This Nike-wearing millennial saint is shaking up Catholicism
Nobody doubts the short life of Carlos Acutis was one of piety and kindness – but is the teen’s rapid rise to sainthood simply a marketing ploy by the Vatican?
An image of Carlo Acutis is unveiled during his beatification ceremony celebrated by Cardinal Agostino Vallini in the St Francis Basilica, in Assisi, Italy, in 2020. AP
Unless you have looked at a picture to prepare yourself, at first sight the tomb of the Blessed Carlo Acutis, which stands in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in the Umbrian hill town of Assisi, would strike you as distinctly unusual, perhaps a little unsettling.
There, in a glass-sided tomb, lies the body of a teenage boy wearing jeans, a track top and a pair of Nike trainers, a rosary clutched in his hands. The way the body is presented, it seems as if he is floating.
