Pope Leo canonizes ‘God’s influencer,’ the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint

Pope Leo XIV declared 15-year-old Carlo Acutis the first millennial saint at an open-air mass attended by tens of thousands of people in St Peter’s Square outside the Vatican on Sunday.

Informally known as “God’s influencer,” Acutis was just 15 when he died of acute promyelocytic leukemia in Milan in 2006 and has two miracles attributed to him by the Catholic Church.

The Vatican said 36 cardinals, 270 bishops and hundreds of priests had signed up to celebrate the Mass, where Leo also canonized Pier Giorgio Frassati, another popular Italian who died young.

Acutis was born in London, where his father, Andrea Acutis, 61, was working as a banker, but the family moved back to Milan when he was young.

Using the family’s small, old computer, Acutis taught himself how to program, and built a website cataloging more than 100 Eucharistic miracles around the world that had been recognized by the church over many centuries.

Sunday’s ceremony in front of the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Basilica, in conjunction with the celebration of the Holy Year’s jubilee for teens, was originally set for April but was postponed after the death of Pope Francis, who called the internet a “gift from God” and encouraged the Vatican to use technology.

Francis had pushed for Acutis — to be given a sainthood — in the hope that it would give the next generation of Catholics a relatable role model and attract young people to the faith.

An estimated 80,000 people attended the open-air Mass on Sunday, many of them millennials and couples with young children.

Francis approved a miracle attributed to Acutis in 2020, declaring him “blessed” and crediting him with healing Matheus Vianna, a 7-year-old boy from Brazil who recovered from a rare pancreatic disorder after coming into contact with one of Carlo’s T-shirts.

A second miracle was attributed to Acutis last year, in which he was credited with the complete healing of Costa Rican student Valeria Valverde from major head trauma sustained in a bicycle accident, after her mother prayed at his tomb.

Acutis’ mother, Antonia Salzano, 58, said that in many ways, her son was just like any other teenager who liked playing video games, hanging out with his friends and playing soccer.

“He was a normal kid, he was a normal person, but he opened the door of his heart to God,” she said earlier this year.

Being made a saint means the church believes a person lived a holy life and is now in heaven with God.

It is impossible to quantify exactly how many saints there are. During the church’s first 1,000 years, they were proclaimed by popular demand, but some estimates have the number exceeding 10,000.