A four-day tour through central Ohio of a traveling display featuring the relics of Blessed Carlo Acutis and St. Manuel Gonzalez Garcia ended Monday evening, Dec. 5 with a Mass at Columbus Christ the King Church.
The relics also made stops at Columbus St. Joseph Cathedral, St. Thomas More Newman Center near Ohio State University, Delaware St. Mary Church and School and Worthington St. Michael Church and School.
Blessed Carlo, an Italian youth with a special devotion to the Eucharist, died of leukemia at age 15 in 2006 and was beatified in 2020. St. Manuel was a priest and bishop in Spain who devoted his ministry to teaching people about the Eucharist and also cared deeply for youth.
The relics are on a tour of the United States as part of the National Eucharistic Revival sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. St. Manuel and Blessed Carlo are considered special intercessors for the event.
At the cathedral on Friday, Dec. 2, exposition of the relics began after the 7:30 a.m. Mass and continued throughout the day. Bishop Earl Fernandes presided at a late-afternoon holy hour that included devotional prayers.
The relics of Blessed Carlo Acutis and St. Manuel Gonzalez Garcia made a stop at the Columbus St. Thomas More Newman Center next to the campus of Ohio State University on Saturday, Dec. 3. Photo courtesy Buckeye Catholic
The following day, the bishop celebrated a Saturday Vigil Mass with the relics at the Newman Center for students and guests.
On Sunday, Dec. 4, Delaware St. Mary hosted the relics for veneration and a special program for middle and high school youth and their parents.
The final day of the visit included a morning Mass for students at Worthington St. Michael – where a specially commissioned portrait of Blessed Carlo had been installed in the church Sept. 29 – and the evening Mass at Christ the King.
The Sunday evening Made for Greatness program at Delaware St. Mary featured a talk by Father Patrick Schultz, parochial vicar at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Wadsworth, Ohio, on Pope St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body.
Attendees could venerate the relics and view a display of 152 documented Eucharistic Miracles of the World inspired by the work of Blessed Carlo and curated by Maci Hay, a student at Franciscan University of Steubenville.
The informational display, built and set up by her grandparents, Terry and Sharon Ruffing of Bellevue, Ohio, has traveled to seven parishes throughout Ohio.
Visitors came from a number of parishes in the state to see and venerate the relics.
“Relics are holy pieces of the saints that help us be that much closer to God,” said Scott McVicker, a member of Delaware St. Mary. “You feel like they’re here, and you can talk to them. They are a direct connection to God. So, you feel very close, spiritually and physically.
“They are very special, especially in the meaning of their lives and the sacrifices that they made. So, they really make us appreciate how powerful our God is, and that we want to do everything we can to dedicate our lives to God.”
The final stop at Christ the King included public exposition and veneration of the relics followed by a bilingual Mass at 7 p.m. in the church.
