Above, Blessed Carlo Acutis (May 3, 1991-October 12, 2006 — he died of leukemia at the age of 15) will become St. Carlo Acutis on Sunday, April 27, 2025, in Rome. Pope Francis made the announcement this morning in Rome during his General Audience in St. Peter’s Square.
Below, the Via della Conciliazione, leading up to St. Peter’s Square, and, further below, an image of Carlo with his dog, Crumb
Below, two images of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, an Italian Catholic man who died almost exactly 100 years ago, on July 4, 1925, at the age of 24. Frassati also will be canonized in 2025, between July 28 and August 3, Pope Francis announced this morning
Letter #52, 2024, Wednesday, November 20: Carlo Acutis (on April 27) and Pier Giorgio Frassati (between July 28-August 3) to be canonized as saints in Rome during the 2025 Jubilee Year
Blessed Carlo Acutis, who died in 2006 at the young age of 15 and is sometimes referred to as “God’s Influencer” because he used his “whizz-kid” computer skills to spread his faith, particularly a deep faith in the Holy Eucharist, will be canonized in Rome at the end of April, Pope Francis announced in Rome this morning during his General Audience in St. Peter’s Square.
Also, Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, who died in 1925 at the age of 24, will be canonized in the days from July 28 to August 3, 2025, Pope Francis also announced.
Here below is a report on the Pope’s words this morning, followed by biographies of each of the soon-to-be new saints. —RM
(P.S. If you would like to attend these canonizations, please contact us at Inside the Vatican Pilgrimages, and we will do our best to help organize your journey.)
Pope Francis: “I will canonize Carlo Acutis and Piergiorgio Frassati during 2025”
Pope Francis makes an unexpected announcement
By Anna Artymiak
Vatican City, Wednesday, November 20, 2024
“I want to say that next year on the Day of Children and of Adolescents, I will canonize Blessed Carlo Acutis, and on the Day of Young People, next year, I will canonize Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati.”
Pope Francis made this unexpected announcement today during the Italian-language greetings at his General Audience in St. Peter’s Square.
This news has been awaited by many around the world who have a profound devotion to these two much-loved young saints.
The Pope did not name the precise date of the two canonizations, but the Vatican Press Office confirmed that Blessed Carlo Acutis will be canonized on Sunday, April 27, 2025 at 10:30 a.m. in St. Peter’s Square.
Blessed Piergiorgio Frassati will be canonized, the Pope said, during the Jubilee of Young People, which will run from July 28-August 3 this summer. [Editor’s note: Since August 3 is a Sunday. it may be that August 3 will be the date of Frassati’s canonization.]
As the Pope made his announcement, he was in the presence of about 100 children who were invited by the Community of Sant’Egidio to be with him on the “Sagrato,” the large flat area at the top of the steps immediately in front of the basilica.
The Pope also announced that “on the occasion of the International Day for the Rights of Children and Adolescents,” on February 3, 2025, the Vatican will host a “World Meeting on Children’s Rights” entitled “Love Them and Protect Them,” with the participation of experts from many countries.
The meeting will discuss new ways to come to the aid of millions of children still without rights, “living in precarious conditions, being exploited and abused,” the Pope said.
The Pope also issued one more call for peace in Ukraine, as yesterday marked the 1,000th day since the Russian-Ukrainian war began on February 24, 2022. “Yesterday marked 1,000 days since the Ukrainian invasion,” the Pope said. “A tragic recurrence, and at the same time a shameful disaster for humanity… Let weapons give way to dialogue.”
The Pope then said, “I received a letter from a university boy at a Ukrainian university…,” and he proceeded to read the entire letter to the faithful in St. Peter’s Square.
Regarding the canonizations, a Facebook post on the official page of the Diocese of Assisi- Novera- Gualdo Tadino confirms that Carlo Acutis will be canonized during the Jubilee of Adolescents and that the Mass, presided over by Pope Francis, is scheduled for April 27 at 10:30 a.m.
