He was a London-born teenager with leukaemia who spread his faith by building websites, later gaining the moniker “God’s influencer”.
And now Carlo Acutis, a computer prodigy who died at the age of 15 in 2006, will become the first millennial canonised by the Catholic church next week, in St Peter’s Square.
Acutis used the computer coding languages he learned in primary school to develop websites for his parish and the wider church, including one that tracked Catholic miracles.
The Vatican has a path towards sainthood, which can only begin five years after a person’s death. The Holy See studies the person’s life, and keeps watch for the miracles necessary to secure a spot among the beatific.
Acutis was put on the path after Pope Francis approved a miracle attributed to him: a seven-year-old boy from Brazil recovered from a rare pancreatic disorder after coming into contact with one of Acutis’s T-shirts. A priest had also prayed to Acutis on behalf of the child.
If a person undergoes an unexpected recovery, it can be classed as a miracle by the Vatican. If two miracles are attributed to a deceased person and approved by the pope, then they qualify for sainthood.
Acutis’s sainthood was confirmed when the pope approved the second miracle: a 21-year-old student in Costa Rica made a swift recovery after head trauma from a serious bicycle accident after her mother prayed for her daughter’s recovery at Acutis’s tomb in the Umbrian town of Assisi.
As part of the pathway, Acutis’s body was moved to the hill town of Assisi in central Italy, in line with his last wishes, since he admired Saint Francis.
Acutis was entombed in Santa Maria Maggiore church with a wax mould of his likeness placed over his body, wearing his blue tracksuit top, jeans and trainers.
Ever since, crowds have been gathering at the clear-sided casket. Tens of thousands more are expected to attend the canonisation service on 27 April. Vatican officials hope that the pope, who is recovering from a serious bout of double pneumonia, will preside.
Out of 912 people canonised by Pope Francis, the most recent birth date was previously 1926.
Acutis was born in London in 1991 before moving to Milan with his Italian parents, Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano, as a child.
Salzano previously told the newspaper Corriere della Sera that from the age of three her son would ask to visit churches they passed in Milan and would donate his pocket money to poor people in the city.
She said Acutis would also offer to support classmates whose parents were going through divorces, would defend disabled peers when they were bullied and would take meals and sleeping bags to rough sleepers in Milan.
She told Reuters that he was special, but also shared the same anxieties about fitting in as any other teenager: “Carlo was an ordinary child like [others]. He used to play, to have friends, and to go to school. But his extraordinary quality was the fact that he opened the door of his heart to Jesus and put Jesus in the first place in his life.”
She said her son lived an ascetic life in which he would not allow himself more than one pair of shoes at a time.
