Lent 2026
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Under bright Roman skies, the canonization Mass for Pier Giorgio Frassati (1901–1925) and Carlo Acutis (1991–2006) began at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, September 7, in St. Peter’s Square, with access opening to pilgrims two hours earlier.
Tens of thousands filled the square for the first canonizations of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate. Greeting the crowd, the Pope said, “Today is a wonderful holiday for all of Italy, for the whole Church, for the whole world.”
For many, the headline was Carlo Acutis, widely known as “God’s Influencer,” now the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint. A London-born, Milan-raised teenager who cataloged Eucharistic miracles online, Acutis died of leukemia at 15 and inspired a global devotion for his simple piety and love for the poor.
Frassati, a beloved Turin university student and Catholic Action leader, is celebrated for his charity, mountaineering camaraderie, and quiet service to the poor—witness that continues to galvanize youth groups a century after his death.
Sunday’s celebration had been eagerly awaited after an earlier plan in the Jubilee calendar was postponed following the death of Pope Francis on April 21, 2025. The Vatican confirmed the new date in June; today’s rites complete that promise.
The square thrummed with song, flags, and hand-painted banners from parish groups and campus ministries—an intergenerational crowd whose enthusiasm pointed to why these two saints were paired. Both centered their lives on the Eucharist and friendship with the poor, a combination that Church leaders have highlighted as a path of holiness that meets today’s moment.
In his remarks and the liturgy itself, the emphasis fell less on heroic feats than on ordinary faith lived generously: a teenager who brought catechesis into the digital commons, and a young adult who made time for adoration and for carrying coal to cold apartments. The message was unmistakable: sanctity is not distant. It is possible in classrooms, youth groups, servers’ aprons, and study schedules—in jeans and hiking boots as easily as in choir robes.
With today’s canonizations, Pope Leo XIV opens his register of saints by turning the spotlight toward young lay Catholics and their capacity to renew communities from the ground up. As the crowds dispersed down the Via della Conciliazione, many repeated Acutis’ favorite line about the Eucharist as a “highway to heaven”—a summary, perhaps, of why this day felt so hopeful for believers and observers alike.
