July 4 is the feast day of Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati. He is "blessed" because he is on the path to sainthood, but hasn't been canonized, yet.
As a young man, Pier Giorgio developed a deep spiritual life, which he never hesitated to share with his friends. Although he considered his studies his first duty, they did not keep him from social and political activism. Mountain climbing was one of his favorite sports. Outings in the mountains, which he organized with his friends, also served as opportunities for his apostolic work.
He never lost the chance to lead his friends to Mass, to the reading of Scripture, and to praying the rosary. Participating in a Church-organized demonstration in Rome on one occasion, he stood up to police violence and rallied the other young people by grabbing the group’s banner, which the royal guards had knocked out of another student’s hands. Pier Giorgio held it even higher, while using the banner’s pole to fend off the blows of the guards.
His last preoccupation was for the poor. On the eve of his death, with a paralyzed hand he scribbled a message to a friend, asking him to take the medicine needed for injections to be given to Converso, a poor sick man he had been visiting.
He is incorrupt. (His body never decayed.)
Pier Giorgio is the patron saint of students, young Catholics, mountaineers, and World Youth Day. Get to know this courageous young man through this Spotify playlist inspired by his life — featuring artists The Mowgli's and Volunteer, and themes of living in the moment and never giving up.
