Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati - (1901-1925)

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati – (1901-1925)

Pier Giorgio is a model for the young and the old; appropriately in today’s America. (Ref. Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati – An Ordinary Christian, by Maria Di Lorenzo, translated by R. Ventresca, Pauline Books, Boston 2004)

“On May 22, 1922, at the age of twenty-one, Pier Giorgio was received into the Third Order Dominicans and took the name, Girolamo, in honor of Savonarola, a man he greatly admired. Savonarola was a Dominican priest who had been burned at the stake in 1498 for his fiery preaching against the widespread corruption in the Church and society.

Many university organizations and periodicals of the early twentieth century saw Savonarola as a model of coherence and radical commitment. Some of the Dominican fathers tried to convince Pier Giorgio to choose the name of another canonized or beatified member of the Order. But Pier Giorgio refused to budge.

The story of Savonarola and his energetic struggle against the tyranny of the Medici family fascinated Pier Giorgio, and after becoming a member of the Third Order, he began signing his letters, fra Girolamo. To Antonio Villani, who was also interested in the Dominicans, Pier Giorgio wrote, “I am a fervent admirer of this friar, who died as a saint at the stake. In becoming a tertiary, I wanted to take him as a model, but I am far from being like him.”

Pier Giorgio’s decision to make this commitment matured over the course of a few years. From the time he first encountered Dominican spirituality in 1918, Pier Giorgio had the time and opportunity to discern his calling to the life of a lay Dominican. In the Order, he found the way to serve as a witness to the truth in the spirit of that great Spanish saint, Dominic de Guzman, who founded the Order of Preachers (or Dominicans as they came to be more commonly known) in 1215.

In 1923, deeply moved and with tears streaming down his face, Pier Giorgio professed final vows in the Chapel of Our lady of Grace in Turin’s Church of St. Dominic, with Father Robotti as his sponsor. Recalling his visit to Turin in 1922 to celebrate the feast of St. Dominic, Father Martino Stanislao Gillet, the superior general of the Dominicans at the time, remembered the impression made on him by the small group of university students who had entered as lay members of the Order.

“They were all quite nice, but one in particular really caught my attention as having a special charm. He radiated such kindness that people were drawn to him. His name was Pier Giorgio Frassati. Pier Giorgio was one of that select group of young people that you find in every university these days, individual who have a longing for the supernatural, the true sign of an apostle. For him, religion was always a way of life, it was both light and strength, which illuminated and animated all human activity. Nothing was beyond its grasp and, at the same time, it has the power to broaden everything in life.

Pier Giorgio had only time enough to be a student in his short life, but it clear even then what kind of a man he would have been. Not quite an intellectual - that is, someone who dedicated his life to his own philosophy – but rather a man of action, determined to dedicate his philosophy to serving life.”

… A devout follower of St. Dominic, Pier Giorgio carried the rosary in his jacket pocket and would take it out at any place, any time, to pray. Pointing to his rosary one day, Pier Giorgio remarked, “I carry my testament in my pocket.” P. 51-3

G. H. Kubeck OP, This is the first of several excerpts on today’s Feast of St. Albert the Great, Bishop, Nov. 15/10