This week an exhibit of the Eucharistic miracles compiled by Blessed Carlo Acutis was displayed in the chapel.
Acutis was an Italian teenager who died in 2005 after creating a website documenting Eucharistic miracles from around the world.
“What’s unique about him is he is a 21st century saint, and so he understands the world that we live in more so than those saints from the 19th, 18th, 17th centuries, but also he’s a teenager,” Father Will Banowsky said. “He knew how to use the internet.”
The exhibit consists of a collection of pamphlets explaining some of the Eucharistic miracles Acutis documented.
“All this comes from a website that he built,” Banowsky said. “He knew enough about HTML and website internet infrastructure in the early 2000s to put together this website and put it on the web.”
Campus Minister Kelly Allen explained that Acutis was a modern day saint not much older than high school students today.
“As just a middle school, early high school kid, he started making a website about Eucharistic miracles because he was like, ‘I think these are cool; everyone should know about them,’ so he started making this website about them,” Allen said.
Acutis lived a normal life up until the age of 15 when he was diagnosed with an untreatable leukemia. He died at 15 years old Oct. 12, 2006.
“He was just the kid at school who everyone thought was a nice kid,” Allen said. “You know, he was a real caring kid, very sweet and stuff like that.”
Now, Acutis is called “blessed” after being beatified in 2020.
“He’s on his way to almost full sainthood, and he is the patron saint of the internet now,” Allen said.
Banowsky explained that Acutis was a good example of a normal teenager who showed that people today can achieve holiness.
“He shows you can play video games and be a blessed of the church,” Banowsky said. “You can build a website and be a blessed of the church. You can use technology in a positive and enlightening and enriching and educational way and be a blessed of the church.”
After being in the chapel, the exhibit will be displayed at St. James the Greater Catholic Church.
“I hope that for you and for anyone who comes here, that this can lead them deeper into their faith and deeper into a love and appreciation of encountering Christ in the Eucharist,” Banowsky said.
For more information about Blessed Carlo Acutis, click here.
