An Italian teenager called “God’s Influencer” is to become the first millennial Catholic saint at a ceremony led by Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican.

Tens of thousands of worshippers are expected to attend Sunday’s canonisation in St Peter’s Square of Carlo Acutis, who died of leukaemia in 2006 at the age of 15.

Born in London, England, in 1991 to Italian parents, Carlo grew up in the northern Italian city of Milan, where he taught himself basic coding and used his computing talents to document miracles and other elements of the Catholic faith online.

The story of the cyber-apostle, who is said to have attended Mass daily and shown kindness to bullied children and homeless people, attracted Catholic youth worldwide, and it will now see him elevated to the same level as Francis of Assisi.

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