Later came also the comment of the Bishop of Assisi, Monsignor Domenico Sorrentino. “Assisi rejoices,” declared the bishop of the dioceses of Assisi-Nocera Umbra-Gualdo Tadino and of Foligno, ”for this important news that allows us to set out toward the day of the canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis with all the enthusiasm and good preparation necessary. We are already planning some significant moments of deepening, reflection and coordination that will see us engaged in the city, throughout the diocese, in the sister diocese of Foligno and in the dioceses of Umbria. I feel this moment as a grace for our Church, the Italian Church and the whole world.”
“The Church and especially young people,” added Sorrentino, ”see Carlo (Acutis) as a ray of light, as were Francis and Clare in whose footsteps he came to sanctify himself and now rests. He was truly an original, not a photocopy. He wished to conform fully to Jesus. He wished to be a smile of God and a magnet of holiness for young people. Sharing our joy are his father Andrea, his mother Antonia, his sister Francesca and his brother Michele. It is beautiful that Carlo shows us the way of the family as the road to holiness. We thank Pope Francis and joyfully prepare for this moment.”
[End, report by Anna Artymiak]
The Boy Who Fell In Love… with Jesus
Carlo Acutis was born on May 3, 1991, in London, United Kingdom and he died of leukemia on October 12, 2006, at the age of 15 in Monza, Italy.
His body rests in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Assisi, Italy, just a few steps from the residence of the bishop, and just a few steps from the place where St. Francis dis-robed when he gave up his earthly inheritance and committed his entire life to poverty and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Carlo was beatified on October 10, 2020, in the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Assisi, Italy, by Cardinal Agostino Vallini (on behalf of Pope Francis).
His major shrine is in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, which also contains the Sanctuary of the Spoliation of St. Francis, in Assisi, Italy.
Carlo’s Feast Day is October 12, and he is the Patron Saint of young people and influencers.
Here is a slightly abridged account of his life drawn from the internet.
Carlo Acutis: A Life That Was A Light
Carlo Acutis was born in London, England, on 3 May 1991, to Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano, members of wealthy Italian families.
His father’s family worked in the Italian insurance industry and his mother’s ran a publishing company.
Acutis’s maternal great-grandmother was born in the United States and came from a family of landowners in New York.
His baptism took place on 18 May 1991 in the Church of Our Lady of Dolours, Chelsea. His paternal grandfather, Carlo, was his godfather; and his maternal grandmother, Luana, was his godmother. Neither of his parents were religious.
Childhood
Acutis’s parents worked in London and Germany before he was born, and moved to Milan, Italy, shortly after, in September 1991. He was cared for by an Irish nanny.
Aside from a few visits to a daycare centre, most of Acutis’s early care came from nannies. During one daycare visit, he was bullied by other children. A Polish nanny, who thought he was too nice, tried to teach him to set boundaries so that other children would not take his toys. He replied: “Jesus would not be happy if I lost my temper.”
In the summer, Acutis would stay with his mother’s parents in Centola, Italy. After spending the day at the beach, he would join a number of older women in the local parish church to pray the rosary.
Acutis attended his first primary school in September 1997, the San Carlo Institute in Milan; but as the school was a distance from their home, three months later he transferred to the Marcelline Tommaseo Institute, run by the Sisters of St. Marcellina. During his walks to school, he took particular interest in the foreign caretakers of the different homes along his route; learning their names and stopping to greet them personally each morning. Upon completing middle school, Acutis went on to the Jesuit Instituto Leone XIII high school.
On 16 June 1998, when he was seven years old, Acutis received his First Communion at the convent of Sant’Ambrogio ad Nemus, Milan. Acutis was also a frequent communicant and attended Eucharistic Adoration. He was confirmed five years later on 24 May 2003 at Santa Maria Segreta Church.
Although he was an average student, he liked to read and pursued other academic areas independently, including computer science and teaching himself the saxophone.
Family life
Acutis’s mother Antonia grew up in a secular family. She was confirmed while she was in college and was married in the church, but she did not attend Mass before Acutis was born. Her son’s faith and his insistent questions brought her back to the faith. It was similar for his father.
During his lifetime, Carlo remained an only child and his cousin, Flavia, was his best friend.
Precisely four years to the day after his death, his mother, Antonia, then aged 44, gave birth to twins, Michele and Francesca. She is said to attribute this event to her son’s intercession.
