Carlo Acutis: The First Millennial Saint

by Nicola Gori

Carlo Acutis, born May 3, 1991, fully embraced the gift of life. Known as a computer whiz, he also liked to play soccer, video games, and the saxophone. He enjoyed watching his favorite police dramas and making short films with his star cast of cats and dogs. He had many friends and enjoyed spending time with them.

Yet Carlo was a little “different” at school, in the pizzerias, and on the soccer field. What set Carlo apart was his constant pursuit of holiness. In addition to his fun hobbies, he spent time teaching catechism classes and serving in soup kitchens. Carlo loved to attend daily Mass and frequent Eucharistic adoration. The Word of God and the Eucharist were the center of his life. Carlo’s unwavering devotion to the Eucharist inspired him to tell the story of Eucharistic miracles through a website he created just for fun. He wanted to deepen his own knowledge of these phenomena, to strengthen his devotion to Jesus, and to invite others to grow in love for the Eucharist. The website subsequently caught the attention of people across the globe, introducing countless people to Eucharistic miracles.

Carlo died from a sudden and violent illness in 2006 at the age of fifteen. In less than a decade, his story spread across Italy and around the world. After Pope Francis declared him venerable in 2018, his beatification was celebrated in Assisi on October 10, 2020. The next step will be canonization, making him the first millennial saint.

Genres: Catholic, Faith, Biography, Nonfiction, Christianity, Religion, Theology

135 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 9, 2016

Reviews

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carlo is a very important saint for our troubled times because he lived in this century and did not let the distractions of the world keep him from a saintly life. His story should be told in greater detail. The author gets off the saint’s story and goes into topics, which are important Catholic topics, but should not be interrupting the main story which is Carlo’s life and faith journey. It was very disappointing that most of the book is not about Carlo. Maybe we will see other authors pick up the story and do justice to this magnificently saintly young man who can be an example to all of us.

[maggie nalli · Rating 3 out of 5]

gifted three stars because i feel like a terrible person giving it anything lower

that being said it did indeed take me almost three days to read 140 pgs... ugh

beginning was treacherous but the biography was very interesting

i- nvm

what a guy

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

SAINT CARLO IS SO COOL!!!!!! I love love LOVED reading about his life, bro makes me want to strive for holiness so much 😭🙏!!! St Carlo cared so much about every person, he didn’t make any exceptions in evangelization, I aspire to have that type of passion for others 🙏 The book overall was kinda silly bc the author would go on random tangents that weren’t super relevant to St Carlo’s life, but i didn’t super care bc it was always fire content.

Overall very banger read. The fav parts/biggest takeaways from this one are that:
- St Carlo is probably so happy to be next to Jesus right now
- it’s insane the amount of suffering he faced in so short a time as a 15 year old kid but still remained joyful (two hours before he fell into a coma and then died, he smiled at his doctors and told them he was doing “Well, as always!” 😭♥️🙏)
- I loved hearing about his devotion to Our Lady and the other Saints that were so influential in his life.
- St Carlo took his interior life so seriously, and it’s so admirable and convicting! At such a young age too!!!!!!

I also loved when it would drop the most banger quote about the Eucharist of all time and then the author would be like “yeah Carlo said that when he was 10 years old” WHAT?!?!?!

Shoutout St Carlo Acutis, pray for us!!! 🗣️♥️

[Riley Pearson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful and concise.

I am so grateful to have read this book during such a difficult time for our world and during my life.

God never ceases to raise new Saints throughout his Church despite all of the scandal she may go through. For that reason, I am incredibly thankful.

Blessed Carlo's life is a beautiful example of a young person's deep devotion to the love of God, the Holy Eucharist, and the Blessed Virgin. This book has affected me in the most positive way immensely.

May many young people feel the same way.

Blessed Carlo, pray for us.

God's love endures forever.

[Mary Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found a lot of the messaging illuminating & also often difficult to read. Except for those focused few, the many, including myself continuously choose worldly concerns & wants over God. In books, attending mass, the Rosary, Scripture, messaging is clear how to live one’s life, but it’s just so difficult to emulate people like Acutis and others. I suppose you just have to keep trying constantly even when you falter but it’s painful to contemplate the consequences of the many ways you’re just not up to snuff.

“Our frenetic pace of life has made us forget that each of us has to climb Golgotha sooner or later.”

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Carlo is a great role model, but this particular biography is poorly written. It is filled with hyperbole, conjecture, and the author's opinions. "Everyone recognized Carlo's brilliant directing skills" "Even people who didn't like kids liked Carlo" so many vague statements like this. Carlo deserves a biographer more than an inexperienced fanboy.

