Tens of thousands of people gathered at the Vatican on Sunday as Pope Leo XIV proclaimed the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint, an Italian teenager dubbed “God’s Influencer” for his efforts to spread the faith online.
London-born Carlo Acutis, who died of leukaemia in 2006 at the age of 15, was canonised in a solemn ceremony in St Peter’s Square, with his family watching on.
Many young people were among the crowd, which the Vatican estimated at about 80,000.
“He was able to combine his everyday life — school, football and his passion for IT and computers — with an unshakeable faith,” said Filippo Bellaviti, 17.
He told AFP the atmosphere was “beautiful”, adding: “Seeing people from so many parts of the world, you can see the affection for Carlo for what he’s done.”
Pier Giorgio Frassati, an Italian mountaineering enthusiast who died of polio aged 24 in 1925, was also made a saint on Sunday.
Tapestries showing images of both young men were displayed on the facade of St. Peter’s Basilica.
“Saints Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis are an invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to squander our lives, but to direct them upwards and make them masterpieces,” Pope Leo said in his homily.
“Even when illness struck them and cut short their young lives, not even this stopped them nor prevented them from loving, offering themselves to God,” he said.
– Modern saint –
The canonisation of the so-called “cyber-apostle” has sparked interest across the globe, as his is not the traditional image of a Catholic saint.
His preserved body, which lies in a glass-walled tomb in the Italian town of Assisi, is starkly modern, dressed in jeans and a pair of Nike trainers.
Acutis’s mother, Antonia Salzano, said her son was proof that “we are all called to be saints… everyone is special”.
She attended the canonisation mass with her family, including the teen’s two siblings born after his death. His brother Michele gave a reading.
Almost a million pilgrims visited Acutis’s tomb in Assisi last year, according to the diocese.
Initially set for April but postponed following the death of Pope Francis, Sunday’s canonisation was the first for US-born Pope Leo.
“I’m happy to see so many young people!” he remarked ahead of the mass.
Among the crowd was Eleanor Hauser, 15, on a school trip to Italy from the US state of North Carolina. She said she had been told about Acutis by her Catholic grandmother.
“It shows that you can do so much even when you’re young, you can make an impact on the world no matter how old you are,” she said.
– ‘Exemplary life’ –
Acutis, born in London in 1991 to Italian parents, had an ardent faith, though his parents were not particularly devout.
He grew up in the northern city of Milan, where he attended mass daily and had a reputation for kindness to bullied children and homeless people, bringing the latter food and sleeping bags.
A fan of computer games, Acutis taught himself basic coding and used it to document miracles and other elements of the Catholic faith online.
Canonisation is the result of a long and meticulous process, involving an investigation by the Vatican and specialists who assess whether the obligatory two miracles have taken place.
The first miracle attributed to Acutis was the healing of a Brazilian child suffering from a rare pancreatic malformation.
The second was the recovery of a Costa Rican student seriously injured in an accident.
In both cases, relatives had prayed for help from the teenager, who was beatified in 2020 by Pope Francis.
Frassati, who was also raised to sainthood Sunday, was held up by the Church as a model of charity.
An engineering student who made it his mission to serve the poor and sick of his city, he was beatified by John Paul II in 1990.
The Vatican recognised the necessary second miracle to put him on the path to sainthood in 2024, with the unexplained healing of a young American man in a coma.
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