Pope Leo XIV has declared two new saints, one of whom is the first millennial to be canonized. The other is a well-known Italian figure who dedicated his life to spreading his faith before his untimely death.
During an open-air Mass in St. Peter’s Square, attended by approximately 80,000 people, Leo canonized Carlo Acutis, a computer prodigy who died of leukemia in 2006, and Pier Giorgio Frassati, an Italian student and outdoor enthusiast who died of polio in his early 20s in 1925.
Leo stated that both saints transformed their lives into “masterpieces” by dedicating them to God.
“The greatest danger in life is wasting it outside of God’s plan,” he said in his Sunday homily. The new saints “invite all of us, especially young people, to not waste our lives, but to direct them upwards and make them masterpieces.”
Acutis, born on May 3, 1991, was nicknamed “God’s Influencer” after creating a website documenting Eucharistic miracles recognized by the Church. He completed the site at a time when such projects were typically handled by professionals.
In October 2006, Acutis became ill and was diagnosed with leukemia. He died within days at the age of 15 and was buried in Assisi.
The pontiff fervently supported Acutis’s sainthood, believing that the Church needed someone like him to attract young Catholics while addressing the opportunities and dangers of the digital age.
Leo inherited the Acutis cause and has also identified technology – especially the internet – as a major challenge facing humanity.
Leo described Frassati, the other saint canonized, as a “beacon for lay spirituality.”
According to the Vatican News, Frassati lived his faith through “constant, humble, mostly hidden service to the poorest of Turin.” He “lived simply and gave away food, money, or anything that anyone asked of him.”
It is believed that he contracted polio from those he served in the slums of Turin, Italy, before his death.