Carlo Acutis: London-born teenage gamer becomes saint in Vatican ceremony

A teenager born in London has officially become the Catholic Church’s first milennial saint in a canonisation ceremony led by the Pope.

Leo canonized Carlo Acutis, who died in 2006, during an open-air Mass in St. Peter’s Square that was attended by tens of thousands of people on Sunday.

During the first saint-making Mass of his pontificate, Leo also canonized another popular Italian figure who died young, Pier Giorgio Frassati.

Carlo Acutis, who died aged 15 from leukemia in 2006, has been dubbed “God’s Influencer” for using technology to spread the Catholic faith.

He was born in London to Italian parents in 1991, who moved back to Milan shortly after his birth. Known for his love of video games, football and hiking, Acutis also taught catechism in a local parish.

Acutis insisted on receiving First Communion at just seven years old. He would pray before and after Mass before the Eucharist, a practice known as Eucharistic adoration.

The church’s official investigation into his life and virtues – the first step in the sainthood process – began in 2013.

Pope Leo XIV celebrates the canonisation Mass of Carlo Acutis. / Credit: AP

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Acutis was declared “blessed” in 2020.

It came after the Vatican’s saint-making office declared a child’s recovery from pancreatic deformation in Brazil was “scientifically inexplicable”, attributing the miracle to Acutis’ intercession.

Last year, the church paved his way to sainthood by declaring a second miracle, the complete healing of a Costa Rican student in Italy from major head trauma in a bicycle accident after her mother prayed at Acutis’ tomb.