He was a computer geek.
He loved monster sets. He played video games. He knew Java.
Today, he’s a saint.
Carlo Acutis was declared a saint by Pope Leo XIV in a ceremony at St. Peter’s Square where attended thousands of faithful this Sunday. Along with Pier Giorgio Frassati, he was one of the first two saints proclaimed by Pope Leo XIV.
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“After due deliberation and frequent prayer for divine assistance and having sought the counsel of many of our brother bishops, we declare and define blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis to be saints and we enroll them among the saints, decreeing they are to be venerated as such by the whole church,” Pope Leo XIV said.
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Carlo Acutis, born in London in 1991 and raised in Milan and Rome, represents a bridge between faith and the digital age. He showed a gift for computers. He taught himself programming and web design. He created an online catalogue of Eucharistic miracles and Marian apparitions. In the age of TikTok and Instagram, he earns the moniker, “God’s Influencer.”
Acutis’ life was cut tragically short after he was diagnosed with acute leukemia in 2006. He passed away that year in October at age 15.
Reports of miracles attributed to Acutis’ intercession began to emerge after his death.
The first, in 2013, involved a Brazilian boy with a malformed pancreas who experienced a complete and inexplicable recovery after prayer petitions to Acutis. Another, in 2022, involved a Costa Rican woman who suffered a traumatic head injury in a bicycle accident. Doctors were convinced she was brain dead. On that very day, her mother was in Italy visiting Acutis’ tomb in Assisi. The young woman began to breathe on her own and later made a full recovery. These events, carefully investigated by the Vatican, led to Acutis’ beatification in 2020 and his canonization in 2025.
Carlo Acutis is known as the “Patron Saint of the Internet,” a witness for the 21st century. His story resonates with young Catholics, who see in him a relatable peer who used modern tools to proclaim an ancient faith.
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Nearly a century earlier, another young Italian layman embodied holiness in everyday life. Pier Giorgio Frassati was born in 1901 in Turin to a prominent family. His father, an influential newspaper editor and diplomat, had little patience for religion, yet Frassati embraced his Catholic faith wholeheartedly.
An avid mountain climber and outdoorsman, Frassati was deeply committed to social justice. He joined the St. Vincent de Paul Society to help polio patients. He regularly gave his money and time to the destitute of Turin. He contracted polio himself, likely from one of the sick he served, and died at the age of 24 in 1925.
Frassati’s funeral stunned Turin. His coffin was accompanied through the streets by the city’s poor, who regarded him as their brother and benefactor. His beatification came decades later, in 1990, after the Vatican confirmed a miraculous cure of a laborer suffering from Pott’s disease. Another healing, recognized in 2024, opened the final door to his canonization.
To Catholic youth movements such as Catholic Action, Frassati is not a distant hero but a companion on the journey. “He wasn’t just a philanthropist—he didn’t wait for the poor to come to him. He went to them,” said Lorenzo Zardi of Catholic Action Youth. His model of living the Gospel fully in the present moment continues to inspire young people around the world.
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The Path to Sainthood
The canonization of Acutis and Frassati illustrates how candidates are first declared “venerable” for their heroic virtue. After one confirmed miracle, they are beatified and known as “blessed.” A second miracle, following beatification, clears the way for canonization, when the pope formally recognizes them as saints.
Pope Francis, who died in April 2024, canonized nearly a thousand saints during his pontificate. Pope Leo XIV has now added his first two, symbolically uniting the 20th and 21st centuries through the figures of Frassati and Acutis.
The canonization also carries a thematic weight. Frassati died during the Holy Year of Peace in 1925; now he is made a saint during the Holy Year of Hope. Acutis, reared in the age of the internet, becomes a sign of hope for a generation often criticized as detached from faith.
Catholics are reminded that holiness is not confined to cloisters or pulpits, but, rather, on mountain paths or in digital spaces, in hospitals or online forums. The Vatican sees Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati as models of youthful holiness for the Church and the world.
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Carlo Acutis’ bedroom, inside an apartment in Rome, where he and parents lived before he died, has become a religious pilgrimage. No mosaics, no painted glass, no statues. Instead, plastic figurines of cartoon characters crowd the shelf above his desk.
Since 2006, Acutis’ parents have kept his room, as it was when he died of leukemia in 2006. His father Andrea, not a religious man for most years of his life, was restored to faith because of Carlo. He considered his son’s passing when he spoke to a class at Leone XIII, a Jesuit high school once attended by Carlo. “How does a family survive such a cross?” Andrea asked. “God never gives crosses without the grace to carry them. We were given the grace to keep Carlo for the years we had him.”
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A Boy Ahead of His Time
Some months ago, Carlo’s mother, Antonia Salzano, was interviewed by the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera. When asked about what kind of boy was Carlo, she claimed he was brilliant yet ordinary.
“He was always ahead of his age,” Antonia said. “At six he was already fascinated by computers, though he also loved toys—monster kits, robots, a crocodile game. He painted constantly, he had a real artistic streak. By nine he was asking us for advanced computer textbooks, the kind used at the Polytechnic engineering school. He taught himself programming in C++ and Java. He had a passion for graphics software too, which he used for his schoolwork and, later, for his exhibition on Eucharistic miracles. That exhibition has since traveled to tens of thousands of parishes across the world.”
Music was also an important part of Carlo’s life. He was assigned the flute in school but disliked it, said Antonia. Instead, he asked for a saxophone and taught himself to play the instrument.
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Web Designer for the Faith
Carlo went to Mass every day, say his parents. When his mother suggested buying him new shoes, he urged her to buy something for the poor instead. Often, accompanied by the family’s longtime assistant, Rajesh Mohur, Carlos spent winter evenings walking the neighborhood, bringing food to the homeless. Rajesh converted to Catholicism because of Carlos.
“He was cheerful, sociable, always willing to help, always smiling,” Antonia said in an interview with Corriere Della Sera. “He invited friends home, and he was never embarrassed by his faith.”
At eight, Carlo was given a Playstation; yet, he limited himself to one hour of play per week, having read studies about computer game addiction. Today, his mother believes, he would be the first to advise young people to turn off social media. “He would switch off the phone. He would remind us of the need for limits,” she said.
Before he died, Carlo developed a website for Jesuit volunteer organizations. His digital apostolate spread worldwide. The boy who coded at nine years old now carries the title, “Patron Saint of the Internet.”
The toys remain on their shelves, the desk remains as it was, the portrait of Christ is still there, gazing from the wall. Such is the room of Saint Acutis.
Editor’s Note: To learn more about Carlo Acutis and the web site he developed of Eucharistic Miracles, please log on to: https://www.miracolieucaristici.org/en/liste/list.html
To read official press releases and news items from the Vatican please log on to https://www.vaticannews.va/