Latest news with #CarloAcutis
USA Today
3 days ago
- General
- USA Today
Every mother thinks her son is a saint. Hers actually will be.
Every mother thinks her son is a saint. Hers actually will be. Antonia Salzano wasn't particularly religious until she saw faith through her son. Others can follow his example, she said while touring the US. Show Caption Hide Caption Pope Francis okays Carlo Acutis to become the first millennial saint Pope Francis approved the canonization of Carlo Acutis, a 15-year-old who died in 2006 from leukemia. NEW YORK – Every mother thinks her son is a saint, but Antonia Salzano's is about to become a real one. Carlo Acutis was only 15 when he died of leukemia nearly two decades ago. But he had led the kind of holy life that set him apart from young people, Salzano said May 29 to a nearly full chapel at the University of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx. She hopes his life can inspire others to develop their faith at a time when religion, including the Catholic Church, has been waning among young people. "Each one of you is special, remember," she told hundreds of congregants, including students. "God loves you infinitely and, really, you can be the light of the world." Acutis is set to be canonized by United States-born Pope Leo XIV as the first millennial saint. Salzano, who is Italian but whose grandmother was born in New York, is touring America to spread messages about her son's life to younger audiences. She spent the afternoon of May 29 visiting Mount Saint Vincent's and Manhattan's St. Patrick's Cathedral, the seat of New York's archdiocese. That is, when she wasn't stuck in New York City's infamous traffic. Acutis' holiness was visible in his daily life, Salzano told Mount Saint Vincent's parishioners, in his devotion to attending Mass and studying the eucharist, as well as in how he treated others. Salzano, who would go on to study theology to better understand her son, said she was simply a witness to this. "Of course, I'm not a saint," she told USA TODAY after the Mass. "I only have this role." Acutis died in 2006. Ever since, people have reported miracles after praying to him, including a Costa Rican woman cured from a severe brain hemorrhage in 2022, and a Brazilian boy whose pancreatic malformation disappeared in 2013. These documented cases propelled his sainthood. In 2020, Pope Francis beatified him, giving him the title of 'Blessed.' The College of Cardinals in July 2024 voted to canonize Acutis. He was set to officially become a saint on April 27 at the Jubilee of Teenagers, but Francis' death six days earlier led to a postponement. Acutis' canonization is now expected later this year. Mount Saint Vincent's Rev. William Cain admitted to parishioners before Salzano arrived that he had had trouble writing that day's homily. 'What might be holier than a saint?' Cain, a Jesuit priest, quipped. 'The mother of the saint.' Who was Carlo Acutis? Initially a mostly nonreligious woman, Salzano acknowledged her son was special. Acutis, born in London in 1991, began saying the rosary daily at around 5-and-a-half years old. At 7, he had his first first communion. His friends looked to him for guidance and support, and he stood up to bullies who picked on students with disabilities, Catholic news outlets reported. At home, his mother said he'd reflect each night: What did I do today? How did I behave ‒ with classmates, teacher, parents? Much of this is known, Salzano said, because he took lengthy notes as a boy. He wanted to win the battle of original sin that humans are born into, she said, echoing something her son would repeat: 'All of us are born original, but many of us die as photocopies.' A computer lover, he created a website about eucharistic miracles: the bread that exemplifies the body of Christ, becoming actual flesh, which Acutis chronicled of cases in Argentina in the 1990s; or, as he described, wine turning into blood, such as in Croatia in 1411. Acutis loved video games. But to discipline himself, he limited himself to one hour per week. Also every week, he went to confession. This purified him of sins that typically weigh on people, Salzano said. From 'Blessed' to forthcoming saint Scores of clergy and laypeople clamored inside the university's chapel to take pictures with Salzano and shake her hand. Young girls who wore braids and plaid skirts – telltale signs of Catholic school attendance – cued up. So too did boys, in burgundy polos and khakis flagging their religious school bona fides. Seated toward the back of the chapel, Clare Fay, 25, donned beige Adidas Gazelles and carried a tote. 