This Sunday, September 7, 2025, Pope Leo XIV presided over the canonization Mass of Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. The two young Italians lived in different eras but shared their youth, love of sports, and social commitment. The ceremony, which began at 10:00 AM (08:00 GMT), brought together thousands of faithful, many of them young, carrying flags and images of the new saints.
Carlo Acutis, known as the «cyber apostle» or «God’s influencer,» is the first millennial saint. Born in London in 1991 to a wealthy, non-practicing Italian family, he grew up in Milan and showed great religious fervor from an early age. He died in 2006 at the age of 15 from leukemia. Acutis dedicated much of his life to spreading the Catholic faith online and created a digital exhibition on Eucharistic miracles. He was beatified in 2020, and the Vatican attributes two miracles to him: the healing of a Brazilian child with a pancreatic malformation and that of a Costa Rican student injured in an accident, both after their families invoked him.
Pier Giorgio Frassati, on the other hand, was born in Turin in 1901 into a bourgeois family. His father was a senator and founder of the newspaper La Stampa, but Frassati broke with that path to serve the poor and sick of his city. An engineering student, athlete, and member of Catholic Action, he summarized his ideal with the motto «Verso l’alto» («Always toward the top»). He died in 1925 at the age of 24 from polio. He was beatified by John Paul II in 1990, and the Vatican recognized a second miracle in late 2024: the inexplicable healing of a young American in a coma.
The double canonization was the first for Pope Leo XIV since his election in May. Originally, Acutis’s ceremony was scheduled for April 27 but was postponed due to the death of Pope Francis and was combined with Frassati’s. During the Mass, the pontiff expressed his joy at seeing so many young people present. The ceremony took place during the Jubilee, the Catholic Church’s «Holy Year,» for which more than 24 million people have already traveled to Rome, according to the Vatican.
Context and relevance
The canonization of Acutis and Frassati highlights the Church’s recognition of holiness lived in youth and everyday life. Carlo Acutis is an example for many young people for his ability to combine his daily life—school, soccer, and computing—with unwavering faith, as expressed by Filippo Bellaviti, a 17-year-old from Vignate, near Milan. In Assisi, where Acutis’s tomb is located, the diocese installed giant screens to follow the ceremony. His mother, Antonia Salzano, thanked the faithful in a video released by the diocese. The Sanctuary of the Spoliation, where the teenager’s body rests, received nearly one million visitors in 2024.
The double canonization also underscores the diversity of paths to holiness: one through technology and spreading faith online, and another through service to the poor and spiritual life. Both young men, separated by nearly 80 years, are presented as models of charity and Christian commitment. The presence of Acutis’s family—his parents and two siblings—at the ceremony was unusual, and his mother noted that many would follow the celebration on television.
Original source: www.rfi.fr (published on September 7, 2025)
