Davanti a San Pietro in sneakers e blue jeans: riflessioni semiotiche sul corpo rivestito di Carlo Acutis

Beatified by Pope Francis in October 2020, Carlo Acutis - a very young layman from Milan - was immediately dubbed "God's influencer" and "the blessed millenial" while he was already commonly identified as the future "patron saint of the Internet". The celebration of his beatification, the third in the year of the pandemic and the first of a layman, was also very social. The public display of Carlo's body was central in determining its mediatic success and undoubtedly contributed to the creation of the narration about the young blessed. Starting from these initial considerations, the contribution - conducted through a semiotic methodology - focuses on the englobing devices used to construct the enunciation, and to specify the sense, of the exposed mortal remains, concentrating the reflection on the importance and the significance of the vestimentary component used in the exhibition.