Earlier this summer, Pope Francis and a group of cardinals approved an Italian teenager named Carlo Acutis as a saint.
Born in 1991, Acutis would be 32 years old if he was with us today. That makes him the world’s first millennial saint. When he died at age 15 in 2006, Acutis made a name for himself by inspiring others to go to church and get involved in religion. One of the ways he did that was by creating a website dedicated to Eucharistic miracles.
Most well-known saints were born before our lifetime, so it may seem strange to think of a modern teenager becoming one.
To learn more about the process, and who can become a saint, we reached out to Dr. Kathleen Cummings, a professor of American studies and history at Notre Dame and the author of the book “A Saint of Our Own: How the Quest for a Holy Hero Helped Catholics Become American”.
“Carlo’s story is so incredibly relevant right now. He’s a young person,” she explained. “My students at the University of Notre Dame – I remember in 2020 when he was beatified, they were commenting that: ‘Wow, he’s wearing jeans and Nike sneakers. He kind of looks like us.’ This is something that the Catholic Church is counting on.”
Listen to her full talk with host Mike Rogers here.
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