Canonisation of first millennial saint, Carlo Acutis, postponed after Pope death
The teenager, who died from leukaemia in 2006, was due to be canonised in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican next Sunday.
The canonisation of the first millennial saint, Carlo Acutis, has been postponed due to the death of Pope Francis, the Vatican has announced.
Acutis was due to be canonised in St Peter’s Square next Sunday on the occasion of the Jubilee celebration for adolescents.
In the months leading up to the expected canonisation, the faithful have been flocking to Assisi, where his body – wearing jeans, a sweatshirt and trainers – lies in a shrine.
He was 15 when he died in northern Italy in 2006 after a short bout with leukaemia.
His road to sainthood, the canonisation process, started more than 10 years ago at the initiative of a group of priests and friends, and formally took off shortly after Pope Francis began his papacy in 2013.
Acutis was named “venerable” in 2018 after the church recognised his virtuous life, and his body was taken to a shrine in Assisi’s Santuario della Spogliazione, a major site linked to St Francis’s life.
He was then declared “blessed” in 2020 after the Vatican dicastery which studies sainthood processes recognised a miraculous healing through Acutis’s intercession – a child in Brazil who recovered in a “scientifically inexplainable” manner.
Last year, the Church paved the way to sainthood by attributing a second miracle to him – the complete healing of a Costa Rican student in Italy from major head trauma in a bicycle accident after her mother prayed at Acutis’s tomb.
Acutis used his computer knowhow to create an online exhibit about more than 100 eucharistic miracles recognised by the Church over centuries, focused on the real presence of Christ that Catholics believe is in the consecrated bread and wine. He also taught catechism and did outreach work with the homeless.
The Mass for adolescents, expected to attract tens of thousands of faithful, will go ahead.
It is part of a year-long celebration of the Holy Year inaugurated by Francis in December, which the Vatican said is continuing, albeit with modifications.
