Carlo Acutis' Canonization

Summary

Catholic Saints Podcast: Carlo Acutis' Canonization

Host: Dr. Elizabeth Klein
Guest: Dr. Ben Akers
Date: September 6, 2025

---

Overview

This episode celebrates the recent canonization of St. Carlo Acutis, the first "millennial saint" of the Catholic Church. Dr. Elizabeth Klein and Dr. Ben Akers explore Carlo’s relatable, contemporary life; his extraordinary faith, charity, and use of technology; and the impact of his legacy both on the Church and on the next generation. The conversation highlights the integration of holiness into everyday life, particularly for young people growing up in the digital age.

---

Key Discussion Points and Insights

Introducing Carlo Acutis: An Ordinary Boy with Extraordinary Holiness

[02:11 – 04:08]

• Dr. Akers shares personal connections, including meeting Carlo’s mother and being gifted a relic.
• Carlo was born in London in 1991 to Italian parents; the family soon moved to Milan.
• He died of acute leukemia on October 12, 2006, at just 15.
• Carlo’s mother describes him:

  “He was an ordinary boy living an ordinary life, but he opened his ordinary heart to Jesus, who made it extraordinary.” – Dr. Ben Akers, quoting Antonia Salzano [03:46]

• Dr. Klein draws a parallel to Mary’s ordinary openness to God being the root of her greatness.

Faith Born in the Family

[05:33 – 06:58]

• Carlo’s curiosity about churches as a young child reignited his mother's faith.
• Antonia (his mother) reports Carlo’s incessant questions led her to catechism classes.
• Carlo’s commitment to faith from First Communion onwards: daily Mass, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, and the Rosary.
• “His witness, even as a little child, kind of brought her back to the faith.” – Dr. Ben Akers [06:44]

Relatable Holiness: Video Games, Pets, and Virtue

[07:53 – 09:21]

• Carlo played soccer, had pets, enjoyed Pokémon, and received a PlayStation at age 8.
• Not canonized “because he played video games,” but exemplified temperance by limiting himself to one hour per week upon hearing of excessive gaming’s dangers.
• Carlo’s example shows sanctity is not about rejecting modern life but sanctifying it:
  “It’s not that you have to avoid all these good things…but you need to understand how they fit into a charitable life.” – Dr. Klein [08:29]

Evangelization and Influence

[09:21 – 11:13]

• Carlo evangelized those around him, including household staff: his questions about faith inspired baptisms in non-Christian adults.
• “His asking good questions and then the strong faith…was very attractive to people.” – Dr. Akers [09:33]
• Dr. Klein connects this to the Gospel invitation, describing Carlo as “mature in the faith.”

Charity and Simplicity

[10:03 – 11:52]

• Turned down a family pilgrimage to the Holy Land so the money could go to the poor.
• Gave food and purchased sleeping bags for Milan’s homeless; declined new shoes to donate instead.
• Carlo saw money as a tool for charity:

  “Money is only ragged paper. What counts in life is the nobility of the soul. That is the way one loves God and loves one neighbor.” – Carlo Acutis, relayed by Dr. Akers [11:13]

The Eucharist, the Internet, and New Evangelization

[12:51 – 14:55]

• Carlo excelled at computer programming and saw the internet’s double-edged nature.
• Used his digital talent to catechize – created a parish website and, more famously, the Eucharistic Miracles website, now touring and accessible globally (miracolieucaristici.org).
• Developed the exhibit for two and a half years; five computers caught fire during work, which his mother attributed to spiritual opposition.
• The exhibit launched just days before Carlo’s death.

Notable Quotes: The Eucharist at the Center

[16:02 – 17:31]

• “When we face the sun, we get a tan. When we stand before Jesus in the Eucharist, we become saints.” – Carlo Acutis, relayed by Dr. Akers [16:02]
• “The Eucharist is the highway to heaven.”
  Carlo explained this to his mother in practical terms:

  “In Italy… the autostrada, the highway, is the fastest way to get to point A to point B… The fastest way to get to Christ, to heaven, is the Eucharist.” – Dr. Ben Akers [17:28]

Swift Passing and Offering Suffering

[17:56 – 18:52]

• Became ill October 2, died October 12, 2006; diagnosed with acute leukemia.
• Offered his suffering for Pope Benedict XVI and the Church.
• Last words to his mother:

  “Don’t worry. Don’t be afraid… I can’t even imagine what God has ready for us when we get to heaven.” [18:43]

• Beatified in 2020 and canonized in the Jubilee Year, 2025 — an exceptionally rapid path.

