BLESSED Carlo Acutis, the teenage computer wiz who built website tools to spread Eucharistic devotion, celebrated his first feast day since his beatification on October 12.
Thousands of pilgrims flocked to his tomb to celebrate with him in the days leading up to his feast, according to the local Assisi diocese.
“Every day, I meet families, young people, groups of visitors from every part of Italy, and after the reopening (of the country), from different parts of the world,” Shrine of the Renunciation rector Capuchin Father Carlos Acácio Gonçalves Ferreira said.
“Carlo is a phenomenon of holiness that touches everyone, that pushes young people to approach the church, who helps those who are far from the faith,” he said.
Since his beatification one year ago, 117,000 pilgrims had visited his tomb in the Shrine of the Renunciation at the Church of St Mary Major in Assisi.
The diocese also said that in the lead up to the feast, hundreds of pilgrimage groups had registered to receive a catechesis on the beatified teen’s life.
Before his death from leukemia in 2006, Blessed Carlo was an average teen with an above-average knack for computers.
He put that knowledge to use by creating an online database of Eucharistic miracles around the world.
In “Christus Vivit” (“Christ Lives”), Pope Francis’ exhortation on young people, he said the teen was a role model for young people today who are often tempted by the traps of “self-absorption, isolation and empty pleasure”.
“Carlo was well-aware that the whole apparatus of communications, advertising and social networking can be used to lull us, to make us addicted to consumerism and buying the latest thing on the market, obsessed with our free time, caught up in negativity,” Pope Francis said.
In February 2020, Pope Francis formally recognized a miracle attributed to Blessed Carlo’s intercession and in October that year, the teen was beatified during a Mass at the Basilica of St Francis.
According to Assisi diocese, an estimated 48,200 pilgrims visited Blessed Carlo’s tomb in August, the height of the tourist season; visitors came from Italy, France, Slovenia, Germany, Spain and Malta as well as Brazil and the Philippines.
In preparation for his feast day, a prayer vigil was held at the Cathedral of San Rufino in Assisi on October 11.
It was followed by a morning Mass celebrated by Capuchin Father Marco Gaballo, vicar of the Capuchins’ Central Italy province.
For the feast day, Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino of Assisi was scheduled to celebrate Mass at the cathedral.
All events were to be streamed live on the diocese’s Facebook page and website, www.diocesiassisi.it.
