A FAVOR FROM CARLO

St. Joseph’s in Scotia to house first-class relic of St. Acutis

A reliquary containing the remains of then-Blessed Carlo Acutis is on display during the International Exhibit of Eucharistic Miracles at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Glenville last February. St. Joseph’s in Scotia will house a first-class relic with veneration expected to start next month. (Cindy Schultz photo for The Evangelist) (Courtesy photo of CINDY SCHULTZ)

When Father Thomas Konopka was surfing through YouTube some years ago, he randomly came across the Beatification of Carlo Acutis.

“I watched the beatification and I was curious and I started doing some reading and he started popping up in my homilies about the church and what we need to do,” said Father Konopka, who at that time was pastor at St. Mary’s in Clinton Heights, “and how this kid just could be the one who leads us back to Christ, back to the importance of the Eucharist in our lives.”

When Father Konopka, who also heads the diocesan Consultation Center, became the pastor at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Glenville, St. Joseph’s in Scotia and Our Lady of Grace in Ballston Spa, he said Carlo “came with me. I have prayed to him at times when I didn’t know what to do and I thought it was ironic that this 64-year-old, 35 years as a priest, is asking this kid to help and give me direction.”

This direction has led to a devotion to the now Saint Carlo Acutis — the first “Millennial Saint” was beatified along with Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati on Sept. 7 — and brought the Vatican International Exhibit of Eucharistic Miracles to Immaculate Conception in February 2024. Acutis, who died in 2006 from leukemia, was a devout Catholic and skilled computer programmer who married his two passions to build a website dedicated to documenting and promoting Eucharistic miracles.

“I think in three or four days, we had over 2,000 people come to Immaculate to look at the exhibit and we had prayer, Mass, Eucharistic adoration and talks. We had 100-to-200 people just at the prayer,” said Father Konopka, who is now pastor at St. Joseph’s as Father Russell Bergman has taken over as pastor at Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Grace. “He brought a spirit to this area of working together, a fire almost, of us working together.

“In the middle of February of this year, I started asking Carlo for a favor. I needed something, I just needed an answer to something. I just didn’t know what I needed. That is my usual way of praying. I did that to St. Joseph one time and he won’t stop answering.”

His prayer was answered when he received a first-class relic of 

St. Acutis from a family that wants to remain nameless. 

“I started praying and about four weeks later, these folks came into the church after morning Mass, and they had a pie plate and a bag and (they said) we have a gift. I opened it up and there it was … a first-class relic of Carlo. I can’t tell you what I almost said. I was just amazed and now I have to take care of it.”

First-class relics are part of a saint’s body such as bone, blood or flesh. Father Konopka believes it to be a piece of hair from St. Acutis, but is still working on the Latin translation. The relic, which was at Immaculate, will now be housed at a chapel behind the tabernacle at St. Joseph’s for veneration hopefully starting on Oct. 12, which is St. Carlo’s feast day. 

“My hope is to make it a place where the people from the Diocese can come … and pray to Carlo and spend time with the Lord and the Blessed Sacrament because you can see the tabernacle and let it become a place of prayer.”