In October, as coronavirus rates began to rise again across Europe, 4,000 people crammed into any space they could find around one of Italy's most historic basilicas to watch a ceremony straight out of the dark ages.
A potential worldwide audience of millions watched at home, unable leave their homes because of the COVID crisis, tuning in as many do, day-in and day-out, to the streaming apps that have become an everyday part of our lives.
The fact that they were using the latest technology to watch bishops and clergy enact an archaic rite inside an ancient church was unusually apt – they were viewing the penultimate stage before the canonisation of what many are saying will be the patron saint of the internet.
Carlo Acutis died in 2006 of leukaemia, at the age of 15, but in that short life made such an impact, the Vatican has deemed he has inspired miracles.
It is likely that Carlo would have been quietly pleased, as he had devoted his life to making as many as possible aware of what he championed as divine intervention.
If canonised, he will be the first millennial saint.
But, despite being one step away from sainthood, his was a surprisingly down-to-earth story of a modern teenager.
It is his mastery of the internet and website design that has captured the imagination of the Catholic faithful.
His use of it to evangelise in an ever-more digital world has been seized upon by believers who have revelled in the church's acknowledgement of his skills, perhaps because they recognise that some parts of it remain reminiscent of the medieval era.
Carlo was born in London, to Italian parents living abroad because of work, but spent most of his life in Milan, where his parents moved soon after to raise their only child.
Even as a young boy, he showed an early interest in technology.
His mother, Antonia Salzano, told Sky News, when he was six: "At Christmas, he received a box (set) in which you pretend to be a scientist. There was a dress (outfit) like a doctor, with a false pair of glasses, and he used to wear this to go around the house saying 'I am a computer scientist'. So, already when he was small, he was pretending to be one."
Within a few years, he wasn't pretending, and progressed to using computer software to publish newsletters for local organisations, like nearby churches.
His mother said technology was his toy, as other children might play with Lego, Action Men or dolls.
"If you look at his toys, he had really few," she added.
"When he was smaller he used to play Pokemon – it was very fashionable with the children at the time – but normally he was interested in writing, and pretending to do newspaper things.
"And although he sometimes enjoyed video games, the maximum he would use them for was one hour per week. He used to like Super Mario Pro, or the car racing games, but he set himself a maximum time because he understood that through these games, you could become a slave, like many people do who stream these things, and end up with an addiction. Carlo was really temperate in the way he used them."
At the age of seven, something happened that changed the course of his life and set him on the path that would result in him being part of history.
Mrs Salzano added: "He did the holy communion (for the first time) when he was seven years old and, then, each day he would go to mass.
"We were very lucky that because we lived in the centre of Milan, there were many churches around us, and we had the possibility to attend mass at many times (of the day)."
Remarkably, for one so young, he was particularly interested in one particular part of the Catholic mass, called the Eucharist.
Mrs Salzano said: "He never missed these meetings with Jesus through holy mass, the eucharistic adoration, the rosary and praying each day. But, at the same time, he used to do all the things that the children of that age did.
"His ordinary life became extraordinary because of the presence of Jesus (in him) and the things he used to do."
It was his growing interest in something called Eucharistic miracles that would lead to his later world fame.
The Eucharist and Eucharistic miracles
The Eucharist is the traditional name the Christian church gives to the re-enactment of the last supper, when Jesus gave his disciples bread and wine as symbols of his body and blood.
It is one of the cornerstones of the Catholic mass service in particular - the moment when the faithful are given a small piece of bread and a sip of wine, called the Holy Communion.
They believe that, through the consumption of the bread and wine, Jesus Christ enters those who take part.
Eucharistic miracles are usually events that take place around the Eucharist that believers say have no other explanation than divine intervention – unexplainable visions, material changes, survival in the face of normally deadly occurrences etc.
In order for a purported event to become an actual "miracle", it has to be sanctioned by the church, which carries out verification during which "evidence" is gathered and assessed.
