With these few words (above) Carlo Acutis, the boy who died of leukemia, outlines the distinguishing feature of his brief existence: to live with Jesus, for Jesus, and in Jesus. (…) “I'm happy to die because I've lived my life without wasting even a minute of it doing things that wouldn't have pleased God”. Carlo also asks the same thing of us - to emulate the Gospel with our life, so that we can be a beacon lighting the way for others.

A teenager of our time like many others, going to school and seeing his friends, and an expert for his age in computers. His encounter with Jesus Christ fitted into all of this.

Carlo Acutis is witness to the Resurrection, he places his trust in the Virgin Mary, lives a life of grace, and tells his contemporaries about his incredible experience with God.

He goes to Mass and takes Communion every day and passes hours in front of the Blessed Sacrament. His Christian development and experience bear witness to the truth in the words of Pope Benedict XVI's Apostolic Exhortation, Sacramentum Caritatis: “The Sacrifice of Mass and Eucharistic adoration corroborate, support and develop love for Jesus and willingness for ecclesiastic service”.

Carlo is also devoted to Our Lady, faithfully says his Rosary and dedicates his devotions to her as his beloved Mother.

In sociological terms this boy is the same as his school friends, and bears out the fact that the Gospel can also be experienced fully by an adolescent.

His brief existence, reaching out with the aim of encountering Jesus, was like a beacon lighting the way not only of anyone who met him on their path, but also of those people yet to know his story. I am more than confident that this first biography of Carlo Acutis by Nicola Gori, with its recognizable descriptive ability, will help today's adolescents, who have so many issues and are so heavily influenced by the mass media, to reflect on their life and evangelic values as a way of fulfillment.

By looking at this adolescent as one of them and as someone who was captivated by the love of Christ, which enabled him to experience pure joy, these teenagers will be in contact with an experience of life that doesn't take anything away from the richness of their teenage years, but which actually makes them more valuable. The evangelical testimony of Carlo doesn't just provide inspiration for today's adolescents, it also encourages priests and teachers to ask themselves about the validity of the teaching they provide for the teenagers in our parishes, and how to make this teaching effective and profound.

Source: Official website of the Carlo Acutis Association and the Cause of Canonization of Blessed Carlos Acutis 

He was born in Seville on the 25th of February 1877. He entered the Minor Seminary of Seville on September of 1889 where he wrote: "If I would be born a thousand times; a thousand times I would be a priest."

He was ordained by Blessed Cardinal Spínola, the founder of the newspaper "El Correo de Andalucía", where he worked when he was still a seminarian. On 29th of September 1901, he celebrated his first Mass at the Church of the Holy Trinity and entrusted himself to the intercession of Mary, Help of Christians.

Saint Manuel was sent by the Archbishop of Seville to Palomares del Río, a beautiful and secluded village of Aljarafe, but upon his arrival no one came out to meet him. The church was greatly abandoned: filled with dust and dirt, cobwebs inside the tabernacle and torn altar cloths. Upon seeing this situation, he knelt before the altar and thought about the many abandoned tabernacles in the world. This prompted him to start the "Unión Eucarística Reparadora".

At the age of 28, he was sent to Huelva where he saw many children in the streets. Later on, he devoted his attention mainly in founding schools and teaching catechesis with the help of his parishioners.

On December 6, 1915, Pope Benedict XV appointed Saint Manuel as auxiliary bishop of Málaga. He celebrated his appointment with a banquet to which he invited, not the authorities but the poorest children of the place. Three thousand children attended the banquet and accompanied him to the Episcopal Palace. He remained there until the night of the 11th of May 1931, the proclamation of the Republic, where a revolt expelled him and the Palace was burnt, destroying everything.

On August 5, 1935, he was appointed bishop of Palencia by Pope Pius XI. During a visit to Zaragoza in 1939 he fell seriously ill and had to be transferred to Madrid where he passed away on the 4th of January 1940. Before he died, he asked to be buried at the foot of the tabernacle. Fulfilling his wish, he was buried at the main altar of the Cathedral of Palencia.

His heroic virtues were recognized on the 6th of April 1998, and he was beatified by Saint Pope John Paul II on April 29, 2001. He was canonized by Pope Francis on October 16, 2016.

 

Biographical data are taken from the article " Seise, periodista, obispo y santo" by
Francisco Ruiz de la Cuesta, published in the weekly Alfa y Omega on 6/29/2000.