On Sunday, Sept. 7, in Rome, Pope Leo XIV will celebrate two important canonizations, the first of his pontificate.
The Holy Father will raise to the altars two 20th-century men whose lives were brief but whose love for Jesus burned so brightly that they blazed a trail of holiness that continues to invite young people and indeed, all of us, to follow in their footsteps.
Blessed Carlo Acutis will be our first millennial saint. Born in 1991, he grew up in Milan, Italy, and was just 15 years old when he died from leukemia.
By all accounts, he was an ordinary teen. He loved playing sports and video games; he had a genius for making websites and finding creative ways to use the internet to share his faith.
At an early age, Acutis discovered the secret power of the Eucharist: that the more we receive Jesus reverently in holy Communion, the more we can become like him.
He lived his faith through simple, ordinary practices: praying the rosary and going to Mass daily, trying to be a good example to his friends, giving to the poor and homeless.
Something his mother said has impressed me: “Carlo … was a normal person. But if it’s illuminated by the light of Christ, a life becomes extraordinary.”
This is how our faith is meant to be lived: not with elaborate gestures of piety, but as the natural expression of our friendship with Jesus.
Pope Leo will also canonize Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati.
As we know, before someone can be declared a saint, the Church must determine that this individual has worked two miracles from heaven.
In the case of Blessed Frassati, it was determined that he worked a miracle for a Los Angeles seminarian, and it’s this miracle that caused the Church to declare that he is a saint.
The story of Father Juan Gutierrez still amazes me.
In 2017, he suffered a serious leg injury while playing basketball with other seminarians.
Facing painful surgery, Father Juan prayed for Blessed Frassati’s intercession and was healed.
His doctors couldn’t explain it. The Vatican investigated, interviewed the doctors, studied the medical evidence, and concluded that indeed, his healing was a miracle.
And his miracle, in a mysterious way, forever binds the family of God here in Los Angeles to our new saint.
This deep spiritual connection invites us to become friends with the soon-to-be St. Frassati, to get to know him through prayer and reflecting on his life.
That’s why we have created a new website, FriendsWithFrassati.com, to help us all to follow the way of our new saint.
He was a young man who loved the outdoors. He was a mountain climber, cyclist, and swimmer. He enjoyed an occasional drink and a cigar.
His whole life was animated by the Eucharist. At a time when it was rare for laypeople to receive Communion daily, he was granted permission. He often said that he lived from Eucharist to Eucharist.
Our new saint was deeply engaged in the politics of his time, opposing both communism and fascism, and striving for a social order based on the principles of Catholic social teaching.
He was inspired by Pope Leo XIII’s great social encyclical, Rerum Novarum (“Of New Things”) and by the political writings of the Servant of God Don Luigi Sturzo.
Frassati formed several associations to promote the cause of world peace and justice in society. He dedicated himself personally to serving the poor and vulnerable.
Once when someone asked him why he was willing to risk his life to go to some of the most dangerous neighborhoods, he replied: “Jesus pays me a visit in Communion every morning, and I repay him in the way that I can: by visiting his poor.”
Biographers say that it’s likely he contracted the disease that killed him from his work in those poor neighborhoods. He died on July 4, 1925, at the age of 24.
On the day of the canonizations, I will be blessing a “Chapel of Young Witnesses” at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
This chapel will hold the relics of our new St. Carlo Acutis, along with the relics of two other young 20th-century saints, St. Maria Goretti and St. José Luis Sánchez del Río.
Our new young saints teach us that we can root our lives in a deep friendship with Jesus. They teach us that holiness is possible in our ordinary, daily lives, and that by our love, we can bring our neighbors and loved ones to know the friendship with Jesus that we know.
Pray for me, and I will pray for you.
And let us ask our Blessed Mother Mary to help our young people, and all of us, to live in the light of her Son.