'There are still saints today,' said Fay, originally from Alabama and a recruitment associate for a Catholic education nonprofit that sends teachers to Catholic schools across the country. Salzano spoke on Ascension Day, the Christian holiday when Jesus Christ is believed to have risen to heaven. 'It's not coincidental,' Kentucky native Troy Lasley, 30, a teaching fellow in the Bronx, noted. 'We would call that providential.' Fewer younger Americans, including Catholics, describe themselves as religious, polling shows. Pope Francis sought to bring the church to the people, especially younger people disaffected by scandal and abuse. Acutis personified that effort. 'When we look at the stories of saints, we don't necessarily see ourselves. The youth don't necessarily see themselves,' said Susan Burns, president of the University of Mount Saint Vincent and a psychologist, standing near the altar. 'To have a saint who is a millennial, very much, can speak to their stories.' Seeing the mother of a saint might help people explore their faith. Salzano said her son is a sign of hope for others. At the end of her speech, Salzano gifted the university a relic containing a piece of Acutis' hair. She handed out prayer cards depicting his image to hundreds of attendees. One woman sobbed seeing Salzano. Later, she told USA TODAY her daughter was living with a brain aneurysm. Seeing the woman whose son had helped someone with a similar condition seemed like a sign from God. She prayed to Acutis for her daughter. Salzano rushed out of the chapel as more people swarmed her. A car drove her through rush hour traffic, to speak at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Across Gotham, she'd tell others about her saintly son. Eduardo Cuevas is based in New York City. Reach him by email at emcuevas1@ or on Signal at emcuevas.01.
The Independent
22-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
The London-born teenager set to become Britain's first millennial saint
Saint-making in the Catholic Church – or canonisation as it is called – is traditionally a drawn-out, opaque process with the successful candidates who have emerged from it in recent times usually worthy but unsurprising long-dead clerics and nuns. That is why Carlo Acutis joining their heavenly ranks has caught the attention of so many. London-born, raised in Italy, this tech-savvy, deeply devout teenager tragically died aged just 15 from leukaemia in 2006. Pope Francis's decision in 2024 to approve his canonisation saw him labelled 'the first millennial saint'. As with many of the late Pope's bold, breaking-with-precedent decisions, this one appeared to be based, in part at least, on a realisation that the Church feels alien and irrelevant to many young people because of its outdated stance on sex before marriage, women's equality and same-sex relationships. Holding up Acutis as a role model – which is part of their job description – is therefore showing a sceptical young audience that Catholicism isn't only for the old and the conservative. If in doubt of the symbolic power of Carlos Acutis, take a look at the stained-glass window featuring him that was installed in 2022 in St Aldhelm's Catholic Church in Malmesbury. Unlike the medieval bishop in vestments and carrying a crozier in the window next door, he is depicted dressed in standard 2006 teenager garb, with a digital watch and a phone strapped to his rucksack. In other words: very ordinary, very now, yet simultaneously the Church has decided through its canonisation process someone extraordinary by dint of his religious devotion and his 'heroic virtue' in living his short life as 'a servant of God'. These are the key qualities for any saint in Catholicism's famously lengthy rulebook. Francis had planned to preside at the canonisation ceremony last month (the latest of 900 saints he had made during his reign, 813 of whom came from the 15th century), but it was postponed as the seriousness of the health problems that led to his death became apparent. No new date has yet emerged from his successor Leo XIV, but a popular American Catholic priest podcaster, David Michael Moses, is upping the ante by telling his 330,000 YouTube followers that the new pope already has a special connection with Carlo Acutis. That, he hopes, will mean that the canonisation could take place soon and be the first of this pontificate. The bond between the two rests, Moses enthuses, on the fact young Carlo did his secondary education at the Leo XIII Institute in Milan. 'What are the chances,' he says in his folksy way, 'that the school he's attending when he dies was named after Pope Leo XIII, the predecessor of our new Pope Leo XIV, the pope that Leo XIV says inspired him to choose the name? How cool is that?' And there is more. 