YOUTH APPEAL

Our First Millennial Saint Is Here

Carlo Acutis, who died at age 15, was nicknamed “God’s Influencer.”

The first millennial will become a saint on Sunday at the Vatican.

Carlo Acutis, a British-born Italian who died from leukemia in 2006 when he was 15 years old, was nicknamed “God’s Influencer” for his use of technology to spread his Catholic faith. Acutis created a website about “Eucharistic miracles.”

In 2019, Acutis’ remains were brought to a sanctuary in Assisi, a town north of Rome. There, about a million visitors—with more than usual on the younger side—passed by his tomb, Rev. Domenico Sorrentino, the bishop of Assisi, told The New York Times.

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The following year, Acutis was beatified, which is one step below sainthood. He was expected to be canonized in April by Pope Francis, but the 88-year-old’s death that month postponed the occasion.

The Catholic Church attributes to Acutis two “miracles,” which are necessary to become a saint. The first was a Brazilian child who it says was “healed from a serious birth defect called an annular pancreas.” The second, according to the Vatican, was the recovery of a Costa Rican university student who fell off her bike in Florence and had head trauma.

Pope Francis linked Acutis’ prayers to the student’s recovery last May, clearing the way for his sainthood.

Sunday’s canonization will be the first by Pope Leo XIV, the Chicago native who was elected in May. Also becoming a saint is Italian mountaineer Pier Giogio Frassati, who died 100 years ago from polio at age 24.

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