Known for a website: Pope allows canonization of youth
Shortly before his death, a 15-year-old Italian created a website on Catholic miracles that made him famous. He could soon be considered a saint.
St. Peter's Basilica in the evening
(Image: Martin Holland)
Pope Francis has allowed the canonization of a young man who created a website to catalog miracles of the Catholic Church before his death in 2006. This is according to a statement from the Vatican, according to which the boy named Carlo Acutis was granted a second miracle. This means that the formal challenge for canonization has now been met. However, it is still unclear when this will take place. This would make the boy only the second saint of the Catholic Church to die in this millennium and by far the latest born. The society founded to commemorate Acutis has welcomed the decision.
Website for Catholics
Acutis was born in London in 1991, but spent his childhood and youth in Italy. He created websites for his parish at a young age, writes the BBC. However, he became known for a website documenting all known so-called Host miracles. This went online just days before his death and has since been translated into several languages and also includes other content on Catholic doctrine. Acutis fell ill at the beginning of October 2006 and was diagnosed with leukemia a few days later. He died in Milan just four days later. He was buried in Assisi. Since then, his relatives have been calling on people to pray to him if they need help.
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After his death, the boy was quickly revered as "God's influencer", writes the BBC. In 2022, Pope Francis spoke of a"computer genius, but above all in love with Jesus". According to the report, he is now credited by the Catholic Church with stopping the brain haemorrhage of a university student in Florence and curing a Brazilian child's congenital pancreatic disease. If he is canonized, the young developer would be the only saint of the Catholic Church besides Pope John Paul II to have died in the 21st century. He would also be the only saint born after 1926.
(mho)
