What is a Saint?
In the Catholic Church, the saints are ordinary people like you and me who made it to heaven. They’ve done nothing that you and I cannot do, if we persevere in following Jesus Christ and living our lives according to His teaching.
Catholic devotion to the saints is nothing more than respect and admiration for the memory of the deceased heroes of the Church. We honor them as men and women of heroic virtue who can serve as our role models. They were no more perfect than are we; but, at the end of their lives – and hopefully, ours – they received from Our Lord his words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
We also ask the saints to intercede for us. Have you ever asked anyone to pray for you when you were having a hard time? That is how Catholics “pray to” the saints – we pray with saints, not to them. As the Letter of James says, “The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful.”
Well-known saints like those below often are remembered in a special way on particular days during the year.
January – February – March – April – May – June
July – August – September – October – November – December
This Weeks Saints
October 6
Bl. Marie Rose Durocher
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October 7
Our Lady of the Rosary
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October 8
Marist Martyrs of Barcelona
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October 9
St. John Henry Cardinal Newman
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October 10
St Daniel Comboni
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October 11
Pope St. John XXIII
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October 12
Bl Carlo Acutis
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October 12
Blessed Carlo Acutis
“I am happy to die, because I have lived my life without wasting a minute on those things which do not please God.”
Bl. Carlo Acutis
Blessed Carlo Acutis was born on May 3, 1991 in London, the son of Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano. His parents were financially well-off, and had worked in Germany and the United Kingdom before settling down in Milan, Italy in September 1991, shortly after Carlo’s birth.
From around the age of 4, he demonstrated great interest in Catholic religious practices. His parents were not particularly religious; so, most of his questions were answered by his family’s Polish baby-sitter. At the age of 7 he received his First holy Communion at the convent of St. Amdrogio and Nemus. He was commonly observed praying before the Tabernacle before and after Mass. He also went to Confession once per week. He enjoyed visiting Assisi where St. Francis is entombed, and adopted Francis as one of his models for living his life.
Acutis was deeply interested in many things typical of a boy his age, like football, Pokemon, action films, comic books and his PlayStation. He was considered a “computer geek” by those who knew him. He taught himself how to code and build websites while still in primary school. In school, he was always concerned with those of his friends who were bullied or who had undergone distressing events, like the divorce of their parents. He also did volunteer work with the poor and homeless.
Carlo used his computer skills to build websites for Catholic organizations. At the age of 11, he developed a site that listed and catalogued all of the Eucharistic miracles in the world. That website (http://www.miracolieucaristici.org/) is still maintained today, and is the basis for a traveling photo exhibition entitled “The Eucharistic Miracles of the World.” The exhibition has traveled to dozens of countries on 5 continents.
Believing himself to be ill with the flu, Carlo was diagnosed with an aggressive leukemia in October, 2006. He died only days later, on October 12, at the age of 15. He was interred in the former cathedral of Assisi, Santa Maria Maggiore.
Carlo Acutis was labeled a “Servant of God” in 2013, one of the first steps towards canonization. A miracle was attributed to him in November of 2019. In that miracle, a seven-year-old child who was born with a pancreatic defect was miraculously healed. His mother had prayed to Acutis, asking for his intercession and shortly after, the defect was cured, and the boy was able to eat solid food for the first time.
Pope Francis announced the beatification of Carlo Acutis, which was planned while visiting Assisi, Italy on October 10, 2020.