Pope Leo XIV declared 15-year-old computer whiz Carlo Acutis, the Catholic Church's first millennial saint Sunday, September 7, giving the next generation of Catholics a relatable role model who used technology to spread the faith and earn the nickname 'God's influencer'.

The head of the Roman Catholic church canonised Carlo Acutis, who died in 2006 of leukemia, during an open-air Mass in St. Peter's Square that was attended by tens of thousands of people, many of them millennials and couples with young children. During the ceremony, Pope Leo XIV also canonised another popular Italian figure who died young, Pier Giorgio Frassati.

Pope Leo said both men created 'masterpieces' out of their lives by dedicating them to God.

"The greatest risk in life is to waste it outside of God's plan," Leo said in his homily. The new saints "are an invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to squander our lives, but to direct them upwards and make them masterpieces."