Young Programmer Declared the Catholic Church’s First Millennial Saint

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday canonized Carlo Acutis, a 15-year-old Italian computer whiz known as “God’s influencer,” alongside Pier Giorgio Frassati, a young layman remembered for his devotion to the poor. The open-air Mass in St. Peter’s Square drew more than 80,000 people, making it the first canonization ceremony of Pope Leo’s pontificate.
“The greatest risk in life is to waste it outside of God’s plan,” Pope Leo said in his homily. The new saints, he added, “are an invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to squander our lives, but to direct them upwards and make them masterpieces.”

Presiding over the Mass, Pope Leo paid tribute to the two young Italians as “extraordinary witnesses to faith, hope, and trust in God, and to the Lord’s great plan for eternal joy and happiness.”

Recalling the Gospel, Pope Leo said Jesus “speaks to us of God’s plan, to which we must commit wholeheartedly, abandoning ourselves ‘without hesitation to the adventure that he offers us, with the intelligence and strength that comes from his Spirit’”.

Describing Frassati, Pope Leo said: “Pier Giorgio’s life is a beacon for lay spirituality, since faith was not a private matter and could be lived in community with membership in ecclesial associations and through generous commitment to political life and service to the poor.”

Frassati, born in 1901, died of polio at the age of 24. He once said, “The day of my death will be the most beautiful day of my life.”

Turning to Acutis, Pope Leo recalled that he “encountered Jesus in his family, thanks to his parents, Andrea and Antonia,” noting their presence at the Mass along with his siblings Francesca and Michele. “Saint Carlo also found and lived his faith through school, but especially the sacraments celebrated in the parish community,” the Pope said, adding that “he grew up naturally integrating prayer, sport, study and charity into his days as a child and young man.”

Acutis died of leukemia in 2006 at age 15. Known for his devotion to daily Mass, prayer, and Eucharistic Adoration, he is remembered for saying, “heaven has always been waiting for us, and that to love tomorrow is to give the best of our fruit today.”

In conclusion, Pope Leo said the two new saints “encourage us with their words: ‘Not I, but God,’ as Carlo used to say. And Pier Giorgio: ‘If you have God at the center of all your actions, then you will reach the end.’ This is the simple but winning formula of their holiness. It is also the type of witness we are called to follow, in order to enjoy life to the full and meet the Lord in the feast of heaven.”