Today's Ornament of Grace for Saturday of the Fourth Week of Advent is Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati.
Luke 1:67-79
Then Zechariah, …filled with the Holy Spirit, uttered this prophesy: “…He has dealt mercifully with our fathers and remembered the holy covenant he made, the oath he swore to Abraham our father he would grant us: that, rid of fear and delivered from the enemy, we should serve him devoutly and through all our days be holy in his sight…”.
Advent is coming to an end, and today’s Gospel cites Zechariah’s beautiful canticle. His prophetic song of praise reminds us that God is faithful to His promises, that He calls us to walk the path of peace, and that He brings us eternal salvation. One person who followed a path of just peace was Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati.
Born in Turin, Italy, in 1901, Pier’s father was a newspaper man who became a senator and then an ambassador to Germany. His mother was an excellent painter. From an early age, Pier had a desire to help the poor. Once, when Pier was a child, a mother came with her son to the Frassati’s door, begging. The little boy had no shoes, so Pier gave his shoes to the boy.
Pier became a lay Dominican, influenced by Dominican Saints Thomas Aquinas and Catherine of Siena. A deeply prayerful person who attended daily Mass, he dedicated himself to caring for the poor and to changing social systems for the good of all. Well-liked by many because of his kind, humorous ways, he brought a lightness into heavy situations. Active athletically, he especially enjoyed mountain climbing and swimming.
Pier participated in anti-fascist rallies. He hated violence and had a calming presence wherever he went, even at the protests. Never afraid, he was often physically attacked by fascists. Arrested many times for peacefully protesting, he once had to fight back when the police became violent at a Church-backed demonstration. When people lauded his courage, he said, “One ought to go and one does. It is not they who suffer violence who should fear it, but those who practice it.”
Pier Giorgio studied at a university in Turin to become a mining engineer in order “to serve Christ among the miners.” In his free time, he served the poor, giving all he had to those in need. Once he gave his bus fare away and ran the long distance home on foot. Often, he gave up summer vacations at his family estate outside Turin because he felt that if everyone left the heat of the city, no one would be around to care for the poor.
Frequently spending his nights adoring the Blessed Sacrament, he meditated on St. Paul’s letters, especially 1 Corinthians 13, on the excellence of the gift of love.
Pier contracted polio in the summer of 1925, probably while caring for the sick. Boating with friends on June 30, he complained of pains in his back and returned home on July 1 with a severe headache and fever, only to find that his grandmother had died that day. Not wanting to draw attention to himself, he mourned with his family until he became too ill on July 2. He could not move when the doctor arrived. On the night before he died, his hand was partially paralyzed; yet, he wrote directions so that a friend would take needed medicine to a poor man Pier had served. His last words before he died on July 4, 1925 at only 24 years of age, were these: “May I breathe forth my soul in peace with you.”
The Turin poor turned out in droves, lining the streets on the day of his funeral. Pope St. John Paul II beatified Pier Giorgio Frassati in 1990, c
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