Saint Carlo Acutis

Carlo Acutis, born on May 3, 1991, will be the first millennial to be made a saint by the Catholic Church.

Acutis died of leukemia in 2006 when he was just 15. But before then, he had an eventful life:

Carlo was born in London to Italian parents and moved with his family to Milan when he was a child. His passion for Catholicism bloomed early, his mother, Antonia Acutis, told The New York Times in an interview in 2020. From age 3, he would ask to visit churches they passed in Milan, and by age 7, he had asked to receive the sacrament of Holy Communion, showing exceptional devotion and understanding for his age, which led to him receiving it at the earliest allowable age. His faith inspired his irreligious mother to rejoin the church, she said.

He felt called to serve, finding ways to help those less fortunate and donating to the homeless, she added. In the months before his death, Carlo used his self-taught digital skills to create a website archiving miracles and managed websites for some local Catholic organizations.

After he died, Ms. Acutis told The Times that people from all over the world had shared stories of medical miracles, including cures for infertility and cancer, that they believed happened after praying to her son.

Carlo’s journey to canonization began in 2020 after the Diocese of Assisi, where his family owned property, petitioned the Vatican to recognize him as a saint.

In February 2020, Pope Francis attributed the healing of a boy with a malformed pancreas to Carlo after the child came into contact with one of his shirts. This event led to Carlo being beatified, which is the step before sainthood, where a person is declared “Blessed” by the Church.

A final step for canonization is for the pope to approve a second miracle. According to the Vatican, this second miracle involved the recovery of a Costa Rican university student who suffered severe head trauma after falling off her bicycle in Florence. The woman needed major brain surgery, and doctors warned survival rates were low. The woman’s mother traveled to Assisi to pray for her daughter at Carlo’s tomb at the Sanctuary of the Renunciation and asked for Carlo’s intercession.

The young woman quickly began to show signs of improvement in her breathing, mobility, and speech, the Vatican said. Ten days after the woman’s mother visited Carlo’s tomb, a CT scan showed the hemorrhage on the woman’s brain had vanished, and she was later transferred to a rehabilitation facility.

Thus, the teenager Carlo Acutis, often called the patron saint of the internet among Roman Catholics because of his computer skills, will soon be referred to as “Saint Carlo Acutis.” His life and works will be celebrated and venerated by Catholics worldwide. He will join a group of saints who, being close to God in heaven, are believed to intercede for the living, presenting their prayers and needs to God.

References: New York Times, AP News, Catholic News Agency