[Avery Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sweet, simple book about our spiritual brother Carlo. God is so good to us, He gives us a friend in him.

[Kari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silný, ač ne příliš dobře sepsaný, příběh mladého světce. Velmi se mi líbila novéna na konci a citáty Carla. Pokud ovšem čekáte životopis, tak si pravděpodobně moc nepočtete. Chyběla mi pevná struktura, která by opravdu provázela životem Carla Acutise. Na životopis byl také text až příliš citově zabarvený. Jakožto inspirativní duchovní literatura určitě slouží svému účelu, ale na kvalitní biografii si ještě budeme muset počkat.

[annabel lecklider · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book didn’t get good until page 60

before that is was a whole bunch of random religious stuff i feel didn’t need to be included in this book. it was just a whole bunch of quotes that felt unnecessary.

once we got to the actual biography (again, not until page 60) about Carlo i really enjoyed this.

Carlo lived such an inspiring and interesting life!

[Katie Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can’t stop, won’t stop reading about Carlo. I can’t get enough! This is a great, quick read about an amazing young Saint!

[Vincent Pham · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Catholic English-speaking work has yet, another book about Blessed Carlo Acutis, this time, a title translated from Italian into English by Our Sunday Visitor. Carlo Acutis – The First Millennial Saint originally in Italian as Dall’Informatica al Cielo – Carlo Acutis by Nicola Gori, the postulator of the cause of canonization of Bl. Carlo Acutis is the first of its kind in the English speaking world. While we have reviewed three books about Carlo Acutis thus far on this blog: (1) Blessed Carlo Acutis – 5 Steps to Being a Saint by Mgr. Anthony Figueiredo, (2) Carlo Acutis – The Boy Who Knew by Corinna Turner, and (3) Carlo Acutis – A Millennial in Paradise by Fr. Will Conquer, this publication is special because it is a biography of Carlo Acutis written by the postulator.

You may ask, ‘What is a postulator?’ Think about this – when you want to convince someone that something you believe is true, you would find all the means and evidence to back that point up. That is what I would define the role of the postulator. A cause for canonization is initiated by the bishop of a local diocese, and then the postulator must do an investigation into a candidate’s life. He or she will go through all the written works of the candidate’s life, listen to testimonials from the faithful and interview those who may have known the candidate during their lifetime. The postulator’s work, though quite discreet “behind the scenes,” but their work is very important in the canonization process.

Through Carlo Acutis – The First Millennial Saint, one does not get a generic biography of Carlo Acutis that you would find anywhere online. Rather, here in nearly 150 pages, the postulator recounts the story of Carlo Acutis through the eyes of those who knew him best. You may have probably heard of Ms. Antonia Acutis Salzano, the mother of Carlo Acutis, but here, we get much more than that. We hear from figures such as Fr. Roberto Gazzaniga, S.J. from the Instituto Leone XIII where Carlo was a student. From his point of view, we get an better inside look at Carlo’s student life. We also come across testimonies from Fr. Mario Perego, Carlo’s parish priest whom he turned to often for Confession. Even more remarkable, we also hear from homeless people who have been impacted by Carlo during his short lifetime. The thing is this: many like myself hear hear snippets of this amazing young man who loved the Eucharist, who was a kind student, who went to confession often, who helped the poor, but to hear these acts being attested to from witnesses gives a totally different dimension to the life of Carlo Acutis and all of this is compiled in this biography.


This is not a picture book about Carlo Acutis. Rather, this is a biography that encompasses the spirituality and life of Carlo together as it strives to paint a picture of a young man who was just so normal, but was able to live holiness in the most regular of ways. Carlo had a short life, but it was a full life, a life “close to Jesus.” There are some interesting anecdotes scattered throughout the book, and it is in these regularities of Carlo that allows one to come to admire him.

How would I suggest a youth or young adult to read Carlo Acutis – The First Millennial Saint? I would really start with a general biography about Carlo Acutis, maybe take a look at www.carloacutis.com – the official website of the Cause, maintained by the Associazione Amici di Carlo Acutis (Friends of Carlo Acutis Association). Having had a general sense of who Carlo was, I think will give this book more of a depth as you read because this biography really is an expansion of what the Catholic media has said about Carlo Acutis, but like any news article, unlike a book, there is not a lot of room to put much depth into someone’s biography. The biography, in my opinion must be paired with either one of these two book, Blessed Carlo Acutis – 5 Steps to Being a Saint by Mgr. Anthony Figueiredo, or Carlo Acutis – A Millennial in Paradise by Fr. Will Conquer. Both are books that provide a call to action for the reader because Carlo’s story is not merely a story in which you read and that’s the end. Rather, the essence of holiness from the lives of the saints should be applied to our very own lives, which I think is better prompted in Mgr. Figueiredo’s book or via Fr. Conquer’s book. You can take a look at those reviews in the hyperlinked terms above.

