Late young Carlo Acutis canonized to become first millennium saint: NPR

A teenage PC whiz who influenced the early Internet to spread awareness of the Catholic faith will become the church’s first millennium saint.

Carlo Acutis, who died of leukemia in 2006 at the age of 15, was already known around the world as the “Influencer of God” and the “patron saint of the Internet” for his paintings cataloging eucharistic miracles. Let’s go – and soon it’s going to be reliable.

Pope Francis and a group of cardinals approved the canonization of Acutis at a meeting at the Vatican on Monday, Vatican News announced. It says he will likely be canonized sometime in 2025, during the church’s jubilee year.

Acutis was a devout Catholic who learned programming from an early age and created a widely acclaimed database of his miracles as well as web pages with spiritual meditations. He is credited with helping the homeless population and protecting victims of bullying throughout his lifetime, and after his death he had a hand in two consecutive miracles – the amount required for all Catholic saints.

Monday’s goodwill clears a general hurdle in a multiyear process that began in 2013 when the Pope authorized his beatification and canonization and named him a “Servant of God.”

There are three stages to becoming a saint in the Catholic Church.

First, the Pope must claim a deceased person as “venerable”, a justifiable reputation that he spent his time heroically and virtuously. To be beatified – and to be known as “blessed” – they must participate in the wonder, which is often one of the best of all. Canonization requires the subsequent beatification of the second wonder.

Acutis was beatified in October 2020, after the Vatican formally revealed that he had prayed to Heaven in 2013 to save the lives of a Brazilian child who was suffering from an unprecedented pancreatic condition. The Vatican noted that 4-year-old Matthias was healed after praying to Viana Acutis and coming into contact with a piece of cloth, one of his relics.

In May this year, the second surprise was given to Acutis. A Costa Rican woman suffered serious head injuries after falling off a motorcycle in Florence, Italy, but recovered after her mother prayed at Acutis’ tomb in Assisi.

Acutis’ mother, Antonia Salzano, told CNN in May that the second surprise goodwill gesture was both “overjoyed” and “a sign of hope.”

“(With all the media, technologies), sometimes it feels like sanity is a thing that belongs in the past,” he said. “Instead, in these modern times, purity is also something these days.”

In February this year, an 18th-century Argentinian woman was the latest person to be declared a saint.

The teen’s free time activities included gaming and documenting miracles.

Acutis was born in London in 1991 to an Italian family – making him a true millennial – and moved to Milan as a child.

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, while their people were not devout Catholics, the Acutis assimilated into Catholicism in a mild form. He was at one time particularly interested in the ritual of the Eucharist and often asked his people to take him to the birthplaces of saints and sites of miracles.

Acutis also once had an interest in computer systems and taught himself the virtues of the Internet in addition to programming and transparent design.

He combined his passion by designing web pages for his parish and faculty, before moving on to a greater challenge: documenting eucharistic miracles reported around the world.

Acutis eventually cataloged more than 150 wonders, listing them in several languages ​​and creating downloadable Internet pages for each with maps and alternative views.

The site was a tool for spiritual education through parishes around the world, and the Church praised it – then and now – for rewarding the modern generation for theological excellence.

“A computer genius, Carlo made his computer a tool in the service of God and the Internet a means of spreading his love for the Holy Eucharist,” reads the site of the 2023 International Adolescence Week in Lisbon., Portugal, of which Acutis was once named patron.

Acutis also loved playing video games – CNN cited Halo, Super Mario and Pokemon among his favorites – even though he limited himself to one age at a time. He also played the saxophone and loved football and dogs.

Acutis died in October 2006, just days after he fell ill with what was initially thought to be the flu, but later turned out to be acute myeloid leukemia.

Before his death, Acutis had specifically requested that he be buried in Assisi because of his veneration of St. Francis of Assisi, and in 2007 he was reburied there.

Acutis’ body was exhumed in 2019 and transferred to a shrine in St Mary’s Primary Church, the same place where St Francis is alleged to have abandoned his wealth and left his magnificent clothes for dependency.

It is displayed in a tumbler case wearing blue denim, an athletic zip-up, and Nike shoes.

The Catholic News Agency said more than 41,000 people visited Acutis’s tomb during birthday celebrations for her beatification in October 2020 – even under strict COVID-19 restrictions. .

Acutis’s site has been translated into various languages ​​and was set up as the center for a touring exhibition, according to the BBC. Statues of him are revered in Scotland and Eire, with Pope Francis even blessing one headed to an orphanage in Cairo.