On the third of August, 2025, Pope Francis will canonize young Peter George Frassati, who was in the ranks of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, whose commitment to charity translates into humble, generous and creative service to the poorest brothers, as Blessed Anthony Frederick Ozanam and his companions had envisioned for them.
Peter George Frassati was born in Turn (Italy) on April 6, 1901. He was of a noble and influential family. His father was indifferent to religion and owner of one of the most important newspapers in Italy, La Stampa, having also been a senator and ambassador in Berlin. His mother was dedicated to painting and art.
Despite his family background, Peter George was able to cultivate a deep spirituality, embedding his whole existence in a solid experience of the love of God. The encounter with Jesus Christ in the Eucharist and in the poor would become the center and inspiration of his life as a young Christian. In fact, daily participation in the Holy Mass, prolonged in Eucharistic adoration, will constitute the source of his spiritual life and the strength of his dedication to those most in need. He once said: “Jesus comes to me every day in Holy Communion and I return the visit by serving the poor”. In fact, the Eucharist, “the privileged place of the disciple’s encounter with Jesus Christ”, so shaped the life, attitudes, thoughts and feelings of Peter George that his whole existence took on a “truly Eucharistic form”. The Eucharist was for him the “unquenchable source of the missionary impulse”, a true school of charity, a strong call to collaborate in building a better world according to God’s plan (Aparecida Document, n. 251). He was also nourished by a remarkable Marian piety that encouraged him to live human values and Christian virtues.
He lived his youth to the full: he went out with his friends, went mountaineering, organized parties and games, without ever forgetting the concrete and convinced practice of the faith that he professed with enthusiasm and lived with vigor. Already belonging to other ecclesial movements, especially Catholic Action, he also wanted to join the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which he did on November 29, 1918. Together with his friends, he was always faithful to the Vincentian commitment to visit the poor in their own homes. The Eucharistic Christ, whom he frequently received in communion and adored, was the same Christ he found in the least of his brothers, in the face of their suffering, in their exploited and wounded lives, in their stories of pain and want. His Christian conscience prompted him to work for a more just and fraternal society, against the tide of the rapidly expanding fascist regime. In 1920, against his father’s wishes, he joined the Italian Popular Party, founded by Father Luigi Sturzo, inspired by Pope Leo XIII’s Encyclical Rerum Novarum. Thus, evangelical charity, learned in the school of St. Vincent and Blessed Frederick Ozanam, was taking on political contours in his life as a Christian committed to social reform. Far from being a mere bystander of the social scene, Peter George never ceased to propose meetings, debates and popular rallies, as he believed that true politics is forged in the effective participation of all citizens.
Nourished by his vigorous Eucharistic spirituality, dedicated to his engineering studies and in midst of a series of concrete services to the poor, especially to Italian miners who could not adequately care for their health and exploited by long and heavy working days, Peter George Frassati contracted polio and died on July 4, 1925, at the age of 24. His words speak volumes about the faith convictions that motivated his charitable and social work:
“Peace is lacking in the world that has turned away from God, but so is charity, that is, true and perfect love. There is nothing more beautiful than charity. In fact, faith and hope cease with our death, but love lasts eternally, and I even believe that it will be more alive in the afterlife”.
At his beatification ceremony on May 20, 1990, Pope John Paul II described Frassati’s human, spiritual and apostolic profile with enduring words:
“‘Worship the Lord, Christ, in your hearts, always ready to answer anyone who asks you the reason for your hope’ (1Pt 3:15). In our century, Peter George Frassati, whom in the name of the Church I have the joy of proclaiming blessed today, embodied in his own life these words of St. Peter. The power of the Spirit of truth, united to Christ, made him a modern witness to the hope that springs from the Gospel and to the grace of salvation at work in the human heart. He thus became the living witness and courageous defender of this hope on behalf of the young Christians of the twentieth century.
Faith and charity, the true motors of his existence, made him active and industrious in the environment in which he lived, in his family and at school, in the university and in society; they transformed him into a joyful and enthusiastic apostle of Christ, a passionate follower of his message and of his charity.
The secret of his apostolic zeal and holiness is found in the ascetic and spiritual path he followed; in his prayer, in his persevering adoration, even at night, of the Blessed Sacrament; in his thirst for the word of God, scrutinized in the biblical texts; in his serene acceptance of the difficulties of life, including family difficulties; in his chastity lived as a joyful discipline; in his daily predilection for silence and the ‘normality’ of existence.
It is precisely in these factors that we discover the deep source of his spiritual vitality. Indeed, it is through the Eucharist that Christ communicates his Spirit; it is through listening to his word that our readiness to welcome others grows; and it is also through prayerful abandonment to the will of God that the great decisions of life mature. Only by adoring God present in his own heart can the baptized person respond to those who ‘ask for the reason for the hope’ within him. And the young Frassati knows it, experiences it, lives it. In his life, faith merged with charity: firm in faith and active in charity, because faith without works is dead.
Certainly, at first glance, the style of Peter George Frassati, a modern young man full of life, does not present anything extraordinary. But that is precisely the originality of his virtue, which invites reflection and encourages imitation. In him, faith and daily events blend harmoniously, to the point that adherence to the Gospel is translated into loving attention to the poor and needy, in a continuous crescendo until the last days of his illness, which led to his death. His taste for beauty and art, his passion for sports and the mountains, his attention to the problems of society did not prevent him from having a constant relationship with the Absolute.
Totally immersed in the mystery of God and totally dedicated to the constant service of his neighbor: this is how we can summarize his earthly journey! His vocation as a lay Christian was concretized in his multiple associative and political commitments, in a convulsive society, indifferent and sometimes hostile to the Church. With this spirit, Peter George knew how to give impetus to the various Catholic movements, which he joined with enthusiasm (…) He lived his Christian vocation with joy and committed himself to love Jesus and to see him in the brothers he met on his way or those he sought out in places of suffering, marginalization and abandonment to make them feel the warmth of his human solidarity and the supernatural consolation of faith in Christ.
He died young, at the end of a short life but extraordinarily rich in spiritual fruits, on his way ‘to his true homeland to sing praises to God’.
Today’s celebration invites us all to welcome the message that Peter George Frassati sends to the men and women of our time, especially to you, young people, who want to offer a concrete contribution of spiritual renewal to this world of ours, which at times seems to be crumbling and languishing for lack of ideals.
He proclaims, by his example, that a life led in the spirit of Christ, the spirit of the Beatitudes, is ‘blessed’, and that only he who becomes a ‘man of the Beatitudes’ is capable of communicating love and peace to his brothers and sisters. He repeats that it is really worth sacrificing everything to serve the Lord. He testifies that holiness is possible for everyone and that only the revolution of charity can kindle in the hearts of men the hope of a better future”.
Vinícius Augusto Teixeira, CM