'If that wasn't enough, listen to this quote from Carlo Acutis. 'I offer all the suffering I will have to suffer for the lord, for the pope, and for the Church.'' It might not pass muster as a watertight argument in a court of law, but in the Vatican, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, which has been in charge of saint-making for centuries, assesses evidence in a very different way. Acutis, the boy now also referred to as 'God's Influencer', was born in 1991 in west London and baptised in Our Lady of Dolours parish in Chelsea. His Italian mother Antonia and half-Italian, half-English father Andrea moved to Milan six months later and raised their only child there. Early on, his banker parents say, he showed a particular empathy and social conscience, saving up his pocket money to hand over to good causes that helped the poor, or standing up for those bullied at his school. But it was the always present religious dimension in him that was so unusual in an age where church attendance, especially among the young in Italy, is in steep decline. When on family holidays at Centola in southern Italy, little Carlo would wander over as a child and join the group of old women who gathered each day to say the rosary on the beach. And it was Carlo who insisted on the family going to church each Sunday. Before that, his parents had been pretty much lapsed from the religion of their own upbringing. As a teen, he would cook food and deliver it to those who were homeless and on the streets of Milan. He became a catechist aged 12 in his local parish of Santa Maria Segreta, preparing younger children for their first communion. Next, the skills he mastered early with digital and computer technology saw him producing the parish newsletter and compiling and updating a public website that collected all reported miracles around the world attributed to the Virgin Mary and the Eucharist. It is all the more remarkable that he did all this while limiting himself to one hour a day on screens, his mother later stressed. When diagnosed with incurable leukaemia in 2006, he told her, 'I die happy because I didn't spend any minutes of my life on things God doesn't love.' For some parents, a child self-limiting to an hour of screen time per day would count as a miracle in itself, but the Vatican has a higher bar. To be declared a saint, there has to be evidence presented that praying to the candidate had precipitated two separate miraculous events. In 2020, the Vatican department in charge of canonisation published evidence that prayers directed to God via Carlo Acutis had cured a Brazilian youngster, Mattheus Vianna, from a rare disease. Pope Francis accepted these findings, reached after interviewing around 500 people, including medical experts who, it was said, could come up with no other plausible explanation. Then, in 2024, another report accepted that prayers made to Acutis had spared the life of a young woman in Florence who had had a bleed on her brain that doctors had said would kill her. There will, of course, be sceptics who question the science that leads to these conclusions, including many Catholics, who struggle to make sense of the randomness of these divine interventions when so many other tragedies occur each and every day. Others, too, point to the cost of the Vatican process of discernment, which has to be met by those putting forward the candidate. Pope Francis did move – in line with his wider embrace of what he referred to as 'a poor Church, for the poor' – to cut these charges, but they remain considerable. It may explain why usually only religious orders can afford to immortalise their brethren or sisters. Or the occasional wealthy family. Antonia Salzano, Carlo's mother, would add another miracle to the list. She was in her forties when her son died, and assumed she would never have another child. One night, he appeared to her in a dream and told her she would have twins. And, at 44, she did. Quite how the Vatican could verify that as true is hard to imagine, but getting too wrapped up in the process risks missing the point. The Church gets many things wrong about human beings, but it also gets a lot right, including that we do respond well to role models being held up in front of us to emulate. It was doing it long before the advent of social media. Moreover, there is an argument that connects the cult that has grown so quickly in recent years around Carlo Acutis with those others of his generation who, a recent survey by the Bible Society reported, are returning to the pews in surprising numbers. Perhaps the Church isn't quite so old-fashioned and otherworldly as we like to think.
