Image: Vatican Pool/Getty
The Vatican has announced the Catholic Church’s first canonised gamer saint.
The Catholic Church is about to canonise its very first gamer saint. The Vatican recently announced that a young teenager named Carlo Acutis, who is remembered by his family for loving games like Halo, Pokemon and Super Mario, will soon be canonised as the Catholic Church’s first gamer saint.
This will be the first time in the history of the Catholic Church that a gamer has been canonised.
The Catholic Church is getting its first gamer saint
A teenager named Carlo Acutis has been confirmed to be the Catholic Church’s first gamer saint. Acutis was born in 1991 and passed away in 2016 at the age of 15 from Leukaemia. He was born in London to Italian parents, but went on to live in Milan for most of his life. The teenager spent his short life dedicated to good deeds like helping the homeless and supporting his local church. His family recalls him leaning into gaming as a hobby, having come to own a PlayStation console at the age of eight. His favourite game franchises included Halo, Pokemon and Super Mario. Apparently, he limited himself to gaming for just one hour per day, to avoid addiction.
He was also interested in technology, and designed a website that documented Catholic miracles online. Acutis’ canonisation is rather unusual as the saint-naming process can often take decades, and sometimes even centuries. Acutis was first nominated for canonisation in 2012, after becoming a popular figure among Catholics for his work online. He was decreed Venerable in 2018 and later Blessed in 2020, with two miracles attributed to him.
Reportedly, a Brazilian mother prayed to Acutis, which miraculously led to the healing of her son’s pancreatic birth defect. Another miracle recognised by the Catholic Church involved a mother praying at his tomb for her daughter, who later healed from a serious head injury after falling from her bicycle. The process of becoming a saint demands that a candidate has two miracles attributed to their being after said miracles are meticulously examined for truth.
The Catholic Church decreed that Carlo Acutis would be canonised after cardinals were convened by Pope Francis, and voted in favour of the teenager’s sainthood. His canonisation will happen sometime during the Church’s Jubilee celebration in 2025, cementing Acutis as not just the first millennial saint, but the first patron saint of gaming on top of that.
