DUBLIN (OSV News) ─ In rural Limerick, three teenage brothers are turning Lego into a tool for evangelization as Blessed Carlo Acutis continues to inspire a new generation of digital evangelists.
In the small rural parish of Kilcornan in Irish Limerick County, the boys have produced a professional and instructive stop-motion animation film about the millennial saint.
"We wanted to reach people of our own age," 16-year-old Louis Flynn explained to OSV News. "Carlo really inspired all three of us. He was a normal teenager who loved football and video games, but he also had a profound love for the Eucharist. He lived in the same kind of world as we do -- surrounded by technology. Everybody uses it, but not everyone is using it in the way that God wants us to use it. Carlo used it to glorify God. That really resonated."
The trio of digital evangelists are in fact brothers. In addition to Louis, the talented young film crew is made up of his brother Iosaf Flynn, 14, who "does the narrating and set-building for the films," while Louis and Oliver, 18, do "the animating (filming all the shots) and planning."
Louis also does the editing. "We animate our videos using the Stop Motion Studio Pro app and then we edit them on iMovie," he explained to OSV News.
Completed films are broadcast on their YouTube channel -- Fiontar Floinn -- which is Irish for Flynn Enterprises. They have made five saint animations so far, including one on St. Patrick, Ireland's national patron saint, and another on Our Lady of Guadalupe. "'The Incredible Life of Carlo Acutis' is our most detailed yet." The five-minute video was crafted over several months. It impresses not just for its technical excellence but also for its evangelizing message.
The process of a stop-motion animation is painstakingly detailed. "There was a lot more sets involved than in any of the other animations we have done. For every single frame you have to move the figures and if you move too much in one frame, it's too fast and jerky."
On top of the stop-motion animation, it took two weeks to write the storyboard. "We try to balance ambition with what's feasible in Lego. Each scene was carefully calculated."
Their animation brings Blessed Carlo's story to life with surprising detail and theological depth, from the portrayal of the Eucharistic miracles, which Blessed Carlo promoted, to the Milan, Italy, setting.
A fun aspect of the video is the inclusion of 'Easter eggs.' These are small visual details for viewers to discover. For example, the tiny Nutella jar on the windowsill in Carlo's room -- a homage to Blessed Carlo's favorite treat.
"We got an iPad Mini in 2015, and that's when we started experimenting. We started taking animating more seriously in 2020. At first, it was just for fun; there were no backgrounds, it was just Lego minifigures on our bedroom floor. That's when we realized Lego was the medium we were most comfortable with."
Homeschooling helped the three brothers to bring the film to fruition. "Homeschooling gives us the time and space to work on projects like this. There's also less peer pressure; if we were in school, we might worry more about what people think. Instead, we can focus on doing something meaningful for God," Louis explained.
Making "The Incredible Life of Carlo Acutis" enabled the three young brothers to "look more deeply" into the Eucharistic miracles that Carlo promoted. "One that surprised us was the miracle in Argentina, which had a direct involvement from Pope Francis when he was archbishop (of Buenos Aires.) That connection really struck us."
Eager to do something to draw souls to Jesus, young Carlo began to research Eucharistic miracles. He was convinced that people wouldn't be able to stay away from the holy Mass if they knew about the miracles of Lanciano and Poznan and the dozens of others recognized by the church. So Carlo began to research, dragging his parents from one shrine to another in order to take pictures for the website he was building.
Carlo's devotion to the Blessed Sacrament inspired Louis, who takes part in weekly adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and is part of a Dominican Youth Group in the city of Limerick. "It's called the Frassati Youth Club and our patron is Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. We are going to his canonization in Rome this August."
His hope is that schools or youth festivals might use the Blessed Carlo Acutis video to introduce young people to the first millennial saint. "We want the message to reach as many people as possible. We think Carlo's story has the most impact on people his age."
Looking to the future he explained, "We're always thinking about the next project, but it depends on inspiration and time. It's not just about animation -- it's about sharing a message that matters. We're happy for others to share or show the animation; we just hope it inspires more young people to know that holiness is possible today."
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Sarah Mac Donald writes for OSV News from Dublin.
