Hallows Day

All the saints

St Carlo Acutis

A teenager who loved computers, his friends and Jesus in the Eucharist.

Carlo was a kind and cheerful teenager who loved playing video games and hanging out with his friends. He used his computer skills to build a website that cataloged Eucharistic miracles from all around the world. Because of his amazing talent and love for technology, many people call him the patron saint of the internet, though the Church hasn’t officially named him that!

Lived
1991 to 2006
Feast day
12 October
Where
London, Milan and Assisi

In pictures, look for a teenager in jeans and a polo shirt or sweatshirt, sometimes with a backpack or laptop, and the Eucharist in a monstrance

My highway to heaven

Carlo made his First Communion when he was seven. From then on he went to Mass every day he could, and often stopped to pray in front of the tabernacle before or after.

“The Eucharist is my highway to heaven,” he said. His mother has said she knew little about her faith before Carlo, and that he brought her back to it.

Source: Vatican, canonisation booklet with Carlo’s biography (2025); Catholic World Report, “Mom of Carlo Acutis” (2020)

Websites and miracles

Carlo was brilliant with computers. He taught himself to program, and built websites, including one for his parish.

His biggest project was an exhibition about Eucharistic miracles around the world, which he started planning in 2002, when he was 11, and worked on for two and a half years with his family. It has since been shown on all five continents, including in thousands of parishes in the United States.

Source: Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, “Carlo Acutis” (in Italian); Carlo Acutis’s exhibition of Eucharistic miracles

Kind to everyone

At school, Carlo stood up for kids who were being picked on, especially classmates with disabilities.

He used his pocket money to help homeless people he passed on the way to Mass, and even bought sleeping bags for them.

Source: Catholic World Report, “Who was Carlo Acutis? A CNA explainer” (2020); Catholic World Report, “Mom of Carlo Acutis” (2020)

Originals, not photocopies

Carlo said: “Everyone is born as an original, but many people end up dying as photocopies.” He meant: don’t just copy everyone else. Be the person God made you to be.

Pope Francis liked this so much that he quoted it in his letter to young people all over the world.

Source: Pope Francis, Christus Vivit (2019), 104 to 106, Christus Vivit, 104 to 106

Offering it all

In October 2006 Carlo felt ill with what seemed like flu. It turned out to be a very aggressive leukaemia. He said: “I want to offer all my sufferings to the Lord for the Pope and for the Church.”

He died on 12 October 2006, aged 15. He is buried in Assisi, the town he loved most, and today crowds of people visit his tomb.

Source: Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, “Carlo Acutis” (in Italian); Vatican, canonisation booklet with Carlo’s biography (2025)

When it was hard

Carlo loved video games, and he noticed that they could easily take over his time. So he set himself a limit of one hour a week, and stuck to it. He worked at self-control in other little things too.

Then, at 15, he faced something much harder: a sudden illness, and death. He met it with great courage and peace.

Source: Catholic World Report, “Mom of Carlo Acutis” (2020)

Everyone is born as an original, but many people end up dying as photocopies.

St Carlo Acutis (source)

Try this

  • Find out when your church has Eucharistic adoration, and visit Jesus for ten minutes as a family.
  • Make a screen-time rule like Carlo’s and keep it for a week. What will you do with the time you save?
  • Carlo went to Mass every day he could. Before your next Sunday Mass, walk through the Mass, step by step together, so you know what is happening and why.

A prayer

St Carlo, you used your gifts, your computer and your time for God and for others. Help us to be originals, not copies, and to love Jesus in the Eucharist as you did. Pray for us.

For grown-ups: more about St Carlo Acutis

Carlo Acutis was born on 3 May 1991 in London to Italian parents and grew up in Milan, where he attended the Jesuit Istituto Leone XIII. In October 2006 he was diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukaemia and died on 12 October at the San Gerardo hospital in Monza.

He was beatified in Assisi on 10 October 2020, and canonised by Pope Leo XIV on 7 September 2025, together with Pier Giorgio Frassati. The canonisation had first been planned for April 2025 and was postponed after the death of Pope Francis. His body rests at the Sanctuary of the Spoliation in Assisi, and Pope Francis wrote about him in Christus Vivit (2019).

Where these stories come from

  1. Pope Francis, Christus Vivit (2019), 104 to 106
  2. Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, “Carlo Acutis” (in Italian)
  3. Vatican, canonisation booklet with Carlo’s biography (2025)
  4. Pope Leo XIV, Homily at the canonisation, 7 September 2025
  5. Carlo Acutis’s exhibition of Eucharistic miracles
  6. Catholic World Report, “Mom of Carlo Acutis” (2020)
  7. Catholic World Report, “Who was Carlo Acutis? A CNA explainer” (2020)
  8. Official website of Carlo Acutis