Daily Mail
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Startling connection between soon-to-be canonized 'God's Influencer' and Pope Leo
A priest has discovered an eye-opening link between a British-born teenager set to be canonized - and the newly-elected Pope. Carlo Acutis, known as 'God's influencer', will become the Catholic Church's first millennial to be appointed as a saint at a date yet to be confirmed. The London-born 'techie' teen - born in 1991 to an Italian mother and half Italian, half English father - passed away died in 2006 from leukaemia. Since then he has received worldwide acclaim for his religious devotion and the attribution of miracles since his tragic passing. But now Father David Michael Moses of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston has noticed a startling connection the late teenager and Pope Leo XIV, ChurchPop reported. Speaking on his podcast, Father Moses said he was struck by the fact Acutis attended the Leo XIII Institute in Milan, Italy - which was named after the very pope that inspired the new papal leader to choose his name. Father Moses explained: 'Well—and this was the big discovery I made when I looked through some of these notes—guess the name of the high school that Blessed Carlo Acutis went to? It's called the Leo XIII Institute. 'I mean, guys, come on. How cool is that? 'He died really young—he was 15—so he never went to college. He didn't go to that many schools. 'What are the chances that the school that he's attending when he dies was named after Pope Leo XIII, the predecessor of our new Pope Leo XIV, the pope that Leo XIV says inspired him to choose the name? What are the chances? How cool is that? 'We are on a Leo tear right now in the Church.' Researching further, Father Moses then realised the significance of a spiritual request the teenager made before his passing. He explained: 'If that wasn't enough, listen to this quote from Blessed Carlo Acutis. 'He says this: "I offer all the suffering I will have to suffer for the Lord, for the Pope, and for the Church." 'Blessed Carlo, the first millennial saint about to be canonized, offered his suffering in large part for the pope. 'And now we have a pope who chooses the name of Blessed Carlo's high school patron. So cool. Love that.' Acutis spent most of his life in Milan and his family visited Assisi every year around Easter, as it was his favourite place. It is also where he asked to be buried after dying from leukemia in 2006 and now lies in rest. He spent much of his spare time designing an online exhibition about Eucharistic miracles around the world. Due to his proficiency with computers, he has been referred to as a 'saint of the ordinary,' and also a possible patron saint for IT workers. Acutis was nominated for sainthood after a series of miracles were attributed to him. In 2020, the late Pope Francis recognised the healing of a young boy in Brazil from a rare form of pancreatic cancer attributed to Acutis. Shortly after, he was beatified which is the first step towards sainthood. Then in 2024, Pope Francis recognised a second miracle - the healing of a student in Florence who had a bleed on the brain. The Pope called him a role model for young people who are frequently tempted by 'self-absorption, isolation and empty pleasure.' The Pope said: 'Carlo was well-aware that the whole apparatus of communications, advertising and social networking can be used to lull us, to make us addicted to consumerism and buying the latest thing on the market, obsessed with our free time, caught up in negativity,' Crux reported. What are the five steps to becoming a saint? Five-year wait: Five years usually needs to have passed after someone's death for the process to begin. This allows for a period of reflection on the case. Servant of God: The bishop of the diocese where the person has died investigates whether their life was holy enough to be deemed a 'servant of God'. Life of heroic virtue: The Congregation for the Causes of Saints looks at the case. If they approve it is passed onto the Pope, who declares the subject a person of 'heroic virtue'. Beatification: A miracle needs to happen to a person who has prayed to the person in question. Canonisation: A second miracle is attributed to the person who has been beatified. His mother Antonia Salzano previously said that she now refers to her late son as her 'saviour' as he taught her more and more about his faith and credits him with her conversion into Christianity. He grew up in Milan where he took care of his parish website and later that of a Vatican-based academy. From the age of three, he would donate his pocket money to the poor and later at school supported victims of bullying, while he spent his evenings cooking and delivering meals to the homeless. He told his parents in his final words: 'I die happy because I didn't spend any minutes of my life in things God doesn't love.' Even after his death, the youngster, informally known as 'God's influencer', was performing miracles, supposedly healing a critically ill child and a brain bleed victim in 2012 and 2022. He was raised by first an Irish nanny then a Polish one. They claim he was inspired in part by St Francis of Assisi, who was born in the same town Acutis was laid to rest. Remarking over her late son, Ms Salzano told the Times: 'Sometimes these beautiful [saints] are all very old and used to live in a very different world so young people don't feel so close to them. 'Carlo was young and handsome and always smiling and was a computer genius and would play on his PlayStation and Game Boy. Acutis (pictured) grew up in Milan where he took care of his parish website and later of a Vatican-based academy 'To have a saint that played with the same things as you do is something that really touches these young people.' Ms Salzano said her son had a 'special relationship' with God from an early age, even though her family was not religious. She told Shalom Tidings that she had only ever been to mass three times before Acutis began dragging her to church at the age of three and a half. Around the same time he began asking questions about his faith and engaging in practices she had never heard of including honouring existing saints, leaving flowers at shrines, and spending hours in church. The youngster even limited himself to one hour of video games each day so that he could devote more time to his religion. 'Every minute wasted is one less minute to glorify God,' his mother said. Since his death, he has garnered a global following, and his body was moved to the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, Assisi where it is currently on display. In the UK, he has been remembered by the Archbishop of Birmingham, who in 2020 established the Parish of Blessed Carlo Acutis with churches in Wolverhampton and Wombourne.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
