Pier Giorgio Frassati

Pier Giorgio Frassati was born on April 6, 1901, in Turin, Italy, the son of Alfredo Frassati, founder and director of the newspaper La Stampa, and Adelaide Ametis. Despite growing up in a wealthy and socially prominent household — his father later served as Italy's ambassador to Germany — Pier Giorgio lived a life centered on the poor.

He studied mining engineering at the Royal Polytechnic University of Turin, where he was known as an energetic student, avid mountaineer, and active member of several Catholic organizations including the St. Vincent de Paul Society. He spent his free time visiting the sick, distributing food and money, and accompanying the destitute through the streets of Turin — often giving away his own money and even the clothes off his back. His circle of friends called him "the man of the eight beatitudes."

His faith was anchored in the Eucharist and daily Mass. He received Communion daily and spent long hours in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. His letters and the accounts of those who knew him describe a person who was simultaneously joyful, athletic, and deeply contemplative — and who was careful never to draw attention to his charity.

In June 1925, while visiting the sick during a typhoid epidemic in Turin, Pier Giorgio contracted poliomyelitis. He died on July 4, 1925, at the age of twenty-four. At his funeral, the streets were lined not with his father's social circle but with the poor of Turin, who knew him as a personal friend.

He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on May 20, 1990. On September 7, 2025, Pope Leo XIV canonized him alongside Carlo Acutis in St. Peter's Square — two young Italian laymen, each a model of holiness lived in ordinary life.