How Saint Carlo Acutis Used Technology
Why a teenager with a laptop became known as the “saint of the internet”, and what his way of using technology can teach us today.
A Saint With A Laptop
Saint Carlo Acutis grew up in the first generation that never knew a world without computers and video games. He loved technology, taught himself how to code, and used his skills to build websites for his parish, his school and, most famously, a global exhibition of Eucharistic miracles.
Because he united technical skill with a deeply Eucharistic life and real discipline online, he has become widely known as a kind of “patron of the internet” and a model for how to live holiness in a hyper-connected world.
This page looks at how Carlo actually used technology: what he built, the languages he learned, how he set limits for himself, and why so many young programmers, designers and tech workers feel he “gets” their world.
What Technology Did Carlo Actually Use?
Carlo was not just “good with computers” in a vague way. Those who knew him describe him as a genuinely gifted, self-taught computer enthusiast who:
- Learned programming and web design on his own as a teenager.
- Taught himself C and C++ and used basic web technologies (HTML and related tools) to build sites that actually worked and could be maintained.
- Helped older relatives and parish staff understand and use technology with patience and clarity.
- Combined data, images and simple layouts to tell stories clearly, long before “data visualisation” was a buzzword.
For Carlo, code and design were never just hobbies. They were part of his vocation: his particular way of serving God and the Church in his own generation.
Websites He Built As A Teenager
Between roughly age 11 and 15, Carlo moved from tinkering with computers to building real projects that served others. Among them:
Parish Website, Santa Maria Segreta
When he was around 14, his parish priest asked him to create a website for the parish in Milan. Carlo took it seriously, treating the site as a digital front door to the life of the parish and its sacramental schedule.
Volunteering Website, “Sarai Volontario”
His Jesuit school invited him to build a site to promote volunteering. The project was so well executed that it won a national competition called Sarai volontario (“You will be a volunteer”), highlighting both his technical skill and clarity of presentation.
Eucharistic Miracles Of The World
Carlo’s best-known project is the website and panel exhibition cataloguing Church-approved Eucharistic miracles from around the world. He gathered historical documentation, photographs and theological explanations, and turned them into an online “virtual museum” that could be browsed by country and date.
The same research became a travelling, printed exhibition that has since visited thousands of parishes, shrines and conferences. In both forms, it is a striking example of how simple, well-structured web design can serve the Gospel far beyond the life of its creator.
Later, other sites were created around his story, but these early projects are where Carlo himself wrote code, organised content, and showed what he believed the internet was really for.
His Approach To Tech, Games And Moderation
Carlo genuinely enjoyed video games. He played titles like Halo, Mario and Pokémon, watched cartoons and loved computers like many other teenagers. But he recognised early on that technology can easily take over.
Self-imposed limits
After seeing how badly a gaming session affected his friends, Carlo decided to limit himself to one hour of video games per week. He said he did not want to become a “slave” to games and wanted his time to go to things that really mattered: prayer, family, study and service to the poor.
This wasn’t fear or rejection of technology. It was clarity: he wanted to be free. He knew that tools, entertainment and screens are good servants but bad masters.
- He set specific limits for himself and stuck to them.
- He filled the freed time with Mass, adoration, reading, music, sport and volunteering.
- He encouraged friends to enjoy tech without letting it damage relationships or prayer.
In many ways, Carlo’s “rule of life” for screens can be summed up simply: use technology, don’t let it use you, and always give God first place.
Why Is He Called The “Saint Of The Internet”?
Carlo is not formally the patron saint of internet users in the official calendar in the way that, for example, St Joseph is patron of the universal Church. But in popular devotion, he is widely recognised as a patron of the internet, programmers and gamers.
There are a few reasons why people instinctively give him this title:
- He was a true digital native: born in 1991, growing up with consoles and consumer PCs.
- He used the internet primarily for evangelisation and service, not self-promotion.
- He built a major website and exhibition on Eucharistic miracles while still a teenager.
- He combined high tech with high devotion: daily Mass, adoration and practical charity toward the poor.
- His canonisation in 2025, and the global media coverage around it, highlighted him as “God’s influencer” and a credible model for online life.
Images of Carlo often show him with a laptop or holding a monstrance. Both are true symbols of who he was: a boy of the web, and a boy of the Eucharist, refusing to choose between the two when he could let one serve the other.
Why Young Tech Workers And Creatives Love Him
Carlo resonates strongly with developers, designers, product people and content creators because he understood, from the inside, both the excitement and the risks of the digital world.
He Took Their Work Seriously
Carlo didn’t treat tech as a distraction from “real holiness”. He saw coding, designing and systematising information as real gifts from God that could be used for mission, beauty and truth.
He Understood Burnout And Overload
By limiting games and media, Carlo showed that you don’t have to be permanently online or constantly producing to have value. The person is more than the feed, the repo or the CV.
He Proves That Holiness Is Possible In Our World
Carlo didn’t live in a monastery. He lived in a city, went to a normal school, played with a console, surfed the web and wrote code. The fact that such an ordinary-looking life can lead to canonised sainthood is a huge encouragement to young people who work with technology every day.
If you work in tech, you can ask Carlo’s intercession for your projects, your discernment and your online habits, and let him remind you that your deepest identity is not “developer”, “designer” or “gamer”, but beloved son or daughter of God.