Blessed Carlo Acutis Tomb and Cenotaph in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Assisi
With the canonization of your first saint millennialthe Catholic Church has resorted to the Italian police to investigate the online sale of alleged relics of Carlo Acutis, which already attracts hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to its sanctuary. Its sale is not only negligible, it is a sin.
Since the early days of faith, many Catholics pray for intercession next to the relics of saints – usually Small parts of your body or clothing which are authenticated by ecclesiastical authorities and preserved in the churches.
But its sale is strictly prohibited.
“It’s not just negligiblebut it is also a sin, ”says Reverend Enzo Fortunatowhich directs the Vatican World Children’s Day Committee and has a small fragment of acutis hair in a chapel next to its cabinet for the veneration of young visitors.
“Any kind of trading on faith is a sin“Adds Fortunato, quoted by.
Recently an anonymous salesman put a few strands of hair allegedly authenticated from Carlo acutethe “patron saint of the internet”, which “.
According to the diocese of Assisi, before being removed, the relics of the young They were on sale for over 2,000 euros.
Last month, the bishop Domenico Sorrentino asked the Italian authorities that confiscate the articlesand added that if it were fraudulent, the sale would constitute a “great offense to religious belief“.
Acutis died of leukemia in 2006, when he was only 15 years old, but had already developed a Early life Centered on devotion to the Eucharist – which, for Catholics, contains the real presence of Christ. Knowing technology, he has created an online exhibition about Eucharistic miracles over the centuries.
The young will be formally declared holy In a mass in front of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, on April 27. The first miracle considered in its canonization process was the Healing of a Boy in Brazil.
During the last year, about One million pilgrims They rode to the city of Assisi, in downtown Italy, where his body-dressed in tennis, ganga pants and a nightgown-rests in a sanctuary of a church dedicated to a key moment in the life of the medieval saint of his hometown, St. Francis.
The Acutis Body was exhumed during the canonization processwhich lasted more than a decade, and treated to be preserved for public display, including the removal of some organs. Your face, which seems to be sleeping, was Reconstructed with a silicone maskSorrentino said.
O Acutis Heart was preserved on an altar dedicated to another church of Assisi; will be taken to Rome to the canonization mass.
“The relics are Small fragments of the bodyto say that that body is Blessed and explains to us the proximity of God“, Explica Sorrentino.
There are different “classes” of relics. The most relevant are the most important parts of the body, such as the heart. In 2022, Sorrentino surrendered the acutis pericardium – the membrane surrounding his heart – to the conference of the Catholic bishops of the United States.
The bishop responsible for the body of the saint works with requests from other bishops from all over the world to give or lend relics – always free of charge – To be displayed for veneration in parishes and other churches.
“We give this to the communities, to the parishes, to the priests who use relics for worship in their parish, ”said Sorrentino.This is not something magical. It is not something that works automatically, it works through faith. ”
The practice of relic collection dates back to the early days of the Churchwhen many faithful Christians died as martyrs in religious persecution. The witnesses of the deaths collect blood or fragments of clothes To remember his sacrifice and pray for the intercession of the saints, explains Fortunato.
The unusual devotion and attention that the canonization of acutis generated were received with some skepticism. In hundreds of comments on social networks to an article on the phenomenon, some called the millennial canonization a Church marketing maneuver to attract younger.
But many others praised acutis for their devotion and are pleased that the young man became a Model for members of your generation.
