The late Carlo Acutis, born in 1991, is being recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church for using the Internet to spread the faith. This was reported by National Public Radio.
Carlo Acutis was a devout Catholic who studied programming and created spiritual websites from an early age. During his life, he helped the homeless and defended victims of bullying.
The boy died of leukemia at the age of 15 in 2006, and is already being called "God's inspiration" and "the patron saint of the Internet" for his work cataloging Eucharistic miracles around the world.
Pope Francis and a group of cardinals approved the canonization of Akutis at a meeting in the Vatican. He will reportedly be declared a saint in 2025.
In the Catholic Church, there are three steps to becoming a saint.
First, the Pope must declare the deceased person "blessed," which is an official recognition that he or she has lived a heroically virtuous life. In order to be recognized as "blessed," he or she must have participated in a miracle, usually a healing. Canonization requires a second miracle after beatification.
Akutis was beatified in October 2020 after the Vatican officially recognized that in 2013 he interceded from heaven for the life of a Brazilian child suffering from a rare pancreatic disease. The Vatican said that 4-year-old Mateus Vianna was healed after praying to Akutis and coming into contact with one of his relics, a piece of clothing.
The second miracle was attributed to Akutis in May of this year. The girl suffered a serious head injury after falling off her bicycle in Florence, Italy, but recovered after her mother prayed at the tomb of Akutis in Assisi.
After canonization, the church can make a person a saint.