God’s influencer Carlo Acuti (15) in jeans goes among the saints: believers rush to see a new saint

Young, wearing jeans, playing playstation, knewing all about programming and went to Mass every day! Carlo Acutis (15), an Italian kid from Milan who adored computers and communion, will soon become a saint of the Catholic Church. Pope Francis signed a decree, and officially – on April 27, 2025 in Rome, Carlo will be enrolled among the holy, which will be raised to the same level as Mother Teresa and St. Francis of Assisi.

His body is today in Assisi, the favorite city of St. Francis. It lies dressed in jeans, sneakers and a favorite T -shirt. Assisi is under the siege of pilgrims. They come from all over the world. The diocese received almost one million last year, and this year more than 400,000.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to canonize on April 27 at St. Peter Square. The Vatican hopes that Pope Francis, who is still recovering from severe pneumonia, will lead Mass.

– Carlo was an ordinary boy like others. He played, had friends and went to school. But his extraordinary quality was that he opened the door of his heart to Jesus and put him first in his life. He used this skill to spread the good news, the gospel. He wanted to help people strengthen their faith, to realize that there was an afterlife, that we pilgrims in this world – said his mother Antonia Salzano Acuti for Reuters.

She said her son was committed to helping people in need. He begged his parents to give to the poor.

– He was very strict with himself. If I wanted to buy two pairs of shoes, he would say, ‘No, one is enough’ – his mother added.

He attended the Holy Mass every day and received the sacrament of holy communion, and always spent some time before or after the Mass in prayer and spiritual thinking in front of the tabernacle.

He confessed once a week. Encouraged by the example of Our Lady of Fatima, he prayed the Rosary daily. In the fall of 2004, he became a replacement catechist in the preparation of the Christian for the Holy Confirmation, and then included the development and renovation of the website of his parish and gymnasium.

He also participates in the work of the Community of Christian Life in the gymnasium. He also acted charitable, helping foreigners, beggars, people with disabilities and old people. He often visited the Capuchin monastery in Viale Piave, where he prayed along the bodies of two friars: missionary Daniele de Samarate and Fr. Cecilia Cortinovis, by whose example he supported the works of St. Francis.

His mother points out that her son also supported the classmates who fought with problems, defended friends with disabilities who were abused and carried meals to homeless people across the city.

Acutis is called « God’s influencer » and « internet protector » because of his commitment to promoting religious beliefs online. Prior to his death, he founded the website « The Eucharistic Miracle of the World », dedicated to confirming faith in the real presence of the body and blood of the Lord in the Eucharist.

His path to canonization began with the beatification of 2020, approved by Pope Francis.

The first miracle attributed to Acutius happened in 2013, when he healed a boy from Brazil who suffered from a rare pancreas disease. The second miracle, the key to his canonization, was 2022. The mother of a woman from Kostarica, who experienced a serious cycling accident, prayed before the Acutius glass coffin and left a message looking for her daughter’s healing. On the same day, her daughter began to breathe on her own, and ten days later she was fired from intense care because the bleeding in the brain was gone.

– On the day of the funeral he made the first miracle. Carla was praying for a woman with breast cancer, who had to start with chemotherapy and the cancer completely disappeared. That was the first miracle. And since then we have so many wonders every day. The church chose one for beatification, one for canonization – said the mother of a new Catholic saint.

Carlo was born in London on May 3, 1991. His parents were Italians and mostly grew up in Milan. He spent the holidays at the Second House of Family in Assisi, and died in Monza in northern Italy for leukemia at the age of 15.