The Catholic Church’s most recent candidate for sainthood is also its most modern.
Lying in a glass-sided casket in jeans and a track jacket, the body of Carlo Acutis, an internet enthusiast who died in 2006 of leukemia at the age of 15, was venerated by some 41,000 visitors during a 19-day-long celebration of his beatification, the last step before sainthood, that ended Monday (Oct. 19).
His hands locked above his chest, his unruly curls resting on a pillow, Acutis lay in repose at the Shrine of the Renunciation at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Assisi, Italy. A silicone mask was placed over his face and hands in order for the remains to be presented “with dignity for the veneration of the faithful,” according to the church.