Religious education and devotion
When Acutis was three years old, his maternal grandfather, Antonio Salzano, died. Several days earlier, he was present when his grandfather received the Anointing of the Sick. The grandfather was said to have appeared to him in a dream asking for prayer. Shortly after his death, Acutis put on his coat while his grandmother was minding him and asked to be taken to church. When she asked him why, he said he wanted to pray for his grandfather, whom he declared “had gone to see Jesus”.
When Acutis was 12 years old, he became a catechist in his parish, Santa Maria Segreta. At the time, the Italian catechetical structure typically relied on young team leaders in youth groups, as contrasted with adults, to deliver religious education to their peers. Acutis’s parish priest said of him that:
“Carlo was a young man who was exceptionally transparent. He really wanted to progress in loving his parents, God, his classmates, and those who loved him less. He wanted to apply himself in his studies to educate himself in his catechism class as well as in school and computer science.”
Acutis showed an interest in the lives of saints, especially Francis of Assisi, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, Dominic Savio, Tarcisius, Bernadette Soubirous, and Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi.
He is said to have prayed to his guardian angel frequently and exhibited a special devotion to St. Michael the Archangel.
Websites
People around him considered him a “computer geek” due to his passion for and skill with computers and the internet. He was skilled in Java as well as C++[51] and often helped others with technical issues.
When he was 14, his parish priest asked him to create a webpage for his parish, Santa Maria Segreta in Milan. After this, a priest at his high school asked him to create a website to promote volunteering. For this work, he won a national competition called “Sarai volontario” (“You will be a volunteer”).
Keen to transmit the faith to a younger generation, Acutis applied himself to creating a website dedicated to cataloguing each reported Eucharistic miracle in the world and maintaining a list of the approved Marian apparitions of the Catholic Church. He appreciated Blessed Giacomo Alberione‘s initiatives to use the media to evangelize and proclaim the Gospel, aiming to do likewise with his own website.
Acutis launched the website in 2004 and worked on it for two and a half years, involving his entire family in the project. It was unveiled on 4 October 2006, the Feast of St. Francis, only days before his death.
Because he was hospitalized, Acutis was not able to attend the debut of his exhibition at Rome’s Church of San Carlo Borromeo.
Final days
On 1 October 2006, Acutis developed an inflammation of the throat. His parents took him to a doctor who diagnosed parotitis and dehydration, which a second doctor, a family friend, confirmed. A few days later, Acutis’s pain worsened and he had blood in his urine. By Sunday, 8 October, Acutis was too weak to get out of bed to go to Mass.
Acutis was taken to a clinic that specialized in blood diseases and was diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia. He was rushed to intensive care and put on a respirator. After a sleepless night, Acutis was transferred to San Gerardo Hospital north of Milan, one of only three hospitals in Italy equipped to treat his condition.
The hospital staff called in their chaplain and he performed the anointing of the sick. When a nurse came in to care for Acutis, Acutis asked her not to wake his parents since they were already very tired and he did not want to worry them more.
Acutis offered his suffering both for Pope Benedict XVI and for the Catholic Church, saying:, “I offer to the Lord the sufferings that I will have to undergo for the Pope and for the Church.”
The doctors treating his final illness had asked him if he was in great pain, to which he replied, “There are people who suffer much more than me.”
His final words to his mother were:
“Mom, don’t be afraid. Since Jesus became a man, death has become the passage towards life, and we don’t need to flee it. Let us prepare ourselves to experience something extraordinary in the eternal life.”
Death and funeral
Acutis fell into a coma and was taken to the intensive care unit where he underwent a blood-cleansing treatment. After a cerebral haemorrhage, he was pronounced brain-dead on 11 October, aged 15. Acutis died the next day, 12 October 2006, at 6:45 p.m. His parents brought his body home, where people came for four days to pay their last respects. A crowd of strangers attended his funeral, including young people who had abandoned the Church and those who returned for a memorial Mass three months later.
