Tens of thousands of people gathered at the Vatican on Sunday for the canonisation of an Italian teenager dubbed “God’s Influencer” for his efforts to spread the Catholic faith online.
Pope Leo XIV on Sunday officially proclaimed Carlo Acutis, who died of leukaemia in 2006 at the age of 15, the Church’s first millennial saint, to applause from the crowds in St Peter’s Square.
Pilgrims stretched across the square in front of St Peter’s Basilica, many of them young people holding up flags from different countries or images of the so-called “cyber-apostle”.
“Carlo Acutis is an example for me because 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 said the atmosphere on Sunday was “beautiful”, telling AFP: “Seeing people from so many parts of the world, you can see the affection for Carlo for what he’s done.”
Around 800 people had arrived on a special train from Assisi, where Acutis’ body, dressed in jeans and a pair of Nike trainers, lies in a glass-walled tomb.
The mass was also being watched by faithful on giant screens in Assisi, a medieval city and pilgrimage site in the central region of Umbria.
Italian Pier Giorgio Frassati, a mountaineering enthusiast who died of polio aged 24 in 1925 and was known for his social and spiritual commitment, was also made a saint on Sunday.
Tapestries showing images of both young men were displayed on the facade of St Peter’s Basilica.
The canonisation was initially set for April but postponed when Pope Francis died.
It is the first such ceremony for US-born Pope Leo, who remarked ahead of the mass: “I’m happy to see so many young people!”
Acutis’s mother, Antonia Salzano, said that her son would thank all those coming to mark his elevation to sainthood.
In a video published by the Assisi diocese on Saturday, she said her son was proof that “we are all called to be saints… everyone is special”.
‘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.
Domenico Sorrentino, bishop of Assisi, called on young people on Friday to follow Acutis’s example.
“Today more than ever we need positive examples, exemplary life stories that can help our young people avoid following discouraging images, violent examples, and fleeting fads that leave nothing behind,” he said in a statement.
The Vatican has recognised Acutis as performing two miracles since his death — a necessary step on the path to sainthood.
The first was the healing of a Brazilian child suffering from a rare pancreatic malformation, the second 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.
Among the crowd Sunday 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.
