Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati
Patron Saint of Young Catholics
Pier Giorgio Frassati was born in Italy in 1901. From an early age, Frassati was interested in helping others however he could. When he was 21, he became a professed member of the Third Order of St. Dominic and began to lead groups of people in works of mercy in the model of Rerum novarum. Frassati was also an avid outdoorsman, especially mountaineering. Frassati contracted polio in 1925 and died when he was just 24. Many of the poor of Turin who he had helped showed up to his funeral, shocking his parents who did not know of his charitable works. Pope John Paul II called Frassati the “Man of the Eight Beatitudes” and Pope Benedict XVI encouraged young men to look to Frassati as a role model in today’s world.