By Aaron Lambert
The pursuit of sainthood is like climbing a mountain. It is the ultimate summit to which the Christian life is directed — eternal communion with the Divine Presence in heaven. It may seem an impossible pursuit — and indeed it is, without the grace offered by the Lord Jesus Christ — but as the lives of the saints exemplify, they did not have anything special to make them more worthy of the title than the rest of us. They were simply ordinary sinners who opened themselves up fully to the extraordinary workings of God’s grace, which transformed and divinized them from the inside out.
Perhaps no figure within the last 100 years serves as a better example of this fact than Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. His was a seemingly unremarkable life characterized by bold political activism, staunch athleticism and playful hijinks. Yet, he also held within himself a hidden holiness that was revealed through selfless service to the poor, a profound interior life and above all, unwavering devotion to Our Lord and his Blessed Mother.
This boisterous yet pious son of the Church has ascended the mountain of sainthood and will soon join the ranks of our heavenly intercessors. He will at last be canonized on Sunday, September 7, almost exactly 100 years after his death. His officially being welcomed into the communion of saints has been nearly a century in the making, and the Church rejoices in recognizing the soon-to-be St. Pier Giorgio Frassati.
Frassati was born in Turin, Italy, on April 6, 1901: Holy Saturday of that year. A year later, his younger sister Luciana, who was to be a steadfast companion for him in his short but exuberant life, was born. By the time Frassati reached middle school age, he exuded a simple piety that carried him into young adulthood. He expressed a deep desire and excitement to receive daily Communion, and no matter what activities he was getting up to — mountaineering, protesting against fascism or playing practical jokes — he always found time to receive the Eucharist each day.
This deep devotion to the Eucharistic Lord animated everything Frassati did. Most of all, it inspired him to perform countless acts of charity to the poor — something he kept secret from most of his family and friends during his life. His father, Alfredo Frassati, was the founder and editor of one of the most prestigious newspapers of the time, La Stampa, and his family was very well-to-do. Frassati shared his wealth with the least of society. He once wrote, “Jesus visits me every morning in holy Communion. I return it to Him, with my poor means, by visiting the poor.” This is the kind of man Frassati was.
While his father hoped his son would succeed him and take over La Stampa, Frassati felt another calling. In addition to his involvement with Catholic Action and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, he attended university to earn a degree in mechanical engineering, borne out of a strong desire to serve miners, which was an incredibly difficult and dangerous profession. Sadly, this dream would never be realized, as Frassati fell ill with polio and died on July 4, 1925, at the young age of 24.
His funeral was overflowing not just with those who knew and loved Frassati, but also those who were beneficiaries of his charitable heart. In the years that followed his death, it became clear that there was much more to Frassati’s life than he let on. Though he was never one to shy away from his Catholic faith, the extent to which he shared the love of Christ with others surprised all who knew him. In fact, it was the moving testimonies of those he served that spurred the call for him to be recognized as a saint.
The cause for his canonization was opened nearly a century ago, in 1932. The process took nearly 50 years of postponements, investigations and inquiries into his life before Pope Paul VI happily allowed the case to move forward in 1977.
On March 31, 1981, his body was exhumed, and his remains were found to be incorrupt, his face still holding the slight smile he died with and his hands wrapped tightly around his rosary. Nine years later, on May 20, 1990, Pope John Paul II beatified Frassati, calling him a “man of the eight beatitudes.”
And now, later this year, the title of “saint” will be bestowed upon Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, forever cementing him as one of the Church’s most humble and powerful intercessors. Frassati’s motto was “to serve the Lord in total happiness,” and indeed, he lived up to this in every way. Frassati, with his vibrant witness of steadfast faith and living out the beatitudes to the full, is a faithful guide to accompany us as we, too, strive to ascend the mountain of sainthood.
St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, pray for us!
Aaron Lambert is a writer from Denver.
This article originally ran in the June 2025 issue of Catholic San Francisco magazine and has been updated to reflect the new canonization date.