While the content of the book itself is amazing, there are two points I would like to make. First, I think the life of Carlo Acutis is one that should be made accessible particularly to youth and young adults. One of the impressions I had when I was reading was that the book was too text-heavy. Unlike the other Carlo Acutis books I have reviewed, there are a lack of photographs or illustrations. For me, what really bring the story to life were the images that went through my mind – recalling the many, many photographs of Carlo I have seen circulate all through the internet. I was a little underwhelmed that the book contained no photographs throughout the interior.

Another point that I question was the lack of mention of the original Italian title, Dall’Informatica al Cielo – Carlo Acutis (English translation: From Information Technology to Heaven – Carlo Acutis). One may question how I assumed and could conclude that his book was a translation of that title. The reason is simple (1) The bibliographic page indicated that it was copyright of Libreria Editrice Vaticana (the Vatican Publishing House) and a new revised version of Dall’Informatica al Cielo was published earlier this year by the Vatican; (2) To really confirm that the book was a translation of the original Italian title indicated, I looked to the preface and the original Italian had a preface by Msgr. Dario E. Viganò and here, in the English version, a preface of the same Msgr. Therefore, for me, there was no doubt that this was a translation of that title. I just question why the book was not modeled in cover-style and title it, “From Information Technology to Heaven – Carlo Acutis,” to be consistent with the Vatican edition. However, I assume that it may be because of copyright and rights… all the legal stuff. I hope to have some answers on this.

Overall, a beautiful biography of Carlo Acutis published this time by Our Sunday Visitor, and a great introduction to the life of the First Millennial Blessed of the Church, who may soon be “The First Millennial Saint.”

Bl. Carlo Acutis, pray for us!

[Mary Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an amazing young man! A rare human being and certainly a wonderful example to all Christians. However, I felt they started the book badly by having 4 chapters by church officials and the author. A lot of that could have been at the back of the book because we wanted to read about Carlo and not what they thought.
The chapter on the Eucharistic miracles was interesting, but personally, I would have loved to hear more from his parents and other family members, rather than church officials. I felt the book was poorly written and may have been hastily put together.
Blessed Carlo, pray for us!

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

The introduction on this book was long, repetitive and not well written. The chapter starting “First Steps” onward is much better.

Truly a saint for the new Millennial.

[Lorinda Dubay]

Excellent

A quick read , very good book that every one should read. More people need to be more like this young man. This world would be a much better place.

[Guille Medina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hello today I will be leaving a review on a great book I have just read its called Carlo Acutis The First Millennial Saint. I feel this good is really great and personally it has taught me a ton of great things if you are not Catholic nor Cristian this might not be the best book for you because yeah it has some great teachings that could help anyone but it also talks a ton of things about Jesus Church and some miracles so would not totally recommend this book to someone not from these religions.

So lets get started what are some of the great things this book talks about, It talks about why you should go to church every Sunday, It talks about how the eucharist is something beautiful that more people should do, it talks about about having disciple and that that is very important that you should love god above all things and how you should treat your neighbor as you want to be treated not actually your neighbor it refers to anyone that you need to treat everybody like how you want to be treated and that is actually a some really good advice because it teaches us to be more kind with other people I often found that after reading this book I was acting kinder. It has also changed how I perceive saints because before this book I thought you had to be very different from everybody but no Carlo was just a normal kid that was always brave, kind, and disciplined he was not born different he had a normal family and that is really inspiring that anyone can be a saint. I would recommend this book over any other saint's book because I feel more connected to Carlo because he is the saint closest to me in age all the others seem like really old and I don't really feel connected to them, while Carlo I do because he grew up in a more modern time with computers and and the internet heck he even made a website that talked about miracles that had happened so the whole world could learn about them.

The book is not all about him though it also talks about a lot of miracles there was one where a host and wine became muscle and water isn't that amazing. There is a big portion of the book talking about some miracles that have happened recently so if you want to learn about miracles I would also recommend this book.

Now back to Carlo the book also talked about his tragic death at only 15 years old on October 12 of 2006 in Monza, Italy he predicted his death some weeks in advance before he even was diagnosed with the disease that would end his life it talked about his time at the hospital and much more.

So in conclusion I would totally recommend this book to and hope you enjoyed my review have a great day. Goodbye

[Srrose · Rating 4 out of 5]

After an unexpectedly meeting Antonia Acutis in Assisi last December 21 (2022), I began reading this book about her beloved son, Carlo Acutis (1991-2006) who died after a brief bout with an aggressive form of leukaemia. Carlo was beatified on October 10, 2010. This means he is on the road to sainthood, canonization, in the Catholic Church.

