Carlo Acutis: Two miracles attributed to Brit teen who becomes saint today

British teen Carlo Acutis shot to fame among many young Catholics for being a relatable, modern-day role model, who used technology to spread the faith

A British teen^[1] dubbed a “digital disciple” is due to become the first millennial saint today, in a ceremony presided over by Pope Leo.

Carlo Acutis^[2] shot to fame among many young Catholics, including those in the Pope’s hometown of Chicago, for being a relatable, modern-day role model, who used technology to spread the faith.

The 15-year-old, who was born in London in 1991 to a wealthy Italian family with his dad half English, grew up in Milan and soon became a devout Catholic after he received his First Communion^[3] at the young age of seven. He regularly attended daily Mass, prayed the rosary and participated in eucharistic adoration.

But it was when he turned 11, the Catholic began writing his online exhibit about more than 100 eucharistic miracles recognised by the church over many centuries, focused on the real presence of Christ that Catholics believe is in the consecrated bread and wine.

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While he enjoyed regular hobbies for his age — hiking, video games, and joking around with friends – he also taught catechism in a local parish and did outreach to the homeless.

But aged 15 he became ill in October 2006, and ten days later, he died of acute leukaemia at a hospital in northern Italy. His body was later transferred to an Assisi cemetery as Carlo had asked, because of his devotion to the hometown medieval saint, St Francis.

Since his death, young Catholics have flocked by the millions to Assisi, where through a glass-sided tomb they can see the young Acutis, dressed in jeans, Nike trainers and a sweatshirt, his hands clasped around a Rosary.

Carlo was declared “blessed” in 2020 after the Vatican recognised a miraculous healing through Acutis’ intercession — a child in Brazil^[6] who recovered in a “scientifically inexplainable” manner.

Last year, the church paved his way to sainthood by attributing to him a second miracle — the complete healing of a Costa Rican student in Italy from major head trauma in a bicycle accident after her mother prayed at Acutis’ tomb.

Thousands of worshippers are expected to attend the ceremony on Sunday for the teen who learned to write internet code so he could spread his belief in the Catholic church.

He limited himself to an hour of video games a week, apparently deciding long before TikTok that human relationships were far more important than virtual ones.

And it was Pope Francis who had fervently willed the Acutis sainthood case forward, convinced that the church needed someone like him to attract young Catholics to church while addressing the promises and perils of the digital age.

Pope Leo will declare Acutis a saint today in his first canonisation ceremony, alongside another popular Italian, Pier Giorgio Frassati. Both ceremonies had been scheduled for earlier this year but were postponed following the death in April of Pope Francis.

“Carlo was well aware that the whole apparatus of communications, advertising and social networking can be used to lull us, to make us addicted to consumerism and buying the latest thing on the market,” Francis wrote in a 2019 document. “Yet he knew how to use the new communications technology^[7] to transmit the Gospel, to communicate values and beauty.”