The young Dominican tertiary will be canonized during the Jubilee, one hundred years after his return to the house of the Father in the Holy Year of 1925.
“With gratitude to God, Giver of all good things, the Dominican Family rejoices in the announcement by Pope Francis that our brother Pier Giorgio Frassati will be canonized,” wrote the Master of the Order, Fr. Gerard Francisco Timoner III, OP, in his Letter to the whole Order, the day after the Pope’s announcement. With the same joy, we put at your disposal the website dedicated to Pier Giorgio, a lay Dominican, with the slogan: “Towards the summit in the Holy Year” What does it mean?
Canonization in the Jubilee Year (1925–2025), One Hundred Years After His Return to the Father’s House
“Towards the summit...!” With these words full of life and hope, Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati exhorted his friends not to settle for what’s easy, but to always look towards the eternal. Today, those same words resound with new force, as the Church prepares for a historic event: his canonization during the Jubilee of Hope, exactly one hundred years after his entry into the glory of the Father, in the Holy Year of 1925.
Frassati died young, aged only 24, on July 4th, 1925. However, his brief existence was a life full of meaning, prayer, study, friendship, service, and contagious joy. He prepared himself spiritually for the Jubilee of that year, as his letters reveal, sharing with his friends the joy he found in reading St. Augustine and his desire to deepen his knowledge of the work of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Thus, he wrote to his friend Franz Massetti in a letter of 4 January: “I prepared myself for the Holy Year during Advent by reading St. Augustine—a reading I have not yet finished, but which has given me immense joy, a profound joy that, until now, sadly had not reached my soul. (…) Then I will turn to philosophical studies, if I can find a good translation of the works of St. Thomas Aquinas.”1
🕊️ A Young Contemplative in Action… Towards the Jubilee of Youth
On August 3rd, 2025, as part of the Jubilee of Youth celebrations, the Church will proclaim the young lay Dominican tertiary from Turin a saint. This date may change depending on any provisions made by the new Pontiff. Pope Francis repeatedly proposed him as a model of Christian life for young people, highlighting his courage, evangelical joy, and profound coherence of life.
In June 2015, during his visit to Frassati’s hometown of Turin, the Pope encouraged young people with a direct message:
“If you want to do something good in life, live, don’t just get by. Live!”
More recently, in November 2024, Pope Francis expressed his desire that Pier Giorgio be known, loved, and imitated by the new generations, just days before solemnly announcing his canonization. The news was received with immense joy by the Dominican Family, of which the young Blessed was an active and passionate member.
“I commend to you Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. Do you know him? I had heard of him as a child, because my father was a member of Catholic Action. He is a young man, like you, who bore witness with his life to the joy of the Gospel. I invite you to get to know him and to imitate his integrity, his courage, and his joy.” (To the Delegation of the National Youth Council, 16 November 2024).
🌿 A Layman Marked by the Charism of the Order of Preachers
Pier Giorgio came to know the spirituality of St. Dominic in 1918, and in 1922, he made his promise as a Dominican tertiary, integrating his life of prayer with a radical commitment to the poor, the sick, and the marginalized. For him, it was not a mere external gesture, but a profound decision, born of the desire to live the Gospel fully.
As Nicola Gori underlines in his book Sulla via dell’amore, Frassati was truly a “contemplative in action”, just like Dominic of Caleruega:
“God has glorified your Order with all the passion and pride of being a member, with all his faith and all his strength.” His profession as a lay Dominican was “thoughtful and certainly not improvised, because professing as a tertiary in an Order is not like enrolling in just any association; it requires a strong, precise, and consistent Christian commitment to life, prayer, and relationships.”2
His witness remains alive today, more relevant than ever. In a world wounded by indifference and selfishness, his example invites us to climb “upwards,” to live with hope, compassion, and Christian joy. His canonization is a gift to the whole Church, and especially to young people who are searching for authentic models in their faith journey.
✨ Onwards and Upwards in the Holy Year!… we as well
In this Jubilee of Hope, the luminous figure of Pier Giorgio Frassati rises like a lighthouse, guiding and encouraging. His holiness is not otherworldly; it is close, everyday, and attainable. He reminds us that the vocation to holiness is not a privilege of the few, but a universal call that is built with every act of love. Pier Giorgio, friend, brother, saint of the Alps, of the young and the poor?
Take us with you toward the summit!
- Published in the book of his sister Luciana Frassati Lettere di Pier Giorgio Frassati (Letters of Pier Giorgio Frassati). ↩︎
- Nicola Gori in his book Sulla via dell’amore. Studio su un carteggio di Pier Giorgio Frassati con un amico (On the road to love. Study on a correspondence between Pier Giorgio Frassati and a friend). ↩︎
