Pope to canonise Carlo Acutis, London-born teen dubbed ‘God’s influencer’

Carlo Acutis, a London-born Italian teenager who died in 2006, will be canonised on Sunday as the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint.

Known as “God’s Influencer,” Acutis used his coding skills to create websites promoting Catholic teaching before his death at the age of 15 from leukaemia.

Relics of Acutis are preserved in Rome and beyond.

At Sant’Angela Merici chapel in northern Rome, pilgrims can view a splinter from his bed, a piece of his jumper, and the sheet that covered him after his death. Locks of his hair are kept in other churches.

Parish priest Danilo Spagnoletti explained that praying near a saint’s remains helps people cope with life’s challenges. He added that this particular saint, despite a short life, was advanced in many ways and serves as an inspiration for young people.

Acutis will be canonised alongside Pier Giorgio Frassati, another young Catholic activist who died a century ago. The ceremony in Rome is expected to draw thousands of visitors.

Over the past year, more than 1 million people have travelled to Assisi to see Acutis’s body, displayed in a glass case at Santa Maria Maggiore church. His remains are dressed in jeans, a tracksuit top, and trainers, while his heart is kept in a gold casket in San Rufino Cathedral. Pieces of his pericardium have toured the world ahead of his canonisation.

His mother, Antonia Salzano, has travelled widely, addressing Catholic communities about her son’s life and distributing strands of his hair. The family donated the relics, but once canonised, they will become property of the Vatican.

Born in London while his father worked in insurance, Acutis moved to Milan at four months old. Despite his family not being strongly religious, he showed deep faith from childhood.

While he was an average boy in many respects, enjoying sports and video games, Acutis was also a skilled coder. He created websites for Catholic groups, including one cataloguing miracles.

From the day of his death, people began praying to him for cures. His funeral was attended by many he had helped, including immigrants and bullied children. Last year, Pope Francis recognised two miracles attributed to him: the recovery of a boy in Brazil with a rare pancreatic disease and the healing of a student in Florence who had suffered brain bleeding after a head trauma.

Vatican correspondent Andrea Vreede noted that the Church wants Acutis to serve as a role model for the young.

While Acutis has inspired millions, critics argue the Church risks turning him into a “supermodel.” Salzano, however, believes her son’s legacy is about accessibility to holiness.