June 13 (UPI) — An Italian teenager dubbed “God’s Influencer” is to become the first saint from the millennial generation Sept. 7, after Pope Leo XIV announced the date of his canonization in the Vatican on Friday.
British-born Carlo Acutis, a keen computer gamer who died of leukemia in 2006 at age 15, will be declared a saint by Leo in a St. Peter’s Square ceremony, after the Holy See verified two miracles attributed to him and in recognition of his use of Internet technology to spread the Catholic faith.
Approved back in July under the previous pontificate of the late Pope Francis, Acutis will be canonized along with another candidate recognized by Francis, Pier Giorgio Frassati, who died in 1924 at age 24.
“This morning, Pope Leo XIV presided over the Ordinary Public Consistory for the Canonization of the Blesseds, announcing that these Italian young men will be inscribed in the Register of Saints on the first Sunday of the month [of September],” the Vatican said in a social media post.
Acutis, a typical jeans and sneakers-wearing teen who has emerged as a poster boy for the church and helped to attract a new generation of younger adherents, was beatified in 2020 after a Brazilian boy unable to eat normally due to a birth defect was allegedly cured after his mother prayed to Acutis.
The second miracle in May 2024 involved a Costa Rican student with a severe, life-threatening head trauma from a cycling accident in Florence, which resolved after her mother prayed to Acutis at his tomb in Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis.
The Pontiff’s Office for Liturgical Celebrations also named seven other candidates, who are to be be canonized on the third Sunday of October.