Shrines of Italy: Church of Santa Maria Maggiore (Assisi)

The Church of Saint Mary Major in Asssi is one of the oldest churches in the village, having been first built in the fourth century, and then re-built in the 10th century. It’s one of the few churches I’ve come across in which it’s own history is less relevant than the history of what it contains: in this case, the body of Blessed Carlo Acutis.

For those who may be unfamiliar, his biography states that he was born in London in 1991, but his parents moved to Milan shortly after after his birth. From an early age, he displayed signs of great sanctity, and once stated that Assisi was his favorite place to make pilgrimage. He expressed a desire to visit every Eucharistic Miracle in the world, but was prevented from doing so upon contracting Leukemia at a young age.

Instead, he made use of his passion for computer programming and web design to collect information on more than 136 Eucharistic Miracles throughout history, and compile them into a website of his own creation; a kind of digital museum if you will.

His cause for sainthood has progressed rapidly up to this point, having been declared Servant of God in 2016, Venerable in 2018, and Blessed in 2020 after the Vatican announced the approval of a miracle attributed to his intercession. The miracle involved the healing of a Brazilian child suffering from a rare congenital anomaly of the pancreas in 2013.

Originally, he was buried in a cemetery of Assisi, according to his wishes. Then in 2019, his body was exhumed and found to be in the early stages of natural decay. His remains were then embalmed and treated with modern methods of preservation to include a partial reconstruction of the face by means of a silicon mask.  

It is reported that Carlo’s mother, Antonia Salzano, once received a vision of Saint Francis, in which he told her that her son occupies a high place in heaven, and that he will soon be canonized, after which a generation of new saints will arise, inspired by his example.

His presence within this church has already begun to draw large crowds of pilgrims, eager to pay their respects to the man who’s life represents what a generation of modern saints can and will look like. I can only imagine how much larger these crowds will become in the not-too distant future.