24 May 2024 , 10:53
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A London-born teenager who died from leukaemia is set to be made the Catholic Church's first ever millennial saint by Pope Francis after being credited with a series of miracles after his death.
Carlo Acutis, born in London to an Italian mother and a half-English, half-Italian father, has been given the nicknames of "God's influencer" and "the patron saint of the internet" because of his devotion to promoting Christ's work online before he died.
Carlo passed away aged 15 in 2006 of blood cancer but now, almost 20 years after the tragedy, his body is now on display in Assisi, Italy, where he is wearing his favourite Nike trainers, jeans and a sweatshirt. Pope Francis has now signed a decree which paves the way for the boy to become a saint.
The Pope recognised a miracle attributed to Carlo - after he passed away - where the mother of a Costa Rican woman, Valeria Valverde, involved in a serious bike accident prayed at his glass casket and left a note asking for her to be healed in 2022. The same day her daughter began to breathe independently and 10 days later she was discharged from intensive care because the haemorrhage in her brain had completely disappeared.
A beatification ceremony at the St. Francis Basilica in Assisi was held (Getty Images)Carlo's dad worked in Britain as a merchant banker and, when he was three, the family moved to Milan, where he would donate his pocket money to the poor and later at school supported victims of bullying and spent his evenings cooking and delivering meals to the homeless.
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But after he died shortly after being diagnosed with leukaemia, Carlo told his parents: "I'm happy to die because I've lived my life without wasting even a minute of it doing things that wouldn't have pleased God." Now, the Vatican says Carlo also interceded from heaven in 2013 to cure a Brazilian boy suffering from a rare pancreatic disease.
In Milan, Carlo took care of a parish website and later of a Vatican-based academy. He also created an online database of miracles. Pope Francis, 87, has canonised 912 people since he assumed the papacy in 2013, with the most recent birth date previously being 1926.
Mourners paid their respects to Carlo at the ceremony (Getty Images)Carlo died in Monza, a city just northeast of Milan. His mother said that her son dedicated himself to supporting classmates struggling with life, would defend disabled friends who were being bullied and would take meals out to homeless people across the city.
Ms Valverde's mother prayed to Carlo after his death following her 21-year-old daughter's bike accident in Florence, Italy, in 2021, after which she needed emergency operation to relieve pressure on her brain and was in a critical condition. The church says Ms Valverde recovered the use of her limbs, was able to speak and signs of her head trauma disappeared. She was discharged from intensive care ten days after her mother’s prayers and only needed a short stint of physiotherapy.