Acutis and Frassati: the first canonisations of Pope Leo XIV

Pope Leo XIV chose his first Saints. They are Carlo Acutis and Piergiorgio Frassati, two bright lives for the restless heart of the Third Millennium

In the vibrant silence of St. Peter’s Basilica, among the aisles full of songs and expectations, the names of two young men resound as promises kept. On 7 September 2025, Pope Leo XIV will consecrate his pontificate with a gesture that tastes of revolution and memory, of the future and roots: the canonisation of: Carlo Acutis, saint and beatified Piergiorgio Frassati, his “first” saints, two young souls who speak with a prophetic voice to a world in search of light.

Carlo and Pier Giorgio. Two young men. Two centuries. One Holiness, two lifestyles.
One speaks the language of the cloud, the other that of mountain trails. One evangelises with a keyboard, the other with a sandwich given to a poor person. But they both have the same burning heart, the same fixed gaze on Christ, the same scandalous joy of holiness. Carlo and Pier Giorgio are two saints for the third millennium, two models that do not inspire awe, but that attract. They don’t make you feel guilty, but they call for something bigger. The lotus message is powerful, revolutionary, as only youth can be: you can be young, in love with life, immersed in modernity… and at the same time deeply holy.

On 7 September 2025, when Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati are canonised, the young people of the world will feel a little less alone.
Pope Leo XIV, with this gesture, does not canonise only two people: he canonises a vision. A Church that looks forward without forgetting, that recognises beauty in fragility, that is not satisfied with nostalgia, but seeks living faces. Saint Carlo Acutis and Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati will be the polar stars of a pontificate that aims to speak to TikTok and the Alpine peaks, students and people experiencing poverty, volunteers and coders, mystics and creatives. In a tired and disillusioned time, these canonisations are a caress and a challenge. A caress for those seeking meaning. A challenge for those who are content with the minimum.
On 7 September 2025, the Church will not only add two names to its calendar; it will also illuminate two powerful and luminous signs for humanity on the way.
Carlo and Pier Giorgio, pray for us. And most importantly, stay with us. The world needs your light.

A Pope for young people and the future

Some gestures are not just decisions, but visions.
Pope Leo XIV chose to begin his journey as Pope with a celebration that looks to the future, yet is rooted in the lives of two individuals who have already flourished in holiness: Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati. An ad that doesn’t come out of nowhere. Back in November 2024, during one of his last general audiences,  Pope Francis, with his weary but still vibrant voice, warmed the hearts of the crowd in St. Peter’s Square, revealing the future canonisation of the two young men. A long applause had broken out between Bernini’s columns, like a wave of joy rushing up to the sky. Carlo, the boy of the Net and the Rosary, would be proclaimed a saint on 27 April, on Divine Mercy Sunday, within the Jubilee of Adolescents; Pier Giorgio, the saint with muddy shoes and his heart looking upwards, would receive the halo during the Jubilee of Youth, at the end of July. But time has messed up the dates: Bergoglio’s sudden death, on 21 April, cancelled everything, leaving the dream pending, and with it thousands of hearts waiting. Then, silence had fallen on Frassati. No communiqué, no hint. As if his canonisation had vanished into the void, like certain sunsets that never become night.

Then, like a flash in the still sky, came the announcement of Pope Leo XIV. With a choice that feels more like prophecy than a program, he combined the two dates into a single, powerful liturgy on 7 September. Not to simplify, but to seal: two young saints, of different centuries and paths, proclaimed on the same day, as spiritual brothers, as sentinels of the same dawn. A decision that is not just a date in the calendar, but an act of love towards a Church that wants to be young in heart, in voice, in faith. And that finds, in Carlo and Pier Giorgio, two lighthouses lit for those who still seek God within the walls of the school, in the peripheries of the world, or the silence of a sunset in the mountains.
It is not a neutral or diplomatic choice. A declaration of intent. Pope Leo XIV, elected by surprise in a conclave marked by fears and desires, chose to start from youth, from two smiling and restless faces, from two stories burned in a hurry, but which left traces of fire. With the decision to unify the canonisations foreseen by Pope Francis in a single celebration, Leo XIV wanted to send a strong signal: holiness is not a museum of relics, but a living current that transcends generations, a call that resonates today in university classrooms and among the servers of the network. Now to the questions “When will there be the canonisation of Carlo Acutis?” and “When will Pier Giorgio Frassati be canonised?” we have only one answer: 7 September 2025, the feast of youth and sanctity incarnate, in the embrace of a single liturgy.

Carlo Acutis: The Saint of the Net and the Eucharist

He was only 15 years old when a fulminant leukaemia ripped his life. But Carlo Acutis, born in London and raised in Milan, had already charted his way to heaven, leaving behind not just pain, but a trail of grace. But what did Carlo Acutis do to become a saint? He loved. With intensity. With simplicity. With creativity.
He made the Eucharist the centre of his existence, “my highway to heaven,” he said, and information technology is his pulpit. He created an exhibition on Eucharistic miracles that has toured the world, touching hearts, even those distant from faith. He did not preach: he narrated, with the codes and images of his time. The miracles of Carlo Acutis are not only those officially recognised (such as the healing of little Matheus in Brazil): they are also those that are silent, daily, invisible. How many teenagers have approached the sacraments thanks to him? How many conversions were born from a video, a photo, or a phrase? But above all, Carlo showed that holiness is possible for anyone: that you can attend school, love video games, have friends, and volunteer… and in the meantime, walk towards Heaven in giant steps. Today, he rests in Assisi, in the Sanctuary of the Renunciation. And from there, he continues to speak with sweetness and strength to the young people of our time.

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Pier Giorgio Frassati: The Saint who came down from the peaks to serve

One hundred years before Carlo, another young man died too soon. He was Pier Giorgio Frassati, from Turin, son of senators, engineering student, mountain enthusiast, but above all, a tireless lover of the poor. For decades, since he was declared beatified in 1990, the question has been bouncing incessantly in the Vatican halls and in the memory of those who have made him a model for life and faith: “When will Pier Giorgio Frassati become a saint?”
Now we have an answer written in solemn letters: on 7 September 2025, together with Carlo.

Pier Giorgio Frassati will be a saint because he has made charity his extreme sport. He came down from the peaks to bring medicine, clothes, and comfort. He entered the slums, the alleys, the hospital wards. Without clamour. Without rhetoric. He was a cheerful young man, full of life, a friend of the last. Enrolled in Catholic Action, a Vincentian Dominican tertiary. He prayed, he walked, he laughed. He wrote passionate letters, was moved by an icon, and took strong positions against fascism and injustice.
He died in 1925, at the age of 24, of fulminant polio contracted during one of his visits to the sick.
It was John Paul II who beatified him in 1990, calling him “the man of the beatitudes”. And finally, he will be proclaimed a saint by a Church that needs everyday prophets, revolutionaries of kindness. When Pier Giorgio Frassati is canonised, it will no longer be a question. It’s going to be a day of celebration.