The originally planned date for Acutis’ canonization was April 26, during the Jubilee for Adolescents, while Frassati’s was set for August 6, on the occasion of the Jubilee of Young People. With the passing of Pope Francis and the election of Pope Leo XIV, new dates were awaited.
Acutis: The “influencer of holiness”
Nicknamed by some as the “influencer of holiness,” Carlo Acutis had his canonization decree approved by Pope Francis on May 23. A young layman, Carlo was passionate about the Eucharist and information technology. In the ordinary consistory of July 1, Francis had announced that Carlo would be raised to the honors of the altars “on a date to be determined.”
The Bishop of Assisi, Domenico Sorrentino, had hinted in recent months that Providence, he said, “wanted the proclamation of his sanctity—the ‘canonization’—to take place in the Jubilee Year that will begin in a few months.”
Frassati: The Beatitudes boy
Frassati was a young student from Turin, a Dominican tertiary and a member of the Vincentians, FUCI, and Catholic Action. He is one of the most well-known blesseds among the new generations of Catholics, considered one of Italy’s “social” saints. A member of a wealthy family, devoted to prayer and the vulnerable, he was also a talented athlete: “a shrewd mountaineer,” as he was called by John Paul II, who beatified the boy of the Eight Beatitudes in 1990.
On June 4, 2025, it will be 100 years since his passing.
Seven more saints in October
In addition, the Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff announced that on October 19, the following blesseds will be canonized:
- Ignatius Choukrallah Maloyan, Armenian Catholic Archbishop of Mardin and martyr;
- Peter To Rot, layman and catechist, martyr;
- Vincenza Maria Poloni, founder of the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of Verona;
- María del Monte Carmelo Rendiles Martínez, founder of the Congregation of the Servants of Jesus;
- Maria Troncatti, religious sister of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians;
- José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros, layman;
- and Bartolo Longo, also a layman.
