This Monday is the National Day of Prayer for Young People, a day on which schools are encouraged to pray the Rosary for the intentions of our pupils. Given everything that our students have gone though over the last year as a result of the pandemic, the 2021 day of prayer takes on a particular significance.
Linked to this, Bishop Philip has placed the youth work of our diocese under the patronage of the fascinating figure of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati (pictured above).
Pier Giorgio was born in Turin in 1901. He came from a wealthy and influential family, his mother being an artist and his father the founder and owner of the Italian daily newspaper ‘La Stampa’. Neither of his parents was particularly religious and both were unhappily married. He had a younger sister, Luciana, with whom he was very close and grew up to be a good-looking young man, full of life and energy. A daredevil athlete, he loved skiing, swimming, horse-riding and, above all, climbing mountains.
The young Pier Giorgio soon developed a deep spiritual life based around the twin poles of daily reception of the Eucharist and devotion to Our Lady. At the age of 17, he joined the St. Vincent de Paul Society – of which we now have a flourishing branch here in Abingdon – and dedicated much of his spare time to serving the sick and the needy, caring for orphans and assisting demobilized servicemen returning from World War I. Without drawing attention to himself, he worked secretly in the slums, gave away his wealth and much of his spare time serving the poor: ‘I see a special light around the sick, the poor, the less fortunate, a light we do not possess’ he said. He often gave up his holidays at the Frassati summer home outside Turin because, as he said, “If everybody leaves Turin, who will take care of the poor?”
All this was combined with an attractive and lively personality. As a university student, he was the life and soul of a group of close friends called the Typi Loschi (the ‘Shady Ones’). He smoked, enjoyed a drink, played practical jokes, debated politics and fell in love. He was also devoted to the theatre, the opera and other cultural pursuits. He loved art and music and could quote whole passages of Dante from memory. But alongside this was his profound spirituality, with many hours, even at night, given up to prayer. He encouraged his friends to accompany him to Mass, read Holy Scripture and pray the rosary.
Like his father, he was strongly anti-Fascist and did nothing to hide his political views. At various times he was physically attacked by groups of anti-clerical Communists and Fascists. Participating in a demonstration in Rome, he stood up to police violence and rallied other young people by grabbing the banner his group was holding, which the state guards had knocked out of another student’s hands, and used it to fend off the blows of the guards.
Just before receiving his university degree, Pier Giorgio contracted polio, probably caught from the sick he had been tending. After six days of terrible suffering, he died at the age of 24 on July 4th 1925. To the amazement of his family, who knew little of his inner life, great crowds turned out for his funeral. The streets of the city were lined with a multitude of mourners, including the poor and the needy whom he had served so unselfishly for seven years. Many of these people were, in turn, surprised to learn that the saintly young man they knew had actually been the heir of the influential Frassati family.
There is a great deal about Pier Giorgio on the internet and I am indebted to www.frassatiusa.org among other sites for what I have gleaned about him in recent months. I can see very clearly why Bishop Philip is holding him up as a model for our youth. Frassati was a highly attractive person who put his faith vigorously into action and, in an all too brief life, devoted himself to helping his fellow human beings.