06/04/2026
If there is one Dominican saint who wants to be your friend, it is St. Pier Giorgio Frassati.
While the Church raises up saints as models because of their “heroic virtue,” Christians can learn from St. Pier Giorgio how virtue is practiced in ordinary ways, like the witness of joy or simply a smile.
St. Pier Giorgio (1901-1925) was a magnetic character, attracting a wide circle of devoted and loyal friends. Reading their letters to each other when he died suddenly at age 24 reveals just how much they were captivated by him: by his teasing, his antics, his kindness–and especially by his faith.
His faith was nurtured, in no small measure, by the witness of the Dominican Order. He made his profession as a Lay Dominican in 1922, at the young age of 21. St. Catherine of Siena–another Dominican known for cultivating a circle of devoted followers–inspired him, and he avidly read her Dialogue, a lengthy conversation between her and God the Father on Divine Providence. He also undertook a systematic study of St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica. St. Pier Giorgio often carried a 15-decade Rosary, praying it loudly while walking around his hometown of Turin, Italy.
St. Pier Giorgio continued to inspire his friends after death. As Clementina Luotto wrote in a letter two days after his death, “He will give us the active love we ought to have, above all because he gave us the priceless gift of his friendship. Let us cling to the cross and love each other in his memory as if and more than if he were still with us. Perhaps that way we shall see his smile shine among us again.”
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