‘God’s influencer’: Italian teenager who died at 15 to become the first millennial saint; considered a ‘saint-next-door’

AP file photo

Carlo Acutis, an Italian teenager who died at the age of 15, is set to be declared the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint. Acutis, who used his computer skills to promote Catholic teaching, was also known as “God’s influencer.” Acutis, who died in 2006, is set to be canonised by Pope Leo along with Pier Giorgio Frassati, a young Catholic activist who passed away a century earlier. The ceremony is expected to draw thousands of pilgrims to RomeBehind the altar of a small chapel in northern Rome, a glass safe holds relics of Acutis, a splinter from his wooden bed, part of a jumper, and a piece of the sheet that covered him after his death. Locks of his hair are preserved in other churches across Italy.Such shrines are part of an age-old tradition reserved for the church’s most revered figures, offering the faithful tangible reminders of their life and legacy.“Praying close to a saint’s remains helps them to face difficulties in life,” said Danilo Spagnoletti, the parish priest. “In particular, this saint, who had a short life but was far advanced in many ways, is a source of inspiration for young people.”In the past year, over a million pilgrims have visited Assisi to see Carlo Acutis’s body, displayed in Santa Maria Maggiore church in a glass case, dressed in his tracksuit and jeans. His heart rests in a gold casket at San Rufino Cathedral, while fragments of his pericardium have toured globally ahead of his canonization.He is not a global figure like Mother Teresa or St. John Paul II, but a “saint-next-door,” said Rev. Ed Howe, pastor of Blessed Carlo Acutis Parish on Chicago’s Northwest Side.“He’s someone who I think a lot of young people today say, ‘I could be the saint next door,’” Howe was quoted as saying by AP. Acutis was born in London to Italian parents and moved to Milan with his family as a child. His mother, Antonia Acutis, told The New York Times in a 2020 interview that his devotion to Catholicism began early, noting that he started attending daily Mass at the age of seven.Long before the rise of social media, Acutis also showed exceptional computer skills, studying college-level programming and coding as a child and creating websites that were typically the work of professionals.