Family Miracles and Ongoing Legacy

[19:14 – 19:56]

• As he was dying, Carlo promised a sign to his mother. Four years to the day after his death, she gave birth to twins at age 44, attributing them to his intercession.
• His siblings relate to him through comic books rather than direct devotion; for them, Carlo is more “cool older brother” than “saint.”

Slogan and Lasting Challenge

[19:57 – 20:33]

• Carlo’s personal motto:

  “Non io, ma Dio.” (“God, not me.”)

• At the end of his life, he declared,

  “I’m happy to die because I live my life without wasting even a minute of it on anything unpleasing to God.” [20:29]

• Dr. Klein observes: “How long would we all be in the confessional if we spent our time thinking how many minutes I spent doing anything not pleasing to God?” [20:33]

Lessons for Today’s Listeners

[20:55 – 22:22]

• Dr. Akers: “Physical age does not mean spiritual age… The Internet’s like a digital continent that needs digital missionaries.”
• Carlo’s example: Pioneering evangelization in new media, using ordinary life as a springboard for sanctity.
• Resources for further exploration:
  • “Carlo: God’s Influencer” (Animated film for kids and adults on Formed)
  • “Based on a True Saint: The Boy from Milan” (Spiritual documentary)
  • “Carlo Acutis: Digital Disciple” (Voyage Comics – a devotional comic favored by Dr. Klein's son)

---

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “He was an ordinary boy living an ordinary life, but he opened his ordinary heart to Jesus, who made it extraordinary.”
  – Dr. Ben Akers, quoting Carlo’s mother [03:46]

• “Money is only ragged paper. What counts in life is the nobility of the soul.”
  – Carlo Acutis, through Dr. Akers [11:13]

• “When we face the sun, we get a tan. When we stand before Jesus in the Eucharist, we become saints.”
  – Carlo Acutis, through Dr. Akers [16:02]

• "The Eucharist is the highway to heaven."
  – Carlo Acutis [17:28]

• "I live my life without wasting even a minute of it on anything unpleasing to God."
  – Carlo Acutis, through Dr. Akers [20:29]

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Topic | |-----------|------------------------------------------------| | 02:11 | Carlo’s background, mother’s influence | | 05:33 | Faith development in family | | 07:53 | Relatable aspects: video games, virtue | | 09:21 | Household evangelization | | 10:03 | Charity and simplicity; personal anecdotes | | 12:51 | Digital evangelization: websites and exhibit | | 16:02 | Eucharist-centered quotes & reflections | | 17:56 | Carlo’s illness, death, and offering suffering | | 19:14 | Miracles in family after Carlo’s death | | 19:57 | Personal motto and reflective challenge | | 20:55 | Takeaways for today’s listeners | | 22:09 | Recommended further resources |

---

Conclusion

St. Carlo Acutis’ life is a call for profound holiness in the midst of an ordinary, digital age existence. By seamlessly integrating faith, charity, humility, and modern tech, he continues to inspire both young and old to pursue sanctity, evangelize creatively, and recognize the Eucharist as the “highway to heaven.”
St. Carlo Acutis, pray for us!

Transcript

[Podcast Announcer]

You're listening to a podcast on Catholic Saints. This podcast is produced by the Augustine Institute, an apostolate helping Catholics understand, live and share their faith.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

Hello and welcome to Catholic Saints, the podcast about the lives of the saints and their legacy for the church and for us. I'm your host, Dr. Elizabeth Klein, and I'm joined today by my colleague Dr. Ben Akers to talk about St. Carlo Acutis. Dr. Akers, thanks for joining us.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Thanks for having me.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

Before we jump into things, I thought I would make some small talk as directed by asking you, what are you teaching this term in the graduate school?

