Pope Leo XIV proclaims Carlo Acutis as first millennial saint – Who is this ‘God's Influencer’?

Thousands gathered at the Vatican on Sunday (Sep 7) to witness the canonisation of the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint by Pope Leo XIV. The London-born Italian teenager, who played Super Mario but also read the Bible, has been dubbed “God’s influencer” for his efforts to spread the faith online. The ceremony took place in St Peter’s Square in the presence of his family. Carlo Acutis, who died of leukaemia in 2006 at the age of 15, created a website that documented “miracles” to spread the faith.

Italian mountaineering enthusiast Pier Giorgio Frassati, who died of polio at the age of 24 in 1925, was also proclaimed a saint on Sunday (Sep 7). Images of both young men were displayed on the facade of St. Peter’s Basilica. About 80,000 people were present at the Vatican, with many young people among the crowd.

“Saints Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis are an invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to squander our lives, but to direct them upwards and make them masterpieces,” Pope Leo said in his homily. “Even when illness struck them and cut short their young lives, not even this stopped them nor prevented them from loving, offering themselves to God.”

The canonisation was initially scheduled for April, but was postponed after the death of Pope Francis. The event marked the first canonisation for US-born Pope Leo.

Who was Carlo Acutis?

Born in London in 1991, Carlo Acutis grew up in the northern Italian city of Milan and had an ardent faith. While his family was not particularly devout, he attended daily mass and earned a reputation for kindness to bullied children and homeless people, to whom he brought food and sleeping bags.

Acutis enjoyed playing computer games and taught himself basic coding, which he used to create a website to document miracles and other Catholic faith elements online. He was beatified in 2020 by Pope Francis.

Canonisation happens after a long and meticulous investigation by the Vatican and specialists, who determine whether the obligatory two miracles have taken place.

The first miracle happened when Acutis healed a Brazilian child suffering from a rare pancreatic malformation. The second occurred when he recovered a Costa Rican student, who was seriously injured in an accident. In both cases, the family prayed to the teenager, seeking help.

The canonisation of the “cyber-apostle” has sparked interest across the world. The modern saint’s body has been preserved in a glass-walled tomb in the Italian town of Assisi, dressed in jeans and a pair of Nike trainers. His tomb was visited by nearly a million pilgrims last year, according to the diocese.