Italian Man Who Dedicated His Short Life to Helping Less Fortunate Now On Path to Sainthood
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati is to be canonized next year, Vatican authority says.
By Gary Gately
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati — who dedicated his life to tirelessly serving the poor, the sick, the homeless, orphans and wounded servicemen and died at age 24 of polio he is believed to have contracted while ministering in the slums of Turin, Italy — appears headed to sainthood.
Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, announced that Frassati will be canonized during the Jubilee Year 2025, drawing applause from thousands at the Assembly of the Italian Catholic Action in Sacrofano, Italy.
“I would like to tell you that the canonization of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati is now clearly on the horizon and is in sight for the coming Jubilee Year,” the cardinal said, according to Avvenire, the official newspaper of the Italian Bishops’ Conference.
Frassati, who died on July 4, 1925, demonstrated his dedication to the Church while being educated by the Jesuits as a boy, despite the disapproval of his non-religious parents — his father, a prominent founder of the newspaper La Stampa and an Italian senator and his mother a well-known painter.
Often, his agnostic father, Alfredo Frassati, would find him asleep on his knees, praying the rosary, Frassati’s late sister Luciana Frassati Gawronska wrote in her biography of him, A Man of the Beatitudes: Pier Giorgio Frassati. He sometimes spent entire nights in Eucharistic adoration.
Frassati scaled the mountains of northern Italy and adopted the phrase “Verso L’ Alto” (To the Heights) as a motto and a metaphor reflecting his view of the path to reaching the summit of eternal life with Christ.
He joined the St. Vincent de Paul Society at age 17 and also served with the Apostleship of Prayer and Catholic Action.
Frassati, an athletic young man who enjoyed riding horses and skiing along with mountain climbing, loved laughter and playing practical jokes here and there, but never in a mean-spirited manner.
He studied to become a mining engineer at Royal Polytechnic University of Turin because he believed he could serve Jesus among the miners, who endured deplorable working conditions.
He also often went to the theater, the opera and museums, loved art and music and could quote entire passages from the poet Dante.
"He represented the finest in Christian youth: pure, happy, enthusiastic about everything that is good and beautiful,” his sister wrote. "He gave his whole self, both in prayer and in action, in service to Christ.”
But Frassati had a temper and at times became involved in fights with anticlerical Communists and later Fascists.
In another of her books, Frassati’s sister wrote that he died within a week after he is believed to have contracted during a visit to one of Turin’s slums.
Frassati’s parents had no idea how much he had helped those less fortunate until thousands of people — many of whom he had helped — crowded the streets outside their mansion on the day of their son’s funeral Mass and burial.
After his death, word of his devotion to Christ through service of the poor spread, and he has been particularly influential among young Catholics across the world.
Many of them have made pilgrimages to his tomb — moved from the family crypt in Pollone to the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin in 1981 — to seek his intercession and pray for courage to follow his example.
After visiting the original burial site in 1989, Pope John Paul II said: “I wanted to pay homage to a young man who was able to witness to Christ with singular effectiveness in this century of ours. When I was a young man, I, too, felt the beneficial influence of his example and, as a student, I was impressed by the force of his testimony."
John Paul II called Frassati a “man of the eight Beatitudes” who was “entirely immersed in the mystery of God and totally dedicated to the constant service of his neighbor.”
In December 1989, John Paul II granted final approval to a decree on a miracle attributed to Frassati.
The miracle involved the cure of Domenico Sellan in 1933. He was near death, suffering tuberculosis of the spine and paralysis at age 40 when a priest brought him a relic and photo of Frassati and asked for intercession. Sellan lived 35 more years in good health before dying in 1989.
John Paul II beatified Frassati in Saint Peter's Square on May 20, 1990. In his homily, John Paul quoted St. Peter: "Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope.”
The pontiff added: “In our century, Pier Giorgio Frassati, whom I have the joy of declaring Blessed today in the name of the Church, incarnated these words of St. Peter in his own life. The power of the spirit of truth, united to Christ, made him a modern witness to the hope which springs from the Gospel and to the grace of salvation which works in human hearts. Thus he became a living witness and courageous defender of this hope in the name of Christian youth of the 20th century.”
In his message for World Youth Day 2016, Pope Francis encouraged young people to emulate Frassati, saying: “Pier Giorgio was a young man who understood what it means to have a merciful heart that responds to those most in need. He gave them far more than material goods. He gave himself by giving his time, his words and his capacity to listen. He served the poor very quietly and unassumingly. He truly did what the Gospel tells us: ‘When you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret.’”