This page is dedicated to St. Carlo Acutis. Here you will find some information on him; links to posts relating to him; links to where you can find books about him; events; photos; and more!

Please note that some images are of Carlo's Tomb where you can see his body through glass. Carlo would not want anyone to stay away from his page because of this so all this content is hidden by default and here is a button to toggle show/ hide it.


 

Carlo's bio

Carlo Acutis was born on the 3rd of May 1991 in London to Italian parents. Carlo used his excellent computer skills to start a website in which he documented Eucharistic miracles around the globe.  Despite his life only lasting 15 years he was able to achieve a high level of  Eucharistic maturity. From the age of 4, Carlo was very keen on going to Church and encouraged his own family - who were not particularly religious - to come to Church on a regular basis. He then began to encourage his fellow students to come to Church too, as well as doing incredible charitable work to help those less fortunate than himself. He was known to have fun but also to stand up to bullies at school. Carlo went to Mass daily since the age of 7 uninterrupted and recited the Rosary daily. You can read more about Carlo's life on this page or via the web pages provided at the bottom of the page.

 

 


“The Eucharist is the highway to heaven.”

Carlo Acutis

 

Prayers

Official Prayer to Blessed Carlo Acutis
O God our Father,
we thank you for giving us Carlo,
a Model of life for young people,
and a message of love for all.
You made him fall in love with your son Jesus,
making the Eucharist his "highway to heaven."
You gave him Mary as a beloved mother,
and you made him, through the Rosary,
a cantor of her tenderness.
Receive his prayer for us.
Look above all upon the poor, whom he loved and assisted.
Grant me too, through his intercession, the grace that I need
(mention your intention).
And make our joy full, raising Carlo among the saints of your church,
so that his smile shines again for us to the glory of you name.
Amen.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.



 

 

"The Virgin Mary is the only woman in my life."

Carlo Acutis



Work

Carlo's Work

As mentioned above Carlo did excellent work which is provided below from his sites he set up.

 

Eucharistic Miracles

 

Firstly, Carlo is probably most well known for his visits and research into Eucharistic Miracles around the globe. His website here on the miracles provides all the information on them, a (rather large) pdf with all the information from the site is provided down below.




Apparitions of Our Lady

Carlos site for appiritions of Our Lady can be found here.



Hell, Purgatory and Paradise

Carlo's site on Hell, Purgatory abd Heaven can be found here.



Apparitions of Angels and Demons

Carlo's site on apparitions of Angels and Demons can be found here.




Events

Carlo's Feast Day

Carlo's Feast day is on the 12th of October. Life in the Eucharist(LITE) group organises Bl Carlo's exhibition. The LITE group is mentored by the Blessed Sacrament Congregation which is based at St. Columbas' Maryhill, Glasgow.


 


Parish pilgrimage to Assisi

8-13 February 2024. More details and booking forms can be had from the parish office (9.30am-1.30pm, Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri). For more information, contact Tim Bray on 07709 921 807 or braytim@outlook.com
Please don’t leave booking your place until the last minute: come forward now!

 

“Continuously ask your guardian angel for help. Your guardian angel has to become your best friend.”

Carlo Acutis



Fr Peter Visits Carlo Feb 2023Please note some tweets contain images of Carlo's tomb.

 


Fr. Peter Visits Carlo (Feb 2023)

Fr. Peter visited Carlo in Assisi in February 2023. Details on the trip to Carlo's tomb and some photos too!
















 

Fr. Peter's Homily on 12th February 2023 after visiting Carlo

"I boarded a Ryanair flight from Stanstead to Perugia a week past on Friday. It was billed as £36 return - but that was only if you were going to stand during the flight! So, by the time I booked my seat it was £76 return. Still, it was quite good, and then there was a Taxi drive of 10 minutes from Perugia to Assisi. I complained that it cost €35 but I suppose that was reasonable. Then I arrived at the guesthouse of the Missionary Sisters of St Francis. Like you would expect in Assisi, as in Rome, it is packed with Convents, Monasteries, and so on. There are many Sisters who make their living by receiving guests like myself and others. It was €60 full board which wasn't bad, and that included the wine, which they didn't measure so you were able to have as much as you wanted!

