There is something very special happening to the Church today. I am seeing more and more young people coming to mass and attending spiritual gatherings. The Church invited youth and young adults to celebrate the Jubilee of Young People for 2025 in Rome in late July and early August. To the surprise of many, 500,000 participated during the week and over 1 million attended the final mass with His Holiness Pope Leo XIV. It was certainly a sight to see. The young people and the Pope reflected so much joy and holiness. They showed that the Church was truly alive and also quite relevant to young people.
This weekend the Church will be canonizing two young men; Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis. Pier was only 24 when he died and Carlo was only 15. Both of them were young men who loved Jesus and His Church and who served as an example to others of what the Christian Life was all about. They also enjoyed the fullness of life as so many young people do. I fully believe that these two Saints (soon to be) will continue to serve the world by being examples to young people about how to enjoy youth as well as how to be a good Christian. I would like to take a brief look at both of their lives. Pier lived in the beginning of the 1900’s and Carlo lived in the beginning of the 2000’s. Pier is known as the “Man of the Beatitudes” and Carlo is know as the “First Millenial Saint”. May they continue to inspire us all, especially the young men and women in today’s world.
CARLO ACUTIS was born on May 3, 1991 in London England. Shortly after his birth, his family moved back to Italy and lived a life like so many others do. Carlo’s parents worked, and Carlo attended school. Carlo had several pets, played soccer, loved movies, went snow skiing and loved to play video games. Ever since he was little, Carlo had a devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist. His mother tells how he could not pass a church without going inside to say hello to Jesus in the tabernacle. Carlo’s parents had stopped going to Church and because of the devotion that Carlo had, they started attending again. Finally, after much anticipation, Carlo received first communion in 1998. Carlo just naturally seemed to know the significance of the Eucharist. To Carlo, that was his fuel for living. Carlo attended mass, and went to Adoration to continually be refueled. His Eucharistic zeal was contagious. Although Carlo did many of the other normal things youth do, like school, homework, sports practices, social events, games, music, the internet and absolutely loving to eat gelato, he stood out from the crowd by managing his time towards the Eucharist and helping others. He once talked about his friends by saying, “They’ll stand in line for hours to go to a concert, but won’t stay even a minute before the tabernacle.” He couldn’t understand this.
In the early 2000’s the Internet was becoming quite available and Carlo dove right in. He learned coding and how to build websites and saw the Internet as a new tool to draw attention to the Church and the Eucharist. He developed websites for his parish and school. He even helped to develop the Vatican website. He began to become known as a technology protege around the world because of his work in the Vatican. He used the Internet to find out more and more about Eucharistic miracles He decided that he wanted to create a website just for that (and you can still use it today). He talked his parents in to taking him around to many sites of the Eucharistic miracles and took pictures and copious notes. He even walked to many and gathered information from 17 countries and made up 142 panels for helping others see the miracles.
In the fall of 2006, this faith filled young man started feeling ill. His parents took him to the doctor with flu-like symptoms. Testing came back showing that he had advanced stages of Leukemia. Despite this bad diagnosis, Carlo kept up his spirit and kept Christ as his top priority, offering up his sickness for the Pope and the Church and for his direct entry in to heaven. Carlo suffered gently and always thanked the people around him and kept a positive spirit. Fr. Sandro Villa, the hospital chaplain tells of the last time Carlo received the Eucharist. He says, “I was amazed by the composure and devotion with which, albeit with difficulty, he received the two sacraments. He seemed to have been waiting for them and felt the need for them.” He continued by saying, “I discovered that he was in love with the real presence of Jesus in the eucharist.” Carlo also said earlier to his mom, “I am happy to die because I have lived my life without wasting a minute on those things that do not please God.” Carlo died on October 12, 2006 at 15 years old.
Rejoice when you see a Statue of a teenage Saint, dressed in blue jeans and sneakers. Check out his website at https://www.miracolieucaristici.org/en/liste/list.html
PIER GIORGIO FRASSATI was born in 1901 in Turin, Italy and died in 1924. Saint John Paul II declared him a patron of World Youth Days and named him the “Man of the Beatitudes”. John Paul II also said he “was a young man filled with a joy that swept everything along with it, a joy that overcame the difficulties in his life”. Pier was known for his regular worship and adoration, as well as his service to the poor and the marginalized. He was a great advocate for Social justice and religious liberty. He was an avid mountain climber and saw many parallels between that and Catholic Life. On the back of a picture taken during his final climb, he wrote, “Verso L’Alto” which means “to the heights”.
Like Carlo Acutis, Frassati was enamored by the Eucharist. He once said to young people, “Prayer is the noble supplication which we lift up to the throne of God. It is the most efficient means to obtain from God the graces which we need, and especially the strength of persevering in these times, in which the hatred of the sons of the devil is breaking out violently against the sheep who are faithful to the fold. In recommending heartfelt prayer to you, I am including all the practices of piety, first of all the most Holy Eucharist. And remembering that apostle of the Holy Eucharist, the Holy Father Pius X of venerable memory, I urge you with all the strength of my soul to approach the Eucharistic Table as often as possible. Feed on this Bread of the Angels from which you will draw the strength to fight inner struggles, the struggles against passions and against all adversities, because Jesus Christ has promised to those who feed themselves with the most Holy Eucharist, eternal life and the necessary graces to obtain it. “And when you become totally consumed by this Eucharistic Fire, then you will be able to thank with greater awareness the Lord God who has called you to be part of his flock and you will enjoy that peace which those who are happy, according to the world, have never tasted. Because true happiness, young people, does not consist in the pleasures of the world and in earthly things, but in peace of conscience which we can have only if we are pure in heart and in mind.”
Frassati love to minister to the poor. He spent much of his time doing so. He was known to use his bus fare to give to the poor, and then run home to his parents to be home in time for meals. He not only gave his money to the poor, he also gave of his time. Besides receiving the Eucharist daily, he meditated on St. Paul’s “Hymn of Charity” (I Corinthians 13), and put that in to action. He loved mountain climbing and outings to the mountains. He invited friends to these as well as to his apostolic work, He brought his friends to Mass, to the reading of Scripture, and to praying the rosary. He also did worldly things like going to the theater, to the opera, and to museums. He was a young man who really enjoyed life.
Just before receiving his university degree, Pier Giorgio contracted poliomyelitis. Doctors later speculated he caught it from the sick whom he tended. After six days of terrible suffering Pier Giorgio died at the age of 24 on July 4, 1925. Even on his death bed, he wrote notes to help people that he had cared for. For his funeral, the streets of the city were filled with mourners. His family did not know them. They were the poor and the needy whom he had cared for. They, in turn, were surprised to find out that the Pier Giorgio was the heir of the influential Frassati family. He loved the poor, loved Jesus, loved Mary, loved the Eucharist, loved Adoration, loved the scriptures and loved the rosary. May he inspire us all, especially the young.