[Dr. Ben Akers]

So I'm teaching a class, is an elective class called Teaching Scripture for the New Evangelization.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

That sounds like a lot of fun.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

It is a lot of fun. I really love it. So I have some students that are on campus and we have some students that are distance education that are taking it. And what we do in the class is we look at scripture, what it is, but then also how to pray through it with Lexi divina. And then we really spend a lot of time on pedagogy of how do we imitate in the classroom God's pedagogy with Israel, with us in the church. And so we get to examine the divine plan. There's no greater teacher than God and he slowly disclosed himself and his plan for our lives. And so we get to study that. It's been great.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

Awesome. That's a lot of fun. So accept this as a plug for the graduate school. If you're interested in learning to teach like God from Dr. Akers can join us.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

I wouldn't put myself in the place like God. We're just studying how God has taught. We're trying to glean what we can.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

In order to imitate.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

That's wonderful.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

Well, I'm very excited to be talking about St. Carlo Acutis, newly canonized saint. The cause of us recording this is his canonization. It's a Saint that my 8 year old son has a great devotion to. Thanks to Dr. Akers.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Oh nice.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

Because he helped produce a comic about Carlo. Acutis ended up meeting Carlo's mother and receiving a relic of him. Which is one reason I asked Dr. Akers to talk about this saint. So get us started. Who is Carlo Acutis? A little bit about his life and so on and so forth.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yeah, it was a wonderful experience to be able to get to know him as a saint. There's so many saints and then sometimes you, you hear a saint at mass, you're like, I Don't know Joseph at. Who is that Joseph? You know, you kind of go and you look it up, and when you have time, you remember that. But Carlocudis was introduced to me, as you know, he just kept being introduced as the first millennial saint. He's going to be the first millennial saint. And I'm a Gen Xer, so I'm like, oh, the millennials. That's like Dr. Klein here.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

No interest.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yes, anyone born between 1981 and 1996, you are a millennial. So if you're 29 to 44 now, you are a millennial. He is the man for you. He's a wonderful, wonderful saint. So he'd be at 33, 34 years old today, and was introduced to him and then worked on the project that we'll talk about with the comic book, and was blessed to meet his mother in Rome, and she was able to tell me some stories about her son. It was a small conference in Rome. There were only about 20 of us, and we were presenting on different things. I was presenting on the Augustine Institute. And then she shared about her son, and she described his life in terms of the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity, and the cardinal virtues, prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance. And it was a beautiful presentation. And I sat with her at lunch, and then everyone else kind of got up to get coffee at lunch, and she stayed, and I got to ask her more questions. So I think it'll come out in our conversation. But I've really grown in devotion to him. But some biographical details, and I'll tell you some of the stories that she shared. He was born May 3, 1991, in London, but he had Italian parents. So Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano. Those are his parents. And that same year, they moved back to Italy, to Milan, Italy. And then he dies when he's 15 years old, October 12, 2006. So very short life, but he did a lot of things in that life. And the amazing thing is, and this is what his mom told me, she said he was an ordinary life, an ordinary boy living an ordinary life, but he opened his ordinary heart to Jesus, who made it extraordinary.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

That's so beautiful.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yeah. Isn't it neat? I mean, to have a mother tell about her son? And one of the things she said is, like, just because I'm the mother of a saint doesn't mean I'm a saint. So she's really, like, down to earth in telling those stories.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

What you said kind of reminds me a little bit about a question that students Often ask me about the Blessed Virgin Mary, like, why didn't you. Why, if she was immaculate and without sin, why did more people, like, take note of her? Or why isn't there more stories about her? And of course, there are lots of traditional stories about Mary and early devotion to her. But it's related to what you just said, that in some sense, Mary is just an ordinary person who opened her ordinary heart perfectly to receive the love of God. And that often we don't notice things that are ordinary, but the perfect exists in the ordinary, which, it seems like Carlo's life kind of plays into that idea.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

It absolutely does. And we talk about in this culture today, people, millennials, thriving and being the best version of yourself. And one of the things his mom said was, you maximize your life. You live life to the full. You have the abundant life that Christ promises and invites us to by charity, by living the theological virtue of charity, where we love God and love neighbor.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

Right. And that often doesn't look like eating avocado toast every morning and climbing mountains like that might just look like being a normal boy living his normal life. But extraordinary love of Jesus that drew people to him, despite the fact there wasn't anything especially magnificent about his biography. No.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

