'There's a Saint who's just like me'

By Cristina Cabrera Jarro -

Photography: Cristina Cabrera Jarro

PINECREST | In anticipation of Pope Leo XIV’s canonization of Carlo Acutis on Sept. 7, 2025, St. Louis Covenant School in Pinecrest kicked off the historic occasion on Sept. 5 with a “Canonization Celebration” of their own. Students and faculty dressed in Acutis’ iconic red top, jeans, and sneakers for a half-day of cross-curricular activities focused around the life and wisdom of the millennial saint.

Following St. Carlo Acutis, who proclaimed “The Eucharist is my highway to heaven,” a Mass in thanksgiving was also included in the day’s schedule. At Mass, Father Andrew Vitrano-Farinato, parochial vicar at St. Louis Parish, shared with students the blessing they had in having a saint born so close to their generation.

“Many of us can finally look to and see someone who has walked in our shoes, who understands our own life, and who can be a model to us in this modern era,” he said.

He explained how Acutis believed originality was a God-given gift, and as Catholics we are not meant to hide, but to stand out.

“Not in a way that calls attention to ourselves, but in a way where we follow the unique path that God has for us, the unique action of being an evangelist, and sharing the message of our salvation,” Father Vitrano-Farinato added.

After the Mass, a time was dedicated to Eucharistic adoration.“Being before the Eucharist makes us holy,” Acutis would say.

Notably, when he was 13, the saint used his love of the Blessed Sacrament and combined it with his talents for technology to create an exhibition dedicated to Eucharistic miracles. The catalog still exists today in a website that Acutis created, www.miracolieucaristici.org, available in 17 languages. The exhibition is currently on display on five continents.

While the exhibit did not visit St. Louis on this occasion, a second-class relic of St. Carlo Acutis did. Before a moment of veneration, each student was given a prayer card of the saint, and with a touch of their card to the second-class relic of Acutis, they converted their cards into third-class relics.

Throughout the rest of the celebration, students broke off into separate groups on a rotating schedule that allowed for recreational activity honoring Carlo’s love for sports, a sweet treat of vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting, dubbed “Cloud” cupcakes for the occasion, and in the class-rooms, they reflected on what it means to be holy in a digital age, and more.

The school’s media center also hosted an exhibit of their own creation curated about the life of St. Carlo Acutis with various informational and visual display boards and books dedicated to the young saint. Personal items representing Acutis’ favorite things, like a rosary and a Bible, as well as a Nintendo Game Boy, a soccer ball, and even Nutella, were also on display.

Sixth grader Camila Abreu observed, “He was just like us. He loved video games and he used the internet. Just normal kid stuff. But he was connected to God, and very devoted.”

A graffiti mural of St. Carlo Acutis, created by the school’s after school art club, was also on display. “The school wanted something big, so this is what we did,” said Erick Nieto, the artist and art teacher behind the project.

The mural includes a portrait of Acutis with a cable connecting his pixelated-looking heart to a laptop that has an image of the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance. His full name appears in graffiti style, with a halo floating above his first name that is wrapped with a rosary; the “T” in his last name has been converted into the cross from the rosary. The art is tagged, or signed, with “God’s influencer.”

“I really wanted to have the modern part of Carlo Acutis in it. This ties in his love of Christ and technology,” said Nieto.

‘CANONIZATION DAY’ 

Inspired by St. Carlo Acutis’ creativity with technology, St. Louis Covenant School also produced and shared a music video on social media. Musically inspired by Disney’s R 20;Frozen” the video features faculty, students, and staff reimagining the song “Coronation Day” as “Canonization Day.”

Instead of Princess Anna in the opening scene, we see Principal Julie Perdomo asleep. As she wakes, she turns over, spots a red polo—a signature look of Acutis—and exclaims “It’s a canonization day!”

With rewritten lyrics sung by St. Louis’ school counselor, Mary Jesurun, the song maintains the upbeat style of the original as we follow Perdomo and the school staff, who perform simple choreography as they prepare the school and church for the special celebration.

The song peaks with fourth grader Clark Nieto standing before the mural of Carlo Acutis, as he lip-syncs the chorus: “For the first time ever, there’s a saint who’s just like me”

The video cuts to fifth graders Jack Rodriguez, Andrew Malveaux, Roman Garbati, and Oliver Marger chiming in with “Red polo, jeans and sneakers, who loves Eucharistic mysteries.”

We see pre-K students and early childhood education director Irene Marinelli with hands in prayer as they sing “So pray for me, dear Carlo, to follow in your ways,” and finish off in the hallways of the school with Perdomo, her faculty and eighth graders in jubilee as they proclaim: “On the highway to heaven, it’s canonization day!”