Pope Leo XIV canonized the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint, Carlo Acutis, who passed away in 2006 at the age of 15.
“Today we look to Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati and Saint Carlo Acutis: a young man from the early 20th century and a teenager from our own day, both in love with Jesus and ready to give everything for him,” he said, adding, “Carlo, for his part, encountered Jesus in his family, thanks to his parents, Andrea and Antonia — who are here today with his two siblings, Francesca and Michele — and then at school, and above all in the sacraments celebrated in the parish community. He grew up naturally integrating prayer, sport, study and charity into his days as a child and young man.”
“Dear friends, 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,” the pope stated.
Acutis gained the nickname “God’s influencer” for using his technology skills to spread awareness of the Catholic faith. He has been labeled as the “patron saint of the internet.”
In order to become a saint, the Catholic Church typically requires that a candidate has two miracles attributed to them. Acutis’ first miracle reportedly came after he was credited with healing a Brazilian child of a congenital disease affecting his pancreas. His second miracle reportedly involved the healing of a university student in Florence who had a brain bleed after suffering head trauma.
According to Reuters, the Vatican ceremony was attended by an estimated 70,000 people
