A London-born computer genius who died from leukaemia aged 15 will be beatified this year in the final step before sainthood.
Carlo Acutis is tipped to become a “patron saint of the internet” after he was credited with the recovery off young Brazilian boy from a rare illness.
The teenager died in 2006 in Milan, Italy, where he moved shortly after being born to a half-English father and an Italian mother in London.
He set up a website to investigate miracles around the world and supported bullied classmates.
The Brazilian boy was said to have fought the disease after praying to Carlo asking him to communicate with God.
The Vatican said the miracle had been approved by the Medical Council of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Carlo will be beatified, the last step before sainthood, in Assisi, Italy, this October.
“He was a computer genius so this probably makes him very close to the young people of nowadays,” his mother told The Times.
“He was living the same lives as them, he liked to play video games, use the internet, liked football.”
In July 2018, Pope Francis named Carlo a venerable, which helped clear the way towards sainthood.
Saint Isidore of Seville, a 7th century scholar, is at present considered the patron saint of the internet.
Carlo, a devout Christian, would become the second Briton to be canonised in nearly half a century, after the 18th century theologian and poet Cardinal John Henry Newman was made a saint last year.
