Why did this 24
year-old die on July 4, 1925?
Who was Pier
Giorgio Frassati?
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati – patron
of Catholic youth groups - is a saint for the modern world, and especially for
the young people of our time. Born in 1901 in Turin, Italy, his time on earth
was short-only 24 years-but he filled it passionately with holy living. Pier
Giorgio was a model of virtue, a “man of the beatitudes,” as Pope John Paul II
called him at the saint’s beatification ceremony in Rome on May 20, 1990. He
was described by friends as “an explosion of joy.” As Pier Giorgio’s sister,
Luciana, says of her brother in her biography of him, “He represented the finest
in Christian youth: pure, happy, enthusiastic about everything that is good and
beautiful.”
To our modern world which is often burdened by cynicism and angst, Pier Giorgio’s life offers a brilliant contrast, a life rich in meaning, purpose, and peace derived from faith in God. From the earliest age, and despite two unreligious parents who misunderstood and disapproved of his piety and intense interest in Catholicism, Pier Giorgio placed Christ first in all that he did. These parental misunderstandings, which were very painful to him, persisted until the day of his sudden death of polio. However, he bore this treatment patiently, silently, and with great love.
Pier Giorgio prayed daily, offering, among
other prayers, a daily rosary on his knees by his bedside. Often his agnostic
father would find him asleep in this position. “He gave his whole self, both in
prayer and in action, in service to Christ,” Luciana Frassati writes. After
Pier Giorgio began to attend Jesuit school as a boy, he received a rare permission
in those days to take communion daily. “Sometimes he passed whole nights in
Eucharistic adoration.” For Pier Giorgio, Christ was the answer. Therefore, all
of his action was oriented toward Christ and began first in contemplation of
Him. With this interest in the balance of contemplation and action, it is no
wonder why Pier Giorgio was drawn in 1922 at the age of 21 to the Fraternities
of St. Dominic. In becoming a tertiary, Pier Giorgio chose the name “Girolamo”
(Jerome) after his personal hero, Girolamo Savonarola, the fiery Dominican
preacher and reformer during the Renaissance in Florence. Pier Giorgio once
wrote to a friend, “I am a fervent admirer of this friar (Savonarola), who died
as a saint at the stake.”
Pier Giorgio was handsome,
vibrant, and natural. These attractive characteristics drew people to him. He
had many good friends and he shared his faith with them with ease and openness.
He engaged himself in many different apostolates. Pier Giorgio also loved
sports. He was an avid outdoorsman and loved hiking, riding horses, skiing, and
mountain climbing. He was never one to pass on playing a practical joke,
either. He relished laughter and good humor.
As Luciana points out, “Catholic
social teaching could never remain simply a theory with [Pier Giorgio].” He set
his faith concretely into action through spirited political activism during the
Fascist period in World War I Italy. He lived his faith, too, through
discipline with his school work, which was a tremendous cross for him as he was
a poor student. Most notably, however, Pier Giorgio (like the Dominican St.
Martin de Porres) lived his faith through his constant, humble, mostly hidden
service to the poorest of Turin. Although Pier Giorgio grew up in a privileged
environment, he never lorded over anyone the wealth and prestige of his family.
Instead, he lived simply and gave away food, money, or anything that anyone
asked of him. It is suspected that he contracted from the very people to whom
he was ministering in the slums the polio that would kill him.
Even as Pier Giorgio lay dying,
his final week of rapid physical deterioration was an exercise in heroic
virtue. His attention was turned outward toward the needs of others and he
never drew attention to his anguish, especially since his own grandmother was
dying at the same time he was. Pier Giorgio’s heart was surrendered completely
to God’s will for him. His last concern was for the poor. On the eve of his
death, with a paralyzed hand, he scribbled a message to a friend, reminding the
friend not to forget the injections for Converso, a poor man Pier Giorgio had
been assisting.
When news of Pier Giorgio’s death
on July 4, 1925 reached the neighborhood and city, the Frassati parents,
who had no idea about the generous self-donation of their young son, were
astonished by the sight of thousands of people crowded outside their mansion on
the day of their son’s funeral Mass and burial. The poor, the lonely, and those
who had been touched by Pier Giorgio’s love and faithful example had come to
pay homage to this luminous model of Christian living.
Pier Giorgio’s mortal remains
were found incorrupt in 1981 and were transferred from the family tomb in the
cemetery of Pollone to the Cathedral of Turin near the Shroud of Turin.
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