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3w ago

Pope Leo XIV Canonizes Carlo Acutis, The Church’s First Millennial Saint

Recognition of two healings propelled the London-born teen’s cause, drawing a packed St. Peter’s Square in a youth-focused canonization.

A tapestry of Carlo Acutis is unveiled at St. Francis Basilica during the beatification ceremony of Acutis on October 10, 2020, in Assisi, Italy.
VATICAN CITY, VATICAN - SEPTEMBER 07: The tapestry featuring new Saint of the Catholic Church Carlo Acutis hangs from a balcony of St. Peter's Basilica during a Canonisation Ceremony held by Pope Leo XIV at The Vatican on September 07, 2025 in Vatican City, Vatican. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images)
FILE - The body of Carlo Acutis, an Italian boy who died in 2006 of leukemia, lies in his tomb in Assisi, Italy, March 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)
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Overview

  • An open-air Mass in St. Peter’s Square proclaimed Acutis a saint before an estimated 80,000 people, according to the Vatican.
  • The Vatican credited two posthumous healings—the recovery of a Brazilian child with a pancreatic malformation and a Costa Rican student with severe head trauma—which fulfilled the requirement for sainthood.
  • Born in London in 1991 and raised in Milan, Acutis built a multilingual website documenting Eucharistic miracles, earning the nickname “God’s influencer.”
  • Pier Giorgio Frassati was canonized in the same ceremony, the first saint-making Mass of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate.
  • The rite followed a postponement after Pope Francis’ death in April, as devotion to Acutis continues to grow with nearly a million pilgrims visiting his glass-tomb in Assisi last year.