Exhumation to Assisi
It was Acutis’s final wish to be buried in Assisi. On 6 April 2019, his body was brought to the Sanctuary of the Spoliation and venerated at its final resting place. Overnight, the procession stopped at the Cathedral of San Rufino and the diocesan choir sang a Non io, ma Dio, (“Not me, but God”), a hymn especially composed for the occasion by Marco Mammoli.
While Acutis’s body may appear incorrupt behind the view glass, it is actually encased in a wax layer that was molded to look like his body prior to burial—this practice is common for the presentation of saints’ bodies so that pilgrims can see the saints as they were when they died. The rector of Santa Maria Maggiore in Assisi, where Carlo’s tomb is housed, said that Acutis’s body was discovered “fully integral,” though not intact.
Legacy
Following the Catholic Church’s recognition of a miracle in 2020 that was attributed to Acutis’s intercession, Antonia told the press that her son had appeared to her in dreams saying that he would be not only beatified but also canonized a saint in the future. A website was created for his canonization cause.
In memory of Acutis, Bishops Raffaello Martinelli and Cardinal Angelo Comastri helped to organize a traveling photo exhibition of all the Eucharistic miracle sites. It has since traveled to dozens of different countries across five continents.
Acutis once said, “We are all born originals, but many of us die as photocopies.”
In the document that concluded the Synod on Young People in 2018, Pope Francis used the phrase and praised him thusly:
“ Carlo did not fall into a trap. He saw that many young people, if they seem to be different, end up, in reality, looking like each other, by running behind what powerful people impose on them via mechanisms of consumption and stupor. In this way, they do not let the gifts that the Lord has made for them flow into them. They do not offer the world these personal and unique gifts that the Lord has sown in each one of them.”
Francis also called Acutis a model for people who live normal lives to grow in holiness.
Beatification
The call for Acutis to be beatified began not long after his death. On 12 October 2012, the 6th anniversary of his death, the Archdiocese of Milan opened the cause for canonization.
The campaign gained momentum on 13 May 2013, when the Congregation for the Causes of Saints issued a nihil obstat stating there was nothing preventing the cause from moving forward. He was then named a Servant of God, the first stage on the path towards sainthood The Lombardy Episcopal Conference approved the petition for the official canonization cause to proceed at a meeting in 2013.
The opening of the diocesan investigation was held on 15 February 2013, with Cardinal Angelo Scola inaugurating the process, and concluding it on 24 November 2016. Scola said Acutis was not called to be “a movie star, but a star in Heaven” and that Acutis was “a new treasure in the Ambrosian church”. The formal introduction to the cause occurred on 13 May 2013, and Acutis became titled a “Servant of God”. Pope Francis next confirmed his life as one of heroic virtue on 5 July 2018, declaring him Venerable.
On 14 November 2019, the Vatican’s Medical Council of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints expressed a positive opinion about a miracle in Brazil attributed to Acutis’s intercession. Luciana Vianna had taken her son, Mattheus, who was born with a pancreatic defect that made eating difficult, to a prayer service. Beforehand, she had prayed a novena asking for the teenager Acutis’s intercession. During the service, Mattheus had asked that he should not “throw up as much.” Immediately following the service, he told his mother that he felt healed and asked for solid food when he came home. Until then, he had been on an all-liquid diet. After a detailed investigation, Pope Francis confirmed the miracle’s authenticity in a decree on 21 February 2020, leading to Acutis’s beatification.
Within a month of the decree, the beatification ceremony was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, during which the country was placed on lockdown. It was rescheduled for 10 October 2020 and was held in the Upper Church of the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi in Assisi, Italy, with Cardinal Agostino Vallini presiding on the Pope’s behalf. As of 2019, the postulator for Acutis’s cause was Nicola Gori.
Since the beatification ceremony on 10 October 2020, silent crowds have been filing past the exposed relics of the blessed youth in the one-time cathedral of Assisi, the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore.
Canonization process
On 23 May 2024, Pope Francis recognized a second miracle attributed to the intercession of Acutis. The miracle attributed to his intercession occurred in 2022 when a Costa Rican woman named Valeria had fallen off her bike and suffered a brain haemorrhage with doctors giving her a low chance of survival. Valeria’s mother, Lilliana, prayed for the intercession of Acutis and visited his tomb. The same day, Valeria began to breathe independently again and was able to walk the next day with all evidence of the haemorrhage having disappeared.
