Sixteen-year-old Carlo Acutis, a deeply religious boy from a non-religious family, died of leukemia and was recently canonized. The ‘cyber saint’ in sneakers is now, barely twenty years after his death, in the same list as Saint Martin, Saint Nicholas and Saint Francis. How does such a process actually work? What is sacred – and what does this modern saint say about the times we live in?
Show notes:
- Also read Sjoerd de Jong’s article about the canonization of Carlo Acutis here
- In this episode Hendrik Spiering refers to the book Legend aurea (ca 1280), recently published in Dutch as Lives of the Saints
- He also refers to an earlier episode of Hairless Apes: ‘Why we fall silent when the king enters‘
Do you have questions, suggestions or ideas about our journalism? Send an email to our editorial team at [email protected].
- Presentation:
- Gemma Venhuizen
- Guests:
- Sjoerd de Jong and Hendrik Spiering
- Editing & editing:
- Liz Dautzenberg
- Photo:
- Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters
NEW: Give this item as a gift
As an NRC subscriber you can subscribe every month 10 items give as a gift to someone without an NRC subscription. The recipient can read the article directly, without a paywall.