Iranians celebrate Eid al-Fitr as Ramadan concludes
People across Iran celebrated on Monday Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, after the new moon of Islamic month of Shawwal was sighted the previous night.
Religion
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Scramble for relics from Brit teen ‘God’s Influencer’ including £2k locks of HAIR as 1000s flock to his entombed body
RELICS from “God’s Influencer” have been put up for sale, as his fans scramble to get their hands on the holy treasures.
Locks of Carlo Acutis’ hair are among the relics on sale, with one selling on eBay for an astonishing £2,000.
Carlo Acutis, 15, is known as “God’s Influencer”[/caption]
Acutis will become the first millennial saint in April[/caption]
Pilgrims have flocked to see the teenager’s preserved body in Italy[/caption]
The teen died in 2006 from leukaemia[/caption]
Thousands of loyal followers lined up at the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Italy to see Acutis’ preserved body, before the teen officially becomes a saint.
The 15-year-old, who died from leukaemia in 2006, will become the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint in April.
This comes after the Vatican attributed two miracles to Acutis since his death nearly ten years ago.
A collection of relics belonging to Acutis have been touring the world since his passing and have been seen in the US, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Sri Lanka and India.
Among these are three or four small portions of his heart.
Now, devoted fans are scrambling to get their hands on one of the precious items as they hit the market.
But not all is as it seems, with some fans claiming that the relics being sold online are fake.
The bishop of Assisi, Domenico Sorrentino, warned that the treasures are not genuine and being sold by scammers.
Italian authorities have now opened an investigation into the authenticity of the relics.
Acutis will be canonised as a saint during the Church’s Jubilee of Teenagers, between April 25 and April 27.
The complicated canonisation process involves a candidate being named a servant of God, their life being proved as a heroic virtue, the candidate being beatified and then finally being canonised as a Saint.
This comes after the Vatican officially recognised two miracles by Acutis.
In the first, recognised in 2020, he healed a six-year-old boy.
The saint-to-be’s mum, Antonia Salzano, said: “The boy was vomiting and risked dying. Then, on the third day of prayers, he started eating.
A second miracle attributed to the boy was approved by the Vatican in 2024.
This miracle saw the teen’s spirit responsible for saving the life of a young Costa Rican woman who suffered severe head trauma after falling from her bicycle in Florence in 2022.
The woman required intense surgery, but after her desperate mum made the pilgrimage to Carlo’s tomb, she suddenly started moving and regaining speech just days later.
CAT scans on the recovering woman, named Valeria Valverde, then showed that her haemorrhage had disappeared.
The pair then both made the pilgrimage to Assisi one month later.
Salzano added: “We get news of miracles attributed to Carlo all the time.
“ Losing your son is the most terrible thing, but we are happy he is helping people discover their faith.”
The Brit-born teen requested to be buried in Assisi before his death – having become an admirer of St. Francis of Assisi because of his dedication to the poor.
His body is encased in a wax layer moulded to look like his body, and he is wearing a tracksuit and sneakers.
Who is ‘God’s Influencer’?
- “God’s Influencer”, Carlo Acutis, was born in London in 1991.
- Carlo later moved to Milan with his Italian parents.
- According to his parents, Carlo would always ask to visit churches he passed in Milan from the age of three.
- His mum Antonia Salzano said he would often donate his pocket money to poor people and take meals and sleeping bags to rough sleepers.
- Carlo also had an eye for web design and designed sites for his parish and school.
- Carlo launched a website seeking to document every reported Eucharistic miracle.
- The teenager died from leukaemia in 2006, and during his burial in 2019, the church was reportedly so full that people were lining up outside to get in.
- Carlo was attributed to two Vatican-recognised miracles.
- These meant he was beatified as a saint – making him the first “millennial saint”.
- His first miracle was the healing of a six-year-old Brazilian boy who was suffering from a rare pancreatic disorder.
- The boy was cured after touching one of Carlo’s T-shirts.
- The second saw a Costa Rican woman miraculously recover from a severe bicycle accident injury.
- The woman recovered after her mum made a pilgrimage to Carlo’s tomb.
Nuns pray and pay their respects at the tomb Carlo Acutis in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore[/caption]
Souvenirs and mementos of Carlo Acutis for sale in a shop[/caption]
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