Italian TV Viewership Soars for Documentary on 'God's Influencer' Saint Carlo Acutis

A documentary about the life of Carlo Acutis, a teenager declared a saint and nicknamed 'God's Influencer,' has achieved significant viewership in Italy. The film, titled 'My Name Is Carlo,' drew nearly 4.3 million viewers on Italy's Canale 5, capturing approximately 30% of the television audience on Sunday evening. At its peak, the documentary was watched by an estimated 40% of all viewers in Italy.

The film details the life of Acutis, who died of leukemia at the age of 15 in 2006 and was canonized in September 2025. Born in London in 1991 to an Italian mother and an Italian-English banker father, Acutis and his family later moved to Milan. He gained the moniker 'God's Influencer' for creating a multilingual website that documented Eucharistic miracles recognized by the Catholic Church.

Acutis's path to sainthood was confirmed through two miracles. The first, recognized in 2020, involved the miraculous cure of a Brazilian child's pancreatic disease after his mother prayed to Acutis and touched a relic of his clothing. Medical tests subsequently showed the boy's pancreas to be normal.

The second miracle, acknowledged in 2024, concerned a Costa Rican woman who suffered a brain hemorrhage after a bicycle accident in Italy. Her mother prayed at Acutis's tomb, and the woman, who doctors believed had little chance of survival, began breathing independently and was able to walk the next day. Medical examinations found no trace of the hemorrhage.

More than a million people are estimated to have visited Assisi, an Italian hilltop town, to see Acutis's body, which is preserved in wax and displayed in a glass tomb. His remains were exhumed in 2019 for public viewing.

Despite not coming from a particularly religious family, Acutis developed a strong faith from a young age, attending daily Mass in Milan. He was known for his kindness to bullied children and homeless individuals, to whom he provided food and sleeping bags. He managed his parish website and later contributed to a Vatican-based academy's site, disseminating Catholic teachings.

Inspired by stories of miracles, Acutis began documenting them and tales of saints on his own website, which he designed himself. His mother, Antonia Salzano, has described her son as having had a 'special relationship' with God from childhood, recalling his early declaration: 'My life plan is to be always close to Jesus.'

Acutis's life was cut short by leukemia, diagnosed in October 2006. He reportedly reassured his parents about his impending death, stating, '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.'