God's influencer: Carlos Acutis set to be the first millennial saint
The first figurines of Carlo Acutis, an Italian teenager who died of leukaemia in 2006, are already on sale in the souvenir shops of Assisi, each priced at €45 ($50). He was an ordinary boy in jeans, trainers and a red polo shirt but now Acutis is depicted with a golden halo over his head. This puts the traders in the Italian hilltop town, home of St Francis of Assisi, a little ahead of the Catholic Church. The Vatican postponed the canonization of Acutis, who died at 15, following the death of pope Francis, though his elevation to sainthood remains assured. The son of a wealthy Italian family, Acutis is set to become the first saint of the millennial generation - commonly referred to as those born between 1981 and 1999. He would have been 33 today. The Vatican places significant importance on Acutis' canonization, with the late pope having planned to personally oversee the ceremony, particularly given his own choice of name as a tribute to Francis of Assisi, a medieval monk who lived in poverty nearly 800 years ago. Acutis' life story is framed by the Vatican as one that is meant to resonate with younger generations. He is described as a "little computer genius," an "influencer of God," and a "cyber apostle" - terms meant to inspire today's tech-savvy youth. Born in London in 1991, Acutis' family moved to Milan shortly after his birth, and they still maintain a holiday home near Assisi. Miracle database and rosary programme Acutis reportedly found his way to faith at an early age, particularly through the influence of his nanny. He received his first communion at the age of seven. He later attended a Jesuit school, where he wrote computer programmes for the church, designed websites and created a database of supposed Eucharistic miracles. He installed a rosary programme on his laptop and was in charge of his parish's website. At the time, Acutis told his mother that he was thinking about becoming a priest. He allegedly admonished friends not to visit porn sites and is said to have claimed: "The only woman in my life is the Virgin Mary." In early October 2016, Acutis was diagnosed with acute leukaemia which led to his untimely death just a few days later, on October 12. Soon afterwards, his journey to becoming a saint began, supported by the church and his parents. His body was exhumed and reburied several times, with his final resting place now in the pilgrimage church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Assisi, where millions of visitors, including school groups, have since paid tribute. Boy's wax-encased remains on display Acutis' remains now rest in a sarcophagus with a glass pane, allowing visitors to view inside. The young boy is dressed in jeans and trainers, with a rosary placed in his hands. His face and hands have been modelled with silicone wax, a common technique used for presenting the bodies of saints, allowing pilgrims to see them as they appeared before death. Opposite the display is a stone bench for those wishing to linger longer, though most visitors pass by swiftly. Photography is strictly prohibited. Beatifications and canonizations follow a complex, multi-step process in which every aspect of a candidate's life is carefully examined. In the past, this process often only began at least 50 years after death, but today it can sometimes unfold much more rapidly. Typically, a miracle must be attributed to the candidate. In Acutis' case, Vatican authorities recognized the healing of a child in Brazil and a young woman in Costa Rica, both of which were deemed miraculous. The pope then gave his approval. In 2020, Acutis was beatified by pope Francis. The tradition of sainthood spans centuries. More recently, figures like Mother Teresa and pope John Paul II have been canonized, bringing the total number of Catholic saints to over 10,000, with nearly 1,000 added by pope Francis alone. A close friend sows doubt However, some feel the canonization process has become too expedited. Questions about Acutis' true piety have also emerged. One of his closest friends, Federico Oldani, told The Economist that he did not even know that Acutis was religious and never spoke to him about Jesus. Oldani also never heard him say the phrase "The Eucharist is my motorway to heaven," which is now universally attributed to his dead friend. Which doesn't change the fact that many in Assisi are already earning good money with the soon-to-be saint. From jute bags to T-shirts, medallions, pendants, rosaries and fridge magnets, Acutis' face looms large in the souvenir shops. Figurines of him are also on sale in the church where Acutis now lies. The rector of the parish, Franciscan priest Marco Gaballo, says: "People want something they can remember. Then that's fine with me." However, money is now also being made online with the first saint of the internet age, with supposed relics on offer on websites. A lock of hair allegedly from Acutis was recently sold for €2,110. That was too much for the church, leading Bishop of Assisi, Domenico Sorrentino, to file a criminal complaint. Now the public prosecutor is investigating.
