The Catholic Church is getting ready to canonize the first millennial saint on Sunday.
British-born Italian teen Carlo Acutis is known as the “digital disciple” or “God’s influencer” because of the way he’s been able to spread the word of God through a form the younger generation understands: Technology.
“For young people, it’s an example for them that young people can also be touched by God,” said Rev. Fabian Marquez with the Diocese of El Paso, Texas.
The soon-to-be patron saint of the Internet started the first online archive on holy Eucharistic miracles and Marian apparitions at 11 years old and completed it before dying at 15. His devotion has garnered rockstar-like popularity over the years among Catholic students around the world.
“The Eucharist is my highway to heaven,” Carlo often said, according to Courtney Mares, who published “Blessed Carlo Acutis: A Saint in Sneakers,” a biography full of testimonies from friends and family.
Carlo Acutis was born on May 3, 1991, in London, but his family moved back to Milan soon after he was born. He was, by all means, a normal kid. He loved soccer, animals, and video games. But from a young age, he showed a deep devotion to God. He would bring food to the poor, attend mass daily, and spend hours praying.
He was a computer whiz and was proficient in coding. He created a website about Eucharistic miracles, which is still active and available in almost two dozen languages.
The website features close to 200 stories about events over the history of the Catholic Church that are considered miracles. This made him relatable to the younger generation.
“He used social media to promote faith, which tells us that social media can be used for good and can reach many, many people with a good message. And the message from Carlo was to befriend Jesus,” Marquez said.
In 2006, Acutis was diagnosed with acute leukemia. In an exemplary sign of redemptive suffering, the 15-year-old boy offered his suffering to God for then Pope Benedict XVI and the church and died in Monza, Italy, just within a week of diagnosis, according to his parents’ account and the biography by Mares.
To become a saint, the church must determine if the person was a servant of God, a leader, and two miracles must be attributed to the saint.
The Catholic Church recognized his first miracle in 2020. A four-year-old Brazilian boy was healed from a serious birth defect after the boy’s mother prayed to Acutis.
The second miracle, according to the Catholic Church, included a woman from Costa Rica who claims she prayed to Acutis’ tomb after her daughter suffered severe head trauma from an accident. Ten days after her visit and prayer to the tomb, her daughter showed no signs of head trauma, despite doctors giving her a low chance of survival.
Acutis was beatified in 2020, and last year Pope Francis approved the second miracle needed for him to be made a saint.
Acutis was supposed to be canonized in April, during the Jubilee of teenagers, but it was the same week Pope Francis died, and funeral proceedings followed.
Marquez was at the Vatican when the canonization was supposed to take place. While it ended up being a solemn time, he thinks having Pope Leo XIV, the first pope born in the U.S., canonize Acutis, whose maternal great-grandmother was born in the U.S., is a full-circle moment.
Today, he is entombed in Assisi, which is known for its association with another popular saint: Saint Francis of Assisi.
In the years since he died, millions of Catholics have gone to pray and visit the tomb. Through the glass tomb, you can see a young boy dressed in jeans, sneakers, and a sweatshirt with a rosary in his hands.
“You still see him as that young boy that passed at 15, but he portrays so much love. What he gave to people when he lived here on Earth was hope,” Marquez said.
Carlo Acutis will officially become a saint on Sunday, Sept. 7. Thousands are expected to pack Saint Peter’s Square.
Related social media
TikTok: Friends of Carlo Acutis
@friends_of_carlo_acutis #fede_e_carita #tizianorepetto #carloacutisbeato #sancarloacutis #carloacutis #saintcarloacutis #blessedcarloacutis #@agatinacrimi83 @Very @Dalo1976 @Nello Ferriello @user1426698208397 @campiglia @Paola Baldo290 @der Landgraf @h63rim6c @angelacatechista @annaritastelluccia ♬ When The Saints Go Marching In - MarLiMusiq
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Facebook: Catholic News Agency
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