ITALIAN TEEN COMPUTER WHIZ SET TO BECOME PATRON SAINT OF INTERNET

A 15-year-old Italian computer whiz took the first step to becoming a saint, Bill Bostock wrote for Business Insider.

Carlo Acutis, who died of leukemia in 2006, has been beatified by the Catholic Church, the Catholic News Agency reported. Beatification signifies that a person has entered heaven and can guide those who pray to them. The step was taken after Pope Francis said Acutis performed a miracle by curing a 7-year-old Brazilian boy of a pancreatic illness.

Acutis, already dubbed "the patron saint of the internet," caught the pope's attention after creating a website at age 11 to catalog miracles. Two confirmed miracles are usually needed for a person to become a saint in the Catholic Church.

In February, Pope Francis said Acutis had conducted his first miracle from heaven: A 7-year-old boy in Brazil, suffering from a rare pancreatic disorder, was healed after praying to Acutis and coming into contact with one of his T-shirts. Two confirmed miracles are needed to become a bona fide saint. On occasion, pontiffs have been known to drop the requirement for a second miracle, according to the Associated Press (AP.) Acutis first caught the Catholic Church's attention as an 11-year-old when he created a website that he used to document and catalog miracles. Pope Francis said in 2017 that Acutis used the internet to "communicate values and beauty." Pope Francis then repeated a maxim created by Acutis to guide people's conduct on the internet: "Everyone is born an original, but many die like photocopies."