The fearless and cheerful friend!
“Pain is not sadness, which is a disease worse than any other”: this is the message of Pier Giorgio, a young man who preferred to sacrifice his great human love to serve Jesus. He was a joker by nature, he loved the mountains and happy parties with his friends, but above all, he was a man with a big heart!: in fact, he gave things to the poor behind the scenes of the rich parents of the; his generosity even led him to give away his shoes, if he had nothing else with him at the time. One day, while visiting a needy patient suffering from polio, he contracted the terrible disease that ended his life a week later, at the age of 24: the whole town of Turin was at the funeral! and the example of his life made John Paul II canonize him and make him patron saint of World Youth Day (WYD).
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Biography of Pier Giorgio Frassati
Pier Giorgio Frassati was born on April 6, 1901 in Turin, into a family belonging to the Italian upper bourgeoisie. His father, Alfredo Frassati, director of the renowned newspaper The stamp, was agnostic, so he denied the existence of God. Her mother, Adelaida, was a painter and she dedicated her days mainly to her creations. To tell the truth, his parents did not give much praise to Piere, but they continually reproached him for his mediocrity and lack of intelligence.
In 1913, Pier Giorgio failed his exams and was sent to a Jesuit school, which allowed him to develop his spirituality: at the age of 13 he already had a personal spiritual life, which he loved to share with his friends, and was overflowing with love and devotion to the Blessed Virgin and the Blessed Sacrament. In fact, he joined the group of the “Apostolate of Prayer” Yet the “Company of the Blessed Sacrament” to continue growing in your faith. In this way, his days were remembered to the beat of prayer, which the young man did especially in the morning and at night. Praying allowed Pier Giorgio to fill himself with faith, energy and joy to keep himself encouraged in the face of the hostility he experienced, especially with his parents. For example, by expressing his desire to become a priest, they simply filled him with reproaches and discouraged him, as they were not aware of the richness of his spiritual life.
In 1918, the young man passed the exams and managed to enter the Polytechnic School of Turin to become an engineer. At the same time, as his heart was beating to serve, he enrolled in the St. Vincent de Paul Conference to help homeless soldiers after the war. He also joined the Mary’s Militias and to the Dominican Third Order. His studies and his spiritual life were also accompanied by constant excursions to the mountains with his friends, because Pier was a young man full of energy, and his earthly passion was mountaineering. It is noteworthy that, during his years of study, Pier never stopped helping the poor and needy, and never missed any of his appointments, even during the Spanish flu epidemic. In fact, it was during one of his visits to the poor that he contracted polio, this terrible disease that quickly took his life.
It was on Tuesday, June 30, 1925, while walking with two friends, that Pier Giorgio began to feel severe pain in his back muscles. Then, on returning home, he had a severe headache. Two days later, the doctor was called, and it was found that his reflexes were no longer working properly, so he was diagnosed with acute infectious poliomyelitis. To tell the truth, Pier Giorgio experienced great suffering during those days. However, he gave his pain to Jesus without complaint. On July 4, the young man received the last sacraments, after having had a quite serious crisis, caused by the illness that afflicted him. Finally, and after a painful agony, Pier Giorgio died surrounded by his family, while he prayed saying these words: “Make him die in peace, in your holy company”. This is how the Lord welcomed into Heaven that intrepid young man who, shortly before his devastating illness, said to his father’s driver: “I wish I were old so I could go to Heaven more quickly.”
In 1981, during the opening of the beatification process, his body was exhumed, which confirmed that “the man of the eight beatitudes” was still intact. Later, he was transferred to the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin. In 1987, he was declared venerable, and on May 20, 1990 he was beatified by John Paul II, who named him “the man of the eight beatitudes.” In addition, Pier Giorgio was proclaimed as the patron saint of young people and mountaineers.
Miracles of Pier Giorgio Frassati
The miracle that opened the cause for the beatification of Pier Giorgio Frassati was the healing of Domenico Sellan in 1933: this man suffered from terminal bone tuberculosis. As he lay in his sick bed, a priest brought him a picture of Pier Giorgio and a prayer, which Domenico recited quite faithfully. Shortly after, the doctors confirmed his complete and definitive recovery, which allowed him to live another 35 years, after that great miracle occurred.
In 2011, the second miracle took place, which is being examined in the Vatican for the opening of the canonization process: it is the healing of Kevin Becker, a 21-year-old young man who had great soccer skills, and who suffered a very serious head injury after falling from the roof of the school. This accident caused severe brain damage, for which he was placed in an induced coma. In fact, the doctors said that the chances of survival were very low and that recovery from the injury was totally impossible. However, despite the dire diagnosis, a family friend advised them to pray to Pier Giorgio for the young man’s healing. Surprisingly, the young man began to show signs of recovery shortly after the family began to pray to him: two weeks after the accident he was back home, and today he has a normal life, without any sequels, and even continues to play! football, as he likes so much!
Letters, words and quotes from Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati
Letters from Pier Giorgio Frassati
Pier Giorgio’s writings are mainly made up of some 350 letters that were written to his friends and family, which were recovered after his departure. These writings allow us to discover the heart of Pier Giorgio and show a young man full of life and who testifies to the profound joy that being a Catholic caused him: “You ask me if I am happy; And how could it not be? As long as faith always gives me joyful strength! Every Catholic cannot but be cheerful: sadness must be forbidden by Catholic minds; Pain is not sadness, which is a disease worse than any other”. Pier always encouraged his friends and the poor he visited to put God first in their lives: “Modern society sinks into the pain of human passions and moves away from any ideal of love and peace. You and we, Catholics, have to carry the breath of goodness that can only be born from faith in Christ”
Pier Giorgio Frassati Quotes
Here are some beautiful quotes from Pier Giorgio Frassati that his sister Luciana managed to collect and capture in her book The days of his life:
“Of yourself you will not do anything, but if you have God as the center of all your actions, then you will reach the goal.”
“With charity, peace is sown in men, but not the peace of the world, but the true peace that only the faith of Christ can give us by brotherhood”
“Faith gives us strength to withstand the thorns with which our life is woven”
“The life of the honest is the easiest, but it is the shortest to reach heaven”
“Living without faith, without a heritage to defend, without fighting for the truth is not living, but getting by.”
Words by Pier Giorgio Frassati
Here are other words of the Blessed when he was a child:
One day, when his father closed the door on a beggar, the young man ran to his mother and said “Mom, there is a poor man who is hungry, and dad has not fed him, perhaps Jesus has sent him to us”. She, moved, replied: “Go outside and tell him to come up, we’ll give him something to eat”.
On another occasion he asked the maid: “Wouldn’t you give your life to stop the war? Well, I would give my life today.”
Prayers to Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati
Prayer to Witness the Beatitudes
“Oh, Father, you have given young Pier Giorgio Frassati the joy of encountering Christ and of living his faith coherently at the service of the poor and sick; through his intercession make us climb, like him, along the paths of the evangelical beatitudes and that we imitate his generosity, to spread the spirit of the Gospel in society.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen”.
Prayer to follow Pier Giorgio
“Lord Jesus,
Give us the courage to fly high, to escape the temptation of mediocrity and banality; make us
capable, like Piergiorgio, of aspiring to greater things with their tenacity and perseverance and of welcoming with joy his invitation to holiness.
Deliver us from the fear of not being successful and the false modesty of not feeling capable.
Grant us the grace that we ask of you through the intercession of Piergiorgio and the strength to continue faithfully on the path that leads us “upwards”,
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen”.