Carlo Acutis: Saint of the Young

Jesus is our hope… Let us remain united to him, let us remain in his friendship, always, cultivating it through adoration, Eucharistic Communion, frequent Confession, and generous charity, as Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis taught us. Aspire to great things, to holiness, wherever you are. Do not settle for less.

- Pope Leo XIV

One day, Brother Masseo, one of the earliest followers of St Francis, asked why everyone wanted to follow him: “Say, why is it that all the world seems to be running after you, and everyone seems to want to see you, and hear you, and obey you?” 800 years later, the phenomenon of St Carlo Acutis raises the same question. The simple answer is that Carlo, like Francis, does not point to himself, but to God. “Not I, but God,” as he repeated. The secret to the holiness of the saints is “losing themselves” to become one with God through Jesus, especially in the Eucharist and charity, allowing His smile to shine on their face, making it glow and attract with the “Smile of Heaven.” This “smile” illumines the life, miracles and graces, and the call to be a saint in the “five steps” of Carlo Acutis.

I invite you to read this truly beautiful, agile, and inspiring book with the desire to be a saint. It is historically well documented. Theologically profound. Offering everyone, at whatever stage in their journey, a roadmap to Heaven in the footsteps of Carlo Acutis, the first millennial saint.

- Robert Cardinal Sarah, Prefect Emeritus, Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments