London-born ‘computer genius’ who died from leukaemia aged 15 moves closer to becoming a saint

A London-born computer genius who died from leukaemia at the age of 15 is set to be one step closer to becoming a saint in October.

Carlo Acutis, who was born to Italian parents in the English capital before moving to Milan when he was a small child, passed away in 2006 after contracting the illness.

Before his death, he set up a website named, ‘The Eucharistic Miracles of the World’ and enjoyed researching different miracles for the site. 

Carlo was a devout Christian (pictured) when he was alive and attended daily mass. Before he died, he set up a website where he researched and documented miracles attributed with the Eucharist

The website says it ‘aimed at confirming faith in the real presence of the body and blood of the Lord in the Eucharist’. 

But it was a miracle made by Carlo, not one he researched, that is helping him on his path to becoming a saint.  

In 2013, a Brazilian boy was cured from a rare disease after prayers had been made to Carlo to intervene with God. 

The Vatican has accepted this incident as a miracle attributed to Carlo and the late 15-year-old will be beatified in Assisi, Perugia in October.

Beatification is the fourth stage in the process to become a saint. Carlo was a devout Christian and regularly attended daily mass when he was alive, making weekly confessions and often praying the rosary.

In July 2018, Pope Francis named him venerable, which helped him achieve the third of five stages towards becoming a saint.  

Carlo is set to be named as a ‘future patron of the internet’ due to his fascination with technology as a teenager.

His mother told The Times: ‘He was a computer genius, so this probably makes him very close to the people of nowadays. 

‘He was living the same lives as them, he liked to play video games, use the internet, liked football.’

As well as playing on his computer, the teenager also helped the homeless and stood up for bullied classmates at school.

As well as being committed to his faith, Carlo also helped the homeless and stood up for bullied classmates at school

Beatification is the fourth out of five stages in the process of becoming a saint. He was named venerable by Pope Francis in July 2018 which was the third stage. Pictured: Carlo’s grave

The current individual considered to be the ‘Patron Saint of the Internet’ is 7th century scholar Saint Isidore of Seville.

Carlo would be only the second Briton to become canonised in nearly 50 years, after Cardinal John Henry Newman was made a Saint last year.

He was the first since October 25, 1970, when a large number of British martyrs were canonised at the same time by Pope Paul VI. 

First Briton to be canonised in nearly 50 years: Who was Cardinal John Henry Newman? 

Cardinal Newman was a Church of England priest before converting to Catholicism in 1845 and is seen as a bridging figure between Anglicanism and Catholicism. 

 Cardinal Newman was a Church of England priest before converting to Catholicism in 1845 and is seen as a bridging figure between Anglicanism and Catholicism

The Cardinal left a ‘lasting legacy’ as an educator, and the Catholic community owed ‘an incalculable debt to his tireless work’.

An Anglican priest, he renounced an illustrious academic career at Oxford University to convert to Catholicism in 1845, convinced that the truth he sought could no longer be found in the Church of England.

The cardinal went on to found the Oratory at Birmingham in 1848 and through his writings spoke to many about the issues of faith, education and conscience.

He was also appointed the first rector of the institution that would become University College Dublin.

In the age when he lived, he was a figure who stood ‘for the life of the spirit against forces’ seeking to lower human dignity – and guided the church back to its Catholic roots.

While at the same time he was open to learning from Anglican traditions such as the role of the laity.

When he died in 1890, thousands took to the streets for his funeral procession. His remains lie in a closed sarcophagus at the Oratory.

‘Newman is very well known in the Church as a theologian, a teacher and an educationalist,’ Father Francis Gavin, from the Birmingham Oratory, told the BBC. ‘But he was also a priest and a pastor. He visited the sick, the imprisoned, and those human qualities of care and friendship are as relevant now as they were in his own time.’ 

The most recently declared British saint, in 1976, was John Ogilvie, a Scottish martyr who died in 1615.

Source: BBC