Carlo Acutis, a tech-savvy Italian teenager, has become the Catholic Church's first millennial saint. The British-born genius has spent his short life spreading his faith online, earning the nickname “God's influencer.”
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Carlo Acutis died of leukemia in 2006 at the age of 15. He was beatified four years ago after the Vatican discovered that the boy had miraculously recovered from the disease just days after touching an Acutis T-shirt.
Who is Carlo Acutis?
This millennial, who died in 2006, gained popularity among the masses for using technology to spread his religion. Carlo Acutis was born in London on May 3, 1991, and grew up in Milan. During his formative years, Acutis ran a parish website and later began running a Vatican-based academy.
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Miracles by Carlo Acutis
Father Acti was beatified four years ago after the Vatican credited him with miraculously saving a boy's life. The 15-year-old computer genius began his path to sainthood after the Vatican reported that a 7-year-old boy in Brazil had recovered from a rare pancreatic disease after touching Father Acti's T-shirt.
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But to be considered a saint, at least two miracles must be attested and approved by the pope, and on Thursday Pope Francis recognized a second miracle attributed to Acutis, making him the youngest person ever to be canonized.
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The second miraculous case is that of a young boy who suffered severe head trauma in July 2022. However, a few days after his mother prayed at the tomb of Aktis, the boy miraculously recovered. Scans showed that her brain damage had disappeared.
Carlo's mother expressed her joy at the decision, saying “many people had been praying for this canonization,” AFP reported.
“I was never a saint, but for me Carlo was like a teacher. He was special, he never complained or criticised,” AFP quoted Carlo's mother as saying.
Carlo's remains are on display in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore.
Carlo's body rests in a glass tomb in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Assisi.
The body's face had been recreated and it looked remarkably lifelike, dressed exactly as it did in life in jeans, sneakers and a sweatshirt, AFP said.
For many Catholics, the site is a place of pilgrimage, and is also where the Vatican declared the second miracle to have occurred.
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