“Patron Saint of the Internet” sounds like a joke, like something someone who describes themselves as “very online” would write in their Twitter bio. But when a recently beatified teen on his way to full-fledged sainthood officially secures that title after performing his second miracle, it will not be a joke.
Carlo Acutis, a teen who died of leukemia in 2006 at the age of 15, was beatified Saturday after Pope Francis found him responsible for a miracle. The Italian teenager built a website to document miracles when he was just 11, prompting Catholic officials to hail him for having “used the internet in service of the Gospel, to reach as many people as possible,” according to Insider.
Acutis’s beatification was announced in June, after the teen was deemed responsible for performing a miracle back in February when a seven-year-old boy in Brazil who prayed to Acutis was reportedly healed of a rare pancreatic disorder. The Church requires two confirmed miracles before someone can become a saint, meaning Acutis will need to work his magic one more time before he officially becomes the Patron Saint of the Internet.
According to the Associated Press, Acutis is the youngest person of our time to be beatified. Back in 2017, two Portuguese children who lived in the 1900s were declared saints for reportedly seeing the Virgin Mary.
Whether or not you’re inclined to believe in miracles and sainthood, I think it’s fair to say the internet and its billions of doomed followers could stand to benefit from a little divine intervention of some kind. May the new Patron Saint of the Internet save us all from a lifetime of eternal doomscrolling.
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