On Sunday Fr Michael Toomey along with parishioners from Ardfinnan and across Ireland were among almost 100,000 people of all ages who gathered in St Peters Square in the Vatican, to take part in the Canonisations of Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis, whose shrine is installed in Holy Family Church Ardfinnan.
After the Canonisation of St Carlo Acutis on Sunday by Pope Leo XIV, Fr Michael met St. Carlo’s mother, Antonia Salzano, and the Acutis family including his father Andrea Acutis, and St. Carlo’s twin siblings who were born 4 years after his death, his sister Francesca and brother Michele, who read the First Reading at his brothers Canonisation earlier.
Fr Michael gave his mother a picture of the Shrine installed in Ardfinnan parish and thanked her for her sons witness to his faith, especially the Eucharist, and the legacy he has left and the inspiration he already has given to many around the world. St Carlo’s mother presented Fr Michael with a Second Class Relic of her son to allow him to bring to schools, the sick, and those who wish to pray for St Carlo’s intercession.
On Tuesday Fr Michael will travel to Assisi, where the remains of St. Carlo Acutis lie in repose for people to see and venerate, and he will then receive the authorised First Class Relic from the Bishop of Assisi. The relic will then be installed in Holy Family Church, Ardfinnan, on Sunday 12th October, St Carlo’s Feast Day at 12pm Mass presided by Bishop Cullinan, Bishop of Waterford & Lismore. The First Class Relic will then remain permanently at the Church in Ardfinnan, where the recent blessing and instillation of a statue of Carlo Acutis and shrine in Ardfinnan to the new saint has already drawn thousands from across the country to see it.
