Saint of the 4th of July: Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. Catholic church

Every July 4, the Church commemorates the Italian Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, a young layman who loved nature and adventure, known as ‘the patron saint of mountaineers’ for the love he professed for mountaineering, a discipline of high mental and physical demand.

This interesting aspect of her life has been, and continues to be today, a source of inspiration for many men and women of faith, among whom can be counted Pope Saint John Paul II. Pope Pilgrim once referred to Frassati in the following terms: “When I was young, I too felt the beneficial influence of his example and, as a student, I was impressed by the strength of his testimony.”

The Christian life is the most beautiful adventure

Pier Giorgio was born in Turin, Italy, on April 6, 1901. He grew up in a wealthy family. His father was the founder and director of the famous Italian newspaper The print, while his mother was a talented painter. It was she who was concerned that Pier Giorgio was properly educated in the faith.

During his adolescence, the young man from Turin did not ignore his deepest concerns, marked by the desire for greatness, heroism and hunger for the transcendent. Thus, he decided to take the first steps in spiritual and apostolic life. He began to be part of Catholic Action, the Apostleship of Prayer, the Eucharistic League and the Association of young university worshipers. In all these organizations he showed a growing commitment, which allowed him to learn about other social realities and become aware of poverty – something that until then was totally foreign to him. Suddenly, for Pier Giorgio, serving the poor had become an opportunity to serve Jesus himself.

In 1922, after a period of discernment, the blessed entered the lay branch of the Order of Preachers – the Third Order of Saint Dominic. And, a year later – May 1923 – he took his vows as a lay Dominican.

Countercurrent

Although he initially did not have the support of his parents, Pier Giorgio decided to study Mechanical Industrial Engineering. He liked the idea of ​​being able to make his profession something that could contribute to the well-being of everyone, especially those most in need.

When he started working, he liked the closeness of the workers: he was very aware of their needs and shortcomings, as well as their wealth and strengths – he saw in them a strong desire to progress and raise their families.

Shortly afterward he entered the Polytechnic of Turin, where he organized a ‘youth circle’ with his friends, who agreed with him in the desire to make Christ the center of their friendship. Together with them he baptized the group with a provocative name: “The shady guys“(“the suspicious types”). Obviously, a fine irony was hidden behind the name: the members of society were united by the deep desire to live Christianly and make the living Jesus present in an environment in which God was dispensed with. Pier Giorgio never missed the opportunity to call more and more students to Holy Mass, or to introduce them to reading the Holy Scriptures and praying the Holy Rosary.

Prayer and action

Although of aristocratic birth, Pier Giorgio led an increasingly austere life, and constantly allocated his money to charity, something that his parents did not like very much, so they decided to limit the financial resources they provided him. This presented him with a real problem, which the blessed solved with “relative ease”: in order not to stop sharing what he had, he began to walk long hours every day to save money on the tram.

What did his strength and courage lie in? The answer was before everyone’s eyes: daily communion – which she loved with all her heart – and prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament were the driving force of his existence. The young Frassati had suddenly become a man: a man of prayer.

The blessed – and now we know that future saint – was a great athlete, fond of skiing and mountaineering. He climbed the Alps and the Aosta Valley. If something characterized his spirit, it was the love for nature and the desire to be in contact with it. It was in the heights and in the silence of the mountains where he also found provident God, who speaks to the heart of man to form it, strengthen it and make it full and happy.

Youth made an offering

The epilogue of his life was dizzying. At only 24 years of age, Frassati was diagnosed with fulminant poliomyelitis, a disease that killed him in just one week. Pier Giorgio left for the Father’s House on July 4, 1925. His funeral brought together a crowd of people, which resulted in a real surprise for his parents, who received from God a consolation that they did not expect. Hundreds of strangers, belonging to seemingly so different fields – culture, academia, sports, religious life – paraded, grateful to them for having brought into the world and having formed such a special human being.

Saint John Paul II beatified Pier Giorgio Frassati in 1990. At the beatification ceremony he said: “He (Frassati) proclaims, by his example, that the life that is led with the Holy Spirit, Spirit of the Beatitudes, is ‘holy’. and that only he who becomes a ‘man of the Beatitudes’ manages to communicate love and peace to his brothers… He repeats that it is truly worth sacrificing everything to serve the Lord. He testifies that holiness is possible for everyone and that only the revolution of charity can kindle hope for a better future in the hearts of men.

holy sudden

Last Friday, April 26, the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, announced that Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati will be canonized during the Jubilee of Mercy 2025 (the exact date has not yet been determined). The announcement was made within the framework of the XVIII National Assembly of Italian Catholic Action held in Sacrofano. The cardinal noted: “I would like to tell you that the canonization of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati is already clearly on the horizon and is visible on the horizon of the next jubilee year.”

Semeraro referred to Frassati as “one of the most luminous figures among the saints who grew up in Catholic Action,” and recalled that Saint John Paul II called him “man of the Beatitudes,” because he lived “with joy and pride his Christian vocation.” and he committed himself to love Jesus and to see in him the brothers and sisters he met on his path.”