Tens of thousands of people packed into St. Peter’s Square on Sunday for the canonization ceremony of Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati, two Italians who died young but whose deep faith has inspired millions worldwide.
Lengthy applause filled the square when Pope Leo XIV pronounced them saints during a Mass. These were the first saints declared by the new pope.
“They were both young and have united Christians — we’re all here together,” said Eva Destier, 29, a French researcher and one of hundreds of people who pressed against metal barriers hoping to get into the square, which was crowded from an early hour.
Some 60,000 faithful were present at the beginning of the celebration, according to the Vatican, but thousands continued to trickle into the square throughout the ceremony. Many were young and came with scout or parish youth groups.
Carlo has become especially well known, and the Catholic Church is hoping to use his fame to encourage more young people to be active in the church. As the first millennial saint, and because of his use of technology to spread the faith, he has been nicknamed, “God’s influencer.”
Frassati was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1990 after the Vatican deemed the healing of a person in the United States to be a miracle attributed to Frassati. Pope Francis recognized a second miracle in 2024, opening the way to Frassati’s canonization. Carlo was beatified in 2020. Two instances of healing, one in Brazil and one in Italy, have been deemed miracles attributed to him by the Vatican.
Frassati and Carlo lived a century apart. Frassati was an enthusiastic member of Italian Catholic youth movements and an avid mountain climber. Carlo, who was born in London and raised in Italy, was a computer whiz kid who taught himself coding and created a website listing eucharistic miracles. Both volunteered and assisted the poor, and both died within days of being diagnosed with a fatal illness. Frassati died of polio in 1925, when he was 24. Carlo died of leukemia in 2006, when he was 15.
In both cases, word of their goodness and faith spread quickly and grew globally. There are churches and school dedicated to both in countries around the world.
Rachel McCleary, an economics lecturer at Harvard University who studies sainthood, calculated that from 1588 to 1978, the year John Paul II became pope, an average of 262 years passed between death and canonization. Under the past three popes, however, that period has more than halved. In the case of Frassati, a century passed, with Carlo, a mere 19 years, a meteoric rise helped, in part, by the spread of his popularity on the internet.
“We want to live life, in friendship, in sport, in a Christian way,” and were inspired by such young saints, said Severina Miselli, from Sassuolo, in central Italy.
Elisabetta Povoledo is a Times reporter based in Rome, covering Italy, the Vatican and the culture of the region. She has been a journalist for 35 years.
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