“I will always be close to God, because he is the most important thing in my life.”

This is how Joe Wilson, a young Scotsman on the path to sainthood, expressed his profound relationship with the Lord in his personal diary, which since his sudden death at the age of 17 in 2011 has inspired many people around the world.

Joe Wilson as a child sporting a Scottish flag in face paint. | Credit: Joe Wilson Association

Last November, the Scottish bishops formally approved the opening of his cause for canonization. The postulator, Valerie Fleming, is currently gathering all the details of his life and legacy to present them to the Vatican.

Joe at his baptism with his parents, Alan and Veronica. | Credit: Joe Wilson Association

The living example of a saint

From Scotland, Fleming recounted to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, details about Joe, a humble and kind young man with a great longing for holiness. “In his last year at Taylor High School, a Catholic school, the teacher was giving a religion class about the saints and asked the students: ‘What do you think a saint would be like today?’”

“The whole class turned around and pointed to Joe, and the principal said, ‘There he is.’ That’s absolutely incredible,” Fleming commented.

Joe with his friends. Credit: Joe Wilson Association

A short distance from his house was Carfin Grotto, a place of pilgrimage and shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes, which Joe frequently visited to find the peace he longed for.

This enclave, known as “the Lourdes of Scotland,” witnessed the spiritual growth of the young man, whose friendship with the Lord deepened during his final years. When Joe fell into a coma due to a heart condition, hundreds of people gathered at the shrine to pray for his recovery, holding a candlelight pilgrimage.

Veronica, his mother, with young Joe Wilson. | Credit: Joe Wilson Association

The unwavering faith of St. Thérèse of Lisieux also particularly inspired Joe, who found in this saint the strength he needed to serve others, becoming an example of generosity and dedication for his family and all those around him.

Joe Wilson with his father and his sister, Angela. | Credit: Joe Wilson Association

His writings, an inspiration for young people today

Joe died on Dec. 20, 2011, at Wishaw General Hospital, just five days after his 17th birthday, from Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a congenital heart condition that can particularly affect young athletes. “And that’s what Joe was,” recalled Fleming, who said that his sudden death “was a huge shock to his family.”

His parents, Alan and Veronica Wilson, had raised him in the faith along with his younger sister, Angela, for whom Joe had felt a special affection.

Among his personal belongings, his father found a diary in which Joe had recorded, since the age of 14, the most intimate details of his spiritual life, with reflections on faith and his search for God that reflected an unusual maturity for his age.

Joe on one of his visits to Carfin Grotto. | Credit: Joe Wilson Association

The young man expressed his enthusiasm for Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Scotland in 2010: “I prayed the rosary on Sunday so that everything would go well and there would be many conversions. Jesus will be on the altar! Or at least, as close to Jesus as we can be on earth, on the altar.”

“I know the world won’t be perfect, and that’s why I love having faith. Think of all the people who are starving, in wars, in famines; who were excluded, tortured, who weren’t loved in the world. All these people who were unfortunate on earth are, I’m sure, sitting on the highest thrones in heaven. How reassuring is that?” he wrote shortly before his death.

Joe Wilson could be Scotland’s first millennial saint. | Credit: Joe Wilson Association

Fleming pointed out that Joe’s writings are “inspiring people who otherwise wouldn’t know about the Church,” especially young people, who “realize that you can be a normal person and, at the same time, a witness to God.”

She also emphasized that Joe could become “Scotland’s first millennial saint.”

The last Scottish-born person to be canonized was St. John Ogilvie, a Jesuit priest martyred in Glasgow in 1615 and canonized by Paul VI in 1976.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.