As a young boy, British-born Italian Carlo Acutis was fascinated by miracles.
He read intriguing tales about wine transforming into blood in Croatian castles and how, in Colombia, priests halted approaching tsunamis by presenting reliquaries.
At 11 years old, the devout Catholic started typing up these stories and sharing them on his website, which he had created to chronicle miracles and narratives about saints.
In Catholicism, saints are regarded as individuals in heaven who led virtuous lives and utilized their faith to assist others, and to achieve sainthood, a person needs to have two miracles verified posthumously.
Carlo is set to be canonised on Sunday by Pope Leo XIV, but from a young age, the boy was already on the path to sainthood.
Raised in Milan, the boy attended mass regularly and was known for his kindness toward victims of bullying, often spending his evenings cooking and delivering meals to the homeless.
He once wrote: ‘My life plan is to be always close to Jesus’.
In October 2006, at age 15, he fell ill with what was quickly diagnosed as acute leukemia. Within days, he was dead.
Carlo Acutis, who passed away from leukemia in 2006 at the age of 15, will be elevated to sainthood by Pope Leo XIV during a solemn ceremony held in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.
Brazilian boy Matheus Vianna was “saved” by Carlo Acutis after the teen performed a miracle that led to Vianna’s recovery from a severe illness.
The remains of Blessed Carlo Acutis lay in his tomb on March 18, 2025 in Assisi, Italy
Shortly before his death, he told his parents: ‘I’m happy to die because I’ve lived my life without wasting even a minute of it doing things that wouldn’t have pleased God’.
But soon after he died, the youngster started performing miracles.
In 2012, a Brazilian boy suffering from a rare pancreatic disorder named Mattheus Vianna visited Carlo’s grave in Assisi.
Mattheus, who struggled to keep food down and was seriously underweight, claims to have placed his hand on one of Carlo’s relics in church and said: ‘I wish I could stop vomiting’.
To his amazement, the act completely cured him, and the boy was able to eat normally again, leaving doctors in disbelief.
In 2014, medical tests confirmed the boy’s complete healing and in 2020, the Vatican accepted the incident as a miracle attributed to Carlo and announced that the teenager would be beatified – a crucial step on the path to sainthood.
Following his beatification, Carlo performed a second miracle, ultimately leading to his canonisation.
Souvenirs and mementos of the Blessed Carlo Acutis for sale in a shop in Assisi, March 18
Pilgrims pray and pay their respects at the tomb of Blessed Carlo Acutis in March
A person holds a picture of Carlo Acutis, the Italian teenager for which late Pope Francis has cleared the way to be the first saint of the millennial generation, on the day Pope Leo XIV holds general audience in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, July 30, 2025
Figurines of Blessed Carlo Acutis are on sale in a souvenirs shop in Assisi where Acutis is on display, on April 3, 2025
In 2022, a young Costa Rican student called Valeria Valverde suffered a critical head injury after getting into a cycling accident in Florence.
Her anguished mother travelled to Assisi and prayed to his tomb.
After her visit, Valeria began to breathe on her own and make a full recover, a result which was later recognised by Pope Francis as the second miracle needed for Carlo’s canonisation.
The teen, who was dubbed ‘God’s Influencer’ for his efforts to spread the Catholic faith online, is now set to become the first millenial saint on Sunday at a ceremony attended by thousands of pilgrims.
The teenager’s body, dressed in jeans and a pair of Nike trainers, lies in a glass-walled tomb in Assisi, visited by hundreds of thousands of people a year.
His canonisation, initially set for April but postponed when Pope Francis died, will be watched by faithful on giant screens in Assisi, a medieval city and pilgrimage site in the central region of Umbria.
Acutis, born in London in 1991 to an Italian mother and a half-English, half-Italian father, had an ardent faith, though his parents were not particularly devout.
Picture shows a stained glass window created for the Blessed Carlo Acutis
Workers install a tapestry on the facade of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican depicting an image of Carlo Acutis
Carlo is said to have performed two miracles
A fan of computer games, Acutis taught himself basic coding and used it to document miracles and other elements of the Catholic faith online.
Antonia Salzano, his mother, said her son had a ‘special relationship’ with God from an early age, even though her family was not religious.
In recent years, Acutis has shot to near rock star-like fame among many young Catholics, generating a global following the likes of which the Catholic Church hasn’t seen in years.
Much of that popularity is thanks to a concerted campaign by the Vatican to give the next generation of faithful a relatable, modern-day role model, an ordinary boy who used his technological talents to spread the faith.