I arrived on Friday afternoon and I just had to go straight away to the chapel of 'The Renunciation' as it is called. This is the place where St. Francis stripped himself and gave his fine clothes back to his father, thereby disowning his inheritance and giving himself to Christ. This is also where Blessed Carlo Acutis, the 15-year-old boy I have been speaking to you about before, is, well, I suppose you can only say 'on display' in his Tomb. The Tomb is partly covered and is partly glass, so that you can see inside. Looking at him, you would think he was just sleeping and might just get up and talk to you. He is dressed in jeans, sneakers, and a sweater with his Rosary around his hands, and looks very peaceful.

I was very moved when I first saw him, thinking of all he had done in just 15 years. What a life packed with love for Christ and for others! It was a moment to relish and remember. I suppose I was a wee bit stunned. I just sat there; there were plenty of other people coming and going, which was true of the 4 afternoons I was there. I spent about an hour and a half each afternoon just sitting there watching the crowds of people pass by of every generation - noisy, quiet, tearful, joyful. Most of them are Italians and, of course, wanted to kiss him, so they would kiss their hand and then touch the tomb with it. You could see there were some people who had  real personal, family or marriage issues, and they were there in tears. Some were kneeling, some were standing. It was an opportunity to observe humanity in its love for Christ through someone who has tried to imitate Him, as is the case of young Carlo.

So, that first afternoon I was selfish! I just took the time with Carlo to myself. Then, the subsequent three afternoons on which I went to his tomb, I took your prayer intentions that you left at the back of the church or gave me by hand. I counted about 120 altogether, so I divided them into three groups of 40. Each of those three afternoons I prayed with 40 intentions. Just in case Carlo didn't understand English I translated them into Italian for him!! It was lovely to do that because then I could personalise your intention in the way I spoke to him. It was an eye-opener for me to read your prayer intentions. I didn't do an analysis of them or anything but what I would say is that the vast majority of your prayer requests were about family: about sickness in the family, about brokenness in family relationships, about concern for your family members to come back to the practice of the faith. Many of them were also about social problems to do with alcoholism, drugs or these kinds of things. Others were political issues like abortion and so forth. The main theme though of the intentions was family and I think that's something to keep in mind as we move forward. Sometimes, when you come to church, you come with your family - as many of you do, thank God - but many of you come on your own because your family doesn't come anymore or because your spouse is dead. Even though you come to church sometimes as an individual and you sit as individuals, as you are right now, you are in fact a family: the family of God, the people of God. So maybe that's something for me to work on a bit more: to address the issues of families when I am praying for you and when I am preaching to you.

Now many of you didn't give me prayer intentions and that made me think: are you then second-class parishioners because you didn't give me intentions for Blessed Carlo? And the answer of course is no, so what I did was, in the mornings, to pray for all of you. I did my best to remember every name or, if not, at least your faces, knowing where you sit in the church or remembering you when you come to communion or indeed recalling your homes when I have visited. So I took my time. One morning I prayed for you at the tomb of St. Francis, another morning before the tomb of St. Clare, and another morning "just" before the Blessed Sacrament. I tried not just to remember your face or your name but your issues, your problems, things you have confided to me, your worries, your needs, and so forth. And I offered them all to the Lord for you. And that became almost the entire focus of my five days there. Intercession: it's an aspect of Priesthood which the Letter to the Hebrews highlights. It tells us that the Priest is taken from among men to represent them in their relations with God. The prayer of intercession is a big part of that. I want to share with you the fact that, as I was praying intercessions, especially in the mornings when I didn't have bits of paper with written intentions on them, I just put my hands out as I sat there. And as I remembered this then that face and this then that name, I almost felt as time went on as if I was catching fire. It was as if the Spirit of the grace of the priesthood in me was blowing hard. While I was offering prayers up for you, I felt as if I was being lifted up myself to the point that I thought: my goodness is this really the power of intercessory prayer? You think of the great figures of the past Moses, Paul... who spent hours in intercessory prayer and it's an aspect of my own ministry that perhaps I have not emphasised enough. Now I thought the Lord was telling me, 'this is a grace I want you to treasure and I want you to keep and I want you to repeat'. It's an experience of the love of Jesus really, whose priesthood is to stand at the right hand of the Father and intercede for us, so if he does it then the priest must do it too.

