Relics of Carlo Acutis and 6 saints arrive at the US National Eucharistic Congress

The relics of Blessed Carlo Acutis, Saint Juan Diego, the visionary of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and five other saints will be available for veneration each day of the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, United States, this week.

Catholics attending the congress will have the special opportunity to pray with the relics of Saints Elizabeth Ann Seton, Manuel González García, Paschal Baylon, Junípero Serra and Juan Diego, as well as Blessed Carlo Acutis, as well as part of a relic from Chartres, France, known as the “Veil of Our Lady.”

Organizers announced that the relics will be displayed in a specially designated chapel inside the Indiana Convention Center from July 17 to 20, from noon to 6:30 p.m. (local time) daily, allowing worshipers to offer prayers. of intercession and reflect on the testimonies of the saints who lived a deep devotion to the Eucharist.

“From our Blessed Mother to Blessed Carlo Acutis, the Eucharist has been at the center of the lives of all the saints, and these particular patrons can inspire us to share their closeness to Our Lord, present in the Holy Eucharist,” he told CNA —EWTN News English agency— Fr. Eric Augenstein, coordinator of the relics chapel for the congress.

Relics are physical objects that have a direct association with saints or Our Lord. First-class relics are the body or fragments of a saint’s body, such as pieces of bone, and second-class relics are something a saint personally owned, such as a shirt or a book (or fragments of those items).

Catholics venerate relics to worship God, as Saint Jerome described in Ad Riparium in the year 404 AD: “We venerate the relics of martyrs in order to better worship him of whom they are martyrs.”

The Catholic Church has documented medical miracles that have occurred when people have prayed with relics, including miracles that led to the approval of Acutis’s upcoming canonization.

These are the Eucharistic saints that people will be able to find at the National Eucharistic Congress:

San Manuel González García

Known as the “Bishop of the Abandoned Tabernacle”, Saint Manuel González García (1877-1940) was a bishop who lived in the midst of the Spanish Civil War, and is known for his deep love of the Eucharist. After his episcopal ordination in Seville, he said: “I do not want my soul to be distressed in my life as a bishop, as before in my life as a priest, except for a single pain, which is the greatest of all, the abandonment of the Tabernacle, and be happy with only one joy, the Tabernacle accompanied.”

On his tomb in the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament of the Cathedral of Palencia it is written: “I ask to be buried next to a tabernacle, so that my bones, after death, like my tongue and my pen in life, may always be telling those who come in: There is Jesus! There he is! Don’t leave him abandoned!

First-class relics of the bones, blood and hair of St. Manuel González García are brought to Indianapolis from Spain by several sisters who are part of the Eucharistic Missionaries of Nazareth, a community he founded.

Blessed Carlo Acutis

A relic of the heart (pericardium) of Blessed Carlo Acutis of Assisi (Italy) will be displayed in the congress reliquary. The Italian teenager who died in 2006 is known for his devotion to the Eucharist and his passion for technology. He called the Eucharist “my way to heaven” and used his computer skills to catalog Eucharistic miracles from around the world. Diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 15, Carlo offered his suffering for the Church and the Holy Father. Pope Francis has pointed to Acutis as an example for young people and recently approved his canonization as the first saint millenniala celebration expected to take place during the 2025 Jubilee Year of the Catholic Church.

Acutis’ exhibit on Eucharistic miracles will also be on display at the Indiana Convention Center each day of the conference.

Saint Pascual Baylon

Saint Pascual Baylón was born on Pentecost 1540 in Torrehermosa (Spain). A humble pastor who joined the Franciscan order as a lay brother, he was known for his deep piety and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. Despite his lack of formal education, he was revered for his wisdom and spirituality. He was canonized in 1690 by Pope Alexander VIII and declared patron of all Eucharistic congresses and associations by Pope Leo XIII.

A relic of Baylon’s mummified finger will be delivered to the Eucharistic Congress from the Shrine of All Saints in Chicago.

San Junípero Serra

Saint Junípero Serra was a Franciscan missionary who played a fundamental role in establishing the missionary system of California, in what is now the United States. The missionary saint from Mallorca, Spain, arrived in present-day Mexico in 1749 and later moved north to found the first nine of the 21 missions in California, beginning with San Diego de Alcalá in 1769. His efforts significantly influenced the spread of Christianity in the American West. Pope Francis proclaimed Serra a saint in the first canonization celebrated on American soil, in 2015.

San Juan Diego

Saint Juan Diego is best known for his encounters with the Virgin Mary, who appeared to him as Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1531. The Virgin Mary asked Juan Diego to appear before the then Bishop of Mexico, Fray Juan de Zumárraga, and convey your wish to have a church built in your honor, leaving your image miraculously imprinted on your tilma as proof. The Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City, which now houses the tilma, has become one of the most visited Catholic shrines in the world. Pope John Paul II beatified Saint Juan Diego in 1990 and canonized him in 2002.

Santa Elizabeth Ann Seton

A pioneer in American Catholic education, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton was the first American-born American to be canonized. Seton was born into an Episcopal family in New York City in 1774. After the death of her husband, she converted to Catholicism and founded the Sisters of Charity, the first American religious community for women. She established schools and orphanages, laying the foundation for the Catholic parochial school system in the United States.

The Bishop Simon Bruté College Seminary in Indianapolis provided the Seton relic for the congress.

The Veil of Mary

A piece of a relic of the Veil of Our Lady from Chartres Cathedral in France will be displayed for veneration at the National Eucharistic Congress. The veil, also known as Holy Shirthas been preserved and venerated in Chartres Cathedral since the 10th century. This piece of the veil belongs to the Church of the Holy Rosary in Indianapolis and is on loan to Congress.

The Shroud of Turin

National Eucharistic Congress participants will also have the opportunity to view a replica of the Shroud of Turin, which is part of an educational exhibit that will be featured in Wabash Ballroom Three of the Indiana Convention Center each day of the congress.

Eucharistic Adoration

Eucharistic adoration will be available 24 hours a day throughout the conference at St. John the Evangelist Church, next to the Indiana Convention Center, beginning at 9:00 a.m. on July 17, and concluding at 9:00 a.m. on July 21.

Father Augenstein emphasized: “The Eucharist we receive and adore today is the same Jesus who was received and adored by these great saints, and so many others before us. We are united to the Communion of Saints more intimately through the Holy Eucharist”.

Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in CNA.