‘God’s Influencer’ Carlo Acutis to become first millennial saint in September

ROME, June 15 — Italian millennial Carlo Acutis, dubbed “God’s Influencer”, will be elevated to sainthood in September after the original ceremony was delayed by Pope Francis’s death in April, the Vatican said Friday.

Pope Leo XIV rescheduled to September 7 the canonisation of Acutis, who died of leukaemia in 2006 at the age of 15. He had been set to be made a saint on April 27.

Nicknamed the “Cyber Apostle”, the teenager had an ardent faith from a young age and used his computer skills to spread the Catholic faith online, notably creating a digital exhibition on miracles.

Italian student Pier Giorgio Frassati (1901-1925), renowned for his social commitment and passion for mountain climbing, will be canonised on the same day.

Leo will raise seven others to sainthood on October 19.

They include Papua New Guinea’s first saint, Pierre To Rot, a lay catechist executed by Japan in 1945, Ignace Shoukrallah Maloyan, an archbishop who died in 1915 and the Venezuelan “doctor of the poor” Jose Gregorio Hernandez Cisneros, who died in 1919. — AFP