Catholic Church condemns sale of Carlo Acutis relics, including locks of hair reportedly belonging to first millennial saint

The Catholic Church denounced the sale of saint-related relics as online hawkers attempted to pawn unconfirmed locks of Carlo Acutis’ hair for a hefty price in the lead-up to the first millennial saint’s canonization.

Many Catholics pray for saints’ assistance through relics relating to them. At home, the average Catholic often uses rosary beads and prays to a specific saint, like Saint Anthony if they need to find something they’ve lost.

In the Church, though, worshippers can pray using relics of the saint’s body or clothing that are authenticated by ecclesiastical authority and kept in churches. Such relics are not allowed to be sold, however.

But, as many faithful await Acutis’ canonization on April 27, dubious dealers online are claiming to have parts of “God’s influencer” for sale. An anonymous seller posted an auction for pieces of Acutis’ hair for as much as $2,200, according to the Diocese of Assisi.

In March, Bishop Domenico Sorrentino, who is based in Italy, asked authorities to confiscate the listed items. He noted that, if the hair samples are fake, it would count as a “great offense to religious belief.”

“The relics are little, little fragments of the body, to say that that body is blessed, and it explains to us the closeness of God,” Sorrentino said.

The auction listing was taken down shortly after, but the buzz didn’t fade. Religious leaders were quick to slam the attempted sales and noted the grave consequences of violating the sanctity of such relics.

“It’s not just despicable, but it’s also a sin. Every kind of commerce over faith is a sin,” said the Rev. Enzo Fortunato, who leads the Vatican’s World Children’s Day committee.

Other remains belonging to Acutis, who died in 2006, are floating around within the Church, per the canonization process.

His body is currently on public viewing in Assisi, Italy. Over the last year, more than one million people from all around the world flocked to the shrine to bear witness to the first modern saint.

Acutis, who has been dead for nearly two decades, had to undergo careful reconstruction so that his body could be presentable for public viewing. His face was even reconstructed with silicone, Sorrentino said.

His heart was removed and preserved at an altar in another church in Assisi, but will be moved to Rome for the canonization Mass in late April.

The online listings of other parts of Acutis not only violate Catholic tradition, but spit on his memory, religious leaders said.

Bishop Larry Kulick specified that the relics “are very reverent and very solemn for us as Catholics. And they are not only inspirational for us, but they are really … opportunities to help us to pray.”

“And so it’s unfortunate that such a thing would happen, because that’s really a misuse of the relics and actually a disrespect to him and to his memory,” Kulick said.

Acutis, who died following a battle against leukemia when he was just 15 years old, used modern technology to spread Catholic teachings online. He created an online exhibit detailing eucharistic miracles through the centuries.

With Post wires