RELICS of Saints Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati went on display at Santo Domingo Church on Friday, Sept. 4, as Catholic groups urged young people to follow the two modern saints’ example of finding holiness in ordinary life.
Mounted to mark the first anniversary of their canonization, the exhibit features first-class relics of Acutis and a second-class relic of Frassati, along with paintings, books, portraits and a copy of the liturgical missal used during their canonization by Pope Leo XIV in September 2025.
The Frassati Society Philippines (FSP), Lingap Bayanihan and the Association of the Friends of St. Carlo Acutis organized the exhibit under the theme “Make Your Life a Masterpiece, Created for Greatness, Called to Holiness.”
Fr. Christopher Jeffrey Aytona, O.P., FSP spiritual adviser and an instructor at the UST Ecclesiastical Faculties, presided over the blessing of the exhibit.
Organizers placed verso l’alto — Italian for “toward the heights” — at the center of their message to young people navigating their personal lives, studies and future careers.
“The phrase, verso l’alto, [reminds] us that wherever we go, or whatever we want to reach, this should also glorify God,” said CICS student Herb Hernandez, FSP councilor for spiritual growth.
Hernandez said Acutis and Frassati showed young Catholics that holiness did not require extraordinary feats.
“They [lived] a very ordinary life, but also extraordinary in a sense,” Hernandez said.
“As laypeople, we cannot think that ‘I’m not in this position to do these things,’ [as] these two saints [showed] us that we can still be holy [while doing] ordinary things,” he added.
Commerce freshman Clark Antonio, executive director of Lingap Bayanihan, pointed to what he described as changing attitudes toward faith among young people and expressed hope that the exhibit would help visitors deepen their spiritual lives.
“Compared to the previous generations, from our generation, there are more who are closer to the Church, to the Lord, and so on. So, I guess, that’s where we can start. Hopefully, this can be a movement for them,” Antonio said.
Kyle Zamora, Lingap Bayanihan head of religious affairs, encouraged students from Dominican institutions, particularly Thomasians, to put the lessons of the two saints into practice and continue the Dominican mission of preaching.
“Since we’re also students of [a] Dominican school, I think the Dominican institutions also expect something from us to share, just like the way they introduce these saints to us, especially that one of the missions of the Dominicans is to preach,” Zamora said.
The exhibition will conclude with a Eucharistic celebration to be presided over by Fr. Winston Cabading, O.P., prior of the Santo Domingo Convent. Enzo Miguel D. Mejia
