Yesterday, Pope Francis announced that dates have been set for the canonizations of Blessed Carlo Acutis and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. Soon to become the first millennial saint, the canonization of Carlo Acutis will take place on April 27th and will coincide with the Jubilee for Adolescents in Rome (April 25-27th). Pier Giorgio Frassati is expected to be canonized during the Jubilee for Young People (July 28th – August 3rd). Pope Francis made the announcement during an audience on the International Day for the Rights of Children and Adolescents. He also announced a summit on the rights of children which will take place on February 3rd of 2025. The summit will focus on children facing abuse, exploitation, and war.
News of the saints’ canonization is likely to generate excitement among the youth of the Church who see these saints as people they can relate to. Carlo Acutis is perhaps the best known of the two new saints. In 2021, he was patron of the first year of Eucharistic Revival approved by the USCCB. The role was appropriate for the young saint who dedicated much of his short life to spreading love and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. One of the ways he did this was via a website focused on Eucharistic Miracles. The website he created to share these miracles is still accessible, providing a tangible link to the t-shirt wearing, Pokémon playing saint who died from leukemia in 2006 at the age of fifteen. At his death, he completed his goal:
To always be united with Christ: This is my life’s program.
Pier Giorgio Frassati, who Saint John-Paul II called, the “Man of the Beatitudes” was an avid sportsman. A photograph of the saint shows him standing on top of a mountain peak carrying an ice axe and displaying the confidence of a man who frequently enjoyed mountaineering. As a young man, Frassati participated in multiple Catholic organizations and spent much of his time and resources caring for the poor. In particular, he joined the St. Vincent de Paul Society after becoming motivated to care for soldiers returning from WWI. He loved athletics, art, music and leading his friends toward Christ. Frassati was openly and actively anti-Fascist and anti-Communist, seeing his political activism as a means of living out his faith and heeding the cry of the poor. Like Acutis, Frassati died young when, at the age of twenty-four, he died of polio which he likely contracted while caring for the poor in his hometown of Turin, Italy.
Image: “Pontifical Mass of Blessed Carlo Acutis” (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) by Catholic Church (England and Wales)
Ariane Sroubek is a writer, school psychologist and mother to two children here on earth. Prior to converting to Catholicism, she completed undergraduate studies in Bible and Theology at Gordon College in Wenham, MA. She then went on to obtain her doctorate in School and Child Clinical Psychology. Ariane’s writing is inspired by her faith, daily life experiences and education. She is currently writing a women's fiction novel and a middle-grade mystery series. Her non-fiction book, Raising Sunshine: A Guide to Parenting Through the Aftermath of Infant Death is available on Amazon. More of her work can be found at https://mysustaininggrace.com.
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