Their story
Carlo Acutis was born in London on May 3, 1991, to Italian parents, and grew up in Milan. His parents were not especially devout, but Carlo asked for First Communion at seven and then went to Mass daily. He said, “The Eucharist is my highway to heaven.” He prayed the Rosary, went to confession weekly, and took his faith seriously in a quiet way.
He was also an ordinary teenager: he played video games (limiting himself to one hour a week), made home movies of his pets and taught himself programming. Starting at around 11, he spent years building a website cataloguing Eucharistic miracles around the world, which became a traveling exhibition. He brought food and sleeping bags to homeless people in Milan and stood up for classmates who were bullied.
In October 2006 he was diagnosed with acute leukemia. He offered his suffering for the pope and the Church, and died on October 12, 2006, at fifteen. He is buried in Assisi. Pope Francis beatified (declared 'Blessed', the step before sainthood) him in 2020, and he was canonized (officially declared a saint by the pope) in 2025. People follow Carlo because he shows that holiness can fit into an ordinary teenage life—school, friends, computers—when Jesus comes first.
