Carlo Acutis: Patron Saint of Computer Geeks

by Admin · Published September 5, 2025 · Updated September 5, 2025

In 2006, a teenager died in Italy. Today, five years after his beatification, devotion to Carlo Acutis has spread all over the world. This is the life of the first millennial saint, who today would still be only 34.

Name at birth: Carlo Acutis
Born: May 3, 1991, in London, United Kingdom
Died: October 12, 2006 (aged 15) in Monza, Italy
Beatified: October 10, 2020
Feast: October 12
Patronages: Youth, computer programmers

When your computer is playing up, a holy teenager may be invoked to intercede for you on matters technological. Carlo Acutis was known at school as a “computer geek”, having built a website on Eucharistic miracles by the time he was 11. This remarkable young Italian teenager lived a life dedicated to God and technology, cruelly cut short by leukaemia when he was only 15 years old.

Carlo was born on May 3, 1991, in London to Italian parents, Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano. Although his parents were not particularly religious, they ensured that Carlo was baptised in the church of Our Lady of Dolours in Chelsea. The family was well-off, and moved to Milan when Carlo was still an infant.

Carlo was four years old when his recently deceased grandfather appeared to him in a dream, asking to be prayed for. His Polish babysitter further instructed the boy in the Catholic faith. When he was seven, he requested to receive First Communion, even though the family was not attached to a parish. After that, Carlo attended Mass every week or even daily, made weekly confession, prayed the rosary, and developed a special devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. At the age of age 11, Carlo became a catechist.

Usually it is the parents dragging their children to church. In Carlo’s case, the converse was true: he dragged his parents to church. Antonia Acutis attributes her conversion to her son’s guidance.

The IT wizard

From an early age, Carlo showed an exceptional talent for working with computers. By the time he was nine years old, Carlo had already taught himself programming and web development. Driven by a desire to share his faith, at the age of 11, he launched a project that was ambitious for a person of any age: to catalogue Eucharistic miracles, researching and documenting them meticulously, to create an online virtual museum. By the time it was completed in 2005, “The Eucharistic Miracles of the World” website was a comprehensive collection of more than 130 Eucharistic miracles from all over the world. Since Carlo’s death, it has lived on in the form of a physical display, with his work (and updates) being exhibited all over the world, including Southern Africa.

Top left & right: Carlo at Christmas and Carlo as a boy with one of his dogs. Bottom: The tomb of Carlo Acutis in Assisi’s church of Santa Maria Maggiore.

Carlo believed that technology could be a powerful tool for evangelisation in a way that even most Church leaders couldn’t (or even now, cannot) conceive, reaching people where they are, even in their homes.

Carlo was educated at the Jesuit Instituto Leone XIII high school in Milan. There he defended weaker schoolmates, especially those with disabilities, from bullies. When a friend’s parents were divorcing, Carlo supported him by including him in the Acutis’ family-life.

Besides being a “computer geek”, Carlo also had normal hobbies, like football, watching action movies and playing video games (but only for limited periods of time). Like his hero, St Francis of Assisi, Carlo loved animals, and had four dogs, two cats and many goldfish. He enjoyed travelling, especially on pilgrimage, and the town of Assisi was his favourite. His tomb is in this city of St Francis, in accordance with Carlo’s explicit wish.

The boy was also mature beyond his age in his love for those on the margins. He engaged in charitable acts, assisted the elderly, volunteered at homeless shelters, supported migrants (even sponsoring one at his baptism), and comforted the sick.

In October 2006, Carlo himself became sick, as he had predicted. At the age of 15 he was diagnosed with leukaemia, with only days to live. He bore his suffering with resolute faith, offering his pain as a sacrifice for the Church, praying for the conversion of sinners and for an end to the culture of indifference. Even during his illness and knowing that he would die very soon, Carlo continued to spread his message through his website and by sharing his personal experiences.

On October 12, 2006, at 18:45, Carlo Acutis died in the city of Monza. Shortly before, he had said: “I am happy to die because I have lived my life without wasting a minute on those things which do not please God.” His funeral drew thousands of people, and his story began to spread worldwide. Four years to the day after his death, Carlo’s mother gave birth to twins, at the age of 44. She attributes this to her son’s intercession.

His sainthood cause was opened in 2013, culminating in his beatification on October 10, 2020, by Pope Francis in the upper basilica of St Francis in Assisi. His parents and siblings attended the ceremony. Carlo’s remains, dressed in his favourite clothes, are kept in a glass coffin in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Assisi.

Carlo once said: “All people are born as originals, but many die as photocopies.” He stands as an original in a world that is often marked by superficiality and materialism. Carlo’s example urges us to use technology as a means of evangelisation and to promote genuine human connection and solidarity.