In Christus vivit, Pope Francis recalls that “the heart of the Church is also full of young saints who gave their lives for Christ” (no. 49). The figure that immediately comes to mind is that of Blessed Carlo Acutis, “a blessed in a tracksuit and tennis shoes,” as we saw him during the days when his tomb was opened in Assisi last October, on the occasion of his beatification.
Among the many young saints, Saint Nunzio Sulprizio also shines brightly - a young man (who lived from 1817 to 1836) with much to say to our time because, orphaned and ill, he knew how to make suffering an instrument of love for God and others.
Father Antonio Salvatore Paone - postulator of his cause for canonization - portrays a concise biographical profile of him and collects several prayers dedicated to him, a novena, the Stations of the Cross, and the litanies in a book entitled Prayers to Saint Nunzio Sulprizio. The life of Nunzio, who died at just 19, shines in the eyes of God because “holiness keeps us eternally young; it is the true elixir of youth that we so desperately need” (Pope Francis).
