Canonization of Pier Giorgio Frassati: A Saint for Every Young Person
Pier Giorgio Frassati’s friends called him an “explosion of joy.” Those same words describe perfectly the worldwide reaction to the recent report that his canonization is coming in 2025.
Loud applause erupted when Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, first made the announcement on April 26 at the National Assembly of Catholic Action in Italy. There has been cheering and jubilation ever since. Like so many others, I look forward to celebrating Pier Giorgio’s final ascent — to the summit of holiness.
The world needs St. Frassati. In my opinion, he is the antidote to so much of what ails our modern culture. Here are some reasons why.
He is an example of true manhood. With gender confusion, sexual promiscuity and pornography addiction running rampant and assailing the hearts and minds of young people, Pier Giorgio models how to live a virtuous, chaste and courageous life. He was an extraordinary athlete, described by a contemporary as “healthy, strong, and tanned with eyes as clear as pure water.” When he discerned that pursuing a relationship with a young woman whom he highly esteemed would lead to familial strife with his parents, he relinquished that love in cooperation with God’s holy will. “True happiness, young people, does not consist in the pleasures of the world and in earthly things,” he said in a speech to Catholic youth, “but in peace of conscience, which we can have only if we are pure in heart and in mind.” An infusion of Frassati-like purity would go a long way toward healing so many broken hearts and deformed consciences.
He is a model for every Catholic layperson. Influenced by Jesuit, Dominican, Salesian and Vincentian spirituality, Pier Giorgio seamlessly blended his sacramental life with a call to service. “Jesus comes to me every day in Holy Communion,” he told a friend. “I repay him in my miserable way by visiting the poor.” From the age of 12, he began the practice of daily Communion. He prayed the Rosary, often on his knees. He went to confession regularly, even once on the street in Turin. He read Holy Scripture and the lives of the saints. He supported the Church and was active in many apostolates. He served the poor to such an extent that thousands attended his funeral when he died suddenly at the age of 24. And he did all of this while having a father who was a fallen-away Catholic and a mother and sister who went to church only out of a sense of duty. There was no family prayer, not even at meals. This didn’t deter Pier Giorgio. As Pope St. John Paul II exclaimed in the beatification homily, “He testifies that holiness is possible for everyone” and that “it is really worth giving up everything to serve the Lord.”