His story is amazing because he was so gifted with computers, so generous with his classmates and the poor, and completely devoted to Jesus. From a young age he went to daily Mass, Eucharistic adoration, and prayed the rosary. In fact, Antonia's message echos that of her son (as she told our small group that day.)

This book is an enthusiastic endorsement of Carlo, but you have to get through the Words of Pope Francis (fine), A preface, a long reflection on the meaning of silence for Carlo, another preface to the new addition, and an introduction before you get to brief chapters about the life of Carlo Acutis.

The first part of the book is overly verbose and younger readers (teens) may be put of by this. Once the biography begins, things move along at a quicker pace with some "quotes" (not really quotes but Carlo used to say....) that are terrific. There is one funny story about Carlo, his grandmother and her little dog hidden in her bag as they visited a monastery where pets were forbidden. If there are more stories like this, that would be great. He filmed the episode!

A better book it yet to be written, but this one is ok as an introduction. Carlo was also an avid photographer and I'd love to see some of his photos.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book wasn’t what I expected. There were general details on Carlo’s life but not as much as I expected from a biography. I didn’t learn a lot knew about Carlo that I didn’t already know.
Instead as it went on, it focused a lot on his spiritual practices and also on the author’s “teaching” on the benefit to the soul of these practices and sometimes went off on tangents.
The father I got into the book, the more I felt Carlo would be pleased with it. He would want the attention not on himself but on the path he took that helped him draw ever closer to God and why that path was fruitful. I rated it for the gems it contains that can help us grow in holiness and for the inspiration of someone so young to be so mature spiritually.

[Michele Pfrogner · Rating 2 out of 5]

This future saint deserves a better writer. In my edition, Carlo's actual biography does not even begin until page 59. What follows then are generalizations, people who had encounters with Carlo but are never named, and hyperbole. Some specifics are provided for several Eucharistic miracles, and for Carlo's final days before his death.
As a retired English teacher, I realize that this book is classified as "J Bio," but our young people also deserve better when reading about this saintly teen, who, in his short life, will inspire generations to come.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing biography of a truly amazing young man. He accomplished more in the 15 short years of his existence than most people accomplish in their full lifetimes. A truly holy adolescent whose worldwide fame spread quickly following his death. He has been beautified and, God willing, becomes canonized shortly.

[Concetta Kellough · Rating 5 out of 5]

My opinion, based on Carlo Acutis, is that this was an inspiring look into the life and thoughts of who this teenage boy was. Or “is” when you consider the fact that he is still alive in heaven. He deserves to be a saint because of his holy life.

My opinion of the writer of this biography is that there was A LOT of repetition.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a biography of Carlo Acutis. I was going to share it with my oldest grandchild. There are specific references to his short life, I found the introduction to be extremely long. I became disconnected to his story in the process.
He was a truly remarkable soul, role model for others and devoted Catholic, inspiring.

[that one book lover💕🤙🏼 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful and inspiring story of a beautiful and inspiring soul! A very short read, and very worth it. I learned sooo mush about Carlo, he has inspired me to better my life and he is a wonderful example especially for teenagers in this day and age!

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was looking forward to reading this book.
I didn’t find it to be written well. A lot of repetition of thing’s written about in the earlier chapters.
After reading it I got on app Duck Duck Go and read excellent bio and information on Carlo’s life. Much better done than the book. 🥲

[Denisele · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't feel like I learned any more reading this book than I did reading a much shorter graphic novel about Carlo. His dedication to his faith during his life as a young boy is definitely remarkable and I look forward to his canonization next year!

[Chris (thebookaholic) Padgett · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an extraordinary boy who loved God above all. What a beautiful witness. The story takes awhile to get going. I often struggle with the flowery language used to talk about saints. The facts are powerful enough. Thankful for this saint.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Notthe best written book, but a great story of a great person.

[Jennifer Kirchoff · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love the story of Blessed Carlo Acutis. I did not enjoy the writing style of the book or how it was all over the place. Would love to read a book from people who were close to him perspectives.

[Robert Conder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy and quick read. Carlo had a short life, but he touched many lives. He was dedicated to his faith and even when sick he did not lose his faith.

[JR Eftink · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading this book about the life of Bl. Carlo Acutis!!!

[camila · Rating 2 out of 5]

repetitive. Some chapters just felt like the same paragraph reworded over and over again. The intro makes up almost half of the book and the actual biography part is very short. Carlo Acutis is a great inspiration for young people but this book does not do his story justice, you’re better off just reading the catholic.org bio on him.