What Does a Saint Look Like?

When you look around our beautiful churches, you see images of the saints that have lived throughout
the centuries. Many holy priests and nuns have answered the call to holiness. Many missionaries,
teachers, and people from ordinary families have answered the call to holiness. We often see them
depicted in their religious clothing or perhaps deep in prayer.

Would it surprise you to see a teenage saint wearing Nike sneakers? Or a saint that owned a
PlayStation and played video games? Well, these are these are the kinds of saints we are raising up in
our times!

Meet Carlo Acutis, who is the first millennial to have his cause for sainthood put forward by the
Church. On October 10th, Pope Francis declared his beatification and advancement toward sainthood.
“...true happiness is found in putting God in the first place and serving Him in our brothers and
sisters,” Pope Francis said of the young Acutis’ example.

Carlo Acutis taught himself computer programming and graphic design while in elementary school,
and used his skills to create websites for Catholic organizations and to be a missionary through the
internet. Carlo Acutis was born in 1991. He had a deep devotion to the Eucharist; one on of the
many websites that he created, he wrote, "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."

As a teenager, Carlo was diagnosed with leukemia. He offered his sufferings for Pope Benedict XVI
and for the Church, saying “"I offer all the suffering I will have to suffer for the Lord, for the Pope, and
the Church.” He died on Oct. 12, 2006, and was buried in Assisi, at his request, because of his love for
St. Francis of Assisi.

Young people: What can we learn of the example of Blessed Carlo Acutis? YOU CAN BE HOLY.
Just imagine what God could do with you if you would just allow Him...

- Sean A. Cintron