Today, St. Pier Giorgio Frassati was canonized alongside St. Carlo Acutis. Though his time on earth was cut short by polio, St. Pier Giorgio lived a life of devotion and charity, making himself a servant of the poor. Because his life reflected the teachings of the Beatitudes, Pope St. John Paul II gave him the now widely used title of “The Man of the Beatitudes.”
St. Pier Giorgio’s life was striking in his care for the poor and he actively participated in his local chapter of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. In fact, on his death bed and partially paralyzed, he sent his sister, Luciana, to deliver medication to one of the city’s poor that he had been assisting. According to his Luciana, St. Pier Giorgio carried St. Paul’s Hymn of Charity with him and was inspired to love by the words it contained: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”
While his own actions exemplified solidarity with the poor, he did not believe that individual acts were a sufficient response to the needs of society’s most vulnerable. Instead, influenced by the teachings of Leo XIII in Rerum Novarum (which notably influenced Pope Leo XIV’s choice of papal name) and Pope Pius XI’s inauguration of the Catholic Action movement. St. Pier Giorgio joined the Catholic Action movement, seeing political activism as a necessary extension of his faith. This activism was not limited to caring for the poor, though that was certainly an essential aspect of it. St. Pier Giorgio deeply longed for world peace. He was a teenager during WWI and spent time caring for returning soldiers. He believed that wars were caused by insufficient Christian spirit in the world and found himself aligned with Pope Pius XI’s efforts to promote peace.
Yet, while St. Pier Giorgio lived an exemplary life in all these ways, he also lived a very real life. He struggled in school, failing his Latin class and needing to repeat the year, his family life was frequently challenging, and he struggled to obey the call to sacrifice a romantic relationship. At the same time, he embraced life vigorously. He is well known as an avid hiker, but he also enjoyed cultural activities and music. St. Pier Giorgio was a dedicated friend who made efforts to maintain childhood friendships as his peers grew up and life pulled them in different directions.
Ironically, what helps me most to see him as human, however, was his death. At the age of twenty-four, St. Pier Giorgio contracted polio. The virus would reach epidemic levels in the following decades, but in 1925, when St. Pier Giorgio became sick, it was still a relatively infrequent cause of severe illness in Italy. For me, the virus is personally meaningful: my grandmother suffered life-long disability from contracting polio just a few years after St. Pier Giorgio’s death.
In the 1920s, there was little anyone could do to treat polio. In The Autumn Ghost, Hannah Wunsch described how some victims were kept alive through 24-hour hand ventilation that involved doctors and medical students taking long shifts to rhythmically pump devices that delivered air into a patient’s lungs. It was not until 1928 that the first iron lung was used to help polio patients breathe and, even then, it was not widely available. Without treatment, St. Pier Giorgio suffered his final illness at home. An active sportsman, he would have experienced progressive paralysis that eventually impaired breathing and swallowing. Death from polio primarily involved suffocation or choking. St. Pier Giorgio died within days of the death of the woman who had taught him to love Christ: his grandmother.
Even in his final hours – which must have involved unimaginable suffering – St. Pier Giorgio reminded us that those who suffer are blessed. Verso l’alto!
As we celebrate St. Pier Giorgio’s eternal life this weekend, let us remember the Beatitudes that shaped his life:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.
The information from this article was taken from frassatiusa.org unless otherwise indicated.
Image: “Celebrating Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassat” (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) by Catholic Church (England and Wales)
Ariane Sroubek is a writer, school psychologist and mother to two children here on earth. Prior to converting to Catholicism, she completed undergraduate studies in Bible and Theology at Gordon College in Wenham, MA. She then went on to obtain her doctorate in School and Child Clinical Psychology. Ariane’s writing is inspired by her faith, daily life experiences and education. She is currently writing a women's fiction novel and a middle-grade mystery series. Her non-fiction book, Raising Sunshine: A Guide to Parenting Through the Aftermath of Infant Death is available on Amazon. More of her work can be found at https://mysustaininggrace.com.
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