As Catholics celebrated the feast day of Blessed Carlo Acutis this week, EWTN, a Catholic news and television organization, tweeted about the boy, praising the faith he exhibited in his short life.

“TODAY is the feast day of Blessed Carlo Acutis, a Millennial on the path to sainthood,” EWTN tweeted. “In the short 15 years of his life, he touched thousands of people with his testimony of faith and deep devotion to the Holy Eucharist. Blessed Carlo, pray for us!” 

Blessed Carlo lived a life that was dedicated to the sacraments and in particular to the Holy Eucharist. Francesca Pollio Fenton wrote an article for Catholic News Agency (CNA) about the life of Blessed Carlo. 

Carlo was born in London in 1991. Too thereafter his family moved to Milan, Italy. As a young boy, he was diagnosed with leukemia. Carlo didn’t let that get him down, instead offering his sufferings up for Pope Benedict XVI and the Church, the CNA article says. 

“I offer all the suffering I will have to suffer for the Lord, for the Pope, and the Church,” he said, according to reports. Carlo had a special devotion to God and the sacraments, even though his parents weren’t particularly devout. He had a particular appreciation for the Eucharist and traveled to many different sites of Eucharistic miracles. 

Carlo’s faith was so deep that his mother was drawn back into the fold of Catholicism, CNA says. Carlo “managed to drag his relatives, his parents to Mass every day,” a priest who lobbied for him to be canonized, said, according to Fenton’s article. “It was not the other way around; it was not his parents bringing the little boy to Mass, but it was he who managed to get himself to Mass and to convince others to receive Communion daily.” 

Carlo was proficient with computer programming, and he used his technological talents to spread the word by creating a website for all the Eucharistic miracles around the world. On the website, CNA said, he wrote that “The more often we receive the Eucharist, the more we will become like Jesus, so that on this earth we will have a foretaste of heaven." 

Carlo died on Oct. 12, 2006, and was buried in Assisi. He had requested to be buried there because of his devotion to St. Francis. He was made a “Venerable” in 2018, and Pope Francis upgraded to a “Blessed” on Oct. 10, 2020. Carlo’s heart is in the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi as a relic and his body lies in state, with him wearing jeans and Nike athletic shoes because he said he wanted to be remembered as a normal teenage boy, according to the CNA. 

EWTN has made a documentary on Blessed Carlo’s life available for the public to view. “I am With You” is available on the EWTN website.