St. Pier Giorgio Frassati

St. Pier Giorgio Frassati was born on 6 April 1901 in Turin, Italy, into a prominent and prosperous family; his father owned the influential newspaper La Stampa. A robust and cheerful young man, he loved mountaineering, was a keen sportsman, and gathered friends around him with an infectious joy, yet beneath this exuberance lay a hidden life of daily Mass, Eucharistic adoration, and constant charity to the poor of Turin.

A member of the Dominican laity and active in Catholic social and political movements, he spent his allowance and even gave away his own belongings to help the needy, often visiting the sick in the city's poorest districts. In 1925 he contracted poliomyelitis, likely from those he served, and died on 4 July at only twenty-four, his funeral thronged unexpectedly by the crowds of poor he had quietly aided. Beatified in 1990 and known for the motto "Verso l'alto" ("To the heights"), he is a beloved model for Catholic youth.