A SAINT IN SCOTIA

St. Carlo Acutis Chapel now open at St. Joseph’s

The St. Carlo Acutis Chapel, which houses a firstclass relic of the saint, is now open at St. Joseph’s Church in Scotia. (Mike Matvey photo)

The St. Carlo Acutis Chapel, which houses a first-class relic of the first “Millennial saint,” is now open at St. Joseph’s Church in Scotia.

St. Carlo Acutis died in 2006 from leukemia and was a devout Catholic and skilled computer programmer who married his two passions to build a website dedicated to documenting and promoting Eucharistic miracles. He was beatified along with Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati on Sept. 7, 2025.

Father Thomas Konopka, pastor at St. Joseph’s and director of the diocesan Consultation Center, had developed a devotion to then-Blessed Carlo after he first came across him on YouTube some years ago. This devotion continued to grow when he was pastor at St. Mary’s in Clinton Heights and then later at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Glenville, St. Joseph’s in Scotia and Our Lady of Grace in Ballston Spa. In February 2024, the Vatican International Exhibit of Eucharistic Miracles, which featured much of St. Carlo’s work as well as a first-class relic, came to Immaculate Conception. And last year, Father Konopka was given a first-class relic of St. Carlo and the idea of the veneration chapel was born.

The relic, which is kept in a locked and lighted cabinet, is housed in a chapel behind the tabernacle at St. Joseph’s. There is a photo of St. Carlo in the chapel as well as a locked, pass-through door which at one time gave access to the consecrated hosts. Father Konopka thought that was fitting since St. Carlo had such an affinity for the Eucharist. 

For anyone wishing to venerate the relic, the church office is open every day from 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m. There is a 6 p.m. Mass on Monday, a 4 p.m. Vigil Mass on Saturday and Adoration from 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. on Sunday. If faith-formation groups would like to come, you can contact Father Konopka at (518) 346-2316.

“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,” Father Konopka said in an Evangelist story last year, “because you can see the tabernacle and let it become a place of prayer.”