On 1 July 2024, Pope Francis presided at an Ordinary Consistory of Cardinals, which approved the canonization of 15 people, including Blessed Carlo Acutis.
The date of his formal canonization has now been announced: April 27, 2025, in St. Peter’s Square in Rome.
Here is an article from one month ago on the spirituality of Carlo Acutis from the National Catholic Register (link):
Blessed Carlo Acutis’ Tips on Living Well
Saint-to-be offers lessons on loving Jesus and caring for family and friends.
By Amy Smith, October 12, 2024
Register contributor and author Sabrina Ferrisi, a mother of five, was on EWTN’s At Home With Jim and Joy over the summer to discuss the beautiful witness of Blessed Carlo Acutis, including her book about the saint-to-be whose feast day is Oct. 12.
“He was a millennial, and so people can relate to him,” Ferrisi explained on the EWTN program. “He lived in our times. He had a laptop, a computer. He was a computer programmer. He had a flip phone … he had a PlayStation, wore jeans and sneakers and did the things we do — and so he’s very relatable and a very fun kid.”
She added of the beloved “super computer geek” who died of leukemia at 15 on Oct. 12, 2006: “He was living with one foot on earth and one foot in heaven — on one hand, a super-normal kid who had a lot of friends; he played soccer … but he was also very religious.”
“Everyone loved him,” Ferrisi underscored, recounting that he even brought friends to the faith.
Love Jesus — and Encourage Others to Love Him Too
The young daily communicant brought his parents back to the faith, too, Ferrisi explained. “They followed him — very, very beautiful.”
“Carlo, at a very young age, was extremely aware of the presence of God in his life.”
He would visit Jesus at every church he passed, and “he would put flowers in front of the statues of Mary and Jesus,” the journalist added.
“He just had this extraordinary grace and perception and desire for the Lord,” she explained, adding that his cousin said, “He was just like any other kid except for his faith, which was so big it just burst forth from him and it affected all of us.”On summer vacation with cousins in Assisi, he would plan his day as: “Okay, guys, we’re going to go to Mass, and then walk the dogs, and fly the kites … and then we’re going to pray the Rosary.”
Use Technology Well
What did he think of all things tech?
“He thought that technology could be an atomic bomb for good or it can be an atomic bomb for bad,” Ferrisi explained, quoting the holy teen’s mother. “He recognized that so much good could be done — and he did a lot of good with technology.”
“He was also very concerned that teenagers, or young people, were spending massive amounts of time on the internet, playing videos games, losing touch with reality. He didn’t like that people were so much in the virtual world but not hanging out with friends, flesh and blood in front of you. He was worried about the scourge of pornography and cyber bullying. And social media was starting during his lifetime, and that was also something he was worried about because he was very modest; he never wanted his name to be anywhere — and so he didn’t think taking pictures of yourself and constantly putting those on social media was a healthy thing, because it’s a kind of idolatry of self. He thought all of the attention should be on God and not on ourselves.”
Love the Eucharist
Ferrisi also talked about his “Eucharistic Miracles” exhibit and how “he insisted his name not be on it — not because he wasn’t proud but because he didn’t want the attention on himself. He said, ‘I want the attention on the Lord, not on me.’”
He loved the Eucharist — and highlighted 163 worldwide miracle stories on the website he created.“With his family, they traveled all over Europe and took pictures of these churches and these miracles for the website. He worked on his website for four years.”
His legacy includes shows on EWTN that highlight these amazing miracles.
He taught catechism too — starting at age 11. It made him sad that the kids at his parish weren’t excited about the Eucharist, and he thought his exhibit and website would help youth become excited about the faith. The exhibit, which has traveled to thousands of parishes on all continents, has prompted conversions — and miraculous healings, too.
His mom gets emails daily about medical miracles, with documentation, as well as conversions and favors — all through his intercession.
“People are praying to him, and things are happening now, it’s incredible,” Ferrisi said. “He’s a very powerful saint. Pray to him, because he’s answering prayers left and right.”