If you look at his biography, he played soccer, he played video games, he had animals, he loved pets. And his mom said that. I asked her. This is one of the most moving part of the conversation. I said, what was the greatest grace that you kind of think Carlo gave you in your life? And she said, the fact that I was able to convert to the Catholic faith in a deeper way when he was three years old. So he was their first child, and they weren't particularly religious. I think she said her second communion was at her wedding. These are Italians raised in a very secular country. They're Catholic in name, but they were living secular lives. And he was so interested when they would walk through the beautiful churches around Milan. There's churches everywhere. And he always, even as a young boy, wanted to go into the churches to make a visit. So he would just drag, you know, as a little kid, take his mom by the arm and, like, go into the church, point there and just, you know, visit and walk back. And she said that just his interest in the faith made her interested in the faith. So he started asking questions, and she didn't know the answers to those questions. So she actually signed up for a catechism class. She's like, I need to know the answers to these questions. He has good questions. And so that led to her return to the faith and her daily engagement with the faith. At age 7. She said that when he received first communion, he never, if he could help it, never miss daily mass. He would always make a visit to the Blessed Sacrament every single day, always said his rosary. And she said that it was really him spurning her on his witness, even as a little child, that kind of brought her back to the faith.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

That's so amazing and that's so reflective of just the experience of parenthood in general. Even those of us who are not lucky enough to parent a saint, but being drawn more deeply into the difficult questions of the faith and needing to respond to the needs of our children and how that's such a normal, average path to holiness. But we're kind of shown that in this extraordinary example, what it can be be for all of us. And I was thinking about my 8 year old son with the devotion to Carlo Acutis, who a scene I didn't know a lot about until he got interested. And this is exactly what draws him to Carlo, is that he sees so much in common with him, like, oh, he loves his mom and he plays video games. He has a pet, he liked Pokemon. My son had that in common with him. And yet he was able to be holy. These go together and that's like a really obvious thing that the saints do for us. But I tend to be interested in obscure saints with whom I don't have a lot in common with day to day. And so it was just really wonderful to see that relatable. Right, Exactly. Yeah.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Now he's not canonized because he also played video games. No, no, I'll make that caveat. But he did receive you the PlayStation at age 8. His mom said so. PlayStation, age 8. And then he was reading in the paper about these kids in America that had played games, video games so long in excess that they got sick and they'd be hospitalized. And he was just struck by that. And he saw the addictive nature that can happen with, especially with the Internet. I'll talk about that when he is. His like early days of Internet engagement and video games. And so he actually limited himself to an hour a week of playing because he really didn't want. He wanted to practice that virtue of temperance.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

Yeah. And this, yeah, and this is what I mean about them going together. For my son, actually he also got video games the first time. AJ I'll have to tell him I didn't know that connection, but that you. It's not that you have to avoid all these good things that God has given us. But you need to understand how they sort of fit into a charitable life and how to use them properly and not be used by them and so on and so forth.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yeah, he had. His mother said that they had a house. Someone helped clean their house. Housekeeper that was Polish, and she was an engaged Catholic. And she would just. And he would ask her questions and she would, you know. And that kind of spurred her on too. Like, well, she knows more than I do, and she. That's my son. And kind of spurred her on to learn more. But they also. They also had someone that helped out around their house that was Brahman, was not Christian, that was so moved by Carlo, would just ask him questions about the faith that sought baptism, was baptized. He brought his friend over to the house, these adults, and then talked to Carlo. The friend sought baptism.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

Wow.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

And then the guy's mother came over and visited him, and she also ended up seeking baptism. So even in his own life, I think his asking good questions and then the strong faith that he displayed in his conversations was very attractive to people.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

That's such a beautiful inversion of the let the little children come to me, you know, because it's. We think about it in age, but in this case it was immaturity of faith. Let the little children come to this child who actually is mature in the faith. It reminds me of what St. Augustine says. St. Augustine was baptized at the same time as his son, but he said that they were equal in the age of faith. And he obviously, you know, thought a lot of his son and his son's ability to explain the faith and these kinds of things.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