So Intercession was one thing. Another was when I walked out of the convent where I was staying, you either went down or you went up because Assisi is on the side of a hill and there are very few places where you are walking on a level. So there is a fair bit of physical exercise involved! In fact, last Monday, I walked down from Assisi to the plane in the valley where there is the Basilica of St Mary of the Angels. In there is a little chapel that St. Francis received from the Benedictines around the beginning of his Franciscan foundation. Near it is the place where he died in 1226. It was an hour's walk down and an hour and a half walk back up, of course! The walk back up was quite the challenge. But I wasn't alone. Physically I was on my own but I had Carlo, I had Francis, I had Clare, I had you, I had all the people I was praying for with me. I felt that I was walking with (if you remember that's the meaning of that word Synod that we talked about last year), walking with, not just walking with the church on earth, but also walking with the church in Heaven. As a pilgrim, you can experience that. There is not just the horizontal dimension, us on earth, but there is also the vertical dimension, the Church in Heaven which is as much a part of the Synod process as we are. So that's one of the reasons I put so many postings on Twitter and Facebook for those of you who follow the parish accounts on those social media outlets, so that I could share my intercession and my walking, so that I could get reactions from you which I thank you for. It meant I felt I was carrying you with me, walking with me.

So, first, Intercession; then, walking with. And the third thing I'm going to call Communion. But what I mean by it is this: when I had finished praying either before Blessed Carlo or in the morning before the Blessed Sacrament or St. Francis, I just took time to quieten down. I was just "there." It was an experience of being with people without having to say anything. You know how it can be when you are with people and you feel you have to talk. There is also a way in which you can be with people in a quiet form of loving without saying anything. It's a bit like contemplation: just that quiet presence to one another, to Christ and to the Saints. I spent quite a fair bit of time doing that too, and I even did a wee bit outside because, while it was very cold, bitterly cold, the views down the valley and down the mountains were so beautiful. So, I just spent time being with that and contemplating the beauty of God and carrying yourselves with me.

That kind of communion, quiet "being-with" leads me to the last, and most important, final point. Throughout my five days of pilgrimage, there was an underlying question. It was always nagging at me. "Lord, do you want the two parishes you have given me to care for, do you want the Eucharistic Revival I am talking about or is this just some idea in my head?" A priest has to be careful he isn't just imposing an agenda on people. A priest is there to serve, he is there to listen to your needs and to try to respond to them from within the heart of God. So, while I thought the idea of Eucharistic Revival came to me from the Lord for you, I also thought, "You need to get confirmation of that, Peter. You can't just go on the basis of your own intuition." I therefore spent quite a fair bit of time just asking Lord, "give me the grace to understand if this is something you want."

Well he did and, as usual, he did it with a surprise because he said "Yes, Peter, my son, by all means that's where to go, but there are two conditions! One is that it is me, the Lord, with Carlo's help, who will direct this Eucharistic Revival, so don't you get in the way!" He is telling me to behave myself and not to take over but to allow Blessed Carlo to take us forward in this and I will be the footsoldier, I'll just do what they tell me.

The second thing I felt Him say was "Do it with the wisdom of the mustard seed. Don't do it expecting big fantastic, wonderful, successful meetings and Prayer sessions and so on. Do it very slowly, and begin very small because that is the way I work." And we know that from the Gospel, the mustard seed is the smallest, and then it becomes the biggest if God gives it growth. So that is what I brought back with me and that is what I will try and do in obedience to the Lord.

You may hear me always talking about Eucharistic Revival and think, "But I don't ever see anything". Well, I'm going to take my time with it. And I'm going to make sure that not only do I pray my way through it but that I try to involve you in praying your way into it and through it.

