St. Pier Giorgio Frassati: "Toward the Heights"

St. Pier Giorgio Frassati: “Toward the Heights”

(ANS – Salesian Generalate, Rome – September 3, 2025) – When Senator Alfredo Frassati, ambassador in Berlin, to whom the Salesians owed a debt of gratitude, received a request for a Salesian to look after his two children, Pier Giorgio and Luciana, in their studies, the Rector Major, Fr. Albera, sent Fr. Antonio Cojazzi, a person suited to the task because of his broad culture, youthful enthusiasm, and communicative ability. In the Frassati household he was not a “tutor” but a friend, especially of Pier Giorgio, of whom he would say: “I met him when he was ten years old, and I followed him for almost the whole of high school and college with lessons that were daily in the early years: I followed him with growing interest and affection.” Pier Giorgio, by then a leading young man in Turin’s Catholic Action, listened to the lectures and lessons given by Fr. Antonio at the “C. Balbo” group, followed his magazine with interest, and went over to Valsalice at delicate and decisive moments for him.

After Pier Giorgio Frassati’s death, which took place in Turin on July 4, 1925, the reputation for holiness that surrounded him was such that the archdiocese of Turin initiated the ordinary inquest on July 2, 1931. This inquest lasted until October 23, 1935. The actor of the cause was Italian Catholic Action, while the postulation for the cause of beatification was entrusted to the Salesians. Unfortunately, from 1941 the cause suffered painful and unpleasant delays, so that it was only in 1990 that the beatification was achieved, after having been entrusted in 1977 to Jesuit Fr. Paolo Molinari, who was able with great historical expertise to unblock the situation and restart Frassati’s cause.

Fr. Antonio Cojazzi (Roveredo in Piano, October 30, 1880 - Salsomaggiore Terme, October 27, 1953) played a fundamental role in spreading knowledge of Pier Giorgio Frassati and promoting his cause for beatification at the beginning. From the day of the young Turin man’s funeral, he was committed to keeping his memory alive and highlighting his holiness. He wrote and published in 1928 the biography: Pier Giorgio Frassati: Testimony collected by Fr. A. Cojazzi. These are first-hand testimonies, most of which would be taken up during the process, which would see Fr. Cojazzi himself as the first witness. The testimonies arrived in large numbers and were carefully sifted. Pier Giorgio’s mother followed the work, providing suggestions and material. In April 1927 Fr. Cojazzi led the university students belonging to Catholic Action on a pilgrimage to Pier Giorgio’s grave. He noted: “I spoke at the tomb. I don’t know what I said: I only remember that I wept with holy pride and Christian emotion. We all felt the truth of those words we read on the tomb: ‘Why do you seek a living person among the dead?’”

The life of Pier Giorgio: a resounding success. In just a few months, 30,000 copies were sold; in 1932 there were 70,000; within 15 years the book reached 11 printings and was translated into 19 languages: a reference point for Catholic Action in the difficult time of Fascism. In 1942 in Italy under the name of Pier Giorgio Frassati there were 771 Catholic Action youth associations, 178 aspirant sections, 21 university associations, 60 groups of middle school students, 29 St. Vincent de Paul conferences, 23 Gospel groups. The biography written by Fr. Cojazzi, despite some limitations and flaws, was widely circulated and exerted an influence in the lives of many young people. On the occasion of Fr. Cojazzi’s death, Msgr. Montini, then substitute to the Secretariat of State, wrote: “His [Fr. Cojazzi’s] name, associated with that of Pier Giorgio Frassati, whose splendid example of youthful Catholic virtue he was able to spread, is and will be among those dearest to all those who have worked for the spiritual rebirth of our country.”

But Pier Giorgio also marked a turning point in Fr. Cojazzi’s life. That note written on Pier Giorgio’s deathbed, in an almost indecipherable handwriting, for engineer Grimaldi, his friend: “Here are the Converso injections, the policy is from Sappa. I forgot it, you renew it,” and almost brutally revealing the world of the poor to him: “On Good Friday of this year (1928) with two university students, I visited the poor outside Porta Metronia for four hours. That visit brought me a most salutary lesson and humiliation. I had written and spoken a great deal about the St. Vincent de Paul Conferences ... yet I had never once visited the poor. In those filthy sheds I often had tears in my eyes.... The conclusion? Here it is clear and raw for me and for you: fewer beautiful words and more good works."

He saw in this living contact with the poor not only the implementation of the Gospel, but a school of life for young people: “They are the best school for young people: to educate them and keep them in the seriousness of life. Someone who goes with an often older colleague, to visit poor families every week, and touches their material and moral wounds with his own hand, and then in the next meeting reasons and hears about those and other miseries, how do you want him to waste his money, his time, his youth on unhealthy enjoyments? How do you want him to be discontented with his own work and sorrows, when he has known, by direct experience, that others work and suffer more than he does?”

A photo of Pier Giogio is still famous, depicting him engaged in a hike and above which he had added the dedication for a friend: “Toward the heights,” a motto that sums up the yearning of his entire life. He was beatified on May 20, 1990. On Sunday, September 7, 2025, Pope Leo XIV will proclaim him a saint with Carlo Acutis. “Aspire to great things, to holiness, wherever you are. Do not settle for less. Then you will see the light of the Gospel grow every day, in you and around you” (Pope Leo XIV - jubilee homily for young people - August 3, 2025).