First Millennial Saint Canonized

By Alex Miller

On Sunday, 7 September 2025, Pope Leo XIV consecrated Carlo Acutis as the first saint of the millennial generation, in an open-air Mass in St Peter’s Square attended by 80,000.  Known as “God’s Influencer,” Acutis was a child prodigy with a strongly religious bent who taught himself programming and web design, and created a website documenting hundreds of Eucharistic miracles and Marian apparitions.  Acutis died at age 15 in 2006, days after receiving a diagnosis of acute promyelocytic leukemia.  Credited posthumously with two miracles, Acutis was proffered for sainthood by Pope Francis I, who beatified him in 2020, in the hope that it would give the next generation of Catholics a relatable role model and attract young people to the faith.

The canonization by Pope Leo coincided with a Lunar Eclipse on the same day, with the Moon in religious/spiritual-minded Pisces, ruling sainthood.  The Sun (15 Virgo) conjoined asteroid Carla (17 Virgo), the Italian feminine form of Carlo, bringing visibility to the teenaged saint.  Also here is Mercury (9 Virgo), indicating both his youth and student status, as well as the newsworthiness of the occasion.

For sainthood itself, we can look to asteroid Santa (27 Scorpio), the Italian feminine form of Saint (as in US cities Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, etc.).  Santa forms a T-Square (1) with opposition (180 degrees) to Uranus (1 Gemini), squared asteroid Carloo (2 Pisces), essentially Carlo with an additional “o.”  This establishes the unusual (Uranus) quality of the elevation (as well as Acutis’ tech abilities, also Uranus-ruled), in granting sainthood (Santa) to someone so young; and also speaks to the rapidity (Uranus again) of his elevation (the youngest Catholic Saints, siblings Francisco and Jacinta Marto, aged 9 and 10, had to wait a full century after their deaths before being recognized in 2017 for their connection to the apparitions of Mary at Fatima).

There is no asteroid equivalent to the surname Acutis.  However, we can derive alternatives based on the meaning of the name, which descends from the Latin acutus, meaning “sharp.”  There is an asteroid Sharp (15 Cancer), which lies at the Apex of a Thor’s Hammer (2), a type of “fated” pattern which implies a special destiny, formed by sesquiquadrate (135 degrees) aspects to both Santa and asteroid Carloo, doubly designating Carlo Acutis as a newly-minted saint.  Sharp also conjoins Jupiter (18 Cancer), ruling religions generally, and is squared to a pairing of Mars with asteroid Pappos (20 and 16 Libra respectively), suggesting action taken (Mars) by the Pope (Papa in Italian) to elevate Acutis (Sharp) to the hierarchy of Catholic saints (Jupiter).

Born 3 May 1991, Carlo Acutis does indeed seem destined for sainthood, with asteroid Santa (27 Sagittarius) at station, indicating an outsized importance in his biography.  Santa is exactly sesquiquadrate the Sun (12 Taurus), sextile (60 degrees) Carloo (29 Aquarius) and inconjunct (150 degrees) Carla (26 Cancer), providing three dynamic personal links to the quality of saintliness.  Remarkably, the chart also sports a Mars/Pappos conjunction (16 & 23 Cancer), as at his canonization, which is squared by the transit Mars/Pappos at the time.  Natal asteroid Sharp (18 Capricorn) is also at station, exactly squared by the transit Sun and exactly conjoined by transit asteroid Santa at his death on 12 October 2006, and also exactly opposed by Jupiter for his elevation to sainthood.

Notes:  (1) a T-Square is a dynamic pattern composed of two or more plantes in opposition (180 degrees), each squared (90 degrees) a third.  It represents stress and conflict, with the fulcrum point (at the square) offering a possibility of resolution.

(2) a Thor’s Hammer is created by two points in square to each other, each sesquiquadrate a third point; it implies a special destiny or “fated” quality to the associated energies.

Sources:  reporting from NBC News & Wikipedia; chart data from serennu.com

Title Image Credit:  drawn by ChatGPT