Crowds gathered at the Vatican on Sunday, September 7, for the canonisation of an Italian teenager dubbed ‘God’s Influencer’ for his efforts to spread the Catholic faith online.
Pope Leo XIV declared 15-year-old Carlo Acutis, who died in 2006 of leukemia, the Church’s first millennial saint, cheered on by crowds in St. Peter’s Square. Many young pilgrims held flags and images of the ‘cyber-apostle.’
Around 800 people had arrived on a special train from Assisi, where Acutis’ body—dressed in jeans and a pair of trainers—lies in a glass-walled tomb.
The canonisation was initially set for April but postponed when Pope Francis died.
Carlo Acutis’s mother said he would thank everyone celebrating his sainthood, adding in a video that he showed “we are all called to be saints … everyone is special.”
Acutis was canonised together with Pier Giorgio Frassati, Italian Catholic activist and a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic, who died in 1925 at the age of 24.
