A tapestry with a portrait of Blessed Carlo Acutis, who will be canonized on Sunday, hangs on the facade of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025, as two Carabinieri officers patrol in St. Peter's Square.

Pope Leo XIV waves to faithful holding a picture of Blessed Carlo Acutis, who was canonized Sunday, as he arrives in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican for an open-air jubiliar audience Saturday.

Pope Leo XIV is greeted by Bishops in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican during an open-air jubiliar audience Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025, a day ahead of the canonization of Carlo Acutis who's portrait is hanging at top right.

From left, the mother of Blessed Carlo Acutis, Antonia, her children Michele and Francesca and her husband Andrea attend the screening of the film ‘Carlo Acutis, roadmap to reality’ at Rome’s Pontifical North American College, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025.

FILE - The body of Carlo Acutis, an Italian boy who died in 2006 of leukemia, lies in his tomb in Assisi, Italy, March 1, 2025.

Pope Leo XIV celebrates the canonization Mass of Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025.

A flag featuring the image of Carlo Acutis is waved during the canonization Mass of Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025.

Relics of Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati, left, are displayed during their canonization Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025.

Pope Leo XIV celebrates the canonization Mass of Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025.

The family of Carlo Acutis, from right, sister Francesca, mother Antonia, father Andrea, and brother Michele, attend the canonization Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV, left, of Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV declared a 15-year-old computer whiz the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint Sunday, giving the next generation of Catholics a relatable role model who used technology to spread the faith and earn the nickname “God’s influencer.”

Leo canonized Carlo Acutis, who died in 2006, during an open-air Mass in St. Peter’s Square before an estimated 80,000 people, many of them millennials and couples with young children. During the first saint-making Mass of his pontificate, Leo also canonized another popular Italian figure who died young, Pier Giorgio Frassati.

Leo said both men created “masterpieces” out of their lives by dedicating them to God.

“The greatest risk in life is to waste it outside of God’s plan,” Leo said in his homily. The new saints “are an invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to squander our lives, but to direct them upwards and make them masterpieces.”

An ordinary life that became extraordinary

Acutis was born on May 3, 1991, in London to a wealthy but not particularly observant Catholic family. They moved back to Milan soon after he was born and he enjoyed a typical, happy childhood, albeit marked by increasingly intense religious devotion.

Acutis was particularly interested in computer science and devoured college-level books on programming even as a youngster. He earned the nickname “God’s Influencer,” thanks to his main tech legacy: a multilingual website documenting so-called Eucharistic miracles recognized by the church, a project he completed at a time when the development of such sites was the domain of professionals.

He was known to spend hours in prayer before the Eucharist each day. The Catholic hierarchy has been trying to promote the practice of Eucharistic adoration because, according to polls, most Catholics don’t believe Christ is physically present in the Eucharistic hosts.

But Acutis limited himself to an hour of video games a week, apparently deciding long before TikTok that human relationships were far more important than virtual ones. That discipline and restraint has proved appealing to the Catholic hierarchy, which has sounded the alarm about the dangers of today’s tech-driven society.

In October 2006, at age 15, Acutis fell ill with what was quickly diagnosed as acute leukemia. Within days, he was dead. He was entombed in Assisi, which known for its association with another popular saint, St. Francis.

Millions flock to Acutis’ tomb

In the years since his death, young Catholics have flocked by the millions to Assisi, where they can see the young Acutis through a glass-sided tomb, dressed in jeans, Nike sneakers and a sweatshirt. He seems as if he’s sleeping, and questions have swirled about how his body was so well preserved, especially since parts of his heart have even toured the world as relics.

Both saint-making ceremonies had been scheduled for earlier this year, but were postponed following Pope Francis’ death in April. Francis had fervently pushed the Acutis sainthood case forward, convinced that the church needed someone like him to attract young Catholics to the faith while addressing the promises and perils of the digital age.

“It’s like I can maybe not be as great as Carlo may be, but I can be looking after him and be like, ‘What would Carlo do?’” said Leo Kowalsky, an 8th grader at a Chicago school attached to the Blessed Carlo Acutis Parish.

Kowalsky said he was particularly excited that his own namesake — Pope Leo — would be canonizing the patron of his school. “It’s kind of all mashed up into one thing, so it is a joy to be a part of,” Kowalsky said in an interview last week.

Much of Acutis’ popularity is thanks to a concerted campaign by the Vatican to give the next generation of faithful a “saint next door” who was ordinary but did extraordinary things in life. In Acutis, they found a relatable tech-savvy millennial — the term used to........

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