A new shrine to Blessed Carlo Acutis was unveiled in London’s Corpus Christi Catholic Church, Maiden Lane, last week, after a mass and blessing by Bishop Nicholas Hudson.
The shrine, recently carved by the renowned Italian liturgical sculptor Ferdinand Stuflesser, also contains a First Class relic of Blessed Acutis, presented to the Shrine by Cardinal Vincent Nichols. First Class relics contain fragments of the bodily remains of a saint or blessed.
Bishop Hudson, an auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of Westminster, said in his homily that Acutis, who died in 2006, was a “good saint to ask to be with us when we come to Golgotha”. He told those attending the mass to ask Acutis “to be your guide in this life too”.
Acutis, who was born in London in 1991, was a devout Catholic and amateur computer enthusiast, known for his focus on the Eucharist, curating a website of Eucharistic miracles before his death in 2006. Permitted to receive first Holy Communion unusually early, Acutis spent much of his time working with the elderly, homeless and young people, becoming a catechist at just 11 years old. Diagnosed with Leukaemia aged 15, Acutis died shortly after, “offering up his suffering for the Pope and the Church”. Credited with one miracle in 2013, the healing of a chronically ill Brazilian child, he was beatified in October 2020.
Bishop Hudson used his homily to ask the congregation to pray for Actutis’ parents Andrea and Antonia, and to ask Actuis to “bless each one of us here, poor sinners that we are, and help us find our faltering stumbling way to heaven”. Acutis’ life presented a “road-map”, he said, especially for young people, to “grow closer to Jesus”. Acutis’ body is buried in Assisi, where his heart is on display in the Basilica of St Francis.
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