The Guardian reported on the 23rd (local time) that an Italian prodigy boy who passed away at the age of 15 due to leukemia is set to become the first millennial saint of the Catholic Church.
According to the report, Pope Francis judged that a second miracle attributed to the Blessed Carlo Acutis occurred on that day, granting Acutis the qualification for canonization. Having been beatified in 2020, 14 years after his death, he now qualifies to be canonized as a saint following the recognition of the second miracle.
The Catholic Church bestows honorific titles in the canonization process on public objects of veneration or their candidates in the order of Venerable, Blessed, and Saint. After being recognized as Venerable by the Vatican for holiness, one verified miracle leads to beatification, and two or more verified miracles lead to canonization as a saint.
If Acutis is canonized, he will become the first millennial saint (born from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s). Among the 912 people canonized by Pope Francis, the most recently born was in 1926.
Acutis was born in 1991 in London, England, to Italian parents. He moved to Milan, Italy, during his childhood. Self-taught in coding as an elementary school student, he created and managed a website introducing miracles of Catholic saints, actively spreading the Catholic gospel online, earning him the nickname "God's influencer."
His mother once told a newspaper that her son had been donating his pocket money to the poor since he was three years old. She also said that he helped friends with disabilities and brought food and sleeping bags to homeless people, even after his parents divorced.
He was later diagnosed with leukemia and continued to battle the illness until he sadly passed away at the age of 15 on October 2006. Following his last wishes, he was buried in Assisi, the hometown of Saint Francis (1181?1226), known for his life of poverty.
The first miracle recognized after his death was in 2013, when a 7-year-old Brazilian boy suffering from a pancreatic disease was completely healed after coming into contact with Acutis's T-shirt relic and praying for him. The second miracle recognized this time involved Valeria Valverde, a woman in her 20s from Costa Rica who was in critical condition after emergency craniotomy following a bicycle accident in Florence, Italy, in 2022. After her mother prayed, she began breathing without a ventilator and recovered her speech and other abilities.
In Catholicism, people can pray to the deceased, believed to be in heaven, asking them to intercede with God on their behalf. For example, they may request recovery from illness or injury. If the person prayed for experiences an unexpected recovery, the Vatican may classify this as a miracle.
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