite. Those around him considered him a "computer geek" on account of his passion and skill with computers and the internet. Acutis applied himself to creating a website dedicated to cataloguing each reported Eucharistic miracle in the world. He completed this in 2005, having started compiling the catalogue at the age of eleven. He admired Giacomo Alberione's initiatives to use the media to evangelize and proclaim the Gospel and aimed to do likewise with the website he had created. When he developed leukemia, he offered his suffering both for Pope Benedict XVI and for the Catholic Church, saying: "I offer to the Lord the sufferings that I will have to undergo for the Pope and for the Church." He had asked his parents to take him on pilgrimages to the sites of all the known Eucharistic miracles in the world, but his declining health prevented this from happening. The doctors treating his final illness had asked him if he was in great pain, a question to which he responded that "there are people who suffer much more than me". He died on 12 October 2006 at 06:45 from the M3 subtype of fulminating acute promyelocytic leukemia. He was 15 years old. He was buried in Assisi in accordance with his wishes. Acutis's mother, Antonia, is said to attribute to his intercession the fact that, at the age of 44, she gave birth to twins, born exactly four years to the day after his death. Following the Catholic Church's recognition of a miracle in 2020, attributed to Acutis, Antonia told the press that her son had appeared to her in dreams saying that he will not only be beatified but also canonized a saint in the future. Photo exhibition of eucharistic miracles In memory of Acutis, bishops Raffaello Martinelli and Angelo Comastri have helped to organize a travelling photo exhibition of all the Eucharistic miracle sites. It has since travelled to dozens of different countries across five continents.