That's beautiful. And you look at the life of Carlo, and he just seems advanced, you know, for his young age. He had a great love for the poor. His family wanted to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. And he asked his parents, said, how much will it cost? He was the only child at this time. How much would that trip cost? And it cost a lot of money to go to the Holy Land and make a pilgrimage. He says, I don't need to go to Jerusalem because I have Jesus in the church. So he actually chose to not go to Israel on a pilgrimage. And he wanted the money given to the poor in Milan. He would go around and give food to the poor. He would take it from his own house. He would meet beggars and go and use his money to buy them sleeping bag so he could have a warm place to stay. One time, his mother said that they had money, his family had money, and she bought him a new pair of tennis shoes. He's like, I already have a pair of tennis shoes. He's like, I only need one pair of shoes. Take that back and take that money and give it to the poor. And he did. And this is just. As a young man, he just wanted to be very simple.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

It's so beautiful, and it seems so intimately tied to his famous love of the Eucharist. And John Chrysostom is really famous for talking about how the Eucharist commits us to the poor. And you won't find Christ in the chalice if you don't find it in the poor, and so on and so forth. And it's really beautiful to see that sort of heroically display that those two naturally go together.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yeah. I found a money quote from him about money, but also money. And it's like a really rich quote. Money is only ragged paper. What counts in life is the nobility of the soul. That is the way one loves God and loves one neighbor.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

Oh, my gosh, that's so Chrysostom. I just brushed up because Chrysostom says, why do you care about golden chalices and golden coins? What God wants from you is a golden soul.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yeah, this is good money. Quotes from the saints to challenge us.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

Or Francis of Assisi. Right. He famously directed his brothers to walk by money as if it were a stone. Because it is. It's just a piece of paper.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

It's just a piece of paper. No, that's right. And the amazing thing about Carlo, again, speaking to his kind of the more normal side that we might experience in a teenage kid is that he really was at the early stages of the information technology, computers and Internet. And he just. He was like a whiz at it. He really took to computer programming, knew all the JavaScript and C and all that. All the language. Computer language. And when he was. In February. Sorry. In fall of 2004, he was asked to be a helper catechist for kids that were about to receive first Communion and first confession and confirmation. And as he started to study the faith more so that he could teach it to the kids in second grade, he realized that the kids weren't formed that well, but they all had, like, you know, they're starting to look on the Internet and look at things. He also realized that the catechists weren't formed, the people teaching the faith. And so he said, what can I do to take the technology that people are interested in to communicate the faith?

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

Does that sound familiar?

[Dr. Ben Akers]

It does sound familiar. You know, the funny thing is, I showed his mom formed and she loved it. She's like, this is great. I love formed. She's like, how do I get a subscription to this? So what he did was he actually was asked by his pastor to develop the website and communication platform for his parish, but also for his high school that he was a member of. He always was looking for new ways to evangelize and share the good news using the new media.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

So he was the first Catholic influencer.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

And he's actually going to be likely called the patron saint of the Internet, which is awesome. In youth. Yeah. Because of his experience with that. He did even warn, you know, to speak about the Internet. He did actually see some of the dangers of the Internet. He warned against pornography to his friends. He said, this is going to hypnotize you. That's not real. You know, the image of God is you, and the person in front of you don't treat people like objects. So he actually saw that. But he saw that in spite of the bad things and the dangers the Internet had, that it could also be used as a tool to do good. So he saw it as a way to communicate the faith. And the way that he did that is he wanted to create an exhibition, a real exposition exhibition that people could walk around. So had, you know, the. The signs and descriptions of eucharistic miracles from around the world. We also made it a website. So he worked on this for several years. For two and a half years, he was building this website of 187 approved eucharistic miracles.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

Yeah. And that's still tours, right?

