Pope Francis recognized this Thursday the “miraculous” nature of a healing attributed to the intercession of the young Italian Carlo Acutis, who will become the first Catholic saint born in the 2000s.
Her son will soon be proclaimed a saint: the mother of Carlo Acutis, a young Italian already recognized as blessed by the Catholic Church, rejoiced to Vatican News, the day after the announcement, Thursday, May 23, of his upcoming canonization .
“The Lord has granted the desire of so many people who prayed for the canonization of Carlo, which we obviously consider a sign from heaven”reacted Antonia Salzano on this official Vatican news site. “It will certainly enable him to accomplish an even greater work than that which he is doing”she continued.
Miraculous healing
This computer prodigy, also nicknamed “God geek”, will become the first thousand-year-old Catholic saint, according to a decree promulgated by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, approved by Pope Francis. Carlo Acutis was initially beatified by Pope Francis in 2020, after the recognition of a first miracle, following an unexplained healing of a Brazilian child suffering from a serious deformation of the pancreas. To become a saint, it was necessary for a second miracle, attributed to his intercession, to be recognized. It is now a done deal: the healing considered miraculous of a young Costa Rican girl has just been attributed to her intercession.
Named Valeria and born in 2001, this Costa Rican moved to Florence for her studies in 2018. After falling off her bike around 4 a.m. in the streets of the city on July 2, 2022, she was taken to the hospital , suffering from significant head trauma, where she was also “given for dead”relates the mother of Carlo Acutis. “Even if she had woken up, she would have had no chance of having normal activity”she detailed.
When Liliana, her mother, “learned what had happened to her daughter, she immediately left for Assisi” where the tomb of Carlo Acutis is located, Antonia related. “She was on her knees all day, praying before Carlo to obtain this grace”she continued. The same day, Valeria began breathing spontaneously again. Then, she healed very quickly, with the recovery of motor skills in her upper limbs the next day and the partial recovery of speech, to the surprise of the doctors. “When we truly pray to the Lord, we are heard. Heaven is truly in action through Carlo”Antonia delivered.
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“Never a complaint”
Shortly after his birth in 1991, Carlo intrigued his mother: “at three months he said his first word, at five months he started to speak and all his things were always a little ahead, I always say that time was running ahead. His life was all in fast forward and even in faith he was like that“.
Her boy was “very pious in constitution”, Antonia retraced. From the age of three, when he and his mother passed a church “he wanted to come in”, she said. Since his first communion at the age of seven, he “never stopped going to Mass every day, practicing Eucharistic adoration every day, reciting the rosary”she further testified.
Having a deep conviction of the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, his son used his computer skills to create four digital exhibitions, including one on “Eucharistic miracles”, still broadcast today on five continents and hosted in hundreds of parishes around the world. This exhibition allows you to make a “virtual visit” places where the main “Eucharistic miracles”, recognized by the Church, occurred in the world. “The Eucharist was the center of his life, of his day, he loved God above all”explains the mother of the future saint. “Before I thought it was a symbol”she admits, before continuing: “When I understood that there really was this living and real presence of Christ, it is clear that my life changed.”
“Never a complaint, never a criticism, never a gossip, he always wanted to help everyone, without ever thinking about himself”his mother further certified. “I never thought that Jesus would take it away from me so soon”continued Antonia. “We accepted Carlo’s death […] with faith and with the certainty that God always does everything for the best”she confided again, before concluding: “And today more than ever, we feel that this is so.”
