Bio

 

 Pier Giorgio Frassati was born in Turin, Italy to a mother who was a noted painter that exhibited in Venice and had works purchased by King Victor Emmanuel III. His father was also notable as the owner of a liberal newspaper who was also in the Italian Senate and later was an ambassador to Germany.

Even while still very young, he had a strong desire to help those in need. He gave a young boy the shoes off his own feet when he and his mother appeared at Piergiorio’s door to ask for help when he was only 9 years old. When his father refused to help a drunk man, he cried to his mother about this, wanting to do something, and she sent him to bring the man some food. He also had a playful side, though, and was known to enjoy practical jokes. Around others and at gatherings, he was described as “rambunctious” and joyful, though after his death, some of his writings revealed that he also desired quiet time alone and sometimes suffered from depression.

While he did not do very well in school, he was overly involved in all he could be - youth groups, a sodality, Catholic Action, St. Vincent DePaul Society, and even later, he became a third-order Dominican. Aside from all of this, he spent his free time befriending the impoverished and underserved in the streets of his city. He also cared for debilitated soldiers when they returned from World War I. Though his family was wealthy, he was given little money to spend, but he used it all on clothing, education, food, and shelter for these people. He soon became the leader of many of these groups and even established his own newspaper based on the Rerum Novarum encyclical that supported labor rights.

While he actively served folks in their current states, he also argued constantly that charity was not enough and social reform was also necessary to ease the suffering.

 
Pier Giorgio was also anti-fascist despite the movement gaining momentum in Italy at the time. He attended protests and endured police brutality and arrest, which he could have been spared from due to his family’s status, but he chose to stay with his friends. He even fought off a group of fascists that broke into his family’s home.

 
He decided to study mining engineering with the goal to serve among the miners and attended a university to do so. When he graduated, his father gave him a large sum of money, which he also gave away. Whether it was providing a bed for someone who had been evicted, purchasing boots for an unemployed laborer, paying the grocery bill for a family in need, or finding housing for orphans, he was always at work, and at the same time, he knew the value of games and passions as well, organizing outings and fun for his many groups and friends, and spending time doing something he greatly loved - mountain climbing. He also loved art and music, though he could never quite get into dancing.

On the day his grandmother passed away, Pier Giorgio began to experience pains and fever, but neglected care for himself in favor of care for his grandmother and family. Eventually a doctor found he had contracted polio, likely from one of the sick people he cared for.

His condition worsened drastically within a week, in which he wrote notes to his sister and his friends providing instructions on continuing care for those he had been looking after. He died in his mother’s arms at the age of only 24.

At his funeral, his family expected merely a few persons from the elite company they kept to show up, and they were surprised to discover thousands of inhabitants of Turin there to mourn his loss, who, in turn, were surprised to discover he had been the heir of such an influential family because he always had chosen to live in poverty with them, himself.
The folks of Turin quickly organized to demand his beatification, and in 1981, his remains were found incorrupt when transferred to Turin cathedral. He is now also a patron of World Youth Day because of his influence and all the actions he performed at such a young age.