Carlo Acutis: How do you become a saint – and how did the millennial saint do it?

Published

3 months ago

April 20, 2025

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London-born teenager Carlo Acutis is about to become the first millennial saint, almost 20 years after his death.

The teenager, whose Italian family moved to Milan months after his birth in 1991, dedicated his short life to Catholicism, and died of leukaemia in 2006 aged 15.

Having passed all the posthumous trials necessary for sainthood, he will be canonised on 27 April in St Peter’s Square in Vatican City.

But what does it take to become a saint and how did Carlo achieve it?

Here’s everything you need to know.

What does it mean to be a saint?

All Christians are called to be saints, but only a select few throughout history have been officially recognised as one.

A saint is defined in Catholicism as people in heaven who lived heroically virtuous lives, offered their life for others, or were martyred for the faith, and who are worthy of imitation.

How do you become a saint – and how did Carlo do it?

There are four steps on the path to becoming a saint:

Stage 1 – Servant of God

A postulator – essentially a cheerleader advocating for the candidate – gathers testimony and documentation and presents the case to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

This process usually begins at least five years after the death of the person in question.

Carlo was dedicated to the church throughout his short life, receiving first communion at the age of seven and regularly attending daily Mass, praying the rosary and participating in eucharistic adoration.

But it was through mixing his faith with technology that Carlo had the most impact, informally becoming known as “God’s influencer” as he used his computer skills to spread the Catholic faith.

He started publishing newsletters for his local churches, taking care of his parish website and later of a Vatican-based academy.

He became particularly interested in something called Eucharistic miracles.

These are events deemed miracles which take place around the Eucharist, which is the traditional name the Christian church gives to the re-enactment of the Last Supper.

It’s the moment when the faithful are given a small piece of bread and a sip of wine, called the Holy Communion. They believe that, through the consumption of the bread and wine, Jesus Christ enters those who take part.

Carlo started logging miracles on a website, which eventually went viral and has since been translated into many of the world’s most widely spoken languages.

Stage 2 – Venerable

If worthy, the case is forwarded to the Pope, who signs a decree confirming the candidate’s “heroic virtues”. The person is now called “venerable”.

Carlo was named venerable in 2018 after the church recognised his virtuous life, and his body was taken to a shrine in Assisi’s Santuario della Spogliazione, a major site linked to St Francis’ life.

Stage 3 – Beatification

You become beatified – the declaration by the Pope that a dead person is in a state of bliss – when a miracle in your name is identified and formally declared a miracle by the Pope.

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that only God performs miracles, but that saints who are believed to be with God in heaven intercede on behalf of people who pray to them.

Typically, miracles are the medically inexplicable healing of a person.

The Pope tends to accept it as such when witnesses “verify” someone was healed after prayer and doctors/clergy conclude that it had no medical explanation, was instant and lasting.

If verified, the candidate is beatified and becomes “blessed”.

Carlo’s first supposed miracle was the healing of a boy called Mattheus Vianna, who was born in 2009 in Brazil with a serious birth defect that left him unable to keep food in his stomach.

As a young boy, he was forced to live on vitamins and protein shakes but regularly vomited after meals and was unable to put on weight.

Mattheus, according to his priest, touched one of Carlo’s relics in church and said “stop vomiting” – an act which is said to have cured him.

In February 2014, his family ordered further tests and he was found to be fully cured, the priest said.

In 2019, the claimed miracle was acknowledged by the Vatican and confirmed by Pope Francis a few months later, paving the way for Carlo to become beatified in 2020.

Stage 4 – Sainthood

A second miracle is required in order to reach sainthood.

If verified, the candidate can be canonised and made a saint. A formal canonisation ceremony at the Vatican follows.

The second miracle in Carlo’s name was the reported healing of a Costa Rican girl studying in Italy who suffered a major head trauma.

Her mother said she prayed at Carlo’s tomb after the incident, invoking his spirit and leading to her daughter’s full recovery.

Pope Francis attributed the second miracle to Carlo after a meeting with the head of the Vatican’s saint-making department, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, in May 2024.

Sainthood is rare – but not as much as it used to be

It isn’t known exactly how many sainthoods have been handed out in the Catholic church’s history, though estimates tend to sit at around 10,000.

For hundreds of years, they were selected through public acclaim, until Pope John XV led the first canonisation in the year 993, making Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg a saint.

Canonisation has been more common in recent years, though, with the late Pope John Paul II, who was the Pope from 1978 until his death in 2005, declaring 482 saints during his tenure – more than all of his predecessors.

That record was overtaken just two months into Pope Francis’ tenure, as he canonised more than 800 15th-century martyrs, the so-called “Martyrs of Otranto,” who were beheaded for refusing to convert to Islam.

