"Patron Saint of Internet" - Catholic Church Recognises Millennial as a Saint for Spreading Faith Online

The late Carlo Acutis will be recognised as a saint by the Catholic Church for using the Internet to spread the faith.

This is reported by National Public Radio.

Akutis was a devout Catholic who studied programming and created spiritual websites from an early age. During his life, he helped the homeless and defended victims of bullying.

He died of leukaemia at the age of 15 in 2006, and has been called "God's inspiration" and "the patron saint of the Internet" for his work cataloguing Eucharistic miracles around the world.

Pope Francis and a group of cardinals approved Akutis' canonisation at a meeting in the Vatican. He will reportedly be declared a saint in 2025.

There are three steps to sainthood in the Catholic Church.

Firstly, the Pope must declare the deceased person "blessed", which is an official recognition that he or she lived a heroically virtuous life. In order to be declared "blessed", he or she must have participated in a miracle, usually a healing. Canonisation requires a second miracle after beatification.

Akutis was beatified in October 2020 after the Vatican officially acknowledged that in 2013 he interceded from heaven for the life of a Brazilian child suffering from a rare pancreatic disease. The Vatican said that 4-year-old Matheus Vianna was healed after praying to Akutis and coming into contact with one of his relics, a piece of clothing.

The second miracle was attributed to Akutis in May this year. A girl suffered a serious head injury after falling off her bicycle in Florence, Italy, but recovered after her mother prayed at the tomb of Akutis in Assisi.

After canonisation, the church can make a person a saint.