Prayer works … and God is always listening to our prayers,” said a Los Angeles priest, who as a seminarian experienced a miraculous healing that led to the upcoming canonisation of an Italian youth.
Father Juan Manuel Gutierrez, associate pastor at St John the Baptist Church in Baldwin Park, California, spoke at a 16 December press conference at his parish to share his experiences of being healed from a serious sports injury to his Achilles tendon after seeking the intercession of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati.
Dubbed the “Man of the Beatitudes” by St. John Paul II, Frassati—born in Turin in 1901 to an influential family—began receiving daily Communion at a young age, while serving the poor through the St Vincent de Paul Society and evangelising his friends.
A lay Dominican, Frassati also participated in demonstrations to defend his faith against the Communist and Fascist parties in Italy. His passion for outdoor activities such as mountaineering has made him a patron of athletes.
Frassati died in 1925 at age 24, having contracted polio, which doctors speculated he may have contracted from serving the sick.
Father Gutierrez’s inexplicable recovery was judged by the Vatican to satisfy the final requirement in Frassati’s canonisation cause.
On 25 November, Pope Francis formally recognised the miraculous healing of then-seminarian Gutierrez—whose name was kept confidential during the canonisation process.
He had previously announced that Frassati, along with Italian teen Blessed Carlo Acutis, would be canonised in 2025. Being part of Frassati’s canonisation cause has been “crazy, but it’s a wonderful blessing,” said Father Gutierrez.
“Pier Giorgio wanted to spread faith in God. That invites us to take our Catholic Christian faith seriously, and to be willing to take it outside of the doors of the church to influence the life of society. Because that’s where God, the love of God and Jesus, and what he brought to us, is so desperately needed.”