In some ways though, the embryo shape of the revival is contained in the three things I mentioned because:

What is intercession if not an expression of communion between heaven and earth which lies at the heart of the Mass?

What is walking together as a church if not an expression of the 'we' of the church both on heaven and earth in which Jesus explains to us the scriptures and breaks for us the bread?

What's being in quiet, loving contemplation if not our adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and the adoration of those in heaven who see him face to face?

All of this goes beyond worship. Your intersessions for Carlo were about family, social and political problems. Our walking together does not end with 'Go, the Mass has ended' but broadens out into life. Our quiet, loving, and being together carries out into those around us and those we encounter.

If I may finish with this: All of this is summed up beautifully in the life, prayer, worship and action of that 15-year-old boy Blessed Carlo Acutis. He led such an intense Eucharistic life both outside and inside the Mass that he was able to revive the Eucharist. First, in his own family by getting his own parents to go back to Mass. Then, with his school companions, then with many strangers and immigrants, then with many who have discovered within him an inspiration to renew their own flagging  Christian commitment. "



Fr Peter Visits Carlo Apr 2023Please note some tweets contain images of Carlo's tomb.


Fr. Peter Visits Carlo (April 2023)









 



Fr. Peter's Homily on 7th May 2023 after visiting Carlo again

"I returned to Assisi last week mainly because I received so much grace, for me and for you, when I went in early February. What I received this time was the confirmation of that grace. The grace I am talking about is three-fold.


First, the grace of intercession which I experienced as a renewed power to pray for you, helped along by the many prayer intentions you gave me to present to Blessed Carlo Acutis. Second, the grace to move forward with the Eucharistic Revival of both parishes in my care. There are two reasons I feel so sure about this second grace: one is that there are already external signs that it is something the Lord wants (for example: you are responding more to the opportunities for Mass and adoration being offered; various little things have happened to indicate that Blessed Carlo is working hard among us); the other reason is that I am not at all concerned or worried about how this works out – I know that the Lord will take it where He wants in His way, in His time. So, first, the grace of intercession, second the grace of confirmation. Third, come the personal graces I have experienced, especially in prayer. The specifics of these don’t really have any direct effect on you except insofar as they strengthen me to minister to you in whatever ways the Lord indicates.


Going back to the grace of intercession, I brought all your written and unwritten intentions with me to the tomb of Blessed Carlo. There were a lot more people in Assisi this time, so I quickly saw that I needed to get to his tomb early in the morning if I were to get a chance to have any quiet time to get through them. I divided your intentions across three mornings: first, those from the children of St. Mary’s Primary school (including one for Pax the cat!) and from the parish in Millport; second, half of those from St. Mary’s parish; and third, the other half from St. Mary’s.

I also spent time during the few days bringing to mind and heart all the names and faces I could remember from across both parishes. My first approach was to hover over the streets and houses of parishioners; then I recalled you according to where you sit in church; and finally, I tried to remember faces of those who come up to Communion. What was interesting was that now and again, at odd moments of the day and night, names and faces would pop up of someone I had forgotten. At the end, on the last morning, I prayed doubly for anyone else I had totally forgotten since, of course, the Lord forgets not one of you or your love or your sufferings.


What I will also say is that I found this kind of intense prayer of intercession very rewarding. It cleanses the heart, because it draws you out of yourself for others, especially when you know what the pain or suffering of the other is and how they long for God, directly or through Blessed Carlo, to take them into His care. Christ’s entire ministry could be described as the One who intercedes incessantly for us before the Father, so that when we enter into His heart by praying for others by name and by suffering, we are cleansed by Christ’s own love. Another effect of the work of intercession is what I can only describe as a deep peace. For many reasons, it is so difficult for a priest today to visit every home and to spend time with individuals, couples and families, to get to know them more deeply and to share in their joys and sorrows and offer whatever counsel or consolation he can. How I wish I could find the time and the physical energy to do that! But I have rediscovered since my visits to Assisi that intercessory prayer makes it possible to make spiritual visits to every home, to bring people before the Lord whether or not I know all the details of their lives, joys or sorrows.