Since then, the Pope has gone on to grant a number of other high-profile sainthoods, including his predecessors Pope John Paul II and John XXIII, married couple Louis and Zelie Martin, who lived in France during the 19th century, and Mother Teresa.

He’ll take to St Peter’s Square on 27 April at 9.30am UK time – in conjunction with the celebration of the Holy Year’s jubilee for teens – and canonise the first ever millennial saint.

World

Mile after mile of grey rubble – the view from a plane dropping aid to Gaza

Published

17 hours ago

July 29, 2025

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Mile after mile of grey rubble - the view from a plane dropping aid to Gaza

We are on our way to Gaza with the Jordanian military.

The aircraft is hot and noisy and as we get closer, the atmosphere gets more tense. Aircrew gesture with their hands to tell us how many minutes there are to go. Fifteen. Six. One.

The Jordanian military C-130 flies out over the sea before banking and heading inland for Gaza. The parachutes, attached to the top of each of the eight pallets, are prepared for the drop.

As land approaches, I look down. The ground is modern and built up – we’re still over southern Israel.

Then a few short minutes later, it’s clear we’ve crossed Gaza’s border.

The ground turns grey, the shapes of buildings disappear, there are no cars, no people.

You can see the outline of communities and villages that are now flattened. Mile after mile of grey rubble.

This mission by the Royal Jordanian Air Force is one of the first aid drop flights since Israel announced they could resume. It is carrying eight tonnes of food and baby formula.

Foreign nations know this is a deeply flawed way of delivering aid – road convoys are far more effective and can carry far more – but the Jordanian flight crew say the need in Gaza is so urgent, it’s simply an attempt to do something.

When the aircraft ramp opens, the aid is pushed out and it’s gone in seconds.

The parachutes seem peaceful as they open and their fall slows. But dropping food from the sky is a dangerous and undignified way to feed people.

On the ground it’s chaos.

Our colleagues in Gaza say the fighting for food has become lethal – gangs are now punching and stabbing people to reach it first. Most critically, it’s not getting to the weakest. To those who really need it.

One man becomes emotional as he describes racing to find food and leaving with nothing.

“I came only for my son,” he says. “I wouldn’t come here if it was just for me. When you have a child, they need bread.”

He’s an engineer in normal times and seems in disbelief that his life has come to this. “The aid comes from the sky and we have to run after it. I’ve never had to do this in my life.”

It is hoped Israel’s humanitarian pauses in fighting will rapidly increase food distribution by road but it’s very unclear how that is going.

Hospitals in Gaza have reported another 14 deaths from starvation in the last 24 hours, the Gaza health ministry said on Monday.

Airstrikes killed another at least 78 Palestinians across Gaza on Monday, local health officials said.

We cannot verify these numbers because Israel has not allowed international journalists access to Gaza.

And Monday’s flight came with strict media conditions.

We were told the Israeli side had warned that any shots of Gaza filmed from the air could result in these aid flights being cancelled.

But Israel’s tight grip has not stopped the images from Gaza getting out, horrifying people around the world.

The question now is what more the international community will do about it.

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Israeli human rights organisations accuse country of genocide

Published

20 hours ago

July 28, 2025

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Israeli human rights organisations accuse country of genocide

Two Israeli human rights organisations have said the country is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

In reports published on Monday, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said Israel was carrying out “coordinated, deliberate action to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip”.

The two groups are the first major voices within Israeli society to make such accusations against the state during nearly 22 months of war against Hamas.

Israel has vehemently denied claims of genocide. David Mencer, a spokesperson for the government, called the allegation by the rights groups “baseless”.

He said: “There is no intent, (which is) key for the charge of genocide… it simply doesn’t make sense for a country to send in 1.9 million tonnes of aid, most of that being food, if there is an intent of genocide.”

B’Tselem director Yuli Novak called for urgent action, saying: “What we see is a clear, intentional attack on civilians in order to destroy a group.”

The organisation’s report “is one we never imagined we would have to write,” Ms Novak said. “The people of Gaza have been displaced, bombed, and starved, left completely stripped of their humanity and rights.”

PHR said Israel’s military campaign shows evidence of a “deliberate and systemic dismantling of Gaza’s health and life-sustaining systems”.

Both organisations said Israel’s Western allies were enabling the genocidal campaign, and shared responsibility for suffering in Gaza.

“It couldn’t happen without the support of the Western world,” Ms Novak said. “Any leader that is not doing whatever they can to stop it is part of this horror.”

Hamas said the reports by the two groups were a “clear and unambiguous testimony from within Israeli society itself regarding the grave crimes perpetrated by the occupation regime against our people”.

Dire humanitarian conditions

Since Israel launched its offensive in Gaza following the deadly Hamas attack on 7 October 2023, nearly 60,000 people – mostly civilians – have been killed, according to Gaza health officials.

