An AI-generated icon depicting a teenage Catholic saint has been blessed in Belarus, in what could be the first such ceremony worldwide, according to local media and footage of the sermon. The artwork depicts Carlo Acutis, an Italian teenager and devout Catholic who used the internet to spread faith and was canonized by the Pope last year.
The image was blessed by Archbishop Emeritus Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz during Sunday Mass at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in the town of Novolukoml, in the northeastern part of the country.
“Today we enter the world through the internet. What are we looking for there? Holiness? Far from always,” Kondrusiewicz told the congregation during the sermon, adding he hoped that the icon would help believers to find religious truth online.
The archbishop went on to praise Acutis as an example of how young people can embrace modern technology while living a devout Catholic life.
The image shows the saint holding a laptop and a rosary, with a golden sun on his chest and a spiral staircase turning into a road leading to heaven. It was created using AI and other digital tools – although not completely – by prompt engineer Dmitry Kulpanovich, photographer Viktor Veden, and designer Andrey Kabanov. The church placed the icon in a side altar as a movable cover for its existing image of Mary Magdalene.
Born in London in 1991 and raised in Milan, Acutis became known as the “cyber-apostle” and “God’s influencer.” He built websites promoting Catholicism, including a catalogue of alleged Eucharistic miracles, and is credited with converting several people. He died of leukemia in 2006, aged 15, and became the first millennial saint when Pope Leo XIV canonized him in September 2025.
However, the ceremony sparked criticism from some believers on social media who argued that an AI-generated image cannot be considered an icon and used for prayer.
While Pope Leo XIV has not explicitly opposed AI-generated art, he warned earlier this month that it should not be equated with human creativity. “Algorithms lack the spark of the human,” he said.
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