Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

Feast Day: July 4, 1925 Born: April 6, 1901 Died: July 4, 1925 Beatified: May 20, 1990 by Pope John Paul II Canonized: Not yet Patron: Students, Catholic youth, mountain climbers, , and Dominican Tertiaries Pier Giorgio Frassati was born in , in 1901. His mother was a painter and his father a prominent Italian senator and ambassador to Germany. Pier Giorgio was deeply spiritual. As a child, he was always eager to evangelize to his friends. When he was very young, he joined the Marian Sodality and the Apostleship of Prayer. He obtained special permission to receive the Eucharist daily which was unusual in his day. At age 17, he joined the Vincent de Paul Society serving the sick, the poor, orphans and soldiers returning home from World War I. He then attended the Royal Polytechnic University of Turin to become a mining engineer. He said he could better serve Christ among the miners. He joined , building up society with Catholic values based on Pope Leo XIII’s . He enjoyed mountain climbing, theater and the arts. He could recite poems of Dante. His favorite writings were the epistles of St. Paul which inspired him to perform acts of charity through the Lay Dominicans which he joined in 1922. His sister Luciana said of him, “He represented the finest in Christian youth; pure, happy, enthusiastic about everything that is good and beautiful.” Pier Giorgio used his bus money to give to the poor and then would either travel in fourth class or walk. He traveled to slums to tend to the sick. He’d grown so attached to the poor that he’d stay behind while his family vacationed so he could take care of the needy. In 1921, he helped organize Pax Romana with the purpose of unifying Catholic students all over the world. They worked for universal peace as communism and threatened democracy. He participated in Church organized demonstrations to oppose anti-Catholic politics. Just before graduating from college, Pier Giorgio contracted polio. While he lay dying, his concern was not for himself, but for the poor. He scribbled a note for his friend to take medicine to a sick man he had been visiting. He died six days after contracting the disease. He was 24. A multitude of mourners attended his funeral. His family had been unaware of how many lives Pier Giorgio had touched. Equally surprised were the poor who had no idea he was a member of the influential Frassati family. In March of 1981, Pier Giorgio’s remains were exhumed. His body was found completely intact and incorrupt, a sign of holiness. His body was moved to the cathedral in Turin. Pope John Paul II called Pier Giorgio Frassati “Man of the Eight Beatitudes” at his on May 20, 1990. Thousands of people attended. “To live without faith, without a heritage to defend, without battling constantly for truth, is not to live but to ‘get along’; we must never just ‘get along.” ~ Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati