Saint Carlo Acutis

Layman, Apostle of the Eucharist

Feast Day

October 12

Life

1991–2006

Canonized

2025

Born

London, England

Carlo Acutis was born on 3 May 1991 in London, where his Italian parents, Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano, were working at the time. The family returned to Milan within months of his birth, and it was there that he grew up. From early childhood he showed an unusual devotion to the Eucharist, which he would later call his 'highway to heaven.' He received permission to make his First Communion at the age of seven and from then on attended Mass daily and spent time before the Blessed Sacrament in adoration.

Carlo was, by every account, an ordinary boy of his generation: he played football, kept pets, enjoyed video games — which he deliberately limited — and was popular among his schoolmates, several of whom remembered him for defending them when they were bullied. What set him apart was the seriousness of his interior life and his instinct to put others first, giving his pocket money and his attention to the homeless of Milan.

Largely self-taught in computer programming, Carlo turned his technical skill to the service of his faith. In the last years of his short life he designed and built a website cataloguing Eucharistic miracles recognised by the Church from around the world, together with a companion exhibition. After his death the exhibition travelled to thousands of parishes on every continent.

In October 2006 Carlo was diagnosed with an aggressive leukaemia. He offered his sufferings for the Pope and for the Church and died in Monza on 12 October 2006, at the age of fifteen. At his own wish he was buried in Assisi, the city of Saint Francis, to whom he had a lifelong devotion; his tomb in the Sanctuary of the Renunciation (Santuario della Spogliazione) has since become a major place of pilgrimage for the young.

Pope Francis beatified Carlo in Assisi on 10 October 2020, and Pope Leo XIV canonised him in Saint Peter's Square on 7 September 2025, together with Pier Giorgio Frassati — the first canonisation of his pontificate. Carlo Acutis is widely described as the first saint of the millennial generation. The Holy See established his liturgical memorial on 12 October, the anniversary of his death.