On 26 April 2024 more than 50,000 people, who had gathered for the National Assembly of Italian Catholic Action, cheered and applauded when Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, announced that Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati will be canonized next year, 2025, which happens to be a Jubilee Year. This announcement evoked jubilation not merely in Italy but also in other parts of the world where he is loved and admired.
Pier Giorgio Michelangelo Frassati was born in Turin, Italy on 6 April 1901. His father Alfredo, was the founder and editor of the newspaper, La Stampa. Later he became an Italian Senator and Ambassador to Germany.
His compassion towards the poor and eagerness to help them were revealed already in his childhood. Once, hearing a knock, he opened the door to find a mother and her son begging. Seeing that her little son had no shoes, he took off his shoes and gave them to the boy. When he was eight years old, his father refused to help a man who came to their house asking for help, because he was drunk. Seeing this Frassati went to his mother sobbing. She told him to go and find the man and bring him home. When Frassati did so, she asked the poor man to sit down and eat. Sometimes he would give away to the poor the money he had been given for the bus fare and then run home to be on time for meals.
Fr M.A. Joe Antony, SJ
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