Who is Carlo Acutis, the Catholic Church’s first ‘millennial saint’?

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday (September 7) declared a 15-year-old computer prodigy the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint, offering young Catholics a relatable role model who used technology to spread the faith and earned the nickname “God’s influencer.”

Pope Leo XIV canonized Carlo Acutis, who passed away in 2006, during an open-air Mass at Vatican City’s St Peter’s Square attended by an estimated 80,000 people, including many millennials and families with young children. During the first saint-making Mass of his pontificate, the Pope also canonized another young and popular Italian figure, Pier Giorgio Frassati.

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Leo said both men created “masterpieces” out of their lives by dedicating them to God. “The greatest risk in life is to waste it outside of God’s plan,” Leo said in his homily. The new saints “are an invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to squander our lives, but to direct them upwards and make them masterpieces.”

Early life and faith

Acutis was born on May 3, 1991, in London to a wealthy but not particularly observant Catholic family. His father, Andrea Acutis, worked at a bank in London, but Carlo spent most of his childhood in Milan, where his father later became chairman of an Italian insurance firm.

His mother, Antonia Salzano, described his upbringing as “normal,” noting that he enjoyed sports and had a lively sense of humour. She recalled how he would make playful “Star Wars”-style films featuring their cats and dogs, complete with different animal voices.

Despite not growing up in a particularly religious household, Carlo’s strong faith was evident from an early age. He often used his pocket money to help the homeless in Milan, stood up for classmates who were bullied, and supported peers whose parents had divorced.

Alongside his everyday life, Carlo developed a deep interest in technology, blending his faith with his love for computers.

Tech talent meets faith

Acutis was particularly interested in computer science and devoured college-level books on programming even as a youngster. He earned the nickname, “God's Influencer,” thanks to his main tech legacy: a multilingual website documenting so-called Eucharistic miracles recognised by the church, a project he completed at a time when the development of such sites was the domain of professionals.

He was known to spend hours in prayer before the Eucharist each day. The Catholic hierarchy has been trying to promote the practice of Eucharistic adoration because, according to polls, most Catholics don't believe Christ is physically present in the Eucharistic hosts.

But Acutis limited himself to an hour of video games a week, apparently deciding long before TikTok that human relationships were far more important than virtual ones. That discipline and restraint has proved appealing to the Catholic hierarchy, which has sounded the alarm about the dangers of today's tech-driven society.

Carlo’s devotion extended beyond coding and prayer, his faith inspired acts that would later be recognised as miraculous.

Path to canonization

In October 2006, at age 15, Acutis fell ill with what was quickly diagnosed as acute leukemia. Within days, he was dead. He was entombed in Assisi, which known for its association with another popular saint, St Francis.

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Carlo’s path to sainthood began in 2020, when Pope Francis approved the first miracle attributed to him, involving the healing of Matheus Vianna, a 7-year-old boy from Brazil suffering from a rare pancreatic disorder. The boy is said to have recovered after coming into contact with one of Carlo’s T-shirts.

A second miracle was attributed to Carlo and recognised in 2022, when Costa Rican student Valeria Valverde was completely healed from severe head trauma sustained in a bicycle accident. Her mother had prayed at Carlo’s tomb.

Pope Francis attributed these two miracles to Carlo Acutis, clearing the way for his canonization, which had been scheduled for April 27. However, he passed away the week before the ceremony.

Francis had fervently pushed the Acutis sainthood case forward, convinced that the church needed someone like him to attract young Catholics to the faith while addressing the promises and perils of the digital age.

Millions flock to Acutis' tomb

Following his untimely death, Carlo’s influence only grew, drawing countless young pilgrims to his resting place in Assisi, where they can see the young Acutis through a glass-sided tomb, dressed in jeans, Nike sneakers and a sweatshirt.

He appears to be sleeping, and questions have swirled about how his body was so well preserved, especially since parts of his heart have even toured the world as relics.

“It's like I can maybe not be as great as Carlo may be, but I can be looking after him and be like, What would Carlo do?'” said Leo Kowalsky, an 8th grader at a Chicago school attached to the Blessed Carlo Acutis Parish. He said he was particularly excited that his own namesake — Pope Leo — would be canonizing the patron of his school. “It's kind of all mashed up into one thing, so it is a joy to be a part of,” Kowalsky said in an interview last week.

His growing popularity highlighted how a modern, tech-savvy saint could resonate with millennials around the world.

Popular piety for digital age

Much of Acutis' popularity is thanks to a concerted campaign by the Vatican to give the next generation of faithful a “saint next door” who was ordinary but did extraordinary things in life. In Acutis, they found a relatable tech-savvy millennial — the term used to describe a person born roughly between 1981 and 1996 who was the first generation to reach adulthood in the new millennium.

An hour before the Mass, St. Peter's Square was already full with pilgrims, many of them young millennial Italians, many with toddlers in strollers.

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“I learned from different people what his professors, his teachers said about his joy and the light he carried around him,” said Leopoldo Antimi, a 27-year-old Roman who got to the square early to secure a spot. “So for me personally as an Italian, even on social networks that are used so much, it is important to have him as an influencer.”

Frassati, the other saint being canonized on Sunday, lived from 1901-1925, when he died at age 24 of polio. He was born into a prominent Turin family but is known for his devotion to serving the poor and carrying out acts of charity while spreading his faith to his friends.

(With agency inputs)