He’s at the centre of what organisers call a “highway to heaven” missionary visit to Australia, and posters of Carlo Acutis radiated the charisma of a pop star at a Melbourne school last Wednesday.
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posters → ’ → school
With his tousled hair, gentle smile and red polo shirt, Carlo had the casual look of a singer like Ed Sheeran.
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Carlo → have → Sheeran
And he’s not alive, at least physically.
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he → ’ → ?
Carlo, who died of leukaemia in 2006, age 15, was canonised – declared a saint – by Pope Leo in 2025, and is known as the first Millennial saint and God’s influencer.
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who → die → saint
Relics, meaning tissue from St Carlo’s body, are travelling around Australia in a Catholic Church-approved move to inspire people, particularly the young, to follow Jesus, do good, and cut back on video gaming.
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Relics → mean → gaming
On Wednesday, about 500 students – most of them teens – attended mass in St Carlo’s honour at Antonine College, a Maronite Catholic school in Pascoe Vale South.
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most → attend → South
They viewed the relics, kept in two 30-centimetre high metal reliquaries, that were displayed in the school hall.
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that → view → hall
One contained pieces of the pericardium (the sac that encloses St Carlo’s heart), that were visible through glass.
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that → contain → glass
The other contained strands of his hair.
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other → contain → hair
After mass, students lined up to be blessed by the priest, Father Eli Yammine, and a nun, Sister Veronique Karam, who held the reliquaries over each child’s head.
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who → line → head
At tables, students wrote prayers to St Carlo which will be sent to the saint’s tomb in Assisi, Italy.
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which → write → Assisi
Carlo, an English-born Italian boy who attended mass daily, was known for using social media and websites to evangelise, promote volunteering and document more than 130 church-approved “Eucharistic miracles” – instances of bread and wine turning into flesh and blood.
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bread → bear → flesh
He played video games only for one hour a week, so not to distract him from his faith or helping others.
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He → play → others
After his death, two miracles – people surviving near-death illness or accident – were attributed to his intercession.
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miracles → survive → intercession
Kate Hobbs, president of Friends of St Carlo Acutis Australia, a lay group taking the relics to 53 Australian cities in four months, said young people relate to St Carlo.
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people → take → Carlo
“He challenges them, but he also gives them a hope and a way to come to God,” Hobbs said.
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Hobbs → challenge → God
The way he lived could teach them there was room for spirituality in their lives, she said.
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she → live → lives
Last week, Hobbs took St Carlo’s relics to Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital, where she prayed with a seven-year-old heart surgery patient and her parents.
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she → take → patient
The girl’s mother, who wanted to use only the name Joanna for privacy reasons, said her daughter had a “deep devotion” to St Carlo, and that the visit was special to her daughter because the relic was a piece of the saint’s heart “and she’s recovering from heart surgery”.
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she → want → surgery
“It’s been a hard road and we’ve been doing novenas – a series of prayers – to St Carlo connected to my daughter’s deep devotion to him.
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we → do → him
My daughter has been praying to him for her healing,” she said.
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she → pray → healing
“To have that opportunity for the relics to visit her, with her unable to visit them herself, was very special.”
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relics → visit → them
At the Antonine College mass on Wednesday, Larisa Kyriakous, 17, who with 14 classmates visited St Carlo’s tomb – which features a lifelike effigy – in Assisi last year, said the teenage saint inspired her.
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saint → visit → her
“Growing up in a world that relies on technology, we get so distracted with what’s around us, I think we forget, as Christians, what’s really important,” Larisa said.
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Larisa → grow → Christians
“His story reminds us that we, too, can be saints and that we’re all called to be saints.”
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we → remind → us
Jacob Diab, 18, said that instead of using social media negatively, St Carlo used it to spread God’s word and to talk about miracles.
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Carlo → say → miracles
Marvin Tabet, 16, said St Carlo was “a great guy”, whom he could relate to because he lived in recent times, was around his age and was into technology.
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he → say → technology
The final Melbourne events connected to St Carlo’s relics will be held this weekend at St Catherine of Siena Parish in Caroline Springs.
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events → connect → Springs
The Aporia
