Carlo Acutis’ mother: Testimonies arrive almost daily

Antonia Salzano sits with the steady arrival of letters and messages that still reach her family each week. One year after her son Carlo was canonized, she notes that accounts of people turning back to prayer or finding relief from illness continue without pause. Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati were both raised to the altar on September 7, 2025, by Pope Leo XIV. The ceremony had been planned earlier during the Jubilee of Teenagers but was delayed after the death of Pope Francis. When the date finally came, the declaration that Carlo was now officially recognized as a saint brought relief to the family after years of waiting. Before that day the Salzano family had already gathered many reports of favors received through Carlo’s prayers. These began arriving at his funeral and never stopped. The canonization simply added the Church’s formal confirmation that Carlo is in heaven, yet the stream of new accounts kept the same pace it had before. Carlo had long admired Pier Giorgio Frassati as an example of daily Mass and time before the Eucharist. Antonia sees the two young men as linked by that same focus on the sacrament of love, which she says helped both of them reach out to those in need and speak plainly to other young people. Since the canonization, projects named for Carlo have appeared in more places, and the family receives fresh reports from young adults, priests, and religious sisters who say his example helped them live their faith with greater steadiness. Antonia describes this as a quiet growth in daily prayer rather than sudden changes. The Church has opened causes for other young people who died with a reputation for holiness, among them Marco Gallo and Pedro Ballester. Antonia points to earlier examples such as the Fatima visionaries and Chiara Luce Badano as signs that the path to holiness has always been open at young ages, even when formal recognition took longer. These lives remain visible signs that another way of living is possible, she observes, especially when many young people feel uncertain about their direction. The testimonies that still arrive each day continue to trace the same pattern of ordinary faithfulness that marked Carlo’s own years.