Carlo Acutis, an Italian teenager who died of leukemia in 2006, had never missed a daily Mass since he received his first Communion as a 7-year-old. He volunteered in Catholic soup kitchens and spent his free time caring for the homeless.
He also turned his passion for technology into a tool for faith — by creating a website, where he listed the Eucharistic miracles.
On Sunday, Pope Leo XIV will declare Acutis a saint — the first millennial ever to be canonized — in a ceremony in St. Peter’s Square. His canonization reflects the Church’s effort to inspire young people at a time when many are drifting from religion. “He did not settle into comfortable inaction, but grasped the needs of his time because in the weakest he saw the face of Christ,” Pope Francis, who approved Acutis for canonization, said in 2020.
Since his death, Acutis’ devotion and digital legacy have spread across the Catholic church across the world, with fans referring to him as “God’s influencer” and the “patron saint of the internet.”
“He’s very relatable and for a lot of young people today — given that he’s grown up in the same era of internet and video games, he played sports — this is not some distant historical figure that might be hard to relate to,” Brett Robinson, associate director for outreach and associate professor of the practice at the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, told the Deseret News. “He’s someone from our own era, from the millennial generation, who has really been part of this digital revolution.”
The day of the canonization ceremony will also coincide with the release of the animated film about Acutis on Sept. 7.
As many millennials and Gen Z are leaving organized religion, Acutis offers a glimpse of hope: that faith and technology can work together to help young people flourish.
Who is Carlo?
Acutis was born in London in 1991 and grew up in Milan in a relatively secular family. Even as a toddler, he asked to step inside churches when his family walked past them, drawing his parents back to Catholicism.
He received his first Communion at seven and developed a devotion to the Eucharist, daily Mass and prayer. His faith also influenced his mother, Antonia Salzano Acutis, who later reflected in the EWTN documentary: “I always say that Carlo was a little savior for me.”
Yet he was also very much a teenager. He loved video games like Pokémon and Super Mario, but limited himself to one hour of play each week. He immersed himself in computer science, teaching himself coding and reading college-level textbooks. Inspired by Apple founder Steve Jobs, he looked for ways to develop his talents and use them for the wider good.
Using his skills, he built websites for his parish and school and launched a project cataloging Eucharistic miracles. He also warned against the dangers of pornography, urging peers to use the internet wisely. One of the most commonly cited words by Acutis are: “All people are born as originals but many die as photocopies.”
At 15, Acutis was diagnosed with leukemia and died within a week of his diagnosis. Before his death, he told his family: “I am happy to die because I lived my life without wasting even a minute of it on anything unpleasing to God.” He requested to be buried in Assisi, the home of St. Francis.
The Diocese of Assisi petitioned the Vatican to open his cause for sainthood, and in 2020 he was “beatified,” the step before canonization. His canonization was scheduled for April 27, during the Jubilee of Youth, but it was postponed by the death of Pope Francis.
The process of becoming a saint
A person may be typically considered for sainthood not sooner than five years after their death, according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The process involves the bishop interviewing people who knew the candidate, examining personal records of the person. For Acutis, this process involved going through his texts, computer and search history, The New York Times reported.
The Catholic Church follows a formal process with three main stages on the path to sainthood: First a person is declared Venerable, then Blessed, and then a Saint. A person is recognized as Venerable when the pope deems that they lived a “heroically virtuous life,” according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
To be declared Blessed, or beatified, one miracle attributed to the person’s intercession must be confirmed, in addition to recognition of their life of virtue or sacrifice.
Full canonization into sainthood requires two miracles that can be verified.
Acutis’ first miracle involved the healing of a Brazilian boy with a rare pancreatic defect in 2020, after the mother prayed to Acutis. The second miracle concerned a young Costa Rican student who recovered from a near-fatal brain injury after her mother prayed at Acutis’ tomb.
“He is truly a patron for our self-isolating, digitally reliant times, and for other young people who are now accompanying all of us as we enter more fully into this new normal,” Paul Jarzembowski, of the U.S. Council for Catholic Bishops’ youth and young adult ministries, told The New York Times in 2020.
Many young people in the church may see a reflection of themselves in Acutis’ efforts to navigate the perils of technology today and use digital tools with wisdom and purpose, Notre Dame’s Robinson said.
He contributed to the work on the documentary titled “Carlo Acutis: Roadmap to Reality” earlier this year and recalled how young people visiting Acutis’ shrine in Assisi expressed a sense of closeness, “accessibility” and “renewed fervor” about their spiritual life.
“It was inspiring to see that — having a young saint has gone a long way in inviting more young people into that.
‘Prudent and virtuous’ relationship with technology
Technology has both driven people away from faith and has brought them closer to it, Robinson said. Acutis, a digital native, helped accomplish the latter by sparking his friends’ curiosity about faith with his project and research on Eucharistic miracles.
“Using these tools for the benefit of others, for their own spiritual growth — I think Carlo can be a model for that, because there is so much not to like online.” His example is one of a “prudent and virtuous” relationship with technology, he noted.
Like saints throughout history who had a practice of a spiritual discipline, Acutis’ approach to technology offers a valuable model for young people today, especially when it comes to resisting the pull of smartphones or gaming. “For our age that seems like an important message, especially for young people,” Robinson said.
More broadly, Acutis’ canonization may expand the meaning of what it means to be a contemporary saint. ”Sainthood and holiness — these aren’t just reserved for some austere select few,” Robinson said. “It’s actually all of us that are called to this.”