Carlo Acutis, the British-born teenager declared a saint by Pope Leo XIV in September 2025, is being presented for public veneration in Assisi while cuttings of his hair and other items from his body and belongings have been distributed to selected churches and institutions as relics.
Acutis, who died of leukaemia in 2006 at age 15 and was credited by the Vatican with two posthumous miracles, is displayed in a glass-panelled tomb at the Sanctuary of the Spoliation in Assisi. His heart has been removed, preserved in a golden reliquary and transferred to the nearby Cathedral of San Rufino, and fragments of hair, parts of his pericardium, clothing and a hospital sheet have been given to various Catholic organisations for veneration.
Church officials described the treatment of Acutis’s remains as following longstanding European and Italian practices for presenting saints. To limit visible signs of decay, a silicon mask was made to cover the face and the hands are coated in a film of wax; such measures allow the faithful to see a lifelike representation in a glass reliquary while human tissue is conserved.
Under Catholic tradition, first-class relics — portions of a saint’s body such as hair, bone or blood — are sometimes distributed to parishes, shrines and schools. In the period before and after Acutis’s canonisation, selected recipients have received first-class items. Chaplain Friar Johnpaul Cafiero of Padua Franciscan High School in Ohio received five strands of Acutis’s hair after an application process. Other known recipients include the Bishop Wilkinson Catholic Education Trust in the United Kingdom, the Columbia Newman Center in the United States and parishes in Brazil.
The distribution of relics has been accompanied by an intense popular response. Pilgrims have travelled to Assisi to visit the tomb, queues have formed at churches associated with Acutis’s life, and social media users have sought contacts in possession of first-class relics, which the faithful can touch to second- or third-class objects to confer a blessing.
At the same time, commercial listings for items claimed to be relics or devotional objects associated with Acutis have proliferated online, sometimes commanding high prices. Listings on marketplaces such as Etsy and specialist religious retailers like HolyArt.com showed a wide range of items and prices after the canonisation, with some wooden statues rising in price from tens of pounds to thousands. Online sellers offering alleged adhered relics, hair strands and pieces of cloth have posted prices from around £90 to several thousand pounds.
Italian prosecutors opened an investigation earlier this year into an alleged illegal marketplace for relics after reports that hair purportedly from Acutis had been sold online for as much as €2,000. Bishop Domenico Sorrentino filed a formal complaint, saying investigators must determine whether relics being offered for sale are authentic and whether any deception has occurred. "We do not know whether the relics are real or fake," he said. "But if it were also all invented, if there was deception, we would be not only in the midst of a fraud but also of an insult to religious belief."
Many devout Catholics regard the commercial sale of relics as improper or sinful, and church rules discourage trafficking in sacred objects. Clerics and diocesan authorities typically control the distribution of first-class relics, deciding which institutions may receive them and for how long.
Acutis’s public profile and the distribution of his relics are tied to his reputation for using modern technology in the service of faith. As a teenager he compiled an online catalogue of so-called Eucharistic miracles that the faithful believe demonstrate the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist; the site has been made available in multiple languages. His mother, Antonia Salzano, has said his appeal to young Catholics stemmed from living an ordinary teenage life while placing religious practice at the centre of his days. "Carlo was an ordinary child," she told Reuters earlier this year. "He used to play, to have friends, and to go to school. But his extraordinary quality was the fact that he opened the door of his heart to Jesus and put Jesus in the first place in his life."
Acutis’s remains have been moved several times since his death on Oct. 10, 2006. He was first buried in the town cemetery of Ternengo in the Piedmont region and was transferred to a cemetery in Assisi in January 2007. Church records show that his body was later exhumed and his remains were moved to the Sanctuary of the Spoliation, where they are now on permanent display.
The formal recognition of Acutis as a saint followed the Vatican’s review of miracle claims and a canonisation ceremony in St. Peter’s Square. Being declared a saint signals that the Church believes the person lived a life of heroic virtue and has entered heaven. The canonisation attracted hundreds of pilgrims and drew attention to Acutis as a figure who combined youthful familiarity with digital culture and traditional devotional practice.
Relics have a long history in Catholic devotion, with different classes defined by proximity to the saint: first-class relics come from the body, second-class relics are items a saint owned, and third-class relics are objects touched to a first- or second-class relic. For centuries European churches have used wax or other coverings to present relics in a visual form that is accessible to the faithful while conserving human remains.
The Vatican and diocesan authorities continue to manage the official distribution of Acutis’s relics. At the same time, civil inquiries into the alleged sale of relic items are under way in Italy, and church leaders have cautioned the faithful about purchasing items online that cannot be authenticated. The intersection of intense popular devotion, digital marketplaces and the formal structures of canon law and civil investigation has made the disposition of Acutis’s remains and associated objects a focal point for both veneration and scrutiny.
As pilgrims continue to visit Assisi, church officials say relics will also be loaned or entrusted to parishes and institutions for temporary veneration, in keeping with established practice. The faithful who travel to see Acutis’s tomb or to pray before his heart relic in San Rufino join a longer tradition of honoring saints whose lives and works have had a broad resonance within the church.