In just a few months, the world will have its first digital saint.
Pope Francis on Wednesday announced April plans to canonize a teenage web designer who documented miracles online and used his tech skills to maintain web sites for local Catholic organizations.
Carlo Acutis, who died of leukemia in Italy in 2006 at the age of 15, will be canonized during the Jubilee for Adolescents on April 25 through April 27, according to Vatican News.
Acutis, who was born to Italian parents in London, was a web designer who died of leukemia in Italy in 2006 at the age of 15. The church has attributed two miracles to the teen informally known as “God’s influencer.”
In May, the pope attributed a second miracle to the teen, who is set to become the church’s youngest contemporary saint. The move came four years after he was beatified in 2020 after one miracle was attributed to him.
The church has not detailed the miracles.
The Roman Catholic Church teaches that only God performs miracles, but that saints who are believed to be with God in heaven intercede on behalf of people who pray to them. A miracle is usually the medically inexplicable healing of a person.
The pope also said on Wednesday he would canonize Pier Giorgio Frassati, a young Italian man who was known for helping those in need and died of polio in the 1920s, during the weekend of July 28-Aug. 3.
