In Two Months, Church Gets Its First Millennial Saint

The Catholic Church will get its first millennial saint in September. Pope Leo XIV has set Sept. 7 as the date to canonize Carlo Acutis, an Italian teen who died in 2006 at age 15 from leukemia. He has since become enormously popular, especially among young Catholics who have been flocking to his tomb in Assisi, Italy, per the AP. While he enjoyed regular pastimes for his age—including video games and hiking—he also taught catechism in a local parish and did outreach to the homeless. He used his computer skills to create an online exhibit about more than 100 eucharistic miracles recognized by the church over centuries.

Believers credit prayers to the late teen with healing miracles, and his tomb in Assisi has become a popular pilgrimage site. It features a glass coffin in which Acutis can be seen dressed in sneakers, jeans, and a sweatshirt. Acutis' canonization was originally scheduled for April 27, but was postponed following the death of Pope Francis. In setting the Sept. 7 date, Leo announced that Acutis would be canonized along with another Italian Catholic, Pier Giorgio Frassati, who died in 1925 at age 24 after contracting polio.

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