Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati: A True Man And A True Friend

In my lifetime, the buzz for Blessed Pier Giorgio has grown louder and louder throughout the years. First, it was a couple glances of those famous pictures of him smoking a pipe on the mountain, and boisterously laughing with his arm on his buddy’s shoulder, etc. Then, “Verso L’Alto” became a Catholic cliche (in a good sense). Soon, the Archdiocese of Denver (my home diocese) bought the building of my secular charter K-8 school and named the new Catholic school Frassati Classical Academy. Various youth groups and men’s groups started naming themselves after him in some way. Ever since Cardinal Marcello Semeraro announced his canonization back in April 2024, the crescendo is coming to a glorious climax when Pope Leo XIV will canonize he and fellow young Italian Carlo Acutis on 7 September 2025.

Frassati is hailed as the saint of young people, and rightly so. The lesser known fact about him is that he will be the latest addition to the awesomely extensive list of Dominican saints. Yes, Pier Giorgio Frassati was a member of the Dominican laity. The worldwide Order of Preachers joins with the whole Church by joyfully celebrating the canonization of a fellow brother. Of course, “the Man of the Beatitudes” never mounted a pulpit or taught at the Angelicum, but he is a quintessential model of a young Catholic and a preacher in modern times. He embodies the vocation of the laity: he was a true man and a true friend.

Forty years after Frassati’s death, the Second Vatican Council’s groundbreaking document on the Church “Lumen Gentium” states, “Fortified by so many and such powerful means of salvation, all the faithful, whatever their condition or state, are called by the Lord, each in his own way, to that perfect holiness whereby the Father Himself is perfect.” From my experience in the Church, especially in college, I am impressed by the emphasis on mission for laypeople and am excited to see how the world is evangelized through the laity. Holiness isn’t only for clergy and religious!

Frassati was a man. It’s sad to see masculinity shunned, degraded, and ignored in today’s world. There are so many people out there who are boys in a man’s body, and relationships, families, and those men themselves are often destroyed. Phrases like “toxic masculinity” and transgenderism are commonplace, in which there is such a dire lack of masculine formation that masculinity is abused or rejected. Pier Giorgio received God’s gift of manhood and lived it to the full.

My paraphrase of Saint Thomas Aquinas’ definition of true friendship is, “One soul in two bodies journeying together to the same Eternal Goal.” Friendship and community is sadly rare these days. What impresses me most about Pier Giorgio is that he truly invested his heart into his friends and walked with them toward Jesus. We often forget that our Catholic Faith is Good News; it’s not supposed to be a set of rules that inhibit our freedom. We give our friends gifts, and Pier Giorgio gave his friends the Greatest Gift: Jesus Christ. I don’t know about y’all, but having true friends is unparalleled to any other blessing one could receive. I pray that those who don’t have true friends may one day experience the beauty and joy of true friendship.

We Catholics, and we Dominicans, look forward to the day that Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati becomes Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati. Gaudemus!