Pope Leo XIV on Sunday declared Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati saints in a solemn ceremony in St. Peter’s Square, where hundreds of pilgrims had camped overnight and tens of thousands gathered to watch the Mass and venerate relics.
Carlo Acutis, a London-born computer enthusiast who died of leukaemia in 2006 at age 15, was raised to sainthood as the Vatican recognised two posthumous miracles attributed to him. The teenager, born May 3, 1991, to an Italian mother and a father of mixed English and Italian heritage, has been described in recent years as a figure of appeal for younger Catholics for his use of digital media to document and promote the faith.
Acutis grew up in Milan, where he attended daily Mass, maintained his parish’s website and later worked on a site for a Vatican-based academy. He taught himself basic coding and compiled online documentation of alleged miracles and stories of saints, a work that supporters say helped spread devotion in digital spaces. He has been variously nicknamed by media and some devotees as "God's Influencer." Acutis’s body lies in a glass-walled tomb in Assisi; his family reported that, per his wishes, he was buried in the town that honours St. Francis.
The Vatican said it had recognised two miracles attributed to Acutis, a requirement for canonisation. The first involved the 2012 recovery of a Brazilian boy, Mattheus Vianna, who had been suffering from a rare pancreatic malformation; relatives say he was cured after touching a relic at Acutis’s tomb. Medical tests were said to confirm the boy’s recovery in 2014, and the Vatican accepted the case as a miracle in 2020. The second recognised miracle cited the 2022 recovery of a Costa Rican student, Valeria Valverde, who sustained a critical head injury in a cycling accident; after relatives prayed at Acutis’s tomb in Assisi she began to breathe on her own and later made a full recovery, a healing later affirmed by Vatican authorities.
Acutis was declared "venerable" in 2018 and was beatified in 2020. At seven he wrote, "My life plan is to be always close to Jesus," a commitment his mother, Antonia Salzano, said reflected a "special relationship" with God despite the family’s limited religiosity. Diagnosed with leukaemia in October 2006, Acutis died on Oct. 12, 2006. Accounts from that period quote him telling his parents he was content: "I'm happy to die because I've lived my life without wasting even a minute of it doing things that wouldn't have pleased God."
Also canonised on Sunday was Pier Giorgio Frassati, an Italian mountaineer and activist who died of polio in 1925 at age 24. Frassati, an engineering student known for serving the poor and sick, was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1990. The Vatican recognised a second miracle as part of the path to his sainthood in 2024, citing the unexplained recovery of a young American man who had been in a coma.
Images from the day showed pilgrims sleeping in tents and on the pavement as they queued to enter St. Peter’s Square, with many carrying banners, posters and other memorabilia depicting Acutis. Large screens were set up in Assisi and elsewhere for those who could not travel to Rome; organisers reported special trains running from Assisi to the capital to carry groups of devotees.
Canonisation in the Catholic Church follows a multi-stage process involving diocesan investigation, scrutiny by experts and pontifical approval. The Vatican requires confirmation of two miracles attributed to the candidate’s intercession after death, and final approval rests with the pope. Acutis’s ceremony had been scheduled for April but was postponed, the Vatican said, after the death of Pope Francis earlier this year.
Acutis’s supporters and pilgrims have pointed to his combination of traditional piety and technological skill as a notable model for young Catholics. Relics associated with him, and a tomb in Assisi where he is interred wearing jeans and sneakers, have already attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors annually, according to local custodians. The elevation of Acutis and Frassati to sainthood adds two young figures to the church’s roster of modern-era examples of lay devotion and service.
The Vatican’s liturgy concluded with Pope Leo XIV offering prayers for the newly canonised and for the faithful gathered in Rome and around the world. The ceremonies drew clergy, laypeople and families, some travelling long distances to mark the occasion and to join a global audience following the rites through live broadcasts and pilgrim gatherings.
Religious leaders and parish communities in Milan, Assisi and beyond said they expected renewed interest in the lives of both saints, particularly among younger Catholics who have followed Acutis’s story in social media and devotional sites. The Vatican said relics and other objects connected to the new saints would be made available for veneration at selected churches and shrines in the months ahead.