Teenager Carlos Acutis, who passed away from leukaemia, has become the Catholic church’s first millennial saint.
The computer prodigy who would spend his time helping to spread the religion’s teaching online, died at 15 years old in 2006. Pope Francis has now decreed a second posthumous miracle attributed to the London-born boy. It qualifies the teen for anonisation.
Carlos Acutis, born in the British capital in 1991 before moving to Milan with his Italian parents, is the youngest saint to be canonised by Pope Francis out of the 912 people so far by the head of the church. The most recent birth date was 1926.
His parents, Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzona moved with Acutis to Italy when he was a child.
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Salzona told local news that her son would want to visit churches they passed from the young age of three, and would give his pocket money to poor people in the city of Milan.
He added he’d defend disabled peers when they were bullied in school, support classmates whose parents were divorcing and take sleeping bags and meals to rough sleepers.
The computer whiz taught himself to cod while still at primary school and later on in life, used his talents to support Catholic organizations by creating websites for them.
Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino of Assisi said: “The Church in Assisi is in celebration. I plan to arrive in Assisi this evening to thank the Lord in a Eucharistic celebration. But as of now I join the faithful who are in the shrine for a prayer of praise.”
In the Catholic church, practising members can pray to people who have died who they believe are in heaven, either to speak to God on their behalf, or asking to help someone to recover from illness.
If that person makes an unexpected recovery, it may be classed as a miracle by the Vatican. If two occur and are approved by the pope, they qualify for sainthood – which is how Carlo Acutis has now qualified to become a saint.
The first miracle attributed to him came after a seven-year-old boy from Brazil recovered from a rare pancreatic disorder after touching Acutis’ T-shirt.
A mother prayed for her daughter’s recovery after a bicycle accident in Florence left her fighting for her life at Acutis’ tomb, and that same day the church says she began to breathe on her own. She was able to move her limbs, speak, and 10 days later scans showed the contusion on her brain had vanished, reports say.
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