by Claudio Giuliodori - "Holiness is the most beautiful face of the Church" states Pope Francis in the Apostolic Exhortation Rejoice and be glad (n. 9). The proclamation of a saint is an immense gift for the entire Church. It confirms that it is possible to encounter the Lord Jesus, to follow him, to live the joyful experience of faith, and to give full meaning to life.
The canonization of Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati makes us understand how true all this is and how the saints are the great traveling companions of all those who face the path of life making their own the invitation of St. Paul: "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God; set your mind on the things that are above, not on those of the earth" (Collar 3,1-2). This does not mean that the saints shun earthly life or are strangers to the arena of human life, quite the opposite. They are precisely those who, living in Christ, know how to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary, as Pope Leo XIV recalled in his homily: "Pier Giorgio and Carlo cultivated love for God and for their brothers through simple means, within everyone's reach." And, in particular, "Pier Giorgio encountered the Lord through school and church groups—Catholic Action, the Conferences of St. Vincent, the Italian Federation of Catholic University Students, the Dominican Third Order—and he bore witness to this with his joy of living and being a Christian in prayer, friendship, and charity."
Upward
The saint, with his originality and singularity, is always an "Alter Christus." Pier Giorgio Frassati was this in an extraordinary way with his decisive and courageous progress "upward," not only by physically scaling mountains. His ascent was above all a spiritual impulse, a passionate and courageous quest for a blessed life, a desire for true and authentic sanctity in the concrete circumstances of his life and his time.
The Eight Beatitudes
The Beatitudes are the map on which Pier Giorgio charted his path to sainthood. Today, therefore, the definition of "man of the eight Beatitudes" formulated by the then Cardinal of Krakow, Karol Wojtyla, appears even more prophetic and fitting than ever when he inaugurated a photographic exhibition dedicated to the young man from Turin in 1977. In particular, his yearning to be a peacemaker is clearly visible in his choices and writings. His name can certainly be inscribed among the "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God."
It's enough to read what he wrote to the Catholic students of Bonn on the occasion of the French occupation of the Ruhr (January 12, 1923). He encouraged them with expressions of great affection and faith: "Modern society," he wrote, "is drowning in the pain of human passions and is moving away from every ideal of love and peace. As Catholics, you and we must bring the breath of goodness that can only come from faith in Christ."
Even more evident is his adherence to the motto "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied." He, who was certainly well-fed by his comfortable, bourgeois status, wanted to place the poor and the least at the center of his life, whom he encountered every day, often in silence and obscurity. And it wasn't a choice of marginal or occasional charity, much less a flaunting one. Charity was the hallmark of his entire life. He even focused his studies on mining engineering to be close to one of the most suffering and exploited worlds: that of miners.
Blessed are the poor in spirit…
But all this would have been impossible if he had not lived the first of the Beatitudes in a particularly intense way: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." The centrality of the spiritual life, the assiduity in prayer, the daily Eucharist and the Rosary, tell us how much he had internalized the need to entrust himself totally to the Lord and to want to conform himself ever more to Him who "did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mc 10,45).
We confidently invoke Saint Pier Giorgio, knowing that for over a century he has prayed for young people, for the entire Church, and for Catholic Action. We feel his inspiration inviting us to rise "upward," and we are not afraid to let ourselves be caught up in the wind of holiness that blows even stronger with his canonization.
*Frassati, the man of the eight beatitudes was published on Sign in the world insert of occur on Tuesday 9 September