Pope Leo XIV has declared Carlo Acutis, a 15-year-old computer programmer who died in 2006, the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint. The canonization took place on Sunday, September 7, during an open-air Mass in St. Peter’s Square that attracted an estimated 80,000 pilgrims.

During the ceremony, Leo also canonized Pier Giorgio Frassati, an Italian Catholic activist who died in 1925 at age 24 from polio.

“The greatest risk in life is to waste it outside of God’s plan,” Leo said in his homily. The new saints “are an invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to squander our lives, but to direct them upwards and make them masterpieces.”

Acutis, born in London on May 3, 1991, to a wealthy Italian family, gained recognition for creating multilingual websites that document Eucharistic miracles recognized by the Church. His technical accomplishments, particularly notable given his young age and the professional nature of website development at that time, earned him the nickname “God’s Influencer.”

Despite his interest in technology, Acutis reportedly limited himself to one hour of video games per week, a discipline that resonated with church leadership concerned about the impact of technology on society.

Path to Sainthood

Both canonization ceremonies were initially scheduled for earlier this year, but were postponed following Pope Francis’ death in April. Francis had actively advanced Acutis’s case for sainthood, viewing him as an important figure to attract younger Catholics to the church while addressing digital age challenges.

Hundreds of clergy, including cardinals, bishops and priests, celebrated the Mass alongside tens of thousands of pilgrims, highlighting the widespread devotion inspired by the new saints.

Global Pilgrimage Site Emerges

Since his death from leukemia in October 2006, Acutis’s tomb in Assisi has become a pilgrimage destination. Visitors can view his body through a glass-sided tomb, where he appears dressed in jeans, Nike sneakers, and a sweatshirt.

Over the past year, more than one million people have visited the site in Assisi. His heart is displayed in a gold casket in the town’s San Rufino Cathedral, while tissue from his pericardium has toured globally ahead of the canonization.

Two Miracles

In May 2024, Pope Francis recognized two miracles attributed to Acutis: the 2013 healing of a Brazilian boy with a rare congenital pancreatic condition, and the sudden recovery of a Costa Rican university student in Florence who suffered a brain hemorrhage after a bicycle accident, following her mother’s prayers at Acutis’s tomb in Assisi.

“Carlo was an internet geek, but he had the temperance to use technology for good, and was not exploited by it,” his mother, Antonia Salzano, told The Guardian. Salzano attended the canonization with her family, including Acutis’s two teenage siblings, who were born after his death.

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