Pope Leo XIV proclaimed the Italians Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis as saints of the Church on Sunday, decreeing their veneration among the Catholic faithful.
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The canonizations of the two men, promulgated before an estimated 70,000 people in St. Peter’s Square, were the first of Leo’s pontificate.
The congregation, which included the family of Acutis, applauded after Pope Leo pronounced the rite of canonization and declared the two patrons of young people as the Church’s newest saints.
In his homily, the Holy Father reflected on a passage from the Book of Wisdom, which was read by Acutis’s younger brother Michele, during the Mass celebration.
“[Lord], who has learned your counsel, unless you have given wisdom and sent your holy spirit from on high?” Leo said, quoting the Old Testament passage. “This question comes after two young blesseds, Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis, were proclaimed saints.”
“This is providential because in the Book of Wisdom, this question is attributed to a young man like them: King Solomon. Upon the death of his father David, he realized that he had many things: power, wealth, health, youth, beauty, and the entire kingdom,” he continued.
Leo spoke extensively about the two new saints in his homily, departing from his predecessor’s practice. Pope Francis normally said little on such occasions about the people he had just canonized.
Like Solomon, Leo said, the new Saints Carlo and Pier Giorgio understood that friendship with Jesus and faithfully following “God’s plans” is greater than any other worldly pursuits.
God “calls us to abandon ourselves without hesitation to the adventure that he offers us with the intelligence and strength that comes from his Spirit,” Leo said Sunday.
“We can receive to the extent that we empty ourselves of the things and ideas to which we are attached, in order to listen to his word,” he continued.
The Holy Father also spoke of other young saints throughout history, including St. Francis of Assisi, who saw it was wise to prefer the love of God and others over riches.
“Today we look to Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati and Saint Carlo Acutis: a young man from the early 20th century and a teenager from our own day, both in love with Jesus and ready to give everything for him,” he said.
“Dear friends, Saints Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis are an invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to squander our lives, but to direct them upwards and make them masterpieces,” he added.
Describing their “winning formula” for holiness, the Holy Father spoke about the ordinary circumstances through which they dedicated their lives to God.
“Pier Giorgio encountered the Lord through school and church groups — Catholic Action, the Conferences of Saint Vincent, the FUCI (Italian Catholic University Federation), the Dominican Third Order — and he bore witness to God with his joy of living and of being a Christian in prayer, friendship and charity,” he said.
“Carlo, for his part, encountered Jesus in his family, thanks to his parents, Andrea and Antonia — who are here today with his two siblings, Francesca and Michele — and then at school, and above all in the sacraments celebrated in the parish community,” he added.
According to the pope, the two Italian saints cultivated their love for God and for their brothers and sisters through “simple acts” of “daily Mass, prayer, and especially Eucharistic Adoration,” which are available to every Catholic.
At the end of the Mass, which he concelebrated with approximately 2,000 other priests, Pope Leo invoked the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary for peace, “especially in the Holy Land and in Ukraine and in every other land that is facing blood.”
“I invite all the authorities to listen and to put down the weapons that lead to destruction and death … they never bring peace and security,” he said.
“God does not want war. God wants peace. God sustains those who fight for peace and who follow the path of dialogue,” he added, before leading the congregation in praying the Angelus.
Leo closed out the event by making a circuit of the Square in his popemobile, waving at the crowd and stopping frequently to bless babies handed to him by his bodyguards.
One pilgrim present in the Square, Australian Caroline Khouri, told CNA the celebration was one she would “remember forever.”
“The joy in the atmosphere here is incredible,” she said.
This article was originally published on Catholic News Agency.
