Blessed Carlo Acutis, an Italian teenager who died in 2006, will be canonized April 27
Editor’s note: The Vatican announced April 21 that the canonization Mass for Blessed Carlo Acutis will be postponed due to the mourning period for Pope Francis, who died April 21.
Two years ago, Maximilian Glamuzina first learned about Blessed Carlo Acutis during a school Mass, when his pastor preached about the teenager’s life and model of holiness. Maximilian, now 14, was intrigued: The 15-year-old from Milan who died of leukemia in 2006 felt relatable — a normal kid who played video games and learned computer coding, but also loved the Eucharist and befriended the poor. Maximilian’s devotion to Carlo grew.
“I look up to him a lot,” he said, noting he is particularly inspired by Carlo’s use of technology to glorify God, especially his website dedicated to eucharistic miracles. The site has since been adapted into a physical exhibition and circled the world.
Now Maximilian is traveling to Rome with his parents and two siblings for Carlo’s April 27 canonization on a pilgrimage organized by his pastor, Father Leon Biernat, alongside other members of St. Gregory the Great Parish in Williamsville, New York, a Buffalo suburb.
The Glamuzinas are among the multitude of Americans planning to attend the canonization of the Church’s first “millennial” saint. The canonization Mass, scheduled to be held in St. Peter’s Square, coincides with Divine Mercy Sunday and the 2025 Holy Year’s Jubilee of Teenagers April 25-27.
“From the minute it was announced last fall we have received hundreds of emails asking for information,” Sister Maria Juan Anderson, a Religious Sister of Mercy of Alma, Michigan, who works in Rome with the Bishops’ Office for U.S. Visitors to the Vatican, said. “Carlo is beloved!”
In addition to individuals planning their own trips and parishes, like St. Gregory the Great, that have organized group travel, at least two U.S. dioceses — the archdioceses of Miami and Philadelphia — are sponsoring pilgrimages for the canonization.
Sally Lanza, 57, is going to the canonization with members of her parish, St. Katharine Drexel in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, where she works as an administrative assistant. She first learned of Carlo when his relics visited her parish a few years ago while on a national tour.
“There was just something that just struck me when I was reading about his story, just being a youth and being on fire for God, especially in the Eucharist,” she said. “I was excited because of the hope for youth to come back to Christ and to really see the power that we have here in the Catholic Church by having the Real Presence.”
Since encountering Carlo, Lanza — the mother of two teenage daughters — routinely asks for his prayers. She especially sees a need for his example of virtuous technology use, especially in overcoming widespread technology addiction and the resulting loss of personal connection.
“It would just be nice to be able to put the technology down, and so I’m just asking periodically for his intercession to help that, to make that real,” she said.
Among the students traveling with St. Brendan High School in Miami is Lucia Corbea, who said she admires Carlo’s “commitment to serving God by using modern technology to spread the Gospel.”
“I expect to gain a deeper understanding of the roots of my faith, as well as growing from the experience of the pilgrimage as a whole, since we are taking many prayer intentions with us,” she said.
