Tarmac Online

Andrew Bourke ’27

On September 7, 2025, Carlo Acutis was canonized by Pope Leo XIV. Carlo Acutis was an Italian teenager known for his deep Catholic faith and use of technology to spread it. While you may know this about him, you may not know about his life.

Early Life and Religious Life

Saint Carlo Acutis was born on May 3, 1991, in London to Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano, who were both wealthy Italians on a business trip. Acutis’s parents moved back to Italy and settled in Milan shortly after his birth. Neither of his parents was religious. Acutis’s mother grew up in a secular family and did not attend Mass before Acutis was born. When he was three years old, Acutis’s maternal grandfather died. The grandfather was said to have appeared to him in a dream asking for prayers, and shortly after the dream he asked to be taken to church. With his parents involved in businesses, Acutis was cared for by nannies. One of these nannies, Beata Sperczynska, a Polish Catholic, taught him his first prayers and introduced him to Catholicism. Acutis received his First Holy Communion at the age of seven and was a frequent communicant, which is why he is frequently depicted with a monstrance. Acutis’s parents employed a Hindu immigrant from Mauritius, Rajesh Mohur, to work as a handyman. After speaking with Acutis about Christianity, Mohur asked to be baptized. A friend of Mohur’s and Mohur’s mother also asked to be baptized after speaking with Acutis.

Work with Technology

When Acutis was 14, his parish priest asked him to create a webpage for his parish, and a priest at his high school asked him to create a website to promote volunteering. Acutis created a website dedicated to cataloguing each reported and approved Eucharistic miracle and Marian apparition. The website was launched in 2004, and Acutis worked on it for two and a half years.

Death

On October 1, 2006, Acutis developed an inflammation of the throat and was diagnosed with parotitis and dehydration. A few days later, the pain worsened and he had blood in his urine. By October 8, he was too weak to get out of bed for Mass and was diagnosed with leukemia with little chance of recovery. Acutis offered his suffering for Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic Church. Acutis fell into a coma, suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, and was declared brain dead on October 11. Carlo Acutis was pronounced dead on October 12, 2006, at the age of fifteen. A crowd of strangers attended his funeral, including young people who had abandoned the Church. It was Acutis’s final wish to be buried in Assisi.

Legacy and Path to Sainthood

Acutis has been described as the “first gamer saint” and the “patron saint of the Internet.” On October 12, 2012, the Archdiocese of Milan opened his cause for canonization. On May 13, 2013, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints named Acutis a Servant of God. On July 5, 2018, Pope Francis declared him Venerable.

On the anniversary of Acutis’s death in 2020, a Brazilian boy named Mattheus Vianna, who had a pancreatic disease which caused him to throw up after eating, was brought to Mass by his mother, who had prayed a novena asking for Acutis’s intercession. After kissing the clothing relic of Acutis, Mattheus felt healed, and an ultrasound confirmed his pancreas was normal. On February 21, 2020, Pope Francis confirmed the miracle’s authenticity, and he was beatified in the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi by Cardinal Agostino Vallini on October 10, 2020.

In 2022, when a Costa Rican woman named Valeria Valverde had fallen off her bike in Florence, Italy, she suffered a brain hemorrhage with doctors giving her a low chance of survival. Her mother prayed for the intercession of Acutis, and on the same day, Valverde began to breathe independently and could walk the next day. On July 1, 2024, Pope Francis approved Acutis’s canonization, and on September 7, 2025, Carlo Acutis was canonized by Pope Leo XIV with his parents and siblings in attendance.