The cause for the canonisation of Carlo Acutis, an Italian 15 year old who died in 2006, has been bolstered by the accounts of healings and conversion attributed to his intercession, but you could say he performed a mini-miracle last night – his mother packed out the church of Corpus Christi Maiden Lane on a weekday evening. And that was after a similar showing at Farm Street church on Wednesday and with an appearance tonight in Fulham and on Saturday in St Patrick’s, Soho. 

It was an extraordinary spectacle: the people hoping to hear from the mother of the beatified boy spilled out onto the Covent Garden pavement. Inside there was an astonishingly diverse congregation of the devout and the curious – all nationalities, all ages – young men in bespoke suits, elderly Indian ladies, the well groomed and the shabby, and lots and lots of Irish travellers who brought any number of babies and children and fabulously dressed young women. The other miraculous aspect of the evening was that the Mass was punctuated by the sound which used to be commonplace in Catholic churches but is now heard dispiritingly little, that of a raucous baby. On the sanctuary there was a couple of Franciscan friars, a Knight of Malta, I think, a bishop; possibly an Oratorian. During Mrs Acutis’ talk there was a little boy at the foot of the altar steps swivelling round silently on his bottom; the Knight’s eyes popped at the sight.