Carlo Acutis was born in London on May 3, 1991, to Italian parents and raised in Milan. From early childhood his devotion drew his lapsed-Catholic mother back to weekly Mass; she has said her son was her own spiritual director. He attended daily Mass, prayed the Rosary, and called the Eucharist 'my highway to heaven.'
Gifted with computers — a self-taught programmer in Visual Basic, C++, and HTML — between the ages of 11 and 14 he designed and built the first comprehensive digital catalog of Church-approved Eucharistic miracles, sourcing materials from around the world. The project became the traveling 'Eucharistic Miracles of the World' exhibition, now shown in thousands of parishes on all five continents.
Diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia in early October 2006, he offered his sufferings 'for the Pope and the Church.' He died ten days later, on October 12, 2006, aged 15. He is buried in Assisi, his body vested in jeans, a tracksuit, and sneakers, at his own request.
Beatified in 2020, he was canonized by Pope Leo XIV on September 7, 2025 — co-canonized with Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati during the Jubilee Year of Hope, before a crowd of some 80,000. He is the first saint of the millennial generation and is often called 'the patron saint of the internet.'