The teenage video game enthusiast who became a saint – and immortalized in a Wiltshire church window

If you walk into St Aldhelm's Roman Catholic Church in Malmesbury, you will see a stained glass window of a type we have all seen countless times: it depicts a medieval bishop, with a crosier in his hand and a miter on his head . But turn away from this image of St Aldhelm and you will see a very different figure in another stained glass window. This one depicts a young teenager, with a modern watch on his wrist and a cell phone attached to his backpack. This is Carlo Acutis, the boy nicknamed “God’s Influencer” and the “Holy Millennial,” a teenager who loved computers – and loved God even more.

Malmesbury Church was quick to have Carlo's image installed in 2022, two years after the Vatican declared the teenager blessed – a step on the path to sainthood. “He spoke to young people,” explains priest Thomas Kulandaisamy, “that’s why we chose him.”

Today, the Catholic Church has declared that Carlo, who died in 2006 at the age of 15 from leukemia, is indeed a saint. They praised his short life as evidence of holiness, highlighting his evident love for God, his kindness to others – as well as his dedication to spreading the word about religion through website design for his school and church. He made himself known by launching a website a few days before his death, on which he wanted to document all the miracles linked to the Eucharist.

But the key issue for Rome to accept someone as a saint is that they must be linked to miracles – such as the sudden healing of someone close to death. Acutis was linked to the restoration of a man's health in Brazil when he was declared blessed. Today, the healing of a university student from Florence who suffered from head trauma was confirmed to be due to the intercession of Acutis, and he will therefore be canonized by Pope Francis.

Among those who will attend the canonization ceremony are his mother, Antonia Salzano, his father Andrea Acutis and their twin daughters, Michele and Francesca. According to Salzano, the twins themselves were an equally remarkable miracle.

“Carlo was my only child. I thought it was too late to become a mother again. Then, four years after his death, Carlo appeared to me in a dream. He said I would be a mother again. I was 44 years old. Then I got pregnant and had twins, a boy and a girl.

Carlo had already changed his mother's life when he was very young.

“When he was only three years old, he wanted to visit churches to pray. I was very religious myself, but when Carlo was five I had a crisis because my father died. Carlo inspired me to change.

“In this way, Carlo saved me. He helped me understand that by receiving Holy Communion we have the real presence of God, it is not just a symbol. It was the discovery of my life.”

“I could always see there was something special about him, but he was also an ordinary boy. He loved sports, having friends, he loved animals and it was at the age of six that he started using a computer. From the age of nine, he studied computer programming and knew he could use the Internet to evangelize.

Back at St Aldhelm's in Malmesbury, the parish priest and his congregation never doubted that Acutis was a very special person. The idea for the window came about because the one in the church was made of plain glass, so a suitable candidate was needed to fill it. It was Father Thomas who suggested Acutis, because he wanted to represent someone who could resonate with children and young people.

Father Thomas, who worked and studied in Rome for many years, knew that it was not easy to obtain permission to depict someone who was neither a saint nor connected to the local community. However, convinced of Acutis' message to young people and its connection to the UK (Acutis was born and baptized in London when his Italian parents were working in business here), he decided to apply. The Diocese of Clifton, which oversees Malmesbury, agreed without hesitation, accepting just how much the story of Acutis – a boy with a love of games and computers who created his own websites – would mean to young people.

“I wanted them to hear about this young boy who had struggles and joys like them and who they could relate to,” Father Thomas said. When his mother Antonia Salzano came to London last year to speak about her son's life, it was clear how Acutis resonated with young people. Mgr Nicholas Hudson, of the Diocese of Westminster, who invited her, remembers the packed houses in the churches where she spoke. “There were hundreds and hundreds of them, some sitting on church floors,” he said. “He is from their era, there are photos of him, films on YouTube, he looks like them.”

But Bishop Hudson believes Acutis will continue to attract attention as a saint over time. “There is something timeless in his joy and also in his courage. He was realistic about death.

In Malmesbury, children at the nearby Catholic school hear about Blessed Carlo but the rest of the congregation loves him too, says Father Thomas.

“We have many parishioners who pray for him to intercede for those who are sick,” he said. Stained glass artist Michael Vincent was commissioned to create the Carlo Acutis window using traditional techniques, starting with a life-size drawing called a “cartoon” which provided a plan of the window that could be used for cutting the glass and lead lines.

Vincent’s Wiltshire business doesn’t just provide people with repairs to their double glazing and the installation of new windows. He also restores stained glass windows and creates new images, including that of the 20th century St. Maximilian Kolbe, killed by the Nazis in Poland during World War II. But it was the first time that he assumed an ecclesial mission with a person who had not yet been declared a saint.

“What I heard about Carlo Acutis was truly inspiring,” he said. “I'm not Catholic but I think he speaks to all young people. A wonderful young boy.

Back in his workshop, he kept his original Acutis drawing from which he designed the window. It also has an additional window with the words “Saint Carlo Acutis”. Currently, on the window is Blessed Carlo Acutis written, “but Father Thomas was so sure of becoming a saint that I did,” he explains.

“When the canonization takes place, I will remove the window of the blessed and I will install the one which confirms that he is saint”.

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