Body of Bl. Frassati (SVDP) brought to World Youth Day

The remains of Pier Giorgio Frassati <http://www.bettnet.com/frassati/> (1901-25), the Turinese youth beatified in 1990 <http://www.bettnet.com/frassati/fr-homily.html>  provided the setting for a vigil service at World Youth Day.

Whispers in the Loggia provides a picture.

With Frassati’s niece, Wanda, among the congregation, below are snips from Rosica’s homily at the evening vigil:

If there was ever an age when young men and women needed authentic heroes, it is our age. The Church understands that the saints and blesseds, their prayers, their lives, are for people on earth, that sainthood, as an earthly honor, is not coveted by the saints or blesseds themselves.

At the age of 17, in 1918, he joined the St. Vincent de Paul Society and dedicated much of his spare time to serving the sick and the needy, caring for orphans, and assisting the demobilized servicemen returning from World War I. What little he did have, Pier Giorgio gave to help the poor, even using his bus fare for charity and then running home to be on time for meals. The poor and the suffering were his masters, and he was literally their servant, which he considered a privilege. He often sacrificed vacations at the Frassati summer home in Pollone because, as he said, “If everybody leaves Turin, who will take care of the poor?”

A German news reporter who observed Frassati at the Italian Embassy wrote, “One night in Berlin, with the temperature at twelve degrees below zero, he gave his overcoat to a poor old man shivering in the cold. His father, the Ambassador scolded him, and he replied simply and matter-of-factly, ‘But you see, Papa, it was cold.’”…

More the homily.