Brothers in Christ: Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati

They lived with a century apart. One climbed alpine peaks; The other programmed websites. One served the poor of the postwar Turin; The other evangelized from a laptop In Milan. But on September 7, two young people from northern Italy – the Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati and Blessed Carlo Acutis – will be canonized together by Pope Leo XIV as the first saints of the new pontificate.

Their lives were separated by time, but united in the love of the Lord. By canonizing them side by side, Pope León highlights the universal call to the holiness of the Church: that everyone is called to use their unique gifts to reach the heights of holiness.

Large crowds of faithful who have found inspiration in Frassati and Acutis will go to Rome to celebrate their heroic testimony. Among them will be Brice Griffin, mother of five children of North Carolina (United States), who booked plane tickets to Rome the day the new canonization date was announced.

“As a mother, especially, it is a great gift to see how Carlo took her own parents back to full communion with the Catholic Church. I love that she is so close to our young people. In my own teenage son, I see similarities with Carlo,” Griffin told the Register. “I am very excited to be able to witness Carlo’s canonization with Pier Giorgio, another great example for our youth and especially for our young adult children.”

Frassati was born in 1901 in Turin, during the industrial boom in northern Italy. The city was quickly becoming the manufacturing center of the country, promoted in part by Fiat and the new automotive industry. At age 13, when World War I broke out, Frassati witnessed the return of wounded, unemployed and destroyed soldiers. Later he became a member of the Catholic Action and the Popular Party, working to apply the social doctrine of the Church to the modern world.

Almost a century later, Acutis was born in 1991, the same year when the World Wide Web became public. Self -taught programmer, experimented with Java and C ++, loved Super Mario’s video games and filmed his pets with a camcorder. While his classmates millennials programmers launched startupsCarlo used his technological skill to catalog Eucharistic miracles from the family apartment in Milan.

“Carlo’s life shows that holiness is attainable in the modern world, even in everyday technology and challenges,” Faquer, French missionary priest in Cambodia in Cambodia and author of a book about Acutis told the National Catholic.

For Pope Leo XIV, who has expressed his desire to address the ethical and social issues raised by artificial intelligence and modern technology, the joint canonization offers the opportunity to echo the response of his predecessor Leo XIII to the industrial revolution in a new era.

Finding comfort in nature

Frassati could have grown up in Turin, but it was the family’s summer house in Pollone, a small town 80 kilometers north, at the foot of the Alps, which became its sanctuary. As a member of the Italian Alpine Club, he climbed many peaks – from the Grand Tournal to Mount Grivola of 4,000 meters in the Aosta Valley – and prayed under the crosses erected on his peaks.

“With every day that passes, I fell madly in love with the mountains,” Felsati wrote, whose motto was “upward“(” To the top “).

Acutis found a similar peace in Assisi, the hometown of San Francisco, where his family passed the summers. Far from the fashionistas and financial of Milan, he prayed with the Franciscan friars and the Cars of Assisi. He walked through the Umbría hills near Mount Ambasio with his dogs and crossed sticks that he found on the road, hoping someone to think of Jesus when he found them.

Both young people loved animals. Frassati had dogs called Jor, Mime, Wotan and Uadi, and a cat called Scimbo. Carlo’s pets included dogs called Briciola, Stellina, Poldo and Chiara (by Santa Clara), in addition to the Bambi and Cleo cats.

The Sorrentino Domenico Archbishop of Asís described the joint canonization of Acutis and Frassati as “a sign of the providence that puts the holiness of ordinary life again in the center of the church’s attention, especially for the new generations.”

Eucharistic devotion

Although they grew up in homes with non -practitioners, both boys were attracted to the Eucharist since childhood.

The Frassati’s father was agnostic, but that did not prevent Pier Giorgio from joining the Mariana Congregation and the apostolate of prayer. At age 12, Felsati also asked permission to receive daily communion, something unusual at that time.

“I beg you with all the strength of my soul that approach the Eucharistic table as often as possible,” said Frassati in a Eucharistic Congress at age 22. “Feed this bread from Los Angeles, from which they will bring out the strength to fight the interior battles.”

Carlo, who called the Eucharist “My highway to heaven”, began to attend daily mass shortly after his first communion at age 7. His exhibition of Eucharistic miracles has been seen by thousands of people worldwide.

