The canonization of Carlo Acutis, the first millennial saint in the Catholic Church, will take place on Sunday, September 7. Acutis, an Italian teenager who died from leukemia in 2006, has been celebrated for his devotion to the Eucharist and his use of technology to promote the Catholic faith. He created a website that documented Eucharistic miracles and Marian apparitions and is widely regarded as a role model for young people in the Church.

As the Church awaits the ceremony in St. Peter’s Square, where Pope Leo XIV will formally declare Acutis a saint, University of Notre Dame experts Kathleen Sprows Cummings, Brett Robinson and Timothy O’Malley reflect on his life and his path to sainthood.

“Canonization may be fundamentally about holiness, but it is also about relevance,” said

Kathleen Sprows Cummings, a professor of American studies and history. “As such, new saints often reveal as much about the priorities of the people promoting them as they do about the holy people themselves.”

Cummings, who focuses her research on Catholicism in the United States, as well as the history of women and American religion, said that Acutis’ story is tailor-made for this moment in at least three senses:

“As a teenager, he offers the Catholic Church an opportunity to connect to generations of young people that have become increasingly disengaged from practicing their faith,” she said. “As a fervent devotee of the Eucharist, he provides an opportunity to provide instruction about a sacrament that, recent polls reveal, is misunderstood by many of the faithful.

“Finally, as a ‘gamer saint,’ Carlo’s utilization of technology as a tool of evangelization is tremendously reassuring in an age of anxiety about the corrosive effects of social media and AI. The fact that his canonization will take place during a Holy Year dedicated to the theme of hope, when Catholics are exhorted to renew their faith, further magnifies his appeal.”

Cummings, the author of “A Saint of Our Own: How the Quest for a Holy Hero Helped Catholics Become American,” also cautioned that although canonization is an enormously complex process, it “inevitably simplifies a life, paring it down to a single story that can be ‘enshrined’ in the canon of the saints.”

“For a cause to succeed, a candidate’s story must often be shoehorned into a preexisting narrative arc that doesn’t leave much room for complicated or contradictory details. This doesn't mean a saint isn't holy, but it does mean that we don't always learn much about what made them human."

Brett Robinson, associate director for outreach at the McGrath Institute for Church Life, agreed, noting that although Acutis will be the patron saint of the internet and is associated with technology — the prevailing narrative does not entirely fit.

“I think initially the narrative was that he was a digital native and he was a typical teenager who was very much into video games and the internet,” said Robinson, who is also an associate professor of the practice. “And it’s a little more nuanced than that. Yes, he was familiar with and used technology, but he was an example of the ways we can use them with wisdom, prudence and virtue.

“Carlo demonstrates what it means to be in the world, but maybe not of the world. That’s something that’s more challenging now, given all the distractions of our culture, but it is possible.”

In that way, Robinson added, Acutis offers hope to young people in particular, many of whom struggle with mental health issues associated with a cultural shift toward social media and technology.

“For a lot of the Church’s history, saints were these elevated, austere figures, and Carlo is one of the first young, contemporary saints who did like sports and video games, but also loved the Eucharist and the Church and God,” he said. “And that makes his story accessible and inspirational. Here’s this individual who in the midst of our modern world was able to find a contemplative peace and have a deep, intimate relationship with the Lord through the Eucharist — and then also express that through the channels everyone uses, like the internet.”

Timothy O’Malley, associate director for research at the McGrath Institute and academic director of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy, stated that although Acutis’ relative “fast track” to sainthood is part of the reason he is so relatable, he doesn’t anticipate the Church fast tracking other causes.

“There is close attention paid to the dangers of fast tracking, and I think that it gets much more dangerous when it is a very famous or public person,” O’Malley said. “That wasn’t Carlo — he was an unknown person to most of the world before his passing. But what happened afterward was an immediate devotion. From the time he was buried in Assisi, there was devotion to him and miracles attributed to him. So, it won’t necessarily become normal, but the speed of his canonization is not surprising for the kind of person he was and the way he resonates with us.

Acutis lived a normal, somewhat ascetic life, O’Malley added.

“He gave to the poor. He went to daily Mass and had a love of the Eucharist. He limited screen time. He liked going hiking and being with his friends,” O’Malley said. “Even though he was this extraordinary spiritual writer — seemingly having insight beyond what any 15-year-old should have — I think a lot of his life is something that we can understand and can follow.”

Contact: Carrie Gates, associate director of media relations, 574-993-9220, c.gates@nd.edu