YOUNGSTERS who seem to live most of their lives online turned out very much in person on Shannonside to honour the physical remains of the world’s first ‘internet saint’.
Hundreds turned out at both the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Newcastle West and St John’s Cathedral recently to venerate the relics of Blessed Carlo Acutis, who next year will be beatified a saint less than 35 years after he was born.
Carlo died from untreatable leukemia in 2006, but not before he gained status as a deeply devout young man who liked computer games, jeans, Nike runners, and St Francis of Assisi.
According to Bishop of Limerick Brendan Leahy, the number of young people, in particular, that turned up was especially heartening.
“The story of Carlo Acutis is one that so many young people gravitate to today and it was no different in Limerick as many young people came to see his relics,” Bishop Leahy said.
“A number of schools gave students the option to attend both St John’s Cathedral and Newcastle West, and it said a lot about young people and their willingness to connect with faith that they attended.”
The Bishop said that large groups came and while “time off school is always popular, the students were really respectful, and you could see that they could relate to Carlo Acutis’ story”.
“That might be because he will be known as the only saint of the internet age so far. He is the internet disciple of Jesus who was buried in jeans and Nike shoes,” Bishop Leahy commented.
“The youth connect with him because he was so like so many of them. He played Playstation, was a Spider-Man fan, loved sport. Yet he’ll be canonised a saint next year. He was an ordinary, modern boy who watched cartoons and used the internet but wanted holiness with all his heart at all times.”
From the age of three or four, Caro had a devotion to Mary and always wanted his parents to go into churches and pray, which was surprising to his parents as they were not practicing catholics.
He had a gift for empathy and was known for defending kids at school who got picked on, especially disabled kids, and had a particular care for immigrants. Later he created a website celebrating all the eucharistic miracles of the world.
He was diagnosed with an untreatable form of leukemia aged just 15 and died not long after. After his death in 2006, at his request, he was buried in Assisi because of his love of St Francis.
His cause for canonisation began in 2013 and he was designated “venerable” in 2018. A healing miracle has been attributed to his intercession and every day his family receives messages of healing and miracles from people praying to him.
Many people’s lives have been changed due to his witness of the faith, Bishop Leahy said, and anyone who comes across his story is inspired.
“It was quite special to see his relics here in Limerick. There was a serenity about it, not least about the involvement of young people. It’s reassuring to think that we don’t have to look to long ago for saints and that there was one walking among us only a few short years ago whose relics were here in Limerick,” he added.
