Pope Francis and Catholic Church cardinals on Monday voted to elevate to sainthood an Italian teenager who died of leukemia in 2006.
Carlos Acutis, born to Italian parents in London, England in 1991, will become the church's first millennial saint. Millennials are from Generation Y, born between 1981 and 1996.
Acutis was a web designer who died at the age of 15 in Monza, Italy. He earned the nickname "God's influencer" for using his computing skills to spread awareness of the Catholic faith, CNN reported.
He was known for his devotion to Eucharistic miracles and Marian apparitions, which he catalogued on a website he designed, Vatican News reported.
Friends and family also remember Acutis for enjoying playing video games such as Halo, Super Mario, and Pokémon.
Acutis' mother, Antonia Salzano, said her son was a "sign of hope" who shows that holiness is possible today.
"As I did, you too can become holy," Salzano told CNN in May. "Nevertheless, [with] all the media, the technologies, it seems sometimes that holiness is something that belongs to the past. Instead, holiness is also something nowadays in this modern time."
The church's sainthood process usually requires that a candidate has two miracles attributed to them.
Acutis was beatified — the first step toward sainthood — in 2020 after one miracle was attributed to him. In that miracle, he was credited with healing a Brazilian child of a congenital disease affecting his pancreas.
In May, Pope Francis attributed a second miracle to Acutis. That miracle involved the healing of a university student in Florence who had a brain bleed after suffering head trauma, BBC News reported.
Normally, being recognized as a saint in the church can take decades, but Acutis' cause has moved swiftly.
His story could help the church better connect with the younger generation, CNN said.
Pope Francis and the College of Cardinals voted and approved canonization for Acutis and 14 other people, including 11 killed during the 1860 Syrian Civil War.
Acutis' canonization likely will occur at some point during the Catholic Church's jubilee year celebrations in 2025.
Catholic Church parishes and schools are named after saints, who also earn a feast day on which followers honor and remember the person.
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Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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