In 2002, at the age of just 11, Carlo was gripped by a desire to share his enthusiasm with the world.
Mrs Salzano said: "We went to the Meeting of Rimini (a large Catholic festival held in August every year), and he saw a lot of exhibitions but he didn't see anything that really convinced him. At that exhibition he had the idea to do something about the Eucharist.
"For him it was important to speak about these miracles, because Jesus performed Eucharistic miracles.
"These miracles can help people to understand the faith so Carlo was frustrated, in a way, because he didn't hear… priests speaking about these things.
"He believed, if Jesus has shown us these signs, we should be involved in speaking about them and not ignoring them."
Fortunately, his mother was involved in a charity which brought her into contact with many clergy and she put her son in touch with people who helped him set up an exhibition, using his computer skills, on some of history's claimed miracles.
It was finally realised in 2005, Pope John Paul II's the Year of the Eucharist.
But he then went further and set up an internet site, listing the miracles, which has since been translated into many of the world's most widely spoken languages.
His mother says its impact has been significant, with visitor numbers in the tens of thousands.
"Through the internet and press agencies, it was spread around the world, it was incredible," she said.
"It continues to this day and helps people understand the dogma of the real presence of God in the Eucharist."
Later, Mrs Salzano said, the Vatican themselves cited Carlo's exhibition in a documentary it made about one of the most recent "miracles".
And, more recently, Pope Francis, in a book about young people and faith, said Carlo was an example of someone who was aware of the potentially corrupting nature of the internet, but chose to use the new technology to pass on the word of God.
According to the biography on his official website, he designed his life to be a computer "program" to be "united with Jesus".
It was something his mother saw daily.
As well as doing many of the same things as a typical teenager, like playing the saxophone, football and making home movies of his cats and dogs, he would help teach children about religion, help them with their homework and volunteer in a soup kitchen, as well as use the web to seek the conversion of others.
"He used to say 'All are born originals, many die as photocopies', this was his famous phrase. 'The Eucharist is my highway to heaven'," added Mrs Salzano.
Carlo's miracles
Some of the miracles Carlo chose to highlight on his website included:
- In Jordan, in the 4th or 5th century, a monk who visited a female hermit called Saint Mary of Egypt, was unable to reach her across a lake because he couldn't find a boat. He was about to give up when she suddenly appeared on the far bank, made the sign of the cross and walked out on to the water.
- In the Belgian town of Heretals, in 1412, a few pieces of the bread due to be used in the communion part of the mass were stolen. Eight days later, they were found in a field near a rabbit burrow "perfectly intact", despite rain, and were arranged in a cross formation "surrounded by a bright light".
- In France, in 1608, monks from the Benedictine Abbey of Faverney entered the church to find the altar reduced to ashes after a fire. Despite the blaze, the container for the sacramental bread, which had been on the altar, was not just undamaged, the faithful claimed, the bread inside it was also unburned and it was suspended in the air.
- On 21 October 2006, at Tixtla, Mexico, a reddish substance appeared on the bread being served at communion which was subsequently analysed using various scientific techniques. Investigators claimed they found human blood of the same type as on the Shroud of Turin and it contained tissue from the heart.
In 2006, looking back, Mrs Salzano said it was as if Carlo could sense something ominous was approaching, but did not highlight it.
She said: "He did a video on his computer that when he will weigh 70 kilos his destiny was to die."
Then, two months later, she added: "He said something strange: 'I offer my sufferance for the Pope, for the church, to go straight on to heaven'. Because Carlo was always very happy and cheerful, we didn't give any importance to this phrase."
Shortly after, Mrs Salzano said: "All his classmates had a sort of simple flu.
"At the beginning we thought he had the flu, but then he was more weak and at one point in the morning, he woke up and he couldn't move. And he had some blood in the urine.
"So we called the doctor, who advised me to bring him to a clinic. And the doctor, after an hour, gave us the diagnosis he had leukaemia.