Irish Times
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Author Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin: ‘I'll always be angry about the history of the church in Ireland'
Tell us about your debut novel, Ordinary Saints. Ordinary Saints is about Jay, a queer Irish woman living in London who finds out that her dead older brother, Ferdia, may become a Catholic saint. It was inspired by Carlo Acutis, the 'first millennial saint', who was due to be canonised two days after your book came out. Tell us about him and the whole canonisation process. Carlo Acutis was an Italian teenager who died of leukaemia in 2006. He was a very religious child who, among other acts of devotion, built a website cataloguing eucharistic miracles. After reading his story, I became obsessed with the arcane and bizarre process of canonisation. To this day, it involves exhumation, healing miracles, intrusive investigations of candidates' lives and often, as in Carlo's case, the public display of physical remains. Having grown up gay in Ireland, how do you feel about the Catholic Church? I'll always be angry about the history of the church in Ireland – the violence inflicted on children, women, queer people and many others. But there is a distinction between the institution and the faithful. In some ways, Ordinary Saints is a celebration of the power of faith, even as it criticises the church. How did the novel evolve over its various drafts? On my first draft, I got to 20,000 words then threw them out and started again. At the beginning of that second draft I found my narrator Jay's voice. From there, the story flowed pretty steadily. READ MORE The late Pope Francis crops up in Ordinary Saints. What did you make of him? I feel quite ambivalent. In many ways, Francis gave us a glimpse of what the Catholic Church could be – a church of the poor and the marginalised. But there always seemed to be a limit to his progressive ambition, particularly when it came to women's and LGBTQ+ rights. Do you have a favourite saint? I've always had a grá for Bríd. I appreciate her healthy disregard for authority. You were shortlisted for the Women's Prize Trust Discoveries Prize in 2022, and won the inaugural PFD Queer Fiction Prize. Did this help? Hugely. Writing a debut novel is daunting and the prizes gave me a confidence boost. They also helped me find a community of other writers. You won The Irish Times debating championship in 2010, as did your father, Eoin, in 1983. Sally Rooney made her name as a debater, too. Does it feed into your writing? Debating is great training for any career that requires compelling communication. But the whole point is to win arguments and take definitive positions. Fiction is different; it's about asking open questions and embracing uncertainty. You live in Edinburgh now. Does the distance help you write about home? I started Ordinary Saints during lockdown, when I couldn't travel home. That time gave me both a new clarity about Ireland and a sense of longing, both of which influenced the book. Like fellow author Michael Collins, you are an endurance athlete. Are there similarities with writing? Definitely. Writing and distance running are both about showing up every day and putting in the effort, whether you feel like it or not. Which projects are you working on? I've got a new novel in the works, but I'm very cagey about my works in progress! Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage? I've lived in three great literary cities, where you can go on mini-pilgrimages all the time. I remember spontaneously changing my cycle route home one evening because I wanted to see the street in London where Beckett's Murphy lived. What is the best writing advice you have heard? Focus on the sentence, the one you're writing right now. Who do you admire the most? The people of Palestine for their courage, humanity and perseverance. You are the supreme ruler for a day. Which law do you pass or abolish? I'd establish the necessary legal framework for trans people to live freely and in peace. Which current book, film and podcast would you recommend? Stag Dance by Torrey Peters; Conclave; and Critics at Large, a cultural podcast from the New Yorker. Which public event affected you most? I was only eight when the Good Friday Agreement was signed, but I vividly remember going to the Stations of the Cross that day and feeling the intensity of all the adults' emotions. What is the most beautiful book that you own? My great-grandfather, Séamas Ó Maoileoin, wrote a book called B'Fhiú an Braon Fola , published by Sairséal agus Dill, about his involvement in the War of Independence. I have a beautiful copy, which includes maps drawn by my grandfather, Ailbe. The best and worst things about where you live? Like Dublin, Edinburgh combines all the cultural attractions of the city with easy access to the mountains and the sea. But it is very dark for a lot of the year. What is your favourite quotation? The final passage of Middlemarch. '... the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.' Who is your favourite fictional character? Sally Seton in Mrs Dalloway . A book to make me laugh? Wild Geese by Soula Emmanuel. Hilarious, as well as insightful and moving. A book that might move me to tears? I most recently cried reading Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree, translated by Daisy Rockwell. Ordinary Saints is published by Manilla Press
