Canonisation has long been a way for the Catholic church to shape its image. The Vatican is preparing to anoint its first millennial saint, but how does it decide who is worthy?

As a child growing up in Milan, Carlo Acutis collected stories of miracles. He wrote about the time when, in 1411, wine turned to blood in a castle chapel in Ludbreg, Croatia; of how, in 1630, a pastor in Canosio, Italy, saved his town from a flood by blessing the raging waters; of how, in 1906, a priest on the island of Tumaco, Colombia, held up a reliquary on the beach to stop an approaching tsunami. Acutis, 11 years old and a devout Catholic, began typing up these stories and posting them on his website, which he styled as a “virtual museum” of miraculous events. A section on the site invited visitors to “discover how many friends you have in heaven”, and to read stories of young saints.

Acutis hoped to one day join their ranks. He was convinced that he would die before he reached adulthood and told his mother, Antonia, that he would perish of “a broken vein in his brain”. He wanted to be buried in the town of Assisi, where his family had a summer home. In the meantime, he devoted his life to the church, which was a surprise to his largely secular parents. As a teenager, he taught catechism classes to young children, and offered them a step-by-step guide to becoming a saint. ““Always remember that you, too, can become a saint!” he would say. Every day, they were to go to mass, recite the Holy Rosary, read the scripture and confess their sins.