Carlo Acutis died on October 12, 2006, at the San Gerardo Hospital in Monza, a few miles away from Milan.
A hospital with a long history and deep tradition, ‘a hospital of Saints’ as the chaplain, Father Riccardo Brena, described in an interview with Vatican correspondent Courtney Mares.
Founded by St. Gerardo in 1174, it has been the place of saints because, it was here, that the parents of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Louis and Marie Zelie Guerin Martin, performed their first miracle which led to their beatification.
This hospital also saw the birth of St Gianna Beretta Molla’s four children. St Gianna was the first Canonized Saint after St. Charles Borromeo in the diocese of Milan. And most recently, in 2006, the future Saint, Carlo Acutis lived out his last days.
“Carlo teaches us one thing,” Fr. Riccardo Brena noted, “he teaches us that when suffering comes there is a position in life that can help us welcome it, at least to accept it. Because welcoming and accepting suffering for a Catholic means to unite it with the cross of Jesus. And when you have that crucifix, you are in pain, as Jesus was in pain for you, to save you. That cross becomes lighter and less heavy because it is offered to the cross of Jesus.”
Fr. Riccardo Brena became the hospital chaplain in 2022, but in a short time he understood how the memory of Carlo Acutis was alive and present in this place. And especially how the example of the future saint is an inspiration to many patients:
“Carlo welcomed this moment of his pain and suffering, as if he was ready for this passage into a greater life than the one, he was leaving. It is as if he had divested himself of his youth in order to offer it to the Lord, and this offering was noticed by the doctors and nurses, as a boy who did not complain about his pain, who did not complain about anything that was happening to him, but who had brought it upon himself to see it as a fulfillment of his life.”
“Carlo Acutis passed by very quickly here at San Gerardo, he was a very bright star, but a meteor.”
This is the recollection of Dr. Claudio Cogliati, president of the hospital, who traces the hospitalization of Carlo Acutis. With the help of his staff, he continues to keep the memory of the future saint burning.
At the same time, he keeps reminding us of the purpose of the health care staff at San Gerardo Hospital in Monza.
“I think what we must do is not make people lose hope, because hope must never die. And even if we can’t manage to treat the patient to the end, we have to give them our best care. But hope must never die, even for those kids who don’t make it.”
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Adapted by Jacob Stein
Produced by Anthony Johnson; Camera by Anthony Johnson, Gianluca Gangemi; Video edited by Gianluca Gangemi
