From above, St. Peter’s Square is an immense, colorful carpet. The uniform of the young faithful who arrived in Rome for the canonization of Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati consists of a backpack, an umbrella for sun protection, and a cap. Images of the two eternal youths looked out over the crowd in front of the basilica—an audience that believes in the power of prayer, even when spread through social media.
It is no coincidence that Acutis, the patron saint of the internet, is called the “influencer of God,” and the faithful are already devoted to him, as they are to Frassati. The people—mostly under 30—of the saints proclaimed today poured into St. Peter’s Square from every part of Italy and the world. Among the crowd were flags from the United States, Poland, and Spain, alongside banners with the faces of Acutis and Frassati, holy cards, and signs.
Pope Francis described it as a “beautiful celebration for all of Italy, for the entire Church, and for the whole world” before the canonization liturgy. The event resembled a new jubilee for the young, with over 80,000 faithful in attendance, dressed in jeans and shorts—an attire not unlike that of Acutis in the photograph that serves as his saintly image.
Having died in 2006 at age 15, the icon depicts him in the clothes of the youths who continued to fill the square during the liturgy: a backpack on his shoulders and a red polo shirt with a popped collar. Some statues even depict him with his computer, a reminder that he is the first millennial saint, also beloved by Gen Z for his proximate year of birth.
On the square’s steps were also Italian confraternities, of which Frassati is a patron, wearing their uniforms and neckerchiefs. Some held a signed photograph of the saint, who died in 1925 at just 24, almost like an autograph. A nun smiled for cameras as she displayed images of the two newly canonized young men side by side.
And on this occasion, as during the Jubilee for Teens and the World Youth Day, the flags bearing the faces of the two saints stood out among the many national banners—faces that no one struggles to recognize anymore. Both are secular symbols of a generation that still prays in squares, sings in churches, and believes in miracles. “They are kids like us,” is the thought of the young faithful, who speak of Frassati and Acutis in the present tense, though they are already the future.
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