The College of Cardinals today approved the canonization of 15 blesseds, which included the one and only Carlo Acutis. The CGR staff has been excitedly waiting for this day, which we figured was inevitable after his beatification in October 2020.
While he seemed relatively unknown just four years ago, he might be one of the fastest growing saints in popularity as I’ve begun to see lots of images, prayer cards, and even statues of him more and more often. It’s clear that his normal life turned extraordinary by God’s grace is a continual inspiration to many, especially young people.
I personally have found even greater appreciation for his coding skills after I began working on an engineering degree. Even with the resources available to us today, programming can still be tricky and the fact that he was able to pull it off in the early 2000’s at age 13 shows just how bright of a guy he really was. Also – if Wikipedia is to be trusted – he used Ubuntu. That’s right Linux fans, you’ve got a saint on your side.
Of course, his gaming hobby also scored him many points among the younger folk, and it’s fun to play games from around ’95 to ’06 wondering if he enjoyed time with them. Whatever the case, he’s the go-to guy for gaming or coding-related prayers like asking for assistance with game development or to PLEASE PLEASE HELP ME FIND THE BUG when you’ve been testing the same script for an hour.
Finally, I’d like to share an interesting statistic. Our first ever article on Acutis has remained our most-viewed post ever, and only seems to break further away as the years go on. I think it’s fitting, as I’m certain nothing we ever put out will be more impressive than what Carlo did with his life.
I hope that you all continue to ask for his frequent intercession as we can now together say:
Saint Carlo Acutis, pray for us!
