An Italian teenager known as “God’s Influencer” for his efforts to promote Catholicism online was canonized on Sunday in front of tens of thousands of people at the Vatican.
To cheers from the throng in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo XIV declared Carlo Acutis, who passed away from leukemia in 2006 at the age of 15, the Church’s first millennial saint on Sunday.
Many of the young pilgrims holding up flags from other nations or pictures of the so-called “cyber-apostle” were spread out throughout the square in front of St. Peter’s Basilica.
“Carlo Acutis is an example for me because he was able to combine his everyday life — school, football and his passion for IT and computers — with an unshakeable faith,” Filippo Bellaviti, 17, said.
