Pope set to recognise first-ever millennial saint following miracle

A teenager is to become the Catholic Church's first-ever millennial saint.

Carlo Acutis was born in London on May 3, 1991, he then moved with his Italian parents to Milan as a child and sadly passed away from leukaemia at the age of 15.

During his short life, Acutis was known as "God's influencer" due to using his computer skills in Italy to help local Catholic organisations spread their teachings online and also created a website to catalogue different miracles.

Acutis's mother Antonia Salzano told the newspaper Corriere della Ser that her late son would ask to visit churches they passed in Milan and donate his pocket money to poor people.

In 2020, he became the youngest contemporary person to be beatified (first stage to eventually becoming a saint) after he appeared to cure a Brazilian boy, Mattheus Vianna, of a serious birth defect which caused him difficulty eating.

15-year-old Carlo Acutis, an Italian boy who died in 2006 of leukemia, is seen during his beatification ceremony celebrated by Cardinal Agostino Vallini, center, in the St. Francis Basilica, in Assisi, Italy, on Oct. 10, 2020AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File

For the second miracle, 21-year-old Valeria Valverde suffered severe head trauma from a bicycle accident in Florence back in 2022, where her chances of survival were low and she required critical surgery.

Valverde's mother, Liliana from Costa Rica and her secretary both reportedly prayed at Carlo Acutis’s tomb in Assisi, and according to the Vatican, Valverde began breathing on her own again the very same day, she then managed some movement and speech the day after, and left intensive care 10 days later.

A later CAT scan showed her haemorrhage had disappeared, and she then underwent rehabilitation.

In order for something to be classed as a miracle it must be an act seen to be beyond what is possible in nature e.g. a person near death who is suddenly healed.

With this second miracle being recognised by the Pope, it means that Acutis does qualify for sainthood but it remains unknown when he will be canonised.

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