Catholic Blesseds, Saints, Solemnities & Holy Days

Pier Giorgio Frassati lived only twenty-four years, but his brief life blazed with such intensity that Pope John Paul II called him "a man of the Beatitudes." Born in 1901 to a wealthy Turin family—his father owned Italy's largest newspaper—Pier Giorgio could have lived a life of privilege and comfort. Instead, he chose a path of radical Christian discipleship that combined deep prayer, adventurous mountain climbing, and tireless service to the poor.

His faith was not merely devotional but deeply practical. Pier Giorgio attended daily Mass and spent hours in Eucharistic adoration, yet he also threw himself into Catholic Action and Dominican lay organizations, working to bring Gospel values into social and political life. He saw no contradiction between loving God and loving the world God created, whether that meant scaling Alpine peaks or caring for Turin's most desperate citizens.

The mountains were Pier Giorgio's playground and prayer room. He led friends on daring climbs, often improvising routes and pushing limits with infectious enthusiasm. Once, after a particularly challenging ascent, he left a note at a summit that read simply: "Verso l'alto"—"To the heights"—words that became his personal motto, expressing both his literal love of mountain peaks and his spiritual aspiration toward God.

His compassion for the poor was equally adventurous. He would slip away from family gatherings to visit sick families in Turin's slums, bringing food, medicine, and friendship. When his grandmother scolded him for arriving late to her birthday party, he apologized but explained he had been visiting a dying man who had no one else. His pockets were perpetually empty—not from carelessness, but from constant giving.

Perhaps most remarkably, Pier Giorgio radiated joy. Friends remembered his infectious laughter, his practical jokes, and his ability to turn any gathering into a celebration. He organized hiking trips, theater outings, and charitable works with equal enthusiasm, believing that holiness should make one more fully human, not less.

When polio claimed his life in 1925, thousands of Turin's poor filled the streets for his funeral—many whom his wealthy family had never seen before, all whose lives he had secretly touched. Pier Giorgio Frassati proved that sainthood is not about escaping the world, but about embracing it completely with the heart of Christ.

Pier Giorgio was beatified by Pope John Paul II on May 20, 1990, and his canonization date is August 3, 2025 during the Jubilee of Young People in Rome.