[Dr. Ben Akers]

It still tours. You can actually go to the website today. I found the website, so I'll say it. It's miraculiucharistici.org so it's Italian for eucharistic miracles. But you can probably just Google eucharistic miracles.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

Carlo Acutis website.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

It's the better way to do it than my slaughtered Italian.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

No, no, this was great. We got to experience your Italian accent.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yeah. Or lack of. But the interesting thing that you don't read in books that his mom shared with me, that when he was building that website, took and a half years, he actually had five computers catch on fire.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

Oh my gosh.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yeah, like in his room they just would like combust and spontaneously combust. And she's like, it's the devil. And he's like, well, I gotta. Then what I'm doing is right. And so he kept working on it. And the unfortunate thing is it was actually he Launched it. It was unveiled just a couple days before his death.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

Wow.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

And so you actually didn't get to see the exhibit that he had built, the portable one that actually you could walk through the church and kind of see the.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

You know, that's. That's kind of an amazing story, though, because it's so instructive. So many saints don't live to see their own legacy or even know what's going to happen with it. I've talked about this on the podcast before, but, you know, St. Augustine lay dying completely unaware that his works would continue to be read, copied. You know, he thought the Roman Empire was over. Therese of Lisia died kind of an unknown nun in her own time. And that's just a testament to their humility and holiness, that it's all for the glory of God. They don't even know in their own time the kind of effect they're gonna have on people. That's very beautiful. I was also thinking about how prescient he was in seeing sort of the dangers of the Internet and the sort of false presence that the Internet is both in friendship and sort of in sexuality, and how sort of highlighting the Eucharist is the opposite. It's drawing people to the true presence. This is something that may, to cite. Seem not real, but is. Whereas often the Internet's the opposite. It seems real, but it isn't. That's just sort of an interesting.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

That's a great observation. Great insight, you know, and he has this again, another money quote. But when we face the sun, we get a tan. When we stand before Jesus in the Eucharist, we become saints.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

Right.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

That idea. That is what we look at is actually what makes us. Yeah. We get formed into what we look at.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And the. Yeah. Don't stand in front of the glow of blue light too long before bed.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yeah, that's right.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

He'll be able to sleep.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

He loved the Eucharist so much, besides making the website and promoting it again, the daily visits that he would try to go, he would go to daily Mass when he could make it. And he made the analogy to his mom. He said, look, people wait in lines and pay lots of money to go to music concerts, but if people really knew who was present in the church, the churches would be full. They would want to visit Jesus. And there's a famous quotation that he said. And I asked his mom about it, because it's one of these quotes that you just see under saints. The Eucharist is the highway to heaven. And I was like, oh, what did he mean by that? And she said he didn't speak in high esoteric theological terms. He wasn't just always saying beautiful things as he walked around. She said he was just a very concrete, normal boy. He just thought very practically. And in Italy, if you've been to Italy, there's lots of crazy back roads and windy roads, but the autostrata, the highway, is the fastest way to get to point A to point B. And so he says, oh, that's the highway. So the fastest way to get to Christ, to heaven is the Eucharist. So that's why the Eucharist is the highway to heaven.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

And that's also just a classic Christian way of speaking, like the King's way or the most direct route. Yeah.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

So that's where that quote comes from. Or that's what he was thinking of. At least Quinda's mom about the quote.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

Yeah. If we lived in Italy, we'd be more appreciative of highways.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yeah, we should go to Italy. Yeah, that sounds a great idea.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

Okay, so we've covered kind of the saint's life, sort of his biographical details, but do you have maybe a bit to say about the end of his life or.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yeah, it's really. It's interesting. It just happened so fast, and I was just struck by this, and I was preparing for this today. It's like just how quickly life can turn just without you expecting it. So he is. He dies October 12, 2006. But October 2 is when he started to feel ill, just like the flu.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

Oh, my gosh.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

So within 10 days, he's passed. It's a. It feels like a flu. He goes into the, you know, stays home for a little bit, goes to the doctor, like, no, you actually have acute leukemia. And then he just passes a couple days after that.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

That's crazy. I didn't. I did not know that part of the story.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yeah. So 10 days from when he started to feel sick to when he died. And he offered up the suffering for Pope Benedict XVI and for the Church.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

That's beautiful.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

He, like, articulated that as he was dying in the bed. He said, you know, mom, don't. Don't worry. Don't be afraid. It's okay. This is just. We can't.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

We can't.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

I can't even imagine what God has ready for us when we get to heaven.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

And he hardly even knew what a highway he was on, both to heaven and to canonization super fast, right off the highway.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

So he was beatit. So he dies in 2006. And then they opened up his cause for canonization. Just six years later. He's beatified, made blessed in 2020, and then he's canonized in 2025.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

That's wonderful.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

It's jubilee year.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

So we've covered kind of a bit about his canonization, his Eucharistic miracle traveling show website. Is there any other things you want to kind of add about his legacy or what he's remembered for?

