Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati: Cardinal Semerario says that the saints are surprising

The prefect of Dicastery for the causes of the saints in the Vatican, Cardinal Marcello Senaro, comments on the prompt canonization of Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati and points out in “In Los Santos there is always something surprising”.

This was indicated by purple in statements to the Vatican mediawithin the framework of the canonization of both blessed on Sunday, September 7 in the Plaza de San Pedro in the Vatican.

“In Los Santos there is always something surprising. Many of them resemble each other and, on the other hand, the exercise of Christian virtues is never isolated: it is always accompanied by the exercise of many other virtues,” said the purple on Acutis, who died at age 15 in 2006, and Frassati, who left for the father’s house in 1925, with 24 years.

“Pier Giorgio Frassati embodies the layman offered by the Second Vatican Council. It is the one that, fully committed to life, experiences various realities of the world; what the council calls the secular nature of the lay faithful, lived in full harmony with the gospel and integrated in each aspect of existence,” explains the prefect.

“Santos de la Calle” at the service of the poor

Cardinal Semeraro, who has just published the book Pier Giorgio Frassati, mountaineer of Espíritu (Messaggero Padova 2025 editions), highlights the discretion and testimony of the Young Italian, especially in his service to the most needy.

“Frassati approached the poor because he had previously met Christ,” said the cardinal.

Carlo Acutis was also fired by poor people, whom the family did not know: “Acutis was also a surprise for his parents; he did what he did with the possibilities of a teenager, with the media of a young man,” says Semeraro.

Carlo, he said, is the expression of “the holiness of a boy, open to life and with the Eucharist as a reference point: his highway towards heaven.”

After commenting that “these different sanctities should invite us to reflect on the meaning of the stages of life,” the purple said that “Frassati shows us a specific stage of life; Acutis, that of the adolescent world, which today is perhaps the most critical.”

Both, he continued, are those that Pope Francis called the saints “from the door next door”, figures that Pope Leo XIV has now set as an example for young people.

“There are saints who, as the mystique Madeleine delbrêl said, grow in nurseries, within religious institutes or consecrated communities. But there are others, such as Acutis and Frassati, who lived in the middle of the world: they are the saints of the street,” he concluded.

Who was Carlo Acutis?

Carlo Acutis (1991–2006) was an Italian teenager who died with only 15 years, because of a fulminating leukemia.

He helped the poor, promoted the Eucharistic Miracles and offered his suffering for the Pope, the Church and the conversion of sinners.

He was beatified on October 10, 2020 in Assisi, where his remains are now resting.

Who was Pier Giorgio Frassati?

Pier Giorgio Frassati was born in Turin (Italy) in 1901. Since childhood he developed a deep love of Christ Eucharist and the Virgin.

In his youth he gave himself fully to serve the poorest and sought to evangelize in politics. He climbed mountains and took his friends to Mass.

After finishing the university, he got sick of polyomyelitis and died on July 4, 1925 with only 24 years. It was beatified on May 20, 1990.