LAKE STATION – What does a saint look like?
Is the image that comes to mind that of an angel in a flowing white gown with a halo over their head, an old man with a long beard wearing a robe and a rope belt, or a devoted woman with a rosary in her folded hands and a veil on her head, looking up to heaven?
How about a teenager in jeans and a T-shirt typing on a computer keyboard?
That image will become reality when Blessed Carlo Acutis is canonized, likely in early 2025, by Pope Francis. Blessed Carlos, when he died from leukemia as a 15-year-old Italian youth, was in many ways a normal teenager.
He was an artist, cartoonist, video gamer and computer programmer – but he also had a deep devotion to Jesus Christ and the Holy Eucharist. That is what led Blessed Carlo to create a database to document 126 (since increased to 155) Eucharistic Miracles from 22 countries. He spent 2-1/2 years on the project, collecting photos, scientific reports and official church records.
After receiving his First Holy Communion at 7, he attended Mass and received the Eucharist every day and honored the Blessed Mother by praying the Rosary daily.
“Age doesn’t matter when it comes to God,” said Hyatt Neis, a Boone Grove High School sophomore from Crown Point and a member of the Holy Spirit Youth Group. “You can have a relationship with Him at any age. The Eucharistic Adoration we experienced at the National Eucharistic Congress was amazing.
“People think that tech is bad for teens, but Blessed Carlo used it for good,” added Neis.
Odin Giese, another Boone Grove sophomore who attended the NEC with the Holy Spirit Youth Group, agreed with his classmate. “Blessed Carlo’s life shows that no age is too young to do what’s best for God. It surprised and interested me that he was so into computer tech – you don’t usually think of saints working on computers – and he was really young.”
Johnny Bobos, a senior at Boone Grove who also attended the NEC, believes a teenage saint like Blessed Carlo “is really good for me and others because it sheds some light on young people who care about Christ and want to be holy and strengthen their faith by going to church.
“I was nervous about going to the Congress because I didn’t know how to be open, but I realized there is way more to Christ than going to Mass,” Bobos added. “When we receive the Eucharist it is the highlight of your week and it should make you smile, because you will have Jesus with you all week.”
The Eucharistic Miracles were exhibited at St. Francis Xavier in Lake Station last month, and siblings Sandra Matias-Mendoza, 18, a freshman at Purdue University, and Jose Matias, 14, an eighth grader at River Forest Middle School, had an opportunity to study the work of Blessed Carlo at their parish.
“I can’t believe it,” said Sandra of the 15-year-old’s accomplishment. “It makes me more hopeful for the future and shows me that I can do more for the Church than I thought.”
While computer programming was Blessed Carlo’s “superpower,” Sandra said hers is art, including painting and drawing, while Jose listed his “superpowers” as spelling and math.
“Blessed Carlo inspires me to do better, showing me that I can do good things, too,” Jose said. “It’s incredible that he’s becoming a saint at such a young age. I look at the miracles on the posters and they are very graphic and detailed.
Also viewing the Eucharistic Miracles exhibit at her parish last month was Lake Station resident Andrea Martinez, 24, who found Blessed Carlo’s accomplishment “an inspiration and example of how our faith has such a powerful message to youth. To see a boy so young compile that data is very impressive … our faith is strong and living.”
Among the miracles that most impressed Martinez “was a lady from Germany who, for 36 years, fasted by eating nothing but the Eucharist, and a man in Spain who had his leg amputated but was so devoted to the sacraments that his leg grew back.”
Martinez suggested that “helping people” is her “superpower.” She works as a bilingual pharmacy tech after earning a college degree in Spanish, and “hopes to become a pharmacist.”
Sisters Laura Lopez-Vera, 22, and Daneysi Lopez, 19, of Portage, stepped away from evening adoration at St. Francis Xavier to view the Eucharist Miracles and were stunned to realize that he was their brother’s age when he died.
“He reminds me of St. Joselito (St. José Luis Sánchez del Río),” a Mexican Cristero canonized at 14 after he refused to deny his faith and was martyred by government soldiers in 1928, said Daneysi Lopez, who recently began working as a dental assistant. “Blessed Carlo makes me feel the same way as St. Joselito, inspiring me to fight for our Catholic faith,” she said.
Laura Lopez-Vera is studying for a master’s in cinematic directing/producing at Arizona State University and hoping to work for Angel Studios, headed by José Eduardo Verástegui Córdoba, a respected Mexican actor, singer, and producer responsible for religious films.
If she were to make a movie about Blessed Carlo’s life, said Lopez-Vera, the opening scene would show a six-year-old Carlo using a computer, “separated from the rest of his class, with his teacher noticing his tech savvy. He would be seen as devoted to his mother and grandmother, and when the other kids go out to play, Carlo goes to church.
“He would be shown taking an interest in the Eucharist as he prepares for his First Communion, and seen as being more enlightened about his faith than others his age, serving at Mass and joining a youth group,” Lopez-Vera continued spontaneously.
“You would see his dedication to Jesus because he has to take a train to do his research on the miracles since he is too young to drive,” Lopez-Vera added, “and then there is a foreshadowing of his illness – his body is slowing down and he is seen as pale and tired.”
Likely viewers for that movie would be Julia Zerbes’ students at Queen of All Saints School in Michigan City, where the 18-year-old Michigan City High School graduate has recently been hired as coordinator of religious education and middle school religion teacher. She is also preparing to begin online college classes in January.
“Blessed Carlo is one of my favorite saints to read about after I saw his open tomb at Assisi, Italy” on her 2022 trip with the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry’s new National Youth Advisory Council, Zerbes said.
“His sainthood shows that young Catholics can attend Mass on their own, as he did every day,” Zerbes said. “He loved soccer and Pokemon, and yet always found a way to bring Christ into his life. I’ll be looking to him as I teach about Eucharistic Adoration.”
Zerbes, taken to her first church choir practice “when I was three days old,” calls singing her “superpower.” She thinks the perfect hymn for Blessed Carlo is “I Am the Bread of Life.”
“It explains everything he wanted, especially about the Eucharistic Miracles,” said Zerbes.
Going in an opposite direction is Isaac Heard, 22, a Schererville resident and parishioner at St. Joseph in Dyer who said nutrition is his “superpower” as he prepares to use a degree in biology from the University of Steubenville and an internship for a dietitian to carve out a career. “I have learned a lot about microbiology and macrobiology, and I can put healthy meals together,” he said.
Heard said he watched a documentary about Blessed Carlo, finding it “inspiring. He still played video games, but kept it under control to pursue his work, which a lot of young people today struggle with.
“I think about his surrendering to God’s will at his young age, which is something I’ve been thinking about, (people) using God’s gifts to glorify God, not themselves. His life was (even) an inspiration for his mom to go back to her faith.”
Caption: Sisters Laura Lopez-Vera, 22, and Daneysi Lopez, 19, read about the life of Blessed Carlos Acutis, an Italian teenager who compiled a computer database of 155 Eucharistic Miracles from 22 countries that were displayed at their home parish, St. Francis Xavier in Lake Station, last month. Acutis, who died at 15 from leukemia, will become the first millennial saint wen he is canonized, likely early in 2025. (Marlene A. Zloza photo)