I somehow thought that venerating holy relics was a thing of the past. I think of the moment in “The Leopard” where an expert examines the collection held by Prince Fabrizio’s wife and rejects almost all of it as fake. Well, today I read that the pope plans to canonise a young man, Carlo Acutis, known as “God’s Influencer” for his work making websites that spread catholic teaching. It seems that his relics are already venerated:
“In a see-through safe carved into a wall behind the altar of a chapel in northern Rome lies a collection of relics of Carlo Acutis. These include a splinter from his wooden bed, a fragment of a jumper and a piece of the sheet used to cover him after his death. Locks of his hair are on display in other churches in the Italian capital and beyond.”
Apparently it is hoped that making a saint of this young man will encourage young people into the church.
That’s another thing. I may be wrong but I was given to understand that to be a saint you had to perform some sort of miracle or die a martyr’s death. Carlo Acutis died of leukaemia at the age of 15 but as far as I know he performed no miracles. But there it is.
Dalilo Spagnoletti, the parish priest at Sant’Angela Merici, the church where the above-mentioned relics are displayed, says that such relics help instil courage in pilgrims. Actual remains are best. This young man’s body, covered in a wax mould of his likeness and dressed in his blue tracksuit top, jeans and trainers, is on view in behind a glass-pannelled case in the town of Assisi. More than a million pilgrims have been to see it in the last year. “Praying close to a saint’s remains helps them to face difficulties in life,” said Danilo Spagnoletti. “In particular, this saint, who had a short life but was far advanced in many ways, is a source of inspiration for young people.”
It’s a little gruesome but if it helps people overcome life’s problems, fair enough.
However, other solutions are possible. According to this article, young people are turning to arts and crafts as a way of coping with life’s difficulties.
Our Granddaughter Number One is a prime example of this, among having taught herself to knit among other things. Or rather she reminded herself how to knit by watching YouTube videos, but she learnt to knit long ago in her childhood. She has also taught herself how to clean sheep’s fleeces, to card the wool (I think my terminology is correct) and to spin it. As well as knitting the resulting yarn, she also has a loom and has taken to weaving. But knitting remains the main thing and we rarely see her without some portable project in hand.
Personally I can vouch for the therapeutic value of painting and drawing, losing yourself in a project. A friend of mine swears that going to a painting a drawing class kept her sane through a a hard time in her life: two hours a week when she could empty her mind of all the stuff that was causing her stress.
Granddaughter Number One has her own house, in itself a source of stress as she constantly finds things wrong with it. But at least she has a place of her own. The next in line, Granddaughter Number Two, looks longingly at adverts for places she wishes she could buy, when she finishes her further university studies, finds a job that suits her and perhaps earns enough to realise her dream. However, this article points out further difficulties for young people looking for independent living space. Among the other restrictions that exist in house-sharing it seems that some adverts now insist that prospective sharers should agree not to work from home. That must make life extra difficult in the modern age!
Once again I find myself reflecting that life was a lot simpler when I was a young person.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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