"When they told him, Carlo said: 'Ah, God has given me a weakness!' and he smiled. But he was calm, like he expected it.
"Then, later, he entered a coma with a smile. In my opinion he saw something. We thought he was sleeping but in reality he had entered a coma with a smile."
Two days after finding out he had leukaemia, Carlo died.
Mrs Salzano said she never had any doubts her son was something extra special, but after the funeral there were claims that miracles attributed to Carlo had occurred.
"Because he was so sweet, so generous, so pure, we knew he had something special.
"Even when he was alive he obtained a lot of miracles: He prayed and obtained the conversion of people. He did many exhibitions… a lot to evangelise.
"He was aware that these exhibitions would help a lot of people. This was his purpose before he died, to help a lot of people. This was the heritage he left.
"And there was miracles he did on the day of the funeral – a woman with breast cancer who prayed for Carlo, healed, without doing chemotherapy.
"And another woman with difficulties, she was 44, who never managed to get pregnant and she prayed to Carlo and then after one month she became pregnant."
A campaign to get Carlo made a saint began some six years after his death, according to the association set up to achieve the goal, but it was after a Brazilian priest contacted the Catholic Church's authorities about an event in 2013 that the movement to raise Carlo's life above those of ordinary mortals really took hold.
Carlo's 'miracle'
Mattheus Vianna was born in 2009 in Brazil with a serious birth defect that left him unable to keep food in his stomach.
As a young boy he was forced to live on vitamins and protein shakes but regularly vomited after meals and was unable to put on weight.
According to the Catholic News Agency (CNA), a priest who was a friend of Mattheus' family, learned about Carlo and contacted Mrs Salzano, who reportedly sent a t-shirt.
The local parishioners in Campo Grande were asked to pray for the boy, the CNA reported, and when the youngster visited the Chapel of Nossa Senhora Aparecida he touched the "relic", and was said afterwards to have been "cured".
The priest, Father Marcelo Tenorio, from the Archdiocese of Campo Grande, claimed later: "When the sick boy's turn came, he touched Carlo's relic and said in a firm voice 'stop vomiting', and so it happened. In February 2014, the family ordered further tests on the boy and he was found to be fully cured."
In 2019, the claimed miracle was acknowledged by the Vatican and confirmed by Pope Francis a few months later, paving the way for Carlo to become beatified.
On 10 October, the ceremony took place in the echoey sanctuary of the Basilica of St Francis of Assisi and Carlo became the first millennial to be raised to pre-sainthood level.
It was an event that drew praise from devout Catholics around the world, with the Pope saying in a letter that he would be celebrated annually on the date of his death with a feast.
Despite his promotion to the ranks of dozens of martyrs and others who devoted decades of hardship to what they believed God had told them to do, his mother remained unsurprised he was on the path to sainthood.
Mrs Salzano told Sky News: "I was happy but I expected it because I knew that Carlo was sainted. For me it was not a surprise.
"A child of the third millennium who is able to do the sacrifice, to help others, when there are so many who risk going to hell, to find a child like Carlo who is pure like an angel, who only looked at internet sites connected to the church, this is already a miracle."
Asked whether she would be pleased if her son becomes the patron saint of the internet, she said: "I would be happy because there is a lot of work (to do), with all the pornography, all the things there is on the internet. Poor Carlo! I hope he will be able to help!
"Like with this Facebook, everybody wants to be like a star, selfies, to have approval, to have people visit their web(sites), and this is the contrary of what Carlo wanted – when he said 'not me, but God'.
"At this time when (the internet) is full of influencers that are, in my opinion, of no importance, at least Carlo can be an influence for God."
Credits:
Reporting and words: Philip Whiteside, international news reporter
Graphics: Jack Rethinasamy, junior designer
Pictures: Association of the Friends of Carlo Acutis; facebook.com/paraquiasoasebastioms; Getty