Ferrisi said her son who just graduated from college with a degree in computer science told her, “I can’t relate to the other saints, but I can relate to Carlo because he was like me, into technology.” Make a ‘Spiritual Plan’
In the second episode, Ferrisi shared the first millennial saint’s “spiritual plan.”
“He’s a wonderful person to get to know,” she said, adding: “He lived a spiritual plan of life every day.”
What did that daily plan include?
• Mass
• Rosary
• Adoration before or after Mass — he could often be found in church before the tabernacle. “He had a very deep relationship with Jesus.”
• Reading the Bible
• Community service — he would feed the homeless with his family, including distributing leftovers, in the footsteps of St. Francis, a favorite saint of his.
Bonus trivia: Carlo had mystical experiences: The Fatima seers appeared to him.
Love Your Pets
He loved his pets — the Acutis family had four dogs, two cats and a goldfish.
“He was a big lover of animals.”
Be a Good Friend
“What a wonderful friend he was,” Ferrisi said, explaining that he took time to protect kids who were bullied or invited over those who had family issues — he spent lots of time with friends.
Most of All, Cultivate a Caring Heart Like Christ’s
“He had a very deep spiritual life” that put faith into action: spending time with friends and doing corporal works of mercy, Ferrisi said.
We live for eternity, was his perspective, so he used his time wisely. “I lived my life without wasting even a minute of it,” Carlo said.Three days after being diagnosed with terminal leukemia, he died.
“Carlo now is bringing so many people into the Church,” the author explained, adding that “Assisi was his favorite place on earth.” That is where he is buried — that was his dying prayer.
His upcoming canonization — likely in 2025 — Ferrisi said, will be “a moment of hope and joy in the Church.” His family and cousins and friends will attend, including his younger twin siblings, who were born on the four-year anniversary of his death.
Most of all, Carlo wants people to be drawn to Christ.
As Ferrisi said: “He wants to lead us to a deeper relationship with Jesus, which will give us joy and hope. We have to remember that: If we become close to Carlo, we will become close to Jesus.”
—Amy Smith is a Register senior editor who edits features for the “Culture of Life” section and online. Fueled by prayer and coffee, she enjoys writing about everything from Jane Austen to saints for the Register. She is the author of The Plans God Has for You: Hopeful Lessons for Young Women (Emmaus Road Publishing). Her writing has also appeared in various other Catholic publications. She has a master’s degree in journalism and a B.A. in English.
Pier Giorgio Frassati: A Full Life In 24 Years (link)
“Jesus visits me every morning in Communion, I return it in the miserable way I can, visiting the poor”
Pier Giorgio Frassati was born in Turin on April 6, Holy Saturday, 1901, to Alfredo, founder of the daily newspaper La Stampa in 1895, and Adelaide Ametis.
His mother stands out for her strong character and artistic temperament.
A year later the Frassatis will give Pier Giorgio a sister, Luciana, who will become his inseparable playmate and study companion. The Frassati family can be considered to belong to the local upper middle class and is culturally liberal in feeling, with the agnostic father and the mother a formal believer: from her Pier Giorgio receives the first rudiments of Catholicism, while faith, instead, will mature in him in an unexpected way, becoming the very foundation of his life.
He received his scholastic education at the public school “Massimo d’Azeglio” and then, the “Istituto Sociale” of the Jesuits. The contact with Ignatian spirituality and the formation imparted led the young Pier Giorgio to take Communion every day, and subsequently to enter the Conferences of St. Vincent.
Although he came from a bourgeois family, as a young man he chose to be close to the needy by becoming the “porter” of the poor, dragging carts loaded with household goods of the evicted through the streets of Turin.
As a member of the Conference of St. Vincent he visited the neediest families to whom he offered comfort and tangible help.
His deep faith is nourished by daily Eucharist, prayer, frequent confession. He is in love with the Word of God: in his time it is reading reserved in fact for consecrated people, but he obtains the texts to read them personally. Trusting completely in the words of Jesus, he sees the presence of God in his neighbor, he considers himself “poor like all the poor”: he is generous with words and gestures of fraternal charity, both alone and in the organized form of the Conferences of Saint Vincent, in the streets of Turin, in the poor neighborhoods, at Cottolengo.
