The Pope has recognized the first Millennial saint, Carlo Acutis, after attributing a second miracle to him.
Acutis was just 15 years old when he died of leukemia in 2006, but had spent his short life devoted to his faith.
The London-born teenager who was raised in Milan, has come to be known as "God's influencer" due to his work spreading the Catholic faith through his use of computer skills, and was beatified in 2020 after a first miracle was attributed to him.
In order to be recognized as a saint, a person must be canonized - which is when a second miracle is deemed to have been performed by them, which Acutis has now received.
Acutis becoming the first Millennial saint was confirmed in a statement on Thursday, after Pope Francis took the decision during a meeting with the head of the Vatican’s saint-making department, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro.
The confirmation of a second miracle attributed to him means he can now be elevated to sainthood, however, the Vatican has yet to reveal when that will take place but it is believed to be next year.
He was beatified in 2020 after appearing to have cured Mattheus Vianna, a Brazilian boy, from a serious birth defect which left him unable to keep his food down.
That miracle took place in February 2014, when the boy was "fully cured" after touching Carlo's relic and saying: "Stop vomiting", according to a priest and family friend.
The second miracle came when a 21-year-old Valeria Valverde, from Costa Rica, was healed after suffering a severe head injury in a bicycle accident while studying in Florence in 2022.
After emergency surgery, which saw her skull being opened to relieve pressure from her brain, her family was warned that she may not survive.
However, six days after the accident, the woman's mother went on a pilgrimage to the tomb of Blessed Carlo Acutis in Assissi, where she prayed for her daughter's recovery, leaving a written note behind.
The same day, Valverde began to breathe on her own again, and was able to move her arms and speak the following day, allowing her to be discharged from intensive care 10 days after her mother's pilgrimage.
Tests showed that the haemorrhage in her brain had completely disappeared and she made a full recovery, miraculously needing just one week of physiotherapy after leaving the hospital.
Despite his parents not being particularly religious, Acutis had taken an interest in faith at a very young age, with his mother telling Corriere della Sera newspaper he began to ask to visit churches they passed from the age of three.
By the age of seven he had asked to receive the sacrament of Holy Communion, winning an exception to the customary age requirement.
His mother explained: "There was in him a natural predisposition for the sacred," and his devotion led to her renewing her own faith as well as studying theology in order to be able to answer his questions.
Acutis began to spread the word in his teens by running his parish website and later a Vatican-based academy.
While the Roman Catholic Church teaches that only God is capable of performing miracles, saints who are believed to be with God in heaven intercede on behalf of people who pray to them.
Miracles are usually considered to be the unexplainable healing of someone who is sick.
Acutis was buried in Assissi at his own request, due to his admiration of St Francis of Assissi's dedication to the poor.
He currently rests on full display along with other relics linked to him.
