Biography of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

Also known as

• Man of the Eight Beatitudes
• Girolamo

Profile

Born to a wealthy and politically influential family; his mother was the painter Adelaide Ametis; his father was an agnostic, the founder and editor of the liberal newspaper La Stampa, and became the Italian ambassador to Germany. A pious youth, average student, an outstanding athlete and mountain climber, he was extremely popular with his peers, known by the nickname "Terror" due to his practical jokes. He was tutored at home for years with his younger sister Luciana. He studied mineralogy in an engineering program after graduating high school. He worked often with Catholic groups like Apostleship of Prayer and the Company of the Most Blessed Sacrament that ministered to the poor and promoted Eucharistic adoration, Marian devotion, and personal chastity. He became involved in political groups like the Young Catholic Workers Congress, the Popular Party, the Catholic Student Federation, Catholic Action and Milites Mariae that supported the poor, opposed Fascism and worked for the Church's social teachings. Enrolled as a Dominican tertiary on 28 May 1922, taking the name Girolamo (Jerome). Especially devoted to the teachings of Saint Catherine of Siena and Saint Thomas Aquinas. He spent his fortune on the needy and visited the sick; during this ministry, he contracted the disease that killed him.

Born

6 April 1901 in Turin, Italy

Died

• 4 July 1925 in Turin, Italy of poliomyelitis
• buried in the family cemetery of Pollone, Italy
• body found incorrupt when moved to the Cathedral of Turin in 1981

Beatified

20 May 1990 by Pope John Paul II

Readings

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. - Pope John Paul II during the beatification of Blessed Pier

At an age in which the passions bubble in the hearts of young people and threaten to break all bounds, Pier Giorgio concentrated his vital forces and kept them in balance. Day by day, in front of God and men, he learned to conquer himself and to master himself. It would have to be said that, without realising it, he was preparing for leadership; for it is true that, in order to know how to lead the others, first of all, one must know how to lead oneself. The designs of God are incomprehensible because He sees things from so much higher and so much further than we: both in general and in particular. But it is permissible to think that, by calling to Himself Pier Giorgio, in the moment in which so many had placed their hopes in him, God intends that his unexpected death, which has caught us unawares, may put in relief the beauty of his life, and that it may attract the attention of you, the young people who will be able to take of inspiration from it. - Father Martin Stanislaus Gillet, O.P., Master-General of the Order of the Friars Preachers, and the man who enrolled Pier Giorgio into the Dominicans