[Dr. Ben Akers]

One of the things that struck me from his mother. So he has siblings. He never got to meet his siblings. His mother. He said as he was dying, he's like, you know, I'll give you a sign. And four years to the day after his death, his mother gave birth to twins.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

I actually got, like, shivers.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

That's such a. Michele and Francesca. Yeah. So they're 13 years old now. She was 44, and she attributes it to her son's intercession.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

Beautiful.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

And she said. I said, well, what? They have a devotion to their brother? Like, she's like, no, they didn't even know their brother. Like, they just see their brother on a comic book. Like, he's not their brother. I was like, what kind of saints do they. Like they're getting confirmed. Like, what saints do they pick? Like, St. Therese and St. Francis. That's who they like. You know, like, they, like St. Theresa, St. Catherine. Like, they just like saints, like normal kids.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

I'm sure Carl is cool with that.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

I know. Isn't it cool? So he has siblings that will be there, God willing, as canonization with his parents. I mean, I can't imagine something like that, but that's amazing. Yeah. There's another quote that kind of. You'll see on tagline. So I just wanted to reflect on it in Italian. Nonio ma dio. God, not me. It's God not me. And it just has a nice ring in Italian. And that really was his whole focus. He was able to say at the end of his life, I'm happy to die because I live my life without wasting even a minute of it on anything unpleasing to God.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

Wow.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yeah. Is that a great examiner conscious on this?

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

Yeah. How long would we all be in the confessional if we spent our time thinking how many minutes I spent doing anything not pleasing to God? Oh, geez. All right, so is there any kind of a last thought? We've already covered a lot of sort of takeaways to take to prayer in terms of Carlo's life, reflection on parents and children, so on and so forth. But what can the saint Sort of teach us today how can they inspire us? Or what might me take to prayer from Carlo's life?

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yeah, I think that again, physical age does not mean spiritual age. And that the kingdom of God and the secrets of the kingdom of God are given to children and his innocence, his desire to evangelize and use new methods, new means to evangelize. The Internet's like a digital continent that needs digital missionaries. And he was just one of those people to be a hand raiser, to be a pioneer and say this is a whole new world and it needs to hear the good news of Jesus. And so I'll do that. I think if our listeners, if I might propose, might be interested in learning more about Carlo besides our conversation, I direct their attention to Formed. On Formed, we have a brand new film, two films that we're launching, one for kids and one for adults. But adults and kids can watch both of them. We have an animated film that we just made with CCC of America, our friends down in Mexico called Carlo God's Influencers. And the Pontifical Council for Culture is going to screen this during the teenager jubilee for the jubilee year. And then we have also on Formed based on a true saint, the boy from Milan. This is where we actually. It's a spiritual documentary where we interviewed his mother, his teacher, the doctor that with him at the end of his life. So wonderful. Some great resources there. And then we have the comic book.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

Yes, check out the comic book that my son likes. It's like, it's called Carlo Cuda's Digital Disciple.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yep.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

With. What's that? Voyager Comics.

[Dr. Ben Akers]

Yeah, Voyage Comics. That's a great. If you're looking for good Catholic comics, I encourage you to check out Voyage Comics.

[Dr. Elizabeth Klein]

Well, thanks very much for joining me. This was very enjoyable for me because I hadn't heard all of these Carlo stories. I know we have the relic Carlo's mother gave us and getting to know more through my son's devotion, but this was. This was thoroughly enjoyable. Thanks very much, Dr. Akers, and you can join me in saying St. Carlo Acutis, pray for us.

[Podcast Announcer]

Thank you for being a dedicated listener to the Catholic Saints podcast. Your support truly uplifts us. For those seeking additional thought provoking content, go to formed.org It's a platform brimming with resources, including insightful videos that align seamlessly with with our podcast's themes. If you're finding value in our podcast, please consider taking a moment to leave us a review. Your feedback serves as a cornerstone for our growth and outreach.