And that brings me great peace. It helps me to stand before you all and to stand before the Lord on behalf of you all, carrying your burdens to Him and being a channel of His grace back to you. That said, I will still visit you at home when the need requires it and the circumstances permit it. A few little things happened on a one-to-one basis when I was in Assisi last week which reinforced for me the power and beauty of the intercessory role of a priest. On the Saturday morning, I went in early to Carlo’s tomb to find a man in his early 50’s already there. As I got out my bundle of your prayer intentions, he drew near to me. Looking at Carlo, he said to me in a whisper, breaking with emotion, “I, too, have lost a son.” I put my hand on his shoulder and asked the son’s name. “Stefano”, he answered. He drew away again and wept softly. “Stefano and Carlo are waiting on you”, I said, in an awkward attempt to console him. He got up and kissed Carlo’s tomb and turned back to me with his hand out. We had a long and warm handshake. Another morning, a Spanish lady came up to me as I sat before Carlo and asked if I spoke Spanish. She then poured out her soul about a painful situation in her life. We got a row from the nun trying to keep silence near the tomb, and moved outside. On the Sunday morning as I went in again, an older lady was coming out stroking her face. She looked at me and asked whether they had done anything to Blessed Carlo’s face to make him look so well in death. I said I didn’t know, but I smiled because I got the impression she wanted the magic potion to take away the wrinkles she had been stroking! A few minutes later a crowd of teenagers appeared, fascinated to see Carlo’s corpse in jeans and sneakers. One boy was astonished and exclaimed, “Is it true?!” The chaplain with the group nodded. I think the boy had the same impression I did when I first saw Carlo: he didn’t look dead, but as if he would sit up and talk to you. A final little incident was when a man in his late 40’s walked up to me in the street, a few blocks away from where Carlo is buried, and asked if I knew where Carlo was. I told him I was going in that direction and invited him to walk with me. He was from Pavia in northern Italy. He had been to see Carlo before but couldn’t remember the way. I asked had he come alone but he turned round and said that his 25 year old son and two of his friends were with him. They had asked him to bring them to see Carlo. As we walked down to the church, I sensed the man wanted to talk more, but it didn’t happen. Needless to say, I prayed for him and those with him. I will come back another time to the second grace I mentioned earlier, as regards the confirmation that the Eucharistic Revival for our parishes is something desired by the Lord. Perhaps the only thing I will say is that I am sensing a strong link between the grace of intercession and the Eucharistic Revival, for the power of Jesus’ intercession on our behalf lies precisely in the loving and obedient sacrifice of himself for our sakes on the Cross. The Eucharist is by definition the greatest prayer of Intercession. So much more happened and I hope I can share that with you in some form later on, especially as regards the three saints of Assisi, Francis, Clare and, we hope, our soon-to-be canonized Carlo. Of this I am sure, the Church in heaven is very much part of the life of the Church on earth. We are not alone in our struggles and sufferings, nor will we be alone in the glory that awaits us if we remain faithful. Let’s say with Carlo: “The Eucharist is our highway to heaven” and let’s get on to that highway via the quickest shortcut possible."

 

“Everyone is born as originals but many die as photocopies”

Carlo Acutis



Corpus-Christi-2023

Corpus Christi 2023

The LITE group brought an exhabition of Blessed Carlo as well as a First Class Relic which was a locket of his hair.


Fr. Peter's Corpus Christi Homily




Posts

Posts on Carlo

 

 

“To always be close to Jesus, that’s my life plan”

Carlo Acutis



Videos

Videos

 

 

“Not I, but God.”

Carlo Acutis



Links

Useful links for Carlo

 

“The more Eucharist we receive, the more we will become like Jesus, so that on this earth we will have a foretaste of heaven”

Carlo Acutis



News

News Articles

Carlo gets a statue in Derry Cathedral 

 

“The only thing we have to ask God in our prayers is the desire to become Saints”

Carlo Acutis



Books

Books

“I am happy to die because I have lived my life without wasting a minute on those things which do not please God.”

Carlo Acutis