Joe Wilson, born in 1994 and from Carfin in North Lanarkshire, is on the path to become Scotland’s first millennial saint.
The young Catholic, who died at the age of 17 in 2011 from a rare heart condition, was known for his deep devotion. He grew up in a Catholic family, with Lithuanian, Irish and Scottish ancestry, living within walking distance of Carfin Grotto, Scotland’s National Marian Shrine, where he would often go to pray.
Joe was known to be quite different from his peers. John Patrick Mallon, co-founder of Sancta Familia Media and head of outreach for Joe’s cause of canonisation, explains that “he wore his faith on his shoulder, with a great sense of joy and always looking out for the marginalised”. He was greatly admired and respected by all those around him. One episode often recalled to illustrate this was after Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Scotland in 2010. In a religious education class, the students were asked what a 21st-century saint might look like, as the Holy Father had called on the Church in Scotland to “be saints in the 21st century”. The entire class pointed at Joe as such an example.
