The Man of the Beatitudes: Canonizing Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

The Man of the Beatitudes: Canonizing Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

By Beckie Gautreau, Contributing Writer

When God is with us, we don’t have to be afraid of anything.
-Pier Giorgio Frassati

Mark your calendars for September 7! Alongside the popular Bl. Carlo Acutis, Pope Leo XIV will also be canonizing another young and inspirational person. And there’s a clear reason why he is canonizing these two young men together.

Many of us, especially those who are young, struggle with a kind of spiritual procrastination. We tell ourselves that we will work on our holiness later. Maybe we think that holiness is only for older ages, or maybe we are waiting for our schedules to slow down.

However, like Carlo, Pier Giorgio Frassati refutes this myth.

Pier Giorgio was born to a wealthy and influential family in Turin, Italy. In fact, the Frassati family is still prominent in Italy to this day. His mother was a painter from a wealthy family. His father founded and directed a newspaper and held office as an Italian Senator and ambassador to Germany. Pier Giorgio had all the privilege and luxury.

With all the material privilege, however, he was raised without any spiritual education or guidance. His grandmother and mother were lax in their faith, and Pier Giorgio’s father was, at best, annoyed by spirituality.

However, Pier Giorgio showed great reverence for God from an early age. As a child, when he encountered a priest on the streets carrying the Holy Eucharist to a parishioner, his tutor told him, “Let’s bow. A king is passing.” Pier Giorgio responded, “Yes, the King of Kings.”

Once, when the procession of Corpus Christi was passing and people were tossing flowers, a young Pier Giorgio dug through a relative’s pocket and found a pen. Knowing he must offer something to God, he threw the pen to the streets and declared, “This is for you, Jesus!”

As he grew older, his faith only expanded. Later, Karol Wojtyla would enthusiastically declare him to be “the man of the eight beatitudes.”

And, indeed, he was.

Blessed are the poor in spirit…

Pier Giorgio might have had great wealth and influence, but he acknowledged his ultimate dependence on God. He would sneak out of his house in the early morning to go to Mass, sometimes walking miles in the dark, and return before his parents even woke up. He often dragged his friends to Mass or Adoration with him. On their outings, he would lead his friends in prayer.

Blessed are the meek…

Pier Giorgio’s heart was moved for the poor. While his family would turn away beggars who came to their door, Pier Giorgio would chase them down to offer them whatever help he could. Any money he received from his parents, he would turn into a gift for the less fortunate.

When his father gave him money for the train, he would ride his bike to school instead and use the money to buy bread to pass out to the hungry. When his father bought him a car for his 18th birthday, Pier Giorgio sold it that day and donated the money to the St. Vincent de Paul society.

By the age of 21, he was supporting over 125 families–covering bills and debts, paying for expensive medicines, and sponsoring education and catechetical training. And he did it all anonymously under his Dominican name of Brother Jerome.

Blessed are they who mourn…

Pier Giorgio’s heart was moved with pity for the suffering, but he also suffered himself. He wanted to be a priest, but his mother told him, “I would rather you die.” He wanted to marry a girlfriend, but his parents told him she was too poor. He wanted to be a missionary, but his father told him, “No son of mine will work with the poor.”

While he obeyed these restrictions, his heart was moved to work for God’s Kingdom.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice…

Besides working tirelessly for the poor and the sick, Pier Giorgio fought for societal justice as well. When Mussolini rose to power, Pier Giorgio convinced his father to resign his post as the Ambassador to Germany. And as fascism rose in the country, he led peaceful demonstrations against Mussolini. He was even unjustly arrested in Rome for a demonstration with the Catholic Workers Congress.

Blessed are the merciful…

Pier Giorgio never seemed to regard himself as better than others. You can see this clearly in the way that he attended to the suffering around him. But you can also see this in how he treated his less spiritual friends. He did not lord his holiness over anyone, but invited them all to join him.

