Just a Kid? Introducing 'Carlo Acutis: Holiness for the Third Millennium'

This graphic novel about soon-to-be-Saint Carlo Acutis encourages Kathryn Pasker Ineck to think about the little things we can do that will make a lasting difference.  

Carlo Acutis: Holiness for the Third Millennium

by Camille De Prevaux
Illustrated by Fabrizio Russo and Roberta Pusceddu
Ignatius Press

Caught unawares and in need of a quick saint costume, I rummaged through my son’s closet and pulled out a soccer jersey and sneakers. “Here,” I told him, “You can be Blessed Carlo Acutis.” I didn’t know who that was, just that his image had begun popping up everywhere I turned.  

Now that he will be canonized in a matter of months, a graphic novel titled Carlo Acutis: Holiness for the Third Millennium by Camille De Prevaux was released in time for all of us to learn more about this remarkable Italian teen. Illustrated by Fabrizio Russo and Roberta Pusceddu, the 9-by-12-inch hardcover book is a feast of beautifully detailed and remarkably modern images to propel the biography along and engage the mind of the reader.  

An evangelist. A helper. A problem-solver 

I began reading the book with curiosity: the choice to present a saint’s life with a graphic novel is a remarkably modern idea, but I wasn’t sure how it would translate to the page. As I read about the larger-than-life Carlo, he takes on a mythic quality: he is a friend to animals, to immigrants, to the homeless, the elderly, and his peers. He loves video games and teaches himself to play a musical instrument. He is an athlete. An evangelist. A helper. A problem-solver.  

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes a little: this teen is being heralded as a perfect kid just as many of the saint stories of the past, stories of people whose lives appear to be either scrubbed clean or whose personalities seem boringly flat. 

But then? I took a closer look and saw a lot of my friend Peter reflected in Carlo. 

In Carlo’s Footsteps 

Peter is impossibly good. He is as comfortable with his elderly friends as he is with his classmates or with toddlers, and today at 15 as when he was a preschooler, he weaves in and out among his many social circles with ease. As a 7-year-old, he was always firm in his declaration that his dad — his Appa — was his very best friend. As an 8-year-old, he good-naturedly bragged that his Appa was a superhero since he now lived with Jesus in Heaven. As a 9-year-old, Peter wisely counseled one of his buddies that his behavior wasn’t quite up to snuff and that he should consider “taking that to Confession” (a point that the offender agreed with and did, in fact, take it to Confession.)  

Like Carlo, Peter has had the opportunity to visit many shrines throughout the world, having traveled to India, Italy, and France in his young life; he has a hard time choosing his definitive favorite, but has it narrowed down to the three basilicas at Lourdes. Peter plays soccer, watches basketball, loves LEGO, and enjoys video games. But Mass? That’s where his heart really comes alive — and he is bewildered when he hears someone say they don’t enjoy attending church services. 

The Lasting Effect of One 

Certainly Peter is not Carlo, but Peter is a good reminder that Carlo, too, was just a kid — a Millennial, in fact. Carlo Acutis: Holiness for the Third Millennium encourages the reader to think about what he or she can do — little things in the way of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux — that will make a lasting difference.  

Carlo chose to collect litter when he was out in nature, to rescue stray animals, to provide small meals for a homeless man on the street, to help fix neighbors’ computers. None of his actions were on a grand scale, but all of his actions made a cumulative and lasting effect on the people who happened to be caught within his sphere of influence. And all of his actions — his insistence on really seeing the people and world around him — are manageable for each one of us. 

Regular Kids 

It was Peter who first alerted me to the existence of the remarkable life that Carlo Acutis led.  

Of course it was.  

The Carlos and the Peters of the world are regular kids and they show us that living a life in today’s modern society is not just something that we have to trudge through: we can be a light for Christ, bringing joy and wonder to the lost, the lonely, and the broken. They make us whole. 

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Copyright 2024 Kathryn Pasker Ineck
Images: (top) detail from book cover