Today (Sept.7), St. Peter’s Square will be filled with young people with smartphones, teary eyes, and hearts beating with faith. Later in the day, Pope Leo XIV will proclaim Carlo Acutis a saint—the first millennial to ascend to the Catholic altars. His canonization, in St. Peter’s Basilica, is a breath of hope for a generation connected by likes and disappointments.
Carlo died at age 15 in 2006, a victim of fulminant leukemia. His legacy, however, echoes like an eternal click on the internet. He proves that holiness can flourish amid binary codes and illuminated screens. Today’s ceremony is not just a rite; it is an invitation for young people to rediscover their faith in a digital world.
Born on May 3, 1991, in London, to wealthy Italian parents, Carlo grew up in Milan. He could have been just a privileged teenager, obsessed with video games and soccer. But by the age of three, his soul already seemed magnetized by the divine. He would ask to go into churches on outings and collect flowers for offerings to the Virgin Mary.
At the age of seven, Carlo began attending daily Mass, a habit that converted his mother, Antonia Salzano, who had previously been distant from the faith. “Carlo was a normal boy, but with extraordinary faith,” she recalls emotionally. “He taught me to pray and brought me back to church. His love for Jesus was like a benign virus that infected everyone.”
Carlo loved life. He played soccer, programmed computers, and created websites. His digital genius, however, served evangelization. At age 11, he developed a portal cataloging 166 Eucharistic miracles, displayed in over 10,000 parishes. “The Eucharist is my highway to heaven,” he said, a phrase that resonates like a mantra for young Catholics.
He helped the homeless in Milan, donated his allowance to charity, and limited his gaming to one hour a day, avoiding becoming a “slave to technology.” On October 12, 2006, Carlo died peacefully, offering his sufferings for Pope Benedict XVI and the Church. “I am happy to die, because I lived without wasting a minute on things that do not please God,” he murmured.
The path to sainthood in the Catholic Church is meticulous, almost forensic. It begins with the declaration of “Servant of God,” with the diocese investigating the candidate’s life. In 2013, Milan began an inquiry into Carlo, collecting testimonies. In 2018, Pope Francis declared him “Venerable,” recognizing his heroic virtues: faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.
Beatification requires a proven miracle; canonization, a second. Doctors, theologians, and cardinals examine each case, ruling out scientific explanations. “It’s like a heavenly tribunal,” explains Cardinal Marcello Semeraro of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. “We seek irrefutable proof that God acted through the candidate’s 
intercession.” Carlo’s process was swift, reflecting his modern relevance.
The first miracle, for the 2020 beatification, involved Matheus Vianna, a four-year-old Brazilian child. He suffered from a congenital pancreatic malformation, making him unable to eat solid foods. In 2013, in Campo Grande, his grandfather touched a relic of Carlo to the child, asking for healing. Days later, Matheus asked for meat and ate normally. Tests showed the pancreas was perfect, without surgery.
“It was as if God had rewritten the genetic code,” said a perplexed doctor. Pope Francis approved the miracle in 2020, and Assisi erupted in jubilation. The second miracle, leading up to canonization, is even more moving. In July 2022, Valeria Valverde, a 21-year-old Costa Rican woman, fell off her bicycle in Florence, suffering severe head trauma.
Doctors removed part of her skull to relieve the pressure. In a coma, her prognosis was grim. Her mother, Liliana, prayed at Carlo’s tomb in Assisi. The next day, Valeria woke up, moved, and said, “I want to get out of bed.” Weeks later, scans revealed unexplained brain regeneration. “Carlo interceded, transforming despair into dance,” Liliana recounted, weeping.
The Pope approved the miracle in May 2024. The canonization, postponed by Francis’s death in April 2025, will take place today. Carlo invites us to reflect: technology, the internet, and social media are mirrors—they reflect what they’re directed at. They can amplify hatred or vanity, but for Carlo, they have become windows to the sacred.
“Everyone is born an original, but many die as photocopies,” Carlo warned. In an age of isolating algorithms, he used the web to unite souls, proving that digital is not the enemy of faith. As Pope Francis said: “Carlo shows us that holiness is possible in today’s world, with its computers and connections.”
There is a poetic connection between Carlo and Saint Francis of Assisi. Both rest in Assisi, the city of peace. Francis sang of creation; Carlo, of the digital Eucharist. Antonia 
Salzano recounts a dream: Saint Francis foresaw Carlo’s beatification and canonization. “Just as Francis renounced wealth, Carlo, also from a very wealthy family, renounced materialism and selfishness for virtual charity,” says the bishop of Assisi, Domenico Sorrentino.
I confess, as a journalist, that my education in Catholic schools and universities shaped me as a progressive, inspired by Francis of Assisi. I visited his tomb in the 1980s, praying in his simplicity. Later, I learned from the Master of ‘Akká that true faith is “professing with the tongue, believing with the heart, and demonstrating with actions.” Holiness is inner purity and noble action, not a title. He invites us: “Be swift on the path of holiness… if your thoughts aspire to heavenly things, they become holy.” Carlo embodied these aspirations. He lived his faith with actions, using technology to unite and elevate.
As the young people say, “the saint did well.”
Today, the Church will not raise up a distant reliquary, but a close friend. Carlo Acutis, a saint at 15, will remind us that eternity does not wait for old age. His legacy is a click that, for those who have faith, will vibrate in heaven, inviting us to direct our digital mirrors toward our best selves, our inner reality.
May your intercession heal our disconnections and make us original again.
Source: www.brasil247.com by Washington Araújo, Journalist, writer, and professor. He holds a Master’s degree in Cinema and is a psychoanalyst. An AI and social media researcher, he hosts the podcast 1844 on Spotify.