“People who face the Sun Bronze; the people who face the Eucharist become saints,” said the young Acutis.

Love for Mary and the Poor

Frassati consecrated Maria at age 17 and later joined the third order of Santo Domingo.

“As a devout member of the Dominican family, he wore a rosary in his pocket and prayed it daily,” said Father Gerard Francisco Timoner III, a master of the Dominican order, in an official statement on the Canonization of Frassati.

Acutis made his first personal consecration to the Virgin Mary at age 5 in the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Pompeya. He had a special devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes and Fatima and used to give rosaries to guests at home.

Although both came from well -off families – the father of Frassati was editor of the Stampa, Acutis’s was an insurance executive in Milan – both were known for serving the poorest.

Frassati joined the Society of San Vicente de Paúl at age 17, gave their money from the bus to the poor and visited the sick. On his deathbed, he wrote instructions to ensure that a sick man named Converso received his medicine.

“Jesus comes to me every morning in communion, and I return his visit to serve the poor,” he said once.

As a child, Carlo stopped eating Nutella as a sacrifice and sold toys to help the poor. He later volunteered in a charity dining room in Milan led by Capuchin friars and bought sleeping bags and hot drinks for the homeless in winter.

“His love was extraordinary,” said Nicola Gori, a postulator of Acutis’s cause. “He used the savings of his weekly money to help the beggars and those who slept in the street.”

Sudden disease

Frassati died of polio – positively contracted from the patients who served – in 1925, at age 24. Carlo died in 2006, with only 15 years, of a sudden and aggressive leukemia.

“I offer all the suffering that I will have to endure to the Lord for the Pope and for the Church,” Carlo said shortly before he died, “not to go through purgatory and get directly to heaven.”

Both funerals gathered the poor and marginalized of their communities, people to whom these young saints had helped in life.

Frassati lived almost a decade more than Acutis and found his vocation as Dominican layman. Carlo, still high school student, began to discern a possible call to the priesthood.

“Canonizing these two young people together offers a continuous spiritual model, especially for those who are going through adolescence and youth,” said Christine Wohar, Executive Director of Frassati USA, to the Register.

“Where Carlo’s life ends, Pier Giorgio continues, providing continuity to face the challenges of adolescence and adulthood.”

Inspiring young Catholics

Both have been patrons of events of the World Youth Day (WYD). Frassati inspired the Pilgrims of the WYD in Sydney in 2008 and Krakow in 2016; Acutis was appointed Patron of the WYD of Lisbon in 2023 and the National Eucharistic Congress of the United States in 2024.

Katie Mcgrary, presenter of Siriusxm and Catholic speaker for young people, said her appeal for young people is clear.

“When I talk about either, young people feel a little straight, listen with more attention and want to know more. Their stories are captivating,” Mcgrary said.

“Carlo and Pier Giorgio show young people that holiness is not only possible, but is in the ordinary components of our lives. It is in hiking, computer programming, spending time with friends and finding opportunities to be generous, where we can follow and love Jesus.”

P. Conquer added: “Carlo’s technological apostolate speaks to a generation immersed in digital culture, while the active and relational charity of Frassati inspires those who are attracted to the community and service. Both lived ordinary lives with extraordinary faith, demonstrating that holiness is accessible to all.”

Carlo himself admired Frassati. In his last days, he read a book in French about young saints, his mother Antonia recalled.

“Carlo knew (Frassati),” he said. “I knew many young saints: Pier Giorgio Frassati, Chiara Badano, Gabriel de la Dolorosa … loved the young saints.”

Now, the boy who loved the saints becomes one, next to a saint he loved. “Maybe the most important lesson,” Wohar reflected, “we must examine our lives and see if we are really living or simply existing.”

“Life goes fast, as evidenced by the short lives of Carlo and Pier Giorgio,” he said.

“If we are spending our days looking at screens, perhaps we should reflect on that. Pier Giorgio said: ‘Living without faith, without a heritage to defend, without a constant struggle for truth, that is not living, but exists.

‘We should never exist only, but to live. “

Sabrina Ferrisi, correspondent of the National Catholic Register, contributed to this story.

Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in the National Catholic Register.