Thousands of pilgrims filled St. Peter's Square on Sunday as Pope Leo XIV canonised Carlo Acutis, a London-born teenager who died of leukaemia in 2006 and has been widely described as a saint of the internet era.
Acutis, who was 15 when he died, is being celebrated as the first millennial saint. The canonisation took place during a solemn Mass in St. Peter's Square that also elevated Italian layman Pier Giorgio Frassati to sainthood. Pilgrims arrived in Rome days in advance, many sleeping in tents and sleeping bags along processional routes and lining up to enter the square. Large screens in Assisi, where Acutis’ tomb is located, allowed those who remained in the medieval pilgrimage city to follow the ceremony.
Born on May 3, 1991, to an Italian mother and a father of mixed English and Italian heritage, Acutis grew up in Milan and developed a reputation for daily Mass attendance, technical skill and compassion for others. He taught himself the basics of computer coding and built a website to catalogue reported eucharistic miracles and stories of saints, a project that drew attention for marrying faith with digital outreach. He has been described by supporters as a model for young Catholics, and his online work earned him nicknames such as "God's Influencer." His remains lie in a glass-walled tomb in Assisi, laid out in jeans and Nike trainers, and draw hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
Acutis was beatified in 2020 after the Vatican recognised a miracle attributed to him: the claimed healing of a Brazilian boy, Mattheus Vianna, who in 2012 said he was cured of a rare pancreatic malformation after touching a relic at Acutis' tomb. A second healing, the recovery of a Costa Rican student, Valeria Valverde, from a critical head injury following a cycling accident in 2022, was later accepted by Vatican authorities and contributed to his path to sainthood. The Vatican's canonisation process requires thorough investigation and the verification of miracles, with final approval resting with the pope.
Acutis' biographical story circulated widely during the run-up to the ceremony. He grew up in a family that his mother, Antonia Salzano, has described as not particularly religious, yet she has said her son displayed a "special relationship" with God from an early age. At seven, Acutis wrote: "My life plan is to be always close to Jesus." He was known in Milan for helping bullied children and for bringing food and sleeping bags to people living on the streets. At times he managed parish websites and later contributed to a Vatican-based academy's online presence.
Doctors diagnosed Acutis with leukaemia in October 2006. The disease, which affects blood cells in bone marrow, can present with fatigue, bruising and repeated infections; treatment options vary by type and age. Facing his terminal prognosis, Acutis told his parents, "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." He died on Oct. 12, 2006.
Also canonised at the Vatican on Sunday, Pier Giorgio Frassati was a 20th-century Italian known for mountaineering and social engagement. An engineering student who devoted time to serving the poor and sick, Frassati died of polio in 1925 at age 24. His coffin bears the inscription "Verso l'alto" ("To the heights"), a phrase he wrote beneath a photograph taken while mountaineering. The Vatican recognised a second miracle for Frassati in 2024, the unexplained recovery of a young American man who had been in a coma.
The dual canonisations brought a mix of longstanding devotional practice and contemporary attention. Supporters of Acutis, who has been portrayed in media accounts as emblematic of a digitally literate generation of believers, said his combination of technical skill and pastoral concern helped make his cause resonate widely. Pilgrims from around the world converged on Rome and Assisi, some travelling on special trains and many bearing banners and images of the newly canonised figures.
Canonisation is the culmination of a lengthy process that includes local and Vatican investigations, theological review, and the validation of miracles by medical and ecclesiastical experts. The decisions made on Sunday will now add Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati to the Catholic Church’s roster of saints, enabling public veneration and broader liturgical recognition within the church.
The ceremonies attracted both longstanding devotees and younger visitors drawn by Acutis’ story and the novelty of a recent teenager’s ascent to sainthood. In Assisi, where Acutis had expressed a desire to be buried—he admired 13th-century St. Francis for his care of the poor—thousands packed sites associated with pilgrimage, while in Rome the canonisation Mass punctuated a day of prayer, procession and devotional observance.
As the Vatican disseminated photographs and accounts of the day, participants reflected a global turnout: families, clergy, and lay faithful from multiple countries. The canonisations concluded a multi-year process that traces reported healings, personal testimony and a growing public devotion that moved Acutis from a local figure in Milan and Assisi to a figure of international interest within the Catholic community.