As a teenager, his friends would gamble over a game of pool. When Pier Giorgio would win, he would make his friends join him in Holy Adoration. Whenever he and his friends went on trips, Pier Giorgio would make sure there was a church nearby or else he would invite a priest to come with them to say Mass. During breaks while hiking, he would lead his friends in prayer.

Many of his friends reported that no teacher or parent could get them interested in prayer or church. But Pier Giorgio made it fun.

Blessed are the pure of heart…

Pier Giorgio had his eyes on God and God alone. He joined multiple religious societies including the Marian Sodality, the Apostleship of Prayer, Catholic Action, Catholic Workers Congress, the Saint Vincent de Paul Society, and became a Third Order Dominican. It would seem that Pier Giorgio was not wasting a moment of his life but dedicating every second to God.

Blessed are the Peacemakers…

Towards the end of his life, his parents announced that they were going to get a divorce. Pier Giorgio was devastated. He told a friend that he would gladly give his life if only his parents would stay together.

Not long after that, he contracted polio after visiting a sick person. However, this came at a tumultuous time as his grandmother had just passed away. Pier Giorgio hid his sickness, suffering in silence.

It wasn’t until two days before his death that his family discovered his weakness. At that point, it was too late for treatment. But even on his deathbed, Pier Giorgio was facilitating the delivery of life-saving medicine for someone else.

While he kept the depth of his faith hidden from his parents, it was revealed in his death. 10,000 people attended his funeral, many of whom had benefited from his countless works of charity as Brother Jerome. His parents were so inspired by all the stories they heard that they stayed together.

Blessed are they who suffer persecution…

Pier Giorgio definitely suffered due to his parents’ restrictions, but he was also persecuted posthumously. When his parents tried to get him beatified, Mussolini actually blocked and stalled their efforts. His father had to resign all his jobs, too, due to the dictator’s retaliation.

But Pier Giorgio’s holiness could not be denied when the first miracle attributed to his intercession occurred in 1933. A 40-year-old man was dying of tubercular disease in his spine, which had rendered him paralyzed. When a prayer card for Pier Giorgio was placed on his chest, he was immediately and miraculously healed. Despite the political obstacles put in place, this miracle allowed Pier Giorgio to be declared blessed.

In 2017, a seminarian named Juan Gutierrez tore his Achilles Tendon during a game of basketball. He was aiming for an expensive and lengthy recovery through surgery, but he decided to pray a novena to Bl. Pier Giorgio. Before the novena was finished, Juan felt intense heat in his leg. When he next went to the doctor, they could not find evidence that a tear had even occurred.

Finally, when Pier Giorgio was interred, he was found incorruptible. While the rosary and crucifix he was holding had started decomposing, Pier’s body was perfectly preserved. His eyes had even opened, revealing no decay. It looked as though he was simply resting.

This soon-to-be saint’s life is a tremendous inspiration to all the faithful. Pier Giorgio didn’t waste any time or resources to do God’s will. May we, too, be granted the fortitude and charity with which Pier Giorgio Frassati lived.

 Heavenly Father,
Give me the courage to strive for the highest goals
to flee every temptation to be mediocre.
Enable me to aspire to greatness, as Pier Giorgio did,
and to open my heart with joy to Your call to holiness.
Free me from the fear of failure.
I want to be, Lord, firmly and forever united to You.
Grant me the graces I ask You through Pier Giorgio’s intercession,
by the merits of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.

Prayer via Frassati USA
Learn more: Canonization Committee Pier Giorgio Frassati

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Since an early age, writer Beckie Gautreau has been lost in a world of imagination, writing fantastical tales of adventure and virtue. Since the same early age, she has had a deep love for God and things of heaven. You could say that her head is in the clouds in more ways than one!

From high school until the present, she has been joining writing clubs she could, starting them when necessary. In college, she majored in Drama and Theology at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, TX, while taking creative writing classes.

Being a homeschooling mom of four, she doesn’t have a lot of free time, but she uses the little she has on writing fiction and fantasy novels and meeting God in her garden.