Pier Giorgio Frassati was born in Turin, Italy on 6th April 1901 to wealthy and influential parents, Alfredo Frassati, the owner and director of one of the largest and most liberal Italian newspapers, La Stampa, and Adelaide Ametis, a painter. His sister Luciana who was to become his best friend was born 17 months later.
Pier Giorgio’s faith did not stem from his immediate family’s witness. His father was agnostic and his mother was not deeply religious. She attended Mass but worried when her son went to daily Mass as she was afraid he would want to become a priest. Both parents were strong characters and the Frassati home was often filled with tension and arguments as the couple moved steadily closer towards a divorce, something which pained their children greatly. Their son did all that he could to keep them united and maintain peace in the home.
From a young age, Pier Giorgio had a deep interest in serving others. Once when a poor lady came to the door with her barefoot child in her arms, little Pier Giorgio didn’t hesitate to take off his own shoes and socks there and then for the little boy to wear, before gently closing the door so no-one in his family would know what he had done. He had an acute sensitivity to the suffering of those around him and did all that he could to help others. From the little allowance that his father gave him to pay for first class train tickets, he chose to ride third class, or forego the train ride altogether and walk instead, so that he could give the money to the poor and sick. Italy was struggling greatly from the ill effects of World War I and poverty, sickness and social inequality was rampant.
Pier Giorgio initially struggled at school, compared to his naturally academic sister but studied hard. At the age of ten his father moved him to a Jesuit run school, which was a real source of joy for Pier Giorgio as the sincere faith of the priests deepened his own faith too. Pier Giorgio displayed an incredible love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and would often be found alone, spending the night on his knees in the church in adoration. He loved Our Lady deeply too, would bring flowers to his beloved Madonna of Oropa.
He prayed the rosary daily, seeing his rosary beads as a weapon for spiritual warfare.He would often encourage his friends to pray the rosary with him, or attend Mass at 5am before going mountain climbing or skiing together in the Alps. His friends nicknamed themselves “The Sinister Ones” and Pier Giorgio himself, “The Wild One”. He was a prankster, full of laughter, but also a loyal and steadfast friend. He always stood up for what was right, whether it was a fellow student being bullied, or later when college professors ridiculed the Catholic faith or taught immoral philosophies. His joyful and calm attitude was evident to all who met him, as well as his deep convictions and love of the Truth.
Pier Giorgio was passionate about sport and the great outdoors. He loved running, canoeing, skiing, hiking, riding bikes, rowing, horse-riding, playing pool smoking cigars and mountain climbing. “Verso l’alto” (which means “To the Heights”), a motto which has become associated with Pier Giorgio, was one he wrote on a photo of him on the last mountain he climbed. He read poetry, especially Dante; he loved music and theatre and frequented bars. He sang loudly and sometimes out of tune. He laughed heartily. He believed life was to be lived to the fullest; he never wanted to simply exist but to really live. The higher he climbed, the closer he felt to God. It was undoubtedly in the silence of nature and his time in front of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament that Pier Giorgio felt that his call to serve the poor was revealed to him.
Pier Giorgio was convinced that charity alone was not enough, but social reform was needed and so was involved in groups like the Society of St Vincent de Paul, and political movements at the time, especially those in opposition to Fascism. He studied Engineering with a strong desire to be a mining engineer so as to be of help to those working in the worst conditions in the mines. However, his father insisted he join him in the newspaper business at La Stampa. Pier Giorgio often put his family’s happiness before his own: when he fell in love with a girl in his group of friends, Laura Hidalgo, he sacrificed telling her about his feelings because he knew it would probably cause even more friction in his own family. Shortly before he died, Pier Giorgio was offered the choice of a car or money for his graduation gift. He chose the money so that he could share it with the poor whom he felt it his honour to serve. “All around the sick and all around the poor I see a special light which we do not have.”
In 1925, Pier Giorgio contracted a virulent form of poliomyelitis through his contact with the sick and poor, but said nothing to his family as they were preoccupied by his grandmother’s illness. Growing steadily weaker, the last note Pier Giorgio wrote was instructions for helping friends of his who were poor and sick. When he died in 1925 after a short but severe illness lasting just a week, thousands lined the streets for his funeral. His parents were shocked as they had never known their son’s true heart for charity and service amongst the poor and marginalised of the city of Turin. His inspiration eventually led to his father rediscovering the Catholic faith and his parents’ marriage being strengthened.
Miraculously, his body was found to be incorrupt when his coffin was opened during his beatification process in 1981. Pier Giorgio was beatified by St John Paul II in the year 2000, who called him “A Man of the Beatitudes” and “the man of our century”, and was named Patron Saint of World Youth Days. He was canonised by Pope Leo XIV along with his fellow Italian, Carlo Acutis, born 90 years after him, on 7th September 2025.
