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Join Father Chas as he reflects on the historic canonization of St. Pier Giorgio Frassati and St. Carlo Acutis, the first saints of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate. Discover how these two young men—one a joyful mountain climber of the early 20th century, the other a millennial teen who built a Eucharistic miracles website—continue to inspire people of all ages to seek holiness “to the heights.”
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Father Chas: Before I dive into the homily, I wanted to mention something historic happened in Rome this morning. With Italy being six hours ahead, right? So guess what that is? Two huge tapestries of these two young saints here hang down in front of St. Peter’s Basilica as Pope Leo XIV canonized the first two saints of his pontificate, St. Pier Giorgio Frassati and St. Carlo Acutis.
Father Chas: We get to call him Saint now. So pretty awesome. Both of whom, they died young. Saint Pierre Giorgio at 24 due to polio and Saint Carlo at 15 due to leukemia. But they live full lives and have affected so many young people already up to this point. They both are fantastic models for our youth.
Father Chas: Saint Pierre Giorgio Fassari lived in the first half of the 20th century. And he was this joyful, adventurous young man who loved life. We can show a picture of him. There he is. He loved the mountains in particular. Hiking and climbing on them. There’s one of him in the mountains. On his final climb before his death, he wrote, Verso l’alto, which means “to the heights.”
Father Chas: Which described more than his desire to reach physical mountaintops, but his desire to reach the spiritual heights of a saint. He had a great love for the marginalized and the less fortunate. And one of the beautiful testaments to that was just how packed his funeral mass was with the poor that he had served when he died at the age of 24. And St. Carlo Acutis,
Father Chas: Here is the first millennial saint passing away in 2006 at the age of 15. This teenager saint here is probably the first saint who’s designed his own website. I’m just guessing, right? It was a comprehensive website that featured the various approved Eucharistic miracles from all around the world.
Father Chas: And St. Carlo’s own mother is still very much alive. She was present at this morning’s canonization. Imagine being at your own son’s canonization, right? In fact, it was the witness of her son’s strong faith that deepened her own relationship with God. So our youth can be witnesses to us. You may also recall that St. Carlo, 15-year-old St. Carlo, is going to be one of the 24 saints that’s depicted in the upper part of our apse painting here.
Father Chas: So please be sure to read about these two young saints and watch the video coverage on them as a way to observe their canonization. There’s this documentary on Carlo Acutis called Roadmap to Reality that was showing at Jackson 10, but can now be streamed. So I know I’ll be touching on this with the school kids on the Wednesday Mass. There’s also just a number of good videos out there that you can watch. Father Randy’s article addresses this briefly as well.
Father Chas: A little synoptis of their lives.