Much of the infrastructure has been destroyed, and nearly the whole population of more than two million has been displaced.

An increasing number of people in Gaza are also dying from starvation and malnutrition, according to Gaza health authorities.

On Monday, the Gaza health ministry reported that at least 14 people had died from starvation and malnutrition in the past 24 hours, raising the total number of hunger-related deaths during the war to 147.

Among the victims were 88 children, with most of the deaths occurring in recent weeks.

UN agencies say the territory is running out of food for its people and accuse Israel of not allowing enough aid deliveries to the enclave. Israel denies those claims.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said “there is no starvation in Gaza” and vowed to fight on against Hamas.

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that many in Gaza are facing starvation and implied that Israel could take further steps to improve humanitarian access.

Israel has repeatedly said its actions in Gaza are in self-defence, placing full responsibility for civilian casualties on Hamas. It cites the militant group’s refusal to release hostages, surrender, or stop operating within civilian areas – allegations that Hamas denies.

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Why are airdrops on Gaza so dangerous?

Published

1 day ago

July 28, 2025

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The United Nations has condemned airdrops on Gaza, warning they risk killing the starving Palestinians they are intended to help.

Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Israel parachuted aid packages into the territory for the first time in months at the weekend amid claims a third of the population has not eaten for days.

But Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general for the UN Relief and Work Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), has said they “will not reverse the deepening starvation” and often do more harm than good.

‘Make or break’ as starvation looms; Middle East latest

“They are expensive, inefficient & can even kill starving civilians,” he wrote in a statement on X.

What is an airdrop – and why are they dangerous?

There are several ways humanitarian agencies and international allies can deliver aid to regions in need – by land, by sea, or by air.

While parachuting in supply packages from planes may look impressive, airdrops are “fraught with problems”, Sky correspondent in Jordan Sally Lockwood says, and often used as a “desperate last resort”.

“Foreign nations know airdrops are a deeply flawed way of delivering aid,” she says.

“Palestinian sources tell us the aid that’s been dropped so far is not reaching the most vulnerable. They are an attempt to get something to a few – often viewed as a desperate last resort. Gaza is at that point.”

Military analyst Sean Bell says that delivering aid by air is ideally done when planes can land on a runway – but Gaza’s only landing strip in Rafah was shut down in 2021.

The alternative is “very dangerous”, he warns. “Aircraft flying relatively low and slow over a warzone isn’t very clever. When these parcels hit the ground, there’s a significant danger of them hitting people.”

Crucially, they can only deliver a fraction of what lorries can.

“The really big issue is aircraft can only deliver one truckload of aid. Gaza needs 500 truckloads a day, so it’s 0.2% of the daily need,” Bell adds.

They also risk falling into the wrong hands and ending up on the black market.

“Some of it has been looted by gangs and is on the black market already,” Lockwood says.

Why are they happening now?

Israel cut off all supplies to Gaza at the beginning of March, reopening some aid centres in May, but with restrictions they said were designed to stop goods being stolen by Hamas militants.

Israeli authorities control the only three border crossings to the strip: Kerem Shalom in the south, Crossing 147 in the centre, and Erez to the north.

Since the current conflict with Hamas began in October 2023, humanitarian agencies and world leaders have repeatedly accused Israel of not allowing enough deliveries through.

Mr Lazzarini says the UN has “the equivalent of 6,000 trucks” in neighbouring Jordan and Egypt “waiting for the green light to get into Gaza”.

Israel says it has commissioned a “one-week scale-up of aid”, having conducted its own airdrops on Saturday.

In a statement over the weekend, the Israeli Defence Forces said it will work with the UN and other aid organisations to ensure aid is delivered but no more details were given.

Meanwhile on Sunday, it began daily 10-hour pauses in fighting in three areas of Gaza to address the deteriorating humanitarian situation.

According to the Hamas-run health ministry, 133 Palestinians had died of malnutrition by then, including 87 children.

Doctors Without Borders warned on Friday that 25% of young children and pregnant women in Gaza are malnourished.

Israel says there is no famine in Gaza.

What are in the airdrops and who is behind them?

Air packages are largely being delivered by C-130 planes. Jordan is reported to be using 10 and the UAE eight.

They can carry eight pallets of goods each, weighing around eight tonnes in total, according to Lockwood, who is on the runway at Jordan’s King Abdullah II airbase.

There are no medical supplies in the packages, she says, only dried food, rice, flour, and baby formula.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said the UK will help with airdrops – but no British aircraft have been seen in Jordan so far.

He will discuss the matter with US President Donald Trump during talks in Scotland on Monday.

The RAF delivered 110 tonnes of aid across 10 drops last year as part of a Jordanian-led international coalition – but it is not clear what level of support will be offered this time.