“Passion is also important in the life of a young person. A young life without passion is like plain pasta without salt,” the Pope said March 23 during a meeting at the Vatican with students and staff from the Barbarigo Institute school in Padua.
By approving the canonization of Carlo Acutis, Pope Francis has endorsed a new role model for today’s teenagers. On April 27th he will be canonized during the Jubilee for Teenagers. A good moment to reflect on all those – like Carlo who died at the age of 15 – who achieved sainthood at a fairly young age.
Passionist priest Father Antonio Coppola, from the Basilica of Our Lady of Graces and Saint Maria Goretti, recounted the story of St. Maria Goretti:
“On her deathbed Maria Goretti was asked by a priest if she was willing to forgive Alessandro, and she replied: ‘I forgive him from my heart and I want him with me in paradise.’”
Alessandro, her murderer, later converted in prison after he had an apparition of Maria Goretti. After his release from prison, he moved to a Capuchin monastery, working in the garden as a tertiary for the remainder of his life.
Tarcisius was a twelve-year-old acolyte during one of the fierce Roman persecutions of the third century, probably during that of Valerian. Each day, from a secret meeting place in the catacombs where Christians gathered for Mass, a deacon would be sent to the prisons to carry the Eucharist to those Christians condemned to die. At one point, there was no deacon and so St. Tarcisius was sent carrying the “Holy Mysteries” to those in prison.
Somehow, he was also recognized as a Christian, and a gang of boys became a mob and turned upon Tarcisius with fury. He went down under the blows, and after Tarcisius was carried to the catacombs, he died on the way from the injuries they inflicted.
In 2010, Pope Benedict reminded altar servers that Tarcisius is their patron saint:
“Dear altar servers, St Tarcisius’ testimony and this beautiful tradition teach us the deep love and great veneration that we must have for the Eucharist: it is a precious good, a treasure of incomparable value.”
In 2016, Pope Francis declared José Sánchez del Río a saint. José was a 14-year-old Mexican boy who, in 1928 during a civil war in Mexico, was captured and tortured.
This conflict was between Catholic peasant militias and the government, which was anti-Catholic. Despite severe torture, José refused to abandon his Catholic faith.
Tragically, after his captors mutilated the soles of his feet, he was made to walk to the location of his execution. His final words were a defiant cry of faith: “Long live Christ the King,” shouted just before he was executed.
An eager, young priest in the making and a faithful student of John Bosco, Savio was known for his devotion to Mary and deep admiration for the Eucharist. When Savio was accepted by St. Bosco to the Oratory in Turin, he asked his teacher to ‘help him become a saint.’
But Savio died of pulmonary tuberculosis at the age of 14. Today he is the Patron Saint of Choir Singers. Pope Pius XI referred to him as “A little, or rather, a great giant of the Spirit.”
In his message for the 62nd World Day of Prayer for Vocations in 2025, Pope Francis said that the lives of young saints like St. Dominic Savio shows that our vocation is “a path towards true happiness through friendship with the risen Lord.”
A popular Polish Saint, Kostka was a novice of the Society of Jesus.
Kostka escaped his college and walked from Vienna, all the way to Rome to join the Jesuit order. Due to his unstable health conditions, Kostka was unable to finish his training and died right after having a vision of Mary surrounded by angels.
He is the patron Saint of youth, young students and seminarians and to this day very popular in Poland.
St. Agnes was a young girl when she consecrated her virginity to God. Although stories of her martyrdom vary, tradition holds that the young girl was pursued by various men, whom she refused because of her promise to God, saying “Jesus Christ is my only spouse.”
She was brought to the Roman Governor and accused of being a Christian. The Governor tried to change Agnes’ mind and strip her of her purity, but the young girl was protected by an Angel.
Finally, she was condemned to death with her last words ringing “He chose me first and He shall have me.”
The famous Roman church of St. Agnes was later built over the site of her martyrdom.
Fr. John D’Orazio of Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, the Diocese of Rome’s pilgrimage office, tells us of St. Agnes and her relics in Rome:
“Here we have a relic of St. Agnes, her skull, that was brought over from the catacombs. She was buried in the catacombs of Via Nomentana, but this relic, as the remembrance of her martyrdom, was brought back to this church that was built over the place of her martyrdom.”
Today she is known as the Patron Saint of young girls and chastity.
The example of these saints, as well as the canonization of Carlo Acutis, show that it is possible to live a holy life even as a teenager, as Pope Francis reminds young people:
“Dear teenagers, you don’t have the experience of adults, but you do have something that we adults have sometimes lost. you have ‘a keen nose’. Do not lose this, please! You have a keen nose for reality, and that is a great thing.”
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Adapted by Jacob Stein
Produced by Rudolf Gehrig.
