1 November 2025 – All Saints

We don’t belong to the Roman Catholic Church and so we don’t have a say in who becomes a saint. The process is quite complex and requires evidence that two miracles have been performed by the person on  route to canonisation.

The last person to be officially canonised by Pope Leo was unusual in two ways. Firstly, Carlo Acutis was a young man who was born in England but raised in Milan. He died  of leukemia when he was only fifteen years old on 12 October 2006.

Secondly, he was venerated for his ability to use modern technology to promote devotion to the Roman Catholic Church. He established a website documenting Eucharistic miracles and apparitions of the Virgin Mary.  He was named ‘the first millennial saint’ or ‘the patron saint of the internet’.

The first miracle concerned the medically inexplicable recovery of a Brazilian boy with a malformed pancreas. The second involved a woman from Costa Rica who injured her head in a bicycle accident. Her mother visited Carlo’s tomb in Assisi. On that day, she began to breathe on her own.

Not everyone has rejoiced in this millennial saint. On the one hand, his life shows no evidence of personal piety. On the other hand, his mother was instrumental in making the case for his canonisation. It involves a lot of money to pursue a claim and she had plenty.

I can see why the Roman Catholic Church was keen to promote a millennial saint. He may yet have a bigger impact on his own generation. When all is said and done, there is a mystery about God’s choice – bread, wine, water, Jesus, the Jews, Acutis, you and me! Who can explain it? We can only celebrate!