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Carlo Acutis: First millennial saint canonized by Pope Leo XIV

Carlo Acutis becomes first millennial saint in Catholic Church history. The 15-year-old Italian tech enthusiast who used coding to spread faith dies young.

Carlo Acutis: First millennial saint canonized by Pope Leo XIV
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The first saint of the millennial generation will be canonized on Sunday (9/7) – Carlo Acutis, an Italian boy born in Britain who died of leukemia in 2006 at age 15. The young man had learned computer coding to create websites aimed at spreading his faith.

His canonization will take place in a ceremony presided over by Pope Leo XIV in St. Peter’s Square, expected to attract tens of thousands of faithful. His story has drawn significant attention from Catholic youth and he will now rise to the same level as Mother Teresa and Francis of Assisi.

Carlo Acutis: The first Catholic Church saint of the millennial generation

Sunday’s ceremony was originally scheduled for April but was postponed following the death of Pope Francis. His successor Pope Leo XIV will now preside over the first canonization ceremony of his papacy.

As Acutis’s mother, Antonia Salzano, told Reuters earlier this year, her son’s appeal to Catholic youth was that he lived the same life as other teenagers in the 2000s.

She notably said: “Carlo was an ordinary child like (the others). He used to play, have friends and go to school. But his exceptional quality was that he opened the door of his heart to Jesus and put Jesus first in his life.” She added: “He used this ability to spread the good news, the Gospel. He wanted to help people have more faith, to understand that there is life after death, that we are (pilgrims) in this world.”

His burial site

Acutis’s body, as he progressed through the Church’s official path to sainthood, was transferred to a church in the hilltop town of Assisi in central Italy, home of Saint Francis, according to his final wish.

The final resting place of the new saint, where Acutis is buried with a candle depicting his likeness placed over his body, wearing his tracksuit, jeans and sneakers, has become a popular pilgrimage site, attracting thousands of faithful daily.

Saints who died young

Pope Leo will also canonize in the same ceremony Pier Giorgio Frassati, a young Italian man known for providing aid to those in need who died of polio in the 1920s.

Other saints who died young include Thérèse of Lisieux, who died at age 24 in 1897 and was known for promoting a “Little Way” of charity, and Aloysius Gonzaga, who died at age 23 in 1591 after caring for victims of an epidemic in Rome.

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