“May this chapel become a quiet space of prayer, reflection, and renewal, a reminder that God still uses the faith of the young to inspire the hearts of all generations,” the bishop said, during the blessing ceremony held on St. Carlo’s feast day, October 12.

St. Carlo was just 15 years old when he died from leukemia in October 2006. He and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati were canonized this past September during a Mass that drew more than 80,000 people to St. Peter’s Square. 

“Both Pier Giorgio and Carlo cultivated their love for God and for their brothers and sisters through simple acts, available to everyone: daily Mass, prayer, and especially eucharistic adoration,” Pope Leo XIV said during the Mass.

Born in London in 1991 to Italian parents, St. Carlo spent his childhood in Milan, Italy, where he developed a deep love for God and the Church. He called the Eucharist “my highway to heaven” and was quoted as saying, “In front of the sun, you get a tan. In front of the Eucharist, you become a saint!”

When he was just 11 years old, Carlo, who loved computers, began designing a website that showcased eucharistic miracles.

“For a teenager living in the middle of social media, games, and online noise, that was revolutionary. He reminds us that the Gospel does not silence the modern world; it transforms it. Carlo used the very tools that so often lead people away from God — the Internet, technology, and media — to draw souls back to the Eucharist,” Bishop Ruggieri said during the chapel blessing. “Carlo’s life reminds us that holiness is not outdated. It is not a relic of the past but the adventure of the present moment.”

In October 2006, Carlo was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia and died just two weeks later. Following his death, two miracles were attributed to his intercession, leading to his beatification and then canonization.  The first was the healing of a Brazilian boy born with a malformed pancreas that left him unable to eat normally. The second was the healing of a college student from Costa Rica who was given little chance of survival after suffering severe head trauma in a bicycle accident. The woman’s mother prayed before then-Blessed Carlo’s tomb in Assisi, and on that same day, her daughter’s condition improved. A week later, a CAT scan showed that her hemorrhage had disappeared.

Father Louis Phillips, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Parish, which includes St. Anne Church, says it was a visit to then-Blessed Carlo’s tomb during an October 2024 pilgrimage that led to the drive to dedicate the chapel at St. Anne Church to him.

“I was seeing young people from all over the world visit, and you could just see it in their eyes how much they were moved and drawn by not only their visit to the tomb but by Carlo’s whole life and ministry. And to see that in young people was, for me, transformational,” explains Father Phillips.

The St. Carlo Acutis Veneration Chapel features a mural that depicts St. Carlo in front of the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, where Carlo liked to go to pray. The mural was painted by artist Hope Drenning, who graduated in 2020 from the Maine College of Art & Design in Portland.

Drenning says Father Phillips had a vision for what he wanted the mural to look like, which she sought to capture.

“I wanted to bring a real sense of joy and brightness to the space so that when people come up the stairs and when they come out of the sanctuary, it can be just this beautiful, light, hopeful thing of St. Carlo. I don’t know his story very intimately, but I know that a lot of his work was to help inspire youth and to bring youth into the Church, and that’s something that I’m passionate about in my own way, you know, bringing fine art back into the churches so that they become places of wonder again. And so, with this mural, it’s like tag teaming with St. Carlo,” says Drenning. “I hope it brings people joy. I hope it’s inspiring.”

“This mural really is vibrant,” says Kathleen March, a parishioner who participated in the October pilgrimage. “Sitting here in the presence of this large mural just takes me personally back to that location.”

Father Phillips selected another young artist to contribute to the chapel. Sophie Rahilly painted an image of Christ and St. Carlo on a prayer intention box, and she painted inspirational quotes above the chapel’s door panels. One from Pope Francis reads, “To be saints is not a privilege for the few but a vocation for everyone.”

Through the kindness of St. Carlo’s mother, Antonia Salzano, the parish was able to obtain a first-class relic of St. Carlo, which will be on permanent display in the chapel. A first-class relic is a fragment of a body part of a saint, rather than something with which he came in contact.

The chapel also features a life-sized statue of St. Carlo, which was commissioned from the Ferdinand Stuflesser Studios in Ortisei, Italy. Carlo is wearing his signature backpack and is holding a Bible and rosary beads in his hands. A dog, modeled after Father Phillips’ own Dachshund, is situated at the saint’s side because Carlo was known to have had a lot of pets.

The statue, which was donated by Father Phillips in memory of his parents, is one of many memorial gifts that contributed to the beauty of the chapel.

“I think it’s a fantastic addition for families. I’m a young mom, and it’s really brought a lot of hope and joy to my children and to our parish in general,” says Melissa O’Leary, a parishioner.

“I think this is a perfect time to dedicate it to Carlo just because of the call of our time, the generation that we’re in, the era that we’re in with young people. So many of them are separated from the Church and separated from the Lord that this is a perfect time to revitalize a small place of prayer with a saint who is so relatable to young people,” says March. 

Father Phillips hopes the chapel will be used by groups and parishes throughout the diocese as a place for retreats, pilgrimages, and youth gatherings. He notes that St. Anne Church doesn’t have a vigil Mass on Saturday, making it available that day. The church also has a kitchen and meeting rooms. 

Apostle of the Eucharist Award

As part of the chapel blessing celebration, St. Anthony of Padua Parish presented its first annual Apostle of the Eucharist Award to a graduating senior who exemplifies the legacy of St. Carlo Acutis through service to the Church, being a friend to all, being a faith model to one’s peers, and being devoted to the Blessed Mother, the Eucharist, and one’s family. The winner of the award was Anselm Arbogast, who is now a freshman at the University of Maine in Orono.

“It’s an awesome thing. It was unexpected, but I’m glad about it. I’m very thankful to Bishop Ruggieri and Father Lou for all of this and for all that the Church has given me,” he says. “Praying every day and going to Mass, it sets a baseline for me, and it’s something I hold very dearly in my life.”

St. Pier Giorgio Frassati

Along with St. Carlo, Pope Leo XIV canonized Pier Giorgio Frassati. Pier Giorgio was born in Turin, Italy, in 1901 and embraced his faith from a young age. While he enjoyed music, art, skiing, and mountain climbing, his true love was Christ in the Eucharist. He attended daily Mass and frequently participated in all-night vigils before the Blessed Sacrament.

For Pier Giorgio, faith was also connected to service. He said, “Jesus comes to me every day in Communion, and I return the visit by going to serve Him in the poor.” Such was his commitment to service that St. John Paul II referred to him as the “Man of the Beatitudes.”

 Pier Giorgio contracted polio in June 1925, likely from visiting the sick. He died a few days later at the age of 24. After his death, his family was shocked to see the crowds lining the streets for his funeral.