In many ways, he was just an ordinary teenager…
But now the teen once dubbed “God’s influencer” is only weeks away from becoming the Church’s first millennial saint—proof that holiness and high-speed internet can peacefully coexist.
Carlo Acutis loved soccer, wore his favorite Nikes everywhere, and devoured computer-science textbooks before most kids had mastered long division. When he noticed that Google returned more gossip than Gospel, he built a slick, database-driven website that mapped Eucharistic miracles around the world and gathered Marian apparitions into one searchable hub. What began as a home-grown project in his bedroom became a multilingual portal used by catechists, youth ministers, and the simply curious on every continent.
His stated mission: “To get as many people as possible to fall in love with the Eucharist.” With a few clicks he was doing just that—years before “digital evangelization” was a buzzword.
Yet his life and legacy was far more than just Java Script and Halo…
Diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia at 15, Carlo offered every needle-stick for the pope and the Church, telling his mom, “I’m happy to die because I’ve lived my life without wasting even a minute on things that don’t please God.” Fourteen years after his death, crowds packed Assisi’s piazzas on Oct. 12, 2020, for his beatification—watching on giant LED screens he would’ve loved to configure.
Now he is on the pathhood to sainthood.
On June 13, 2025, Pope Leo XIV announced that Carlo Acutis and fellow young Catholic powerhouse Pier Giorgio Frassati will be canonized together on Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025, in St. Peter’s Square. The joint ceremony, part of the Jubilee celebrations, will spotlight two very different but equally contagious styles of evangelization—Frassati’s mountaintop charity and Carlo’s Wi-Fi apostolate.
Carlo’s example is important because he showed that the internet can promote faith rather than undermine it. At a time when many online platforms profit from conflict, Carlo showed how code, good design, and digital reach can instead lead people toward truth and hope.
