Pope Leo XIV on Sunday declared Carlo Acutis, a 15-year-old computer wizard, also known as “God’s Influencer,” as the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint.
The canonisation, celebrated before tens of thousands in St. Peter’s Square, marked a milestone for the church as it embraced a figure who used technology to spread the faith and inspire a digital generation.
The open-air Mass was the first saint-making ceremony of Pope Leo’s pontificate.
Alongside Acutis, he canonised Pier Giorgio Frassati, an Italian layman who died in 1925 and is remembered for his devotion to the poor.
In his homily, the Pope praised both young men for creating “masterpieces” of life through their devotion to God.
“The greatest risk in life is to waste it outside of God’s plan. These saints remind us, especially the young, to lift our lives upward and make them extraordinary,” the Pope said.
Carlo Acutis was born in London in 1991 and raised in Milan, where he developed both a passion for computer science and an intense devotion to the Eucharist.
Gifted with technology, he created a multilingual website cataloguing Eucharistic miracles around the world at a time when such projects were the domain of professionals.
His ability to combine faith and innovation earned him the title “God’s Influencer.” Known for his discipline, he limited himself to just an hour of video games each week, preferring prayer and human connection over the virtual world.
In October 2006, Acutis was diagnosed with acute leukemia and died within days at the age of 15. He was buried in Assisi, where millions of pilgrims have since visited his glass-sided tomb.
Dressed in jeans, sneakers, and a sweatshirt, he appears as though peacefully asleep, reinforcing his image as a modern, relatable saint for the digital age.
For many young Catholics, Acutis has become an example of how holiness can be lived in everyday life.
“It feels like having a saint next door,” Leopoldo Antimi, a 27-year-old pilgrim from Rome told AP.
In Chicago, students at Blessed Carlo Acutis Parish celebrated the canonisation with pride. “I can ask myself, ‘What would Carlo do? It’s inspiring that my own pope, Pope Leo, canonised him,” eighth-grader Leo Kowalsky also said.
The ceremony also honoured Pier Giorgio Frassati, who was born into a wealthy Turin family but chose a life of charity, dedicating himself to serving the poor before dying of polio at 24.
