Inside a souvenir shop in Assisi, the face of a boy with thick black curly hair smiles out from wall tapestries, fridge magnets and key rings, outshining the flying cherubim, snow globes and other religious trinkets that cram the shelves.
But the owner, Elvira Boccacci, is struggling to explain to some intrigued tourists who Carlo Acutis, the boy in the image, is. “Americans have asked if he’s an Italian footballer, because of his tracksuit top,” she said.
Boccacci will have to get used to dealing with even more inquisitive customers. From 24 December, when Pope Francis officially opens the Jubilee 2025, a year of celebrations for Catholics around the world to reconnect with their faith, Assisi will be the second major stop after Rome for the thousands flocking to Italy for the event.
Without doubt they will visit the tomb of Francis, Italy’s patron saint, who was born in the medieval hilltop town and whose remains are buried up the road from Boccacci’s shop, in the majestic 13th-century basilica built in his honour.
But they will also be lured by Acutis, who in late April will become the Catholic church’s first millennial saint. His embalmed body, dressed in jeans, trainers and a blue tracksuit top, is on view behind a glass-panelled case in Assisi’s Santa Maria Maggiore church.
Nicknamed “God’s Influencer”, Acutis laid the groundwork for sainthood after helping to spread Catholic teaching online before his death from leukaemia in 2006 aged 15. He created websites for Catholic organisations as well as one that listed miracles. The teen, who was born in London before moving to Milan with his Italian parents, admired Saint Francis because of his dedication to helping the poor, and so asked to be laid to rest in Assisi.
Pope Francis cleared Acutis for sainthood in May after attributing two miracles to him. The first involved the sudden recovery of a boy in Brazil from a rare congenital disease affecting his pancreas, while the second was the healing of a student in Florence who had bleeding on the brain after suffering a head trauma.
Boccacci believes his rise to sainthood has happened too quickly, pointing out that Padre Pio, another Italian saint, took years to receive the Vatican’s highest honours. But the Catholic church, say observers, needs the switched-on teen saint in its quest to attract more young people to the faith.
The Vatican hopes that combining his canonisation with the Jubilee will help to achieve just that. But in Assisi, which has a population of about 27,400 in the historic centre and wider commune, there is some trepidation that the town could be overwhelmed.
As many as 33 million pilgrims are forecast to travel to Rome during the holy year. Many will come on package tours that include Assisi. Surrounded by Umbria’s sublime green hills, the town has long been a well-trodden spiritual draw. But tourism has surged in recent years, and the Jubilee is expected to bring in more than 5 million visitors, double the number in 2024.
Acutis has already proved to be a major attraction since his remains were exhumed from the local cemetery in 2019 and moved to Santa Maria Maggiore church, which is also where Catholics believe Saint Francis stripped himself of his worldly possessions and gave himself up to God.
More than 800,000 people from all over the world visited Acutis’s tomb between January and August this year. “Carlo attracts people and especially young people,” said Domenico Sorrentino, the bishop of Assisi. “It has amazed me too, but it wasn’t something we planned. I think it comes from above. Young people are very attracted as Carlo represents a different idea of holiness and sainthood to the one they have.”
Sorrentino is unperturbed by the risk of Assisi, also attractive as a place for peace and contemplation, becoming swamped. “We have two great events and it will have an impact on Assisi,” he said. “But I think it’s also a great occasion for our town, diocese and the faithful.”
On the other hand, Marco Moroni, a friar and custodian of the Sacred Convent, a friary connected to the Basilica di San Francesco, is slightly nervous. More than 3 million visitors accessed the basilica this year, and Moroni fears numbers could double in 2025. The influx will be especially intense in the period before and after Acutis’s canonisation.
“There is this phenomenon of overtourism, and it seems to be starting here too,” said Moroni. “Assisi is a small, medieval town … with all the desire to be welcoming, it won’t be so easy but I hope we do all we can to ensure it maintains its special characteristics.”
Still, while some local people have questioned whether there is room for two saints in Assisi, Moroni disagreed. “They’re not in competition,” he said. “That’s the way it is and we need to see this as a beautiful resource for increasing the faith.”
Meanwhile, the town’s tourism officials are using the opportunity to promote Assisi beyond its spiritual attractions, for example for its art, cultural events and Umbrian cuisine, or as a destination for hiking.
“We’ve seen a strong revival in religious tourism in recent years because of Carlo, but it is no longer the principal reason why people come,” said Fabrizio Leggio, Assisi’s councillor for tourism, adding that measures will be put in place to alleviate logistical problems throughout the Jubilee year.
“Tourism is our main economy … obviously there will be days when, despite everything we put into action, we will have to appeal to the spirit of endurance of the citizens of Assisi, who might complain every now and then but who are also happy that the city is well visited.”
