On the third of August, 2025, Pope Francis will canonize young Pier Giorgio Frassati, who was once a member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, an organization whose commitment to charity translates into humble, generous and creative service to the poorest, as Blessed Antoine Frederic Ozanam and his companions had envisioned for them.

Picture of Pier Giorgio Frassati, exhibited in the cathedral of Turin. Photograph taken by Vinícius Augusto Teixeira, CM.

Pier Giorgio Frassati was born in Turn (Italy) on April 6, 1901. He was of a noble and influential family. His father was indifferent to religion and was the owner of one of the most important newspapers in Italy, La Stampa. He was also a senator and ambassador in Berlin. His mother was a painter and artist.

Despite his family background, Pier Giorgio was able to cultivate a deep spirituality, embedding his whole existence in a solid experience of the love of God. Encountering Jesus Christ in the Eucharist and in the poor would become the center and inspiration of his life as a young Christian. In fact, daily participation in the Holy Mass, prolonged in Eucharistic adoration, would be the source of his spiritual life and the strength of his dedication to those most in need. He once said: “Jesus comes to me every day in Holy Communion and I return the visit by serving the poor”. In fact, the Eucharist, “the privileged place of the disciple’s encounter with Jesus Christ”, so shaped the life, attitudes, thoughts and feelings of Pier Giorgio that his whole existence took on a “truly Eucharistic quality”. The Eucharist was for him the “unquenchable source of the missionary impulse”, a true school of charity, a strong call to collaborate in building a better world according to God’s plan (Aparecida Document, n. 251). He was also nourished by a remarkable Marian piety that encouraged him to live out basic human values and Christian virtues.

He lived his youth to the full: he went out with his friends, went mountaineering, organized parties and games, but without ever forgetting the conviction and concrete practice of the faith that he professed with enthusiasm and lived with vigor. Already belonging to ecclesial movements, especially Catholic Action, he also wanted to join the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which he did on November 29, 1918. Together with his friends, he was always faithful to the Vincentian commitment to visit the poor in their own homes. The Eucharistic Christ, whom he frequently received in communion and adored, was the same Christ he found in the least of his brothers, in the face of their suffering, in their exploited and wounded lives, in their stories of pain and want. His Christian conscience prompted him to work for a more just and fraternal society, against the tide of the rapidly expanding fascist regime in Italy. In 1920, against his father’s wishes, he joined the Italian Popular Party, founded by Father Luigi Sturzo, inspired by Pope Leo XIII’s Encyclical Rerum Novarum. Thus, evangelical charity, learned in the school of St. Vincent and Blessed Frederic Ozanam, was taking on political contours in his life as a Christian committed to social reform. Far from being a mere bystander of the social scene, Pier Giorgio never ceased to propose meetings, debates and popular rallies, as he believed that true politics is forged in the effective participation of all citizens.

Nourished by his vibrant Eucharistic spirituality, dedicated to his engineering studies, and amidst a series of concrete services to the poor, especially to Italian miners who could not adequately care for their health and exploited by long and heavy working days, Pier Giorgio Frassati contracted polio and died on July 4, 1925, at the age of 24. His words speak volumes about the convictions of faith that motivated his charitable and social work:

“Peace is lacking in the world that has turned away from God, but so is charity, that is, true and perfect love. There is nothing more beautiful than charity. In fact, faith and hope cease with our death, but love lasts eternally, and I even believe that it will be more alive in the afterlife”.

At his beatification ceremony on May 20, 1990, Pope John Paul II described Frassati’s human, spiritual and apostolic profile with enduring words:

“Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope” (1 Peter 3:15). In our century, Pier Giorgio Frassati incarnated these words of St. Peter in his own life. The power of the Spirit of Truth, united to Christ, made him a modern witness to the hope which springs from the Gospel and to the grace of salvation which works in human hearts. Thus he became a living witness and courageous defender of this hope in the name of Christian youth of the twentieth century.

Faith and charity, the true driving forces of his existence, made him active and diligent in the milieu in which he lived, in his family and school, in the university and society; they transformed him into a joyful, enthusiastic apostle of Christ, a passionate follower of his message and charity.

The secret of his apostolic zeal and holiness is to be sought in the ascetical and spiritual journey which he traveled; in prayer, in persevering adoration, even at night, of the Blessed Sacrament, in his thirst for the Word of God, which he sought in Biblical texts; in the peaceful acceptance of life’s difficulties, in family life as well; in chastity lived as a cheerful, uncompromising discipline; in his daily love of silence and life’s “ordinariness.”

It is precisely in these factors that we are given to understand the deep well-spring of his spiritual vitality. Indeed, it is through the Eucharist that Christ communicates his Spirit; it is through listening to the word that the readiness to welcome others grows, and it is also through prayerful abandonment to God’s will that life’s great decisions mature. Only by adoring God who is present in his or her own heart can the baptized Christian respond to the person who “asks you for a reason for your hope” (1 Pt 3:15). And the young Frassati knew it, felt it, lived it. In his life, faith was fused with charity: firm in faith and active in charity, because without works, faith is dead (cf. James 2:20).

Certainly, at a superficial glance, Frassati’s lifestyle, that of a modern young man who was full of life, does not present anything out of the ordinary. This, however, is the originality of his virtue, which invites us to reflect upon it and impels us to imitate it. In him faith and daily events are harmoniously fused, so that adherence to the Gospel is translated into loving care for the poor and the needy in a continual crescendo until the very last days of the sickness which led to his death. His love for beauty and art, his passion for sports and mountains, his attention to society’s problems did not inhibit his constant relationship with the Absolute.

Entirely immersed in the mystery of God and totally dedicated to the constant service of his neighbor: thus we can sum up his earthly life! He fulfilled his vocation as a lay Christian in many associative and political involvements in a society in ferment, a society which was indifferent and sometimes even hostile to the Church. In this spirit, Pier Giorgio succeeded in giving new impulse to various Catholic movements, which he enthusiastically joined, but especially to Catholic Action, as well as Federation of Italian Catholic University Students [FUCI], in which he found the true gymnasium of his Christian training and the right fields of his apostolate. In Catholic Action he joyfully and proudly lived his Christian vocation and strove to love Jesus and to see in him the brothers and sisters whom he met on his way or whom he actively sought in their places of suffering, marginalization and isolation, in order to help them feel the warmth of his human solidarity and the supernatural comfort of faith in Christ.

He died young, at the end of a short life, but one which was extraordinarily filled with spiritual fruits, setting out for his “true homeland and singing God’s praises.”

Today’s celebration invites all of us to receive the message which Pier Giorgio Frassati is sending to the men and women of our day, but especially to you young people, who want to make a concrete contribution to the spiritual renewal of our world, which sometimes seems to be falling apart and wasting away because of a lack of ideals.

By his example he proclaims that a life lived in Christ’s Spirit, the Spirit of the Beatitudes, is “blessed”, and that only the person who becomes a “man or woman of the Beatitudes” can succeed in communicating love and peace to others. He repeats that it is really worth giving up everything to serve the Lord. He testifies that holiness is possible for everyone, and that only the revolution of charity can enkindle the hope of a better future in the hearts of people.

Vinícius Augusto Teixeira, CM