Carlo Acutis

Carlo Acutis (3 May 1991 – 12 October 2006) was an English-born Italian Catholic teenager known for his devotion to the Eucharist and his use of digital media to promote Catholic devotion. Born in London and raised in Milan, he developed an early interest in computers and video games, teaching himself programming and web design and assisting his parish and school with digital projects.

Active in parish life, he served as a catechist and helped inspire several people to convert to Catholicism. He later created a website documenting Eucharistic miracles and Marian apparitions. He was diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukaemia and died at the age of fifteen. Since his death, his relics have been displayed in Assisi and his exhibitions on Eucharistic miracles have travelled worldwide.

In 2020, he was beatified by the Catholic Church after its recognition of a 2013 miracle in Campo Grande, capital of a Brazilian state attributed to his intercession, and a second miracle in Italy was attributed in 2024. Acutis was canonised as a saint on 7 September 2025, alongside Pier Giorgio Frassati. Acutis has been referred to as the "patron saint of the Internet", "God's Influencer" and the "first millennial saint".

A commentator for the Catholic Review has written that skepticism for Acutis's canonisation cause exists among some of the faithful and the secular world, noting that his short life offered few extraordinary actions. A report by The Economist interviewed childhood friends of Acutis, who recalled him as kind but not necessarily pious or religious. Questions have also been raised about financial support provided by Acutis's family, suggesting that it may have accelerated the process; but Fr. Nicola Gori, Acutis's postulator, stated that money did not influence the cause.

Early life

Carlo Acutis was born on 3 May 1991 in London as the eldest child of Italian parents Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano, members of wealthy Italian families. His grand-father was businessman Carlo Giuseppe Maria Acutis. Acutis's parents worked in London and Germany before he was born, and moved back to Italy and settled in Milan shortly after his birth in May 1991. His parents were in family businesses: his father's family worked in the Italian insurance industry, and his mother's ran a publishing company. Acutis's maternal great-grandmother was born in the United States and came from a family of landowners in New York. Aside from a few visits to a day care centre, most of Acutis's early care came from nannies.

In September 1997, Acutis attended his first primary school, the San Carlo Institute in Milan. As the school was at a distance from their home, three months later he transferred to the Marcelline Tommaseo Institute, run by the Sisters of St. Marcellina. Upon completing middle school, Acutis went on to the Jesuit Instituto Leone XIII high school.

Religious life

His baptism took place on 18 May 1991, two weeks after his birth, in the Church of Our Lady of Dolours, Chelsea. His paternal grandfather, Carlo, was his godfather, and his maternal grandmother, Luana, was his godmother. Neither of his parents were religious. Acutis's mother Antonia grew up in a secular family. She was confirmed while she was in college and was married in the church, but she did not attend Mass before Acutis was born. She testified that her son's faith and his insistent questions brought her back to the faith. At the time of his death he was an only child, but in 2010 his parents had twins on the anniversary of Acutis's death, which his mother attributed to his intercession.

Acutis was three years old when his maternal grandfather, Antonio Salzano, died. Several days earlier, he had been present when his grandfather received the Anointing of the Sick; his grandfather was said to have appeared to him in a dream asking for prayer. Shortly after his death, Acutis put on his coat while his grandmother was minding him and asked to be taken to church. When she asked him why, he said he wanted to pray for his grandfather, who, he declared, "had gone to see Jesus".

When Acutis displayed an interest in Catholic religious practice, his questions were answered by the family's Polish babysitter. In the summer, Acutis would stay with his mother's parents in Centola, a town in the Salerno province of Campania. After spending the day at the beach, he would join a number of older women in the local parish church to pray the rosary. His family also owned a boat at Santa Margherita Ligure, near the Basilica of St. Margaret of Antiochia. On 16 June 1998, when he was seven years old, Acutis received his First Holy Communion at the convent of Sant'Ambrogio ad Nemus, Milan. Acutis was also a frequent communicant, often in the Ambrosian Rite, and attended Eucharistic Adoration. His attendance at the latter has led him to often be depicted with a monstrance. He was confirmed five years later on 24 May 2003 at Santa Maria Segreta Church in Milan.

