{"id":62105,"date":"2025-09-16T14:18:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T12:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/?p=62105"},"modified":"2025-09-16T14:18:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T12:18:17","slug":"akash-bashir-pakistans-hero-the-next-millennial-saint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/09\/16\/akash-bashir-pakistans-hero-the-next-millennial-saint\/","title":{"rendered":"Akash Bashir: Pakistan\u2019s Hero, the Next Millennial Saint?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-128988\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/bashir_eng.webp\" alt=\"akash bashir saint\" width=\"606\" height=\"318\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i>The cause for the sainthood of <strong>Akash Bashir<\/strong> is proceeding quickly: he saved the Lahore community by <strongsacrificing himself against a suicide bomber<\/strong>. The canonization of <strong>Carlo Acutis<\/strong> opens a window on millennial saints.<\/i><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">One week after the canonization of the young <strong>Carlo Acutis<\/strong>, the name of his almost contemporary <mark><strong>Akash Bashir<\/strong><\/mark> resonates again strongly.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If Carlo was the first saint of the <strong>millennial generation<\/strong>, Bashir could be on the path to becoming the second.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>The Biography of Akash Bashir and Martyrdom in Pakistan<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Born in 1994 in <strong>Pakistan<\/strong>, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, he lived in Lahore, where he studied at the Don Bosco Technical Institute.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">On <strong>March 15, 2015<\/strong>, at the age of 21, he was performing <strong>volunteer service<\/strong> as a security guard at the Church of St. John in Youhanabad, a district of Lahore, while the Catholic community <strong>celebrated Mass<\/strong> inside.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/2017\/01\/24\/moriro-ma-non-ti-farai-esplodere-nella-mia-chiesa-le-ultime-parole-di-akash\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">We have already recounted<\/a><\/em><\/strong> what happened that day: he identified a <strong>terrorist<\/strong> loaded with explosives intent on entering, threw himself against him to <b>hold him outside<\/b>, and even tried to reason with him, but in vain.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Eyewitnesses heard Bashir say this phrase: <i>\u00ab<strong>I will die<\/strong>, but I will not let you enter this church\u00bb<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>He died with the bomber and saved the community<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The suicide bomber decided to detonate outside anyway, taking his life and also taking young Akash&#8217;s. The explosion still killed another <strong>14 people<\/strong>, but the dozens of faithful inside the church were saved. The group <strong>Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaatul Ahrar<\/strong> later claimed responsibility for the attack.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A <strong>heroic act<\/strong>, impossible even to imagine, which for this reason went around the world, reaching the Vatican immediately.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">From a canonical point of view, since then <strong>the Pakistani Church<\/strong> has taken decisive steps: the cause for beatification and canonization was officially opened, Akash was declared a <strong>\u201cServant of God\u201d<\/strong> in 2022, and the diocesan process concluded in <strong>March 2024<\/strong>, with the authenticated acts sent to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in Rome.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>From Carlo Acutis to Akash Bashir: Millennial Saints<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The similarities with <strong>Carlo Acutis<\/strong> are not limited to their young age but also to the fact that both, despite their biographical differences, were authors of a <strong>radical<\/strong> and decisive <strong>testimony<\/strong> to the Christian mystery.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Carlo, regardless of what meticulous theologian critics say, testified to <strong>an experiential love<\/strong> for faith and the Eucharist, <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/09\/08\/carlo-acutis-and-the-inconsistent-accusations-of-anti-semitism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">as written<\/a><\/em><\/strong> by <strong>Father Maurizio Buioni<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The same testimony is found in Akash who, with <strong>a tremendous act of affection<\/strong>, made tangible the logic of total self-giving, even to the point of ultimate sacrifice.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Naturally, Akash is not yet beatified or canonized. But <strong>the process is moving quickly<\/strong>, so much so that a few months ago <strong><i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vaticannews.va\/it\/chiesa\/news\/2024-11\/beatificazione-pakistan.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Vatican News<\/a><\/i><\/strong> reported that the beatification cause of the young Pakistani is proceeding <strong>at a rapid pace<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">And the growing attention to his case\u2014especially now, after the canonization of Acutis\u2014suggests that especially <strong>in Pakistan<\/strong> many faithful already consider him a sign, <strong>a living hope<\/strong> for Catholics living as a minority, in a context where <strong>deciding every day<\/strong> to adhere to Christ rather than the world entails a real danger to one&#8217;s life and a life defined by daily persecution.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The canonization of Carlo Acutis may have opened a window, inaugurating a new generation of potential <strong>millennial saints<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The cause for the sainthood of Akash Bashir is proceeding quickly: he saved the Lahore community by<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":15,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1914,1889,1916,1915],"class_list":["post-62105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-akash-bashir","tag-carlo-acutis","tag-millennial-saint","tag-millennial-saints"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Akash Bashir: Pakistan\u2019s Hero, the Next Millennial Saint? 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