An Italian teenager dubbed “God’s Influencer” for his efforts to spread the Catholic faith online will become the first millennial saint Sunday at a canonisation attended by thousands of pilgrims.
Computer whiz Carlo Acutis, who died of leukemia in 2006 aged 15, will be raised to sainthood by Pope Leo XIV in a solemn ceremony in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican.
The teenager’s body, dressed in jeans and a pair of Nike trainers, lies in a glass-walled tomb in Assisi, visited by hundreds of thousands of people a year.
His canonisation, initially set for April but postponed when Pope Francis died, will be watched by faithful on giant screens in Assisi, a medieval city and pilgrimage site in the central region of Umbria.
– ‘Exemplary life’ –
Acutis, born in London in 1991 to Italian parents, had an ardent faith, though his parents were not particularly devout.
He grew up in the northern city of Milan, where he attended mass daily and had a reputation for kindness to bullied children and homeless people, bringing the latter food and sleeping bags.
A fan of computer games, Acutis taught himself basic coding and used it to document miracles and other elements of the Catholic faith online.
Domenico Sorrentino, bishop of Assisi, called on young people on Friday to follow Acutis’s example.
“Today more than ever we need positive examples, exemplary life stories that can help our young people avoid following discouraging images, violent examples, and fleeting fads that leave nothing behind,” he said in a statement published by the diocese.
Acutis’s mother Antonia Salzano said her son’s gift was in seeing that “each person is unique and unrepeatable, originals and not photocopies, as Carlo used to say”.
The Vatican has recognised Acutis as performing two miracles since his death — a necessary step on the path to sainthood.
The first was the healing of a Brazilian child suffering from a rare pancreatic malformation, the second the recovery of a Costa Rican student seriously injured in an accident.
In both cases, relatives had prayed for help from the teenager, who was beatified in 2020 by Pope Francis.
Over 800 people will be travelling to Rome on a special train from Assisi for the canonisation of the so-called “cyber-apostle”, which begins at 10:00 am (0800 GMT) on Sunday.
A large tapestry featuring a photograph of the saint-to-be hung on the facade of St. Peter’s Basilica ahead of the ceremony.
– ‘To the heights’ –
Canonisation is the result of a long and meticulous process, involving an investigation by the Vatican and specialists who assess whether the obligatory miracles have taken place.
Final approval rests with the pope.
Italian Pier Giorgio Frassati, a mountaineering enthusiast who died in 1925 and was known for his social and spiritual commitment, will also be made a saint on Sunday.
His casket is inscribed with the words “Verso l’alto” (“To the heights”), a phrase he wrote on a photograph taken of him looking up to the summit while mountaineering.
An engineering student who made it his mission to serve the poor and sick of his city, he was held up by the Church as a model of charity after his death of polio aged 24.
He was beatified by John Paul II in 1990.
The Vatican recognised the necessary second miracle to put him on the path to sainthood in 2024, with the unexplained healing of a young American man in a coma.
Sunday’s canonisation ceremony will be Pope Leo XIV’s first since his election in May, when he became the first pontiff from the United States.
It falls during the Jubilee, a Catholic “Holy Year” which has already drawn over 24 million people to Rome, according to the Vatican.
AFP
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