July 4: Feast of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati again and again made the choice to devote his life to the poor and indigent despite his aristocratic upbringing.

In 1918 Pier Giorgio joined the Saint Vincent de Paul Society. By that time, he had decided to study to become a mining engineer in order, in his words, “to serve Christ better among the miners.”

Thousands of residents of Turin, knowing of his seven years of service to the poor, stood in the streets to pay respects as the cortege passed. These were the people who petitioned for his canonization; a cause was opened in 1932 and he was beatified by John Paul II on May 20, 1990.

Pope Saint John Paul II told the world’s youth in 2000 at the 15th World Youth Day…

“It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your heart your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.” ―

View the presentation to see how these words celebrate Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

See also Fr. Robert Barron’s reflection on Blessed Giorgio and Social Justice.