Two days after diagnosis, St. Carlo Acutis, 15, asks to be anointed

MONZA, October 10, 2006 AD — Saint Carlo Acutis, a fifteen-year-old schoolboy from Milan, asked today at San Gerardo Hospital in Monza to receive the Anointing of the Sick and Holy Communion, because he was certain that he would soon die. Eight days ago his illness looked like a bad flu. On Sunday doctors found it was M3 leukaemia, the most aggressive form of the disease.

St. Carlo fell ill on Monday, October 2. On Sunday, October 8, his condition suddenly grew much worse, and he was taken to hospital. As he went in, St. Carlo said: “I’m not getting out of here.” Doctors at the De Marchi clinic in Milan made the diagnosis that day. The next day, Monday, October 9, he was still getting worse, so he was moved out of Milan to San Gerardo Hospital in Monza. The hospital has a centre that specialises in that kind of leukaemia.

Today, his second day at Monza, St. Carlo asked to be anointed and to receive Communion. He was certain that he would soon die and meet God. St. Carlo had gone to Mass every day since his First Communion at the age of seven.

The Church gives the Anointing of the Sick to anyone whose life is in danger from illness. To those who are about to die, it also gives the Eucharist as viaticum (provision for the journey). A priest anointed St. Carlo there at San Gerardo.

At Monza St. Carlo kept his calm and his good humour. Some of the nurses and doctors looking after him were struck by the way he accepted the illness and the suffering it brought.