Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati

His life

• 1901. Born April 6 in Turin, Italy. His mother, Adelaide, was a painter; his father, Alfredo, an agnostic, founded the newspaper La Stampa and served as a senator and ambassador to Germany. His parents did not share his devotion, yet he kept daily Mass and the rosary. He often came home late for meals because he had been feeding the poor or finding homes for widows.
• Youth. He joined the Marian Sodality and the Apostleship of Prayer, and received daily Communion, which was unusual then. He joined the St. Vincent de Paul Society and spent his free time caring for the sick, for orphans, and for soldiers returning from World War I.
• The mountains. He and his friends, who called themselves “the sinister ones,” hiked, rode horses, and skied. He always made sure Mass was part of their trips. His motto, verso l’alto, meant the summit of a mountain and Heaven. He studied mining engineering so he could “serve Christ better among the miners.”
• Convictions. Inspired by Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, he joined Catholic Action and the People’s Party, helped organize the first Pax Romana convention in 1921, and spoke openly against Fascism. He loved art, music, theater, and the poetry of Dante.
• 1925. Just before graduating, he contracted polio, probably from the sick he served. He died on July 4 at age 24. Even on his deathbed he wrote to a friend about medicine for a poor man he had been visiting. Crowds of the poor lined the streets at his funeral, many unaware he came from a wealthy family.
• After his death. Pope Saint John Paul II visited his tomb in 1989 and beatified him on May 20, 1990. His body was found intact in 1981 and moved to the cathedral in Turin. He was canonized on September 7, 2025.

Adapted from the biography by Dr. Claude Sasso, Academic Dean. More about our patron at FrassatiUSA.