In 1918, he enrolled in Mechanical Engineering (with a specialization in mining) to be able to dedicate himself to Christ among the miners, who were among the humblest and least qualified workers. In 1919 he joined the FUCI (Italian Catholic University Federation). He joined Catholic Action by participating in the Milites Mariae circle, adopting the PAS motto “Prayer, Action and Study”.
In the strong tensions of the first post-war period, he was involved in a social apostolate, which also saw him present in factories. Convinced of the need for social reforms, in 1920 he joined the Italian Popular Party, which he considered a useful tool for creating a more just society.
In the same period, his father was appointed Ambassador to Germany.
In Berlin, Pier Giorgio visited the poorest neighborhoods and came into contact with the circles of young German Catholic students and workers.
In September 1921 in Rome, during a large demonstration of the Catholic Youth, he defended the flag of his circle from the assault of the Royal Guards, being arrested.
The writings of Saint Catherine of Siena and the fiery speeches of Savonarola encouraged him to enter the Third Dominican Order in 1922, taking the name of Brother Girolamo.
As a fervent disciple of Saint Dominic, he recited the Rosary every day, declaring that “I always carry my will – showing the rosary – in my pocket”. He is a member of numerous ecclesial associations, into which he pours the many interests of his ardent Christian life.
His days were therefore divided between prayer, helping the needy, studying and friends. After his death, his parents learned from their son’s friends, and from those who had received his help, the lifestyle of this boy who ran through the streets of Turin, always on foot because he offered the money for the tram in alms, to buy medicine for the sick, even donating his clothes for those who did not have them. His parents often scolded him because he always arrived late, being unaware of their son’s charitable life.
The young Pier Giorgio had also thought about priestly ordination but chose to live his vocation to holiness in the lay state because this lifestyle allowed him to share up close the world of workers and the poor through personal social action.
On a political level, although he was a member of Don Sturzo‘s Popular Party, he criticized some of its political positions tending to support the nascent fascist party.
He was passionate about mountains and sports, and joined the Italian Alpine Club and the Giovane Montagna association. He often organized trips with friends (the Società dei Tipi Loschi) that become occasions for apostolate. He went to the theater, the opera, visited museums, loved painting and music, knew entire passages of Dante by heart.
He was always attentive, however, to the needs of others, especially the poor and the sick, to whom he gave time, energy, and his very life.
Almost at the finish line of his degree, with two exams to go, he died of fulminant polio, probably contracted while assisting the poor.
The first symptoms, migraine, loss of appetite and fever, appeared on June 30.
He died in Turin on Saturday, July 4, 1925.
Two days later, the overflowing crowd at the funeral began to reveal to his family and the world the greatness of his Christian testimony.
Thus began, starting from this great fama sanctitatis, the path that would lead to his beatification, presided over by the Holy Father St. John Paul II, in Saint Peter’s Square packed with the faithful.
Upcoming lecture on the Round-up of Rome’s Jews in 1943
Next week, on Tuesday, November 26 — just two days before Thanksgiving — there will be a lecture by Dr. Mara Josi, the “Modern Roads to Rome Lecture” entitled: “Literary Echoes. The Round-up and Deportation of the Jews of Rome.” The round-up of Rome’s Jews occurred on the morning of October 16, 1943.
The Notre Dame University website (link) reads:
As part of the Modern Roads to Rome series, the Notre Dame Center for Italian Studies and Notre Dame Rome are pleased to invite you to a lecture led by Dr. Mara Josi.
Mara Josi is an Assistant Professor at University College Dublin. She completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge (UK) and held Postdoctoral positions at University College Dublin and Ghent University, as well as a lectureship at the University of Manchester. Mara’s work reflects her interest in innovative research methodologies and cultural approaches to the study of literature. She has been setting up interdisciplinary frameworks which merge notions of Holocaust and cultural memory studies with literary and trauma theory. Her first book, Rome, 16 October 1943. History, Memory, Literature (2023), was awarded the Premio Internazionale Ennio Flaiano for scholars of Italy and Italian studies.
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Thank you! —RM
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