Blessed Carlos Acutis insisted that holiness was impossible without Mass, the Rosary, and time before the Blessed Sacrament, saying “the Eucharist is the highway to heaven” and “by standing before the Eucharistic Christ, we become holy.”
He was born to an Italian family in London, England, in 1991. At the age of fifteen, Acutis already hungered for heaven, telling his mother, “I can die happy, because I haven’t wasted even a minute on things that aren’t pleasing to God.”
As a young child, Acutis baffled his parents with his piety. Though he was baptized, his family did not practice the faith. As a preschooler, Acutis would ask his mother to go to church to see Jesus. His longing to receive the Blessed Sacrament led him to receive permission to make his First Holy Communion at a younger age than customary. He became a daily communicant by the age of seven and would spend time before and after Mass in front of the Eucharist.
The Eucharist was at the center of Acutis’s life, and he thought that others would be drawn to Jesus if they truly understood the miracles that happen at every Mass. He researched Eucharistic miracles and built a website to document and share them.
Acutis led many people to Christ, including his mother and a Hindu man he befriended in his community. Acutis encouraged those around him to make daily Mass a habit, saying, “the more Eucharist we receive, the more we will become like Jesus, so that on Earth we will have a foretaste of heaven.” He argued that the first rule to becoming holy was that “you have to want it with all your heart.”
Acutis befriended everyone he met, sticking up for those being bullied and comforting those going through difficult times. He regularly volunteered and had a close relationship with the homeless in his neighborhood. His generosity and love for those around him stemmed from his relationship with God.
Even after his death in 2006–three days after being diagnosed with acute leukemia–this ordinary young man who played video games and soccer and radiated his love for the Eucharist inspires people around the world. Acutis’s cause for canonization was opened in 2013; he was declared blessed by Pope Francis in 2020 after a healing miracle was attributed to him.
Acutis reminds us that we are all called to become saints by living our ordinary lives with the extraordinary love of Christ at the center. We can become more generous, more holy, and more like Christ by spending time with him at Mass, in the sacraments, and through prayer and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
Can you attend daily Mass at least once this week?
