A teen nicknamed 'God's influencer' has become the first millennial saint

toggle caption Valerio Muscella for NPR

ASSISI, Italy — In the silence of St. Mary Major Church in this central Italian hill town, a tour group of Polish teenagers files past a glass-sided tomb to look in on a child of their own age. His face and hands are reconstructed with silicone. He's wearing jeans, a tracksuit top, and Nike sneakers. He is Carlo Acutis, the first millennial saint and known in the Catholic Church as "God's influencer."

On Sunday, Acutis — who died of leukemia when he was 15 years old in 2006 — was canonized in a ceremony at the Vatican presided over by Pope Leo XIV, and attended by thousands of devotees of this first saint of the "digital age." Witnessing the rise of the internet, cellphones and social media as a teenager, Acutis harnessed these new powers of communication and coded a website to catalogue and promote eucharistic miracles. (Eucharistic miracles involve the Catholic sacrament of Communion.)

Sponsor Message

The sainthood of a contemporary has inspired enthusiasm among Catholics. Saint Carlo Acutis receives prayers and requests for miracles from around the world — often, fittingly, through the internet. His tomb is livestreamed 24/7 via a webcam. Devotees post messages to him in comments under online prayer videos on YouTube for Acutis.