During World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008 I came to know of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati and I was taken by his youthful energy and holiness. Can you tell me something about his life and whether he has been canonised?
During World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008 I came to know of Bl Pier Giorgio Frassati and I was taken by his youthful energy and holiness. Can you tell me something about his life and whether he has been canonised?
Pier Giorgio was born into a wealthy, influential family in Turin, Italy, on 6 April 1901. His father Alfredo, who was an agnostic, was the owner of the liberal newspaper La Stampa, and he served in the Italian Senate. His mother, Adelaide Ametis, was an accomplished painter. He had one sister, Luciana, who later wrote a biography of Pier Giorgio titled A Man of the Beatitudes.
Even though he came from a wealthy family, from his childhood Pier Giorgio had a great love for the poor. On one occasion he answered the door to find a mother begging for alms with her son who had no shoes. Pier Giorgio’s reaction was to take off his shoes and give them to the boy.
At the age of 17, he joined the St Vincent de Paul Society and throughout his life he dedicated much of his spare time to serving the sick and the needy, and caring for orphans. He regarded the poor as his masters, and he was their servant.
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At an early age, Pier Giorgio joined the Marian Sodality and the Apostleship of Prayer. He had a deep spiritual life, nourished by daily communion, which was rare at that time, frequent nocturnal adoration, meditation on St Paul’s “Hymn of Charity” in 1 Corinthians 13, and the writings of St Catherine of Siena.
In 1922 he became a member of the Third Order of St Dominic. The Holy Eucharist and the Blessed Virgin were the poles of his spiritual life. He was very apostolic, using every opportunity to encourage his friends to go to Mass, to read the Scriptures, and to pray the rosary.
Pier Giorgio decided to become a mining engineer, so he could “serve Christ better among the miners.” He studied at the Royal Polytechnic University of Turin. When he graduated, his father offered him either a car or a sizable amount of money. He chose the latter so he could give it to the poor, rather than using it for himself.
Although he considered his studies his first duty, they did not keep him from social and political activism. In 1919, he joined the Catholic Student Foundation and Catholic Action. He became an active member of the People’s Party, which promoted the Catholic church’s social teaching based on Pope Leo XIII’s 1991 encyclical Rerum Novarum, and he helped establish the newspaper Momento. He was strongly opposed to fascism and also to communism.
Pier Giorgio was an avid mountain climber and athlete, as well as a good swimmer. He was a member of the Club Alpino Italiano and climbed some of Italy’s highest mountains, making use of his rock-climbing expertise.
On 30 June 1925, while boating on the Po River, he began to experience sharp pains in his back. At home the following day, he had a severe headache and a fever, and his grandmother died that same day. In order not to draw the attention of his family away from mourning his grandmother, he did not talk about his illness.
He was diagnosed with polio, which doctors later speculated he caught from the sick whom he tended. After five days of great suffering, on 4 July he died in the arms of his mother. His final words were: “May I breathe forth my soul in peace with you.”
His parents had expected only their circle of elite friends and political figures, as well as Pier Giorgio’s friends, to attend the funeral, but all were surprised to find the streets lined with thousands of mourners, especially the poor and the sick he had attended.
His mortal remains were found completely intact and incorrupt upon their exhumation in 1981, and they were transferred from the family tomb to the cathedral in Turin following his beatification in 1990. At the request of many people, his process of canonisation was opened in 1932.
Pier Giorgio was beatified by Pope St John Paul II in 1990, who called him the “Man of the Eight Beatitudes”, and he was canonised, along with St Carlo Acutis, by Pope Leo XIV on 7 September 2025.
