Every year, thousands of Catholic pilgrims pass through the Italian city of Assisi to venerate the tombs of a few well-known saints, namely St. Francis and St. Clare, and more recently, St. Carlo Acutis, an Italian computer whiz with a reputation for holiness who died of leukemia in 2006 at the age of 15.
But during a Sept. 5 stop in the medieval town, 50 pilgrims from Los Angeles found out they weren’t there just to visit saints.
They were bringing one home with them.
“God’s providence always surprises us,” said Father Miguel Ángel Ruiz, the LA priest who led the effort to acquire a first-class relic of Acutis’ hair that will be permanently installed at his parish, Our Lady of the Rosary of Talpa in Boyle Heights.
The relic was officially presented to Ruiz at the end of a Mass for the LA pilgrim group at Assisi’s St. Mary Major Church, where Acutis’ remains have rested since 2019. Two days later, the pilgrims were in Rome’s St. Peter’s Square for the canonization Mass of Acutis and another Italian youth, Pier Giorgio Frassati, who lived in the early 1900s.
How did Ruiz pull it off?
“First, with lots of prayer,” Ruiz told Angelus. “Second, with lots of emails.”
When he first arrived at Talpa two years ago, Ruiz, who was born in 1991 — the same year as Acutis — began thinking of ways to motivate parish youth. When the idea of the Acutis relic first came up, he was told it was impossible. But Ruiz wasn’t going to give up easily.
“I said, I’ll do everything on my part: send the emails I have to send, and pray what I have to pray, and let the Lord take care of it,” said Ruiz, a native of Mexico.
Those emails connected Ruiz with Msgr. Anthony Figueiredo, a British priest who lives in Assisi and travels the world promoting devotion to the millennial saint. After being denied several times, Ruiz finally got his yes this year. But due to a paperwork issue, he was told to wait until Acutis was officially declared a saint before retrieving the relic. Pope Francis’ death earlier this year pushed the canonization date from April to September.
In Assisi, pilgrimage leader Auxiliary Bishop Matt Elshoff (himself a Capuchin Franciscan) led the Mass at Acutis’ tomb. Afterward, Figueiredo credited Ruiz’s zeal for helping convince officials in Assisi to grant the relic. In October, Figueiredo will travel with a piece of Acutis’ pericardium (the membrane that protects the heart) to two parishes in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles: St. Monica Church in Santa Monica and St. Thomas the Apostle in LA’s Pico-Union neighborhood.
In his homily at the Mass, Figueiredo explained that just as the pericardium protects the body’s most important organ, Acutis drew on five practices that served as a “spiritual pericardium” in his life: daily Mass, frequent confession, and spiritual direction, Eucharistic adoration, devotion to the Virgin Mary, and works of charity.
“Carlo developed a ‘spiritual punching bag’ to defend the most important thing in his life: to always be devoted to Jesus,” said Figueiredo.
The Acutis relic at Talpa is not the only one in Los Angeles. On Sept. 7, the same day as the canonization, Archbishop José H. Gomez dedicated a “Chapel of Young Witnesses” at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels featuring relics of Acutis, St. Maria Goretti, and St. José Luis Sánchez del Río for veneration.
The piece of Acutis’ hair is set to be placed in a permanent reliquary at Talpa on Sept. 19, when Auxiliary Bishop Brian Nunes will visit the parish for Ruiz’s official installation as pastor. Ruiz said he hopes its presence will not only excite his current parishioners, but also draw people who aren’t practicing the Faith.
“It’s a reminder that all of us are called to holiness, not only priests and religious, but everyone,” said Ruiz of the relic, which will be displayed next to a first-class relic of Blessed María Inés Teresa of the Blessed Sacrament, a Mexican nun who founded an order of Poor Clare religious sisters.
While the LA pilgrims also had time to pray at the tombs of Sts. Francis and Clare in Assisi, they said the story of Acutis’ life gave them hope to confront life’s sufferings.
“Continue moving forward, even if life is difficult,” answered Evelyn Moreira Gomez of St. Agnes Church near downtown LA, when asked what message she took from Assisi.
Moreira was praying on the pilgrimage for an aunt awaiting a double organ transplant, including a heart. So she was moved when Figueiredo brought out the reliquary holding Acutis’ pericardium relic at the end of Mass.
“At the end, God knows what’s going to happen,” said Moreira. “I’m going to bring that faith back to [my aunt] back at home.”
Charles Engel, 55, of St. Ignatius Church in Highland Park, came on the pilgrimage with his 89-year-old mother, Patricia. He said that praying at Acutis’ tomb made him reflect on the years he spent away from the Faith after being an altar boy as a child. He credits the birth of his daughter and Patricia’s prayers with leading him back.
“I should have done it when I was young,” said Engel of the trip. “I’m doing it late, but it’s never too late.”
After Mass at St. Mary Major, pilgrims had a moment to pray in front of the millennial saint’s body, kept in a glass case and wearing jeans, sneakers, and a sports jacket. For Ruiz, the visit was a chance to say thank you for a gift that once seemed unattainable.
“I’m very grateful to God, and to all who were praying for this,” said Ruiz. “It is through prayer that the Lord continues to surprise and bless us.”
