Name: 'God's influencer': First millennial saint named: BBC Learning English from the News
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This is Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines in this programme.

First Millennial Saint named by Catholic Church.

In this program, we look at one big news story and the vocabulary in the headlines that will help you understand it.

You can find all the vocabulary and headlines from this episode and as well as a worksheet on our website, bbclearningenglish.com okay, so let's hear about this story.

A boy who died at the age of 15 has been made a saint by the Catholic Church.

He became interested in Catholicism as a child and showed an interest in helping others.

He was also a keen gamer who was interested in computers and taught himself to program.

And he had created websites to document reported religious miracles and helped run pages for Catholic organizations.

The Catholic Church claims that after his death he caused at least two people to recover from serious illnesses.

Crowds of people have visited his body, which is preserved and on display in Assisi in Italy.

Carlo Acutis, nicknamed God's influencer, becomes first millennial saint.

Carlo Acutis', nicknamed God's influencer, becomes the first millennial saint.

So this headline is about the story that we've been talking about.

Carlo Acutis is the first millennial to have achieved sainthood.

Millennials are people born between 1981 and 1996.

Now we're going to look at the word nicknamed.

A nickname is a name that isn't your real name, but people use it as if it is.

Often people give you a nickname because of something you do or how you are.

For example, the cleverest person in a group of friends might get the nickname Einstein.

And to use the verb, they're nicknamed Einstein by their friends.

So in this story, Carlo Acutis has been nicknamed God's Influencer because he made online content with a religious theme to appeal to a broad audience in the way that influencers do today.

Things or even places can have nicknames.

Beth, do you know the nickname for New York City?

We had nickname give someone or something an alternative name.

For example, she was so good at football that her friends nicknamed her Messi.

This is Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines.

We're talking about Carlo Acutis, the first millennial saint.

It's from ABC news in the US Pope Leo 14th declares teen computer whiz Carlo Acutis, the first millennial saint.

pope Leo 14th declares teen computer whiz Carlo Acutis, the first millennial saint.

This headline refers to Carlo Acutis as a teen computer whiz.

And wiz is the word that we're going to learn next.

A computer whiz is someone who is very good at using computers.

Yes, whiz is an informal word which means someone who is very good at something as well as a computer whiz.

You might hear about a coding whiz or a finance whiz and we usually use whiz with a noun before it.

Also, people who are very good at something at a young age can sometimes be described as whiz kids.

A teenager who set up their own website might be described as a whiz kid.

We've had whiz, someone who is very good at something.

So, for example, my cousin is a real finance whiz.

Today, we've been talking about Carlo Acutis, who has been made a saint.

During his life, he used the Internet to spread the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Yes, this comes from OSB News, which is a Catholic news site from the usa.

Carlo and the Call to Evangelize in the Digital Age.

That headline again from OSV News, a Catholic news site in the us.

So the headline and this story is about the message that the writer believes people should take from Carlo's life.

We're going to learn the word evangelize.

It's a verb and it has a specific and a general meaning.

The specific meaning is to spread Christian teaching or try to convert people to Christianity.

And unsurprisingly, that's how it's being used.

Here the writer is saying that people should think, think how they can use digital tools to spread religious messages.

Now, the general non religious meaning of evangelise means to tell people that something is very good and to try and convince them to like it as well.

So, for example, people might evangelize about a particular hobby or a brand that they like.

And we also have an adjective to describe people who evangelize about something.

For example, some people are evangelical about the benefits of cycling.

We've had evangelize tell people that something is very good.

So, for example, she was always going to be a politician.

She won't stop evangelizing about the importance of public service.

That's it for this episode of Learning English from the News.

We'll be back next week with another news story.

And if you want to practice what you've learned, go to our website to see more example sentences and try our free worksheet.

And that's bbclearningenglish.com and don't forget to follow us on social Media.