The Saint John Paul II National Shrine will offer a temporary display beginning April 19 of Blessed Carlo Acutis’s Eucharistic Miracles Exhibit in connection with Saint John Paul II’s love and devotion for the Eucharist.
The display, entitled “Transformed by the Eucharist: Blessed Carlo Acutis and Saint John Paul II,” offers a selection of panels from the Eucharistic Miracles Exhibit designed by Blessed Carlo that have a special tie to Saint John Paul II. It also includes quotes and images from Saint John Paul II on the Eucharist.
A first-class relic, a strand of Carlo’s hair, will also be available for veneration. The relic was a gift to the Shrine from Antonia Acutis, Blessed Carlo’s mother, who visited the Shrine in October 2023.
Blessed Carlo and Saint John Paul II shared an intense love and devotion to the Holy Eucharist.
During his 26 years as pope, Saint John Paul II continuously sought to increase devotion to the Holy Eucharist, both by his example and through his teachings. He famously confessed in a Sept. 27, 1997 address to young people of Bologna, Italy that “the Eucharist is the secret of my day.” He dedicated his last encyclical to the teachings of the Church on the Eucharist, Ecclesia de Eucharistia.
Blessed Carlo’s love for the Most Blessed Sacrament led him to design an online exhibit on the “Eucharistic Miracles of the World” to draw others to the understanding of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
Carlo Acutis was born in 1991 in England and raised in Italy. From a very early age, he was known for his intense devotion to the Eucharist. As a talented website designer, he created a website to document and catalogue recognized Eucharistic miracles and approved Marian apparitions. He died from leukemia on Oct. 12, 2006 at the age of 15. He is buried in Assisi, Italy. Pope Francis beatified him in 2020.
This exhibit that brings together Blessed Carlo’s designs with Saint John Paul II’s words and images, is part of the Saint John Paul II National Shrine’s commitment to the New Evangelization, and is offered during this year of Eucharistic Revival in the United States, culminating in the Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis in July 2024, of which Blessed Carlo has been named co-patron.
The Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington is located 3900 Harewood Road, N.E.
