The eighth grade class of 2024 at Queen of Apostles School hadn’t even been born when Carlo Acutis died at the age of 15 of a rare form of leukemia. Yet, the students still feel close to the late Italian teen who is set to become a Catholic saint in April.

“He was young, and we were around the same age as him. So our class thought it was pretty cool that he was so involved with the Eucharist and Mary and in love with God,” said Christian Parga, one of last year’s eighth graders who spearheaded a class initiative to create a statue telling the story of Blessed Carlo Acutis.