Pilgrims flock to millennial saint’s tomb

ASSISI has long been a place of pilgrimage, but these days the faithful come not for Saint Francis but for a tech-savvy teen soon to become the first millennial saint.

- CLEMENT MELKI

Carlo Acutis, who died of leukaemia in 2006 aged 15, will be canonised in a Mass at the Vatican on April 27.

Dubbed “God's Influencer” or the “Cyber Apostle”, he spent much of his short life spreading the Catholic faith online. In death, he is drawing a new generation of pilgrims to his resting place.

The medieval hilltop town of Assisi is famous as the 12th-century birthplace of Saint Francis, who founded the religious order of the Franciscans.

But among the stone streets and bell towers, the image of a smiling boy in a red polo shirt has joined the portraits of Francis in his sackcloth robe.

Pilgrims flock to pray before Carlo’s body in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, the Sanctuary of the Spoliation, where it has been on public display in a glass tomb since 2022.

His remains have been embalmed and his youthful face and jet-black hair are astonishingly lifelike. He is clothed as he once dressed, in jeans and trainers.

US teenager Monica Katreeb, who visited with a group of students, said he was more “relatable” than the medieval martyrs and their austere daily lives.

“To see someone that looks like you and is wearing the clothes that you would wear... how cool is that?” she said.