Milan, 5 September (LaPresse) – ‘I am my son's first convert.’ These are the words of Antonia Salzano Acutis, mother of Carlo Acutis, the 15-year-old Milanese boy who died of leukaemia in 2006 and will be proclaimed a saint on Sunday by Pope Leo XIV, in an interview with Corriere della Sera. What kind of saint will Carlo be? ‘A saint who embodied values shared by everyone, believers and non-believers alike. For example, love for animals and the environment,’ she added. He was, his mother added, a "cheerful, sociable, generous boy. A saint is someone who lives an evangelical life, and Carlo was very frugal. If I tried to buy him a new pair of shoes, he would say no, the ones he had were enough, “let's buy something for the poor instead”. In a society that is inward-looking and obsessed with possessions, Carlo breaks the mould with his simplicity."