Peter George
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, layman, patron saint of youth and me!
I love this photo of him because it is so candid, it looks like he is going to say something. In a way he looks kind of nuts, sort of like Joey on “Friends”. Pier Giorgio was a devout Catholic while his upper-class family was not - you know, pretty much Catholic in name only types.
He lived the Beatitudes, relatively unconsiously I think. Charity was the fruit of his devotion, no, it was his heart. He loved Jesus and our Blessed Mother. He got everything right, he went on pilgrimage, spent hours before the Blessed Sacrament, assisted at daily Mass, rosary, and he had this incredible compassion for the poor. He had many,many friends and enjoyed socializing and athletics. He wasn’t the best student but he worked hard, without a competitive spirit. In fact his athleticism was hardly competitive, he climbed mountains, he skied, he did stuff for the sheer joy and exhilaration of it. He was very much devoted to the Church and the hierarchy. He participated in politics.
What strikes me most of all was his fidelity to his family, his sensitivity to their idiosyncrasies, his obedience without complaint to his parents. All of this seemed to come natural to him - but it never was without sacrifice - effort sustained by his union with Jesus.
What was he good for?
A former co-worker, himself a good man, once asked me what was so special about him that he should have been beatified. He wryly asked,”What did he do?” I answered, “Nothing, he was a little saint, like Therese, his greatness was hidden. He simply lived the Gospel.” I couldn’t say anything else. This guy was so taken with his own intellectual achievements, his own asceticism - he looked anorexic - and his own theological knowledge, that nothing I could say would impress him. Yet John Paul II, from his youth, understood this Frassati guy, he understood his heroic virtue, and when he became Pope, he beatified him along with many others - gifts to a world desperate for new inspiration in our secularized, godless culture.
Fidelity to duty.
What did Jesus tell Sr. Lucia of Fatima about holiness? He said, “The penance I now demand and exact is fidelity to one’s duties in their state in life.” Pier Giorgio pretty much did that, and a whole lot more. Reprinted below is an excerpt from my “pretend” interview… as if anyone would interview me.
Interview.
Q: What impressed you most about him (Peter George) when you first knew who he was?
A: His great looks! Really. God uses handsomeness and beauty to attract us to what is good, just as the devil uses it, albeit decadently and oftentimes erotically, to attract us to what is evil.
However, what attracted me much more is his virtue, especially his respect for his family and his obedience to his parents.
Q:How’s that? He was in his early 20’s when he died, he could have had more independence from his parents if he asserted himself.
A: Yes, perhaps that would be the case today, and most likely then as well. He loved and respected his parents however. His parents loathed the idea that he was too pious and feared he would become a priest. He hid his piety and decided to become an engineer so that he could work amongst the poor and evangelize in this way, as a fellow layman. But then his Father insisted that he come on board with him in running ‘la Stampa’, the family newspaper. Hence, Giorgio changed course again, although dying before that became a reality.
Q: Perhaps that was to satisfy his eligibility for his inheritance, maybe he was thinking of income.
A: Absolutely not! What money he received from his Father he gave to the poor. Pier Giorgio did not care about money or status, he merely used it to help the poor