Patron Saint Of The Internet
A teenager who coded websites, played video games and loved the Eucharist, Saint Carlo Acutis has become the saint people turn to for a holy, healthy life online.
Why Is Carlo Acutis Called The Patron Saint Of The Internet?
The Catholic Church has not issued a formal decree naming Carlo the official patron of the internet, but the title has stuck for a simple reason: he is the first saint who genuinely grew up online. Carlo taught himself to code, built websites, edited video and understood computers so well that adults with engineering degrees called him a genius. He then turned all of it towards God.
Because of this, he is widely invoked as a patron of the internet, of computer programmers and of young people, and he is often nicknamed "God's Influencer" and the "cyber-apostle of the Eucharist".
Using The Web To Spread The Gospel
Carlo's most famous project was a website cataloguing Eucharistic miracles from around the world, which later became a travelling exhibition seen on every continent. When his parish priest asked him to build a website, and later when a school asked him to promote volunteering online, Carlo saw the internet not as a distraction but as a mission field, "a way of going through the streets of the world" to bring people to Christ.
Explore his work on our pages about how Carlo used technology and his Eucharistic miracles project.
Balance, Not Escape
What makes Carlo such a helpful patron for the digital age is that he was not naive about technology. He loved video games, but limited himself to about an hour a week because, in his own words, one can "be enslaved by video games". He shows young people a middle path: neither rejecting the online world nor being ruled by it, but using it with freedom, purpose and self-control.
This is why the United States bishops chose him as a heavenly companion for the Eucharistic Revival, and why parents, teachers and young people ask his help with screen time, gaming, social media and online purity.
A Prayer For Using The Internet Well
Saint Carlo Acutis, friend of Jesus and of young people, you turned your screens and your coding into a road that led others to God. Help me to use my phone, my games and the internet with wisdom and freedom. Keep me from what harms my soul, give me the courage to log off and to pray, and make me, like you, an original and not a copy. Amen.
For more, see our prayer to Carlo Acutis and the nine-day novena.