ASSISI, Italy (AP) — A 15-year-old Italian computer whiz who died of leukemia in 2006 has moved a step closer to possible sainthood with his beatification in the town of Assisi.
Carlo Acutis is the youngest contemporary person to be beatified. He follows two Portuguese shepherd children living in the early 1900s who were proclaimed Catholic saints in 2017.
Already touted as the “patron saint of the internet,” Acutis created a website to catalog miracles and took care of websites for Catholic organizations.
While still in elementary school, Acutis taught himself to code using a university computer science textbook, and then how to edit videos and create animation.
The cardinal who beatified him said he used the internet “in service of the Gospel.”