Tens of thousands gathered at the Vatican on Sunday for the canonization of an Italian teenager nicknamed “God’s Influencer” for using the internet to spread the Catholic faith, News.Az reports citing the Daily News.
Pope Leo XIV on Sunday officially proclaimed Carlo Acutis, who died of leukaemia in 2006 at the age of 15, the Church's first millennial saint, to applause from the crowds in St Peter's Square.
Pilgrims stretched across the square in front of St Peter's Basilica, many of them young people holding up flags from different countries or images of the so-called "cyber-apostle."
Around 800 people had arrived on a special train from Assisi, where Acutis' body, dressed in jeans and a pair of Nike trainers, lies in a glass-walled tomb.
The mass was also being watched by faithful on giant screens in Assisi, a medieval city and pilgrimage site in the central region of Umbria.
Italian Pier Giorgio Frassati, a mountaineering enthusiast who died of polio aged 24 in 1925 and was known for his social and spiritual commitment, was also made a saint yesterday.
Tapestries showing images of both young men were displayed on the facade of St. Peter's Basilica.
