VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV honored a 15-year-old tech prodigy by proclaiming him the Catholic Church’s first saint of the millennial generation on Sunday. This decision aims to provide young Catholics with a relatable figure who adeptly used technology to promote his faith, earning him the title “God’s influencer.”

Leo canonized Carlo Acutis, who passed away in 2006, at an outdoor Mass in St. Peter’s Square, attended by approximately 80,000 people, including many millennials and families with children. This ceremony marked the first saint-making event in Leo’s papacy, during which another revered Italian figure, Pier Giorgio Frassati, who also died at a young age, was canonized.

Leo said both men created “masterpieces” out of their lives by dedicating them to God.

“The greatest risk in life is to squander it outside God’s divine purpose,” Leo expressed during his homily. He emphasized that the new saints encourage everyone, particularly the youth, to not waste their lives but instead, aspire to elevate them and transform them into masterpieces.

An ordinary life that became extraordinary

Acutis was born on May 3, 1991, in London to a well-to-do yet not deeply religious Catholic family. They soon relocated back to Milan, where he experienced a conventional, cheerful upbringing, progressively marked by a profound religious inclination.

With a keen interest in computer science, Acutis absorbed college-level programming books even as a child. His technological contribution, a multilingual website cataloging what the church recognizes as Eucharistic miracles, earned him his famous moniker. He accomplished this at a time when such projects were typically undertaken by professionals.

Acutis was noted for dedicating substantial time each day to Eucharistic adoration, a practice the Catholic leadership has been advocating, given that surveys show many Catholics don’t believe in Christ’s physical presence in the Eucharistic hosts.

But Acutis limited himself to an hour of video games a week, apparently deciding long before TikTok that human relationships were far more important than virtual ones. That discipline and restraint has proved appealing to the Catholic hierarchy, which has sounded the alarm about the dangers of today’s tech-driven society.

In October 2006, at age 15, Acutis fell ill with what was quickly diagnosed as acute leukemia. Within days, he was dead. He was entombed in Assisi, which known for its association with another popular saint, St. Francis.

Millions flock to Acutis’ tomb

In the years since his death, young Catholics have flocked by the millions to Assisi, where they can see the young Acutis through a glass-sided tomb, dressed in jeans, Nike sneakers and a sweatshirt. He seems as if he’s sleeping, and questions have swirled about how his body was so well preserved, especially since parts of his heart have even toured the world as relics.

Both saint-making ceremonies had been scheduled for earlier this year, but were postponed following Pope Francis’ death in April. Francis had fervently pushed the Acutis sainthood case forward, convinced that the church needed someone like him to attract young Catholics to the faith while addressing the promises and perils of the digital age.

“It’s like I can maybe not be as great as Carlo may be, but I can be looking after him and be like, ‘What would Carlo do?'” said Leo Kowalsky, an 8th grader at a Chicago school attached to the Blessed Carlo Acutis Parish.

Kowalsky said he was particularly excited that his own namesake – Pope Leo – would be canonizing the patron of his school. “It’s kind of all mashed up into one thing, so it is a joy to be a part of,” Kowalsky said in an interview last week.

Much of Acutis’ popularity is thanks to a concerted campaign by the Vatican to give the next generation of faithful a “saint next door” who was ordinary but did extraordinary things in life. In Acutis, they found a relatable tech-savvy millennial – the term used to describe a person born roughly between 1981 and 1996 who was the first generation to reach adulthood in the new millennium.

The Vatican said 36 cardinals, 270 bishops and hundreds of priests had signed up to celebrate the Mass along with Leo in a sign of the saints’ enormous appeal to the hierarchy and ordinary faithful alike.

Popular piety for the digital age

An hour before the Mass, St. Peter’s Square was already full with pilgrims, many of them young millennial Italians, many with toddlers in strollers.

“I learned from different people what his professors, his teachers said about his joy and the light he carried around him,” said Leopoldo Antimi, a 27-year-old Roman who got to the square early to secure a spot. “So for me personally as an Italian, even on social networks that are used so much, it is important to have him as an influencer.”

Matthew Schmalz, professor of religious studies at Holy Cross college in Worcester, Massachusetts, said Acutis’ canonization extends the church tradition of popular piety to the digital age.

“He becomes an emblem or model of how Catholics should approach and use the digital world–with discipline and with a focus on traditional Catholic spirituality that defies the passage of time,” he said in statement. “He is a new saint of simplicity for the ever complex digital landscape of contemporary Catholicism.”

Frassati, the other saint being canonized Sunday, lived from 1901-1925, when he died at age 24 of polio. He was born into a prominent Turin family but is known for his devotion to serving the poor and carrying out acts of charity while spreading his faith to his friends.

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AP visual journalists Trisha Thomas in Vatican City and Jessie Wardarski in Chicago contributed to this report.
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