The Acutis family employed a Hindu immigrant from Mauritius, Rajesh Mohur, to work in their household. He and Acutis became friends. In time, after speaking with Acutis about Christianity, Mohur asked to be baptised. A friend of Mohur's, Seeven Kistnen, also converted and was baptised after meeting with Acutis and hearing him speak about the faith. Mohur's mother, visiting from Mauritius, attended Mass with Mohur and Acutis, who talked with her at length afterwards, and she too asked to be baptised.

Acutis showed an interest in the lives of saints, especially Francis of Assisi, Anthony of Padua, Padre Pio, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, Dominic Savio, Tarcisius, Bernadette Soubirous, and Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi. He is said to have prayed to his guardian angel frequently and exhibited a special devotion to St. Michael the Archangel. When Acutis was 12 years old, he became a catechist in his parish, Santa Maria Segreta. At the time, the Italian catechetical structure typically relied on young team leaders in youth groups, as contrasted with adults, to deliver religious education to their peers. Acutis's parish priest said of him that:

Carlo was a young man who was exceptionally transparent. He really wanted to progress in loving his parents, God, his classmates, and those who loved him less. He wanted to apply himself in his studies to educate himself in his catechism class as well as in school and computer science.

In 2006 Acutis told his mother and grandmother of his intention to become a priest.

Work with computers and technology

When Acutis was 14, his parish priest asked him to create a webpage for his parish, Santa Maria Segreta in Milan. After this, a priest at his high school asked him to create a website to promote volunteering. For this work, he won a national competition called Sarai volontario (Italian, "You will be a volunteer"). Acutis created a website dedicated to cataloguing each reported Eucharistic miracle in the world and maintaining a list of the Marian apparitions recognised by the Catholic Church. Acutis launched the website in 2004 and worked on it for two and a half years, involving his entire family in the project. It was unveiled on 4 October 2006, the Feast of St. Francis, only days before his death. Because he was hospitalised, Acutis was not able to attend the debut of his exhibition at Rome's Church of San Carlo Borromeo. The exhibition was also presented at his high school, the Leo XIII Institute. Depictions of Acutis often show him with a laptop computer, as a symbol of his method of evangelization.

Illness and death

On about 1 October 2006, Acutis developed an inflammation of the throat. His parents took him to a doctor, who diagnosed him with parotitis and dehydration, which a second doctor, a family friend, confirmed. A few days later, Acutis's pain worsened and he had blood in his urine. By the Sunday, 8 October, he was too weak to get out of bed for Mass. Acutis was brought to a clinic specialising in blood diseases, and was diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukaemia. He was given little chance of recovery. He was rushed to intensive care and put on a ventilator. After a sleepless night, Acutis was transferred to San Gerardo Hospital north of Milan — one of only three hospitals in Italy equipped to treat his condition.

The hospital staff called in their chaplain to administer the anointing of the sick. When a nurse came in to care for Acutis, he asked her not to wake his parents since they were already very tired and he did not want to worry them more. Acutis offered his suffering both for Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic Church, saying: "I offer to the Lord the sufferings that I will have to undergo for the Pope and for the Church." The doctors treating his final illness had asked him if he was in great pain, to which he replied: "There are people who suffer much more than me." His final words to his mother were:

Mom, don't be afraid. Since Jesus became a man, death has become the passage towards life, and we don't need to flee it. Let us prepare ourselves to experience something extraordinary in the eternal life.

Acutis fell into a coma and was taken to the intensive care unit for a blood-cleansing treatment. After a cerebral hemorrhage, he was declared brain dead on 11 October. Acutis was officially pronounced dead the next day, 12 October 2006, at 6:45 pm. He was 15 years old.