A major relic of the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint, St Carlo Acutis, will visit St Patrick’s Cathedral as part of a months-long tour of the country.
Bishop Vincent Long OFM Conv, Bishop of Parramatta, will celebrate Mass to welcome the First-Class Major Pilgrim Relic of St Carlo at the Cathedral on Monday, 28 September, starting at 6pm.
The relic will then remain at St Patrick’s until 30 September, as part of a Vatican International Exhibition of The Eucharistic Miracles of the World. During its stay it will be housed in the cathedral’s chapel for prayer and veneration.
The relic is a small piece of St Carlo’s pericardium, the membrane that encloses the heart. It is on a four-month tour around Australia, finishing on 25 October, under the custodianship of the Diocese of Assisi.
St Carlo died in 2006 from leukaemia at age 15, but during his life he had developed a website devoted to documenting Eucharistic miracles, and practiced five daily spiritual habits that came to be known as his “five steps to holiness” – frequent reception of the Eucharistic Jesus, Adoration, spiritual direction and confession, devotion to the Blessed Mother and the saints, and acts of charity.
During the three days that the relic will be in the cathedral there will also be several talks given by the Friends of St Carlo Acutis Australia about St Carlo and the relic, the exhibition on St Carlo’s Eucharistic Miracles in the Cloister Hall, as well as a chance for individual blessings with the relic.
For more information on the relic’s visit to Parramatta, click here.
The relic’s visit is an example of the Diocesan Pastoral Plan priorities of Prayer and Formation. Visit Synodality to find out more.
