Tens of thousands of people gathered at the Vatican on Sunday for the canonization of an Italian teenager dubbed “God’s Influencer” for his efforts to spread the Catholic faith online. Pope Leo XIV officially proclaimed Carlo Acutis, who died of leukemia in 2006 at the age of 15, the Church’s first millennial saint, to applause from the crowds in St. Peter’s Square.
Pilgrims stretched across the square in front of St. Peter’s Basilica, with many young people holding flags from different countries or images of the so-called “cyber-apostle.” “Carlo Acutis is an example for me because he was able to combine his everyday life—school, football, and his passion for IT and computers—with an unshakeable faith,” said 17-year-old Filippo Bellaviti. He told AFP that the atmosphere on Sunday was “beautiful,” adding, “Seeing people from so many parts of the world, you can see the affection for Carlo for what he’s done.”
About 800 people arrived on a special train from Assisi, where Acutis’s body, dressed in jeans and Nike trainers, lies in a glass-walled tomb. The mass was also shown on giant screens in Assisi, a medieval city and pilgrimage site in the central Umbria region. Italian Pier Giorgio Frassati, a mountaineering enthusiast who died of polio at age 24 in 1925 and was known for his social and spiritual commitment, was also made a saint on Sunday. Tapestries showing images of both young men were displayed on the facade of St. Peter’s Basilica.
The canonization was initially scheduled for April but was postponed when Pope Francis passed away. This was the first such ceremony for US-born Pope Leo, who remarked ahead of the mass, “I’m happy to see so many young people!” Acutis’s mother, Antonia Salzano, said her son would be grateful to all those who came to witness his elevation to sainthood. In a video published by the Assisi diocese on Saturday, she said her son was proof that “we are all called to be saints… everyone is special.”
‘An Exemplary Life’
Acutis, born in London in 1991 to Italian parents, had a strong faith despite his parents not being particularly devout. He grew up in the northern city of Milan, where he attended daily mass and was known for his kindness to bullied children and homeless people, bringing them food and sleeping bags. A fan of computer games, Acutis taught himself basic coding and used it to document miracles and other elements of the Catholic faith online. Domenico Sorrentino, the bishop of Assisi, called on young people on Friday to follow Acutis’s example. “Today more than ever we need positive examples, exemplary life stories that can help our young people avoid following discouraging images, violent examples, and fleeting fads that leave nothing behind,” he said in a statement.
The Vatican has recognized Acutis as performing two miracles since his death—a necessary step on the path to sainthood. The first was the healing of a Brazilian child suffering from a rare pancreatic malformation, and the second was the recovery of a Costa Rican student who was seriously injured in an accident. In both cases, relatives had prayed for help from the teenager, who was beatified in 2020 by Pope Francis. Among the crowd on Sunday was 15-year-old Eleanor Hauser, on a school trip to Italy from the US state of North Carolina. She said her Catholic grandmother had told her about Acutis. “It shows that you can do so much even when you’re young; you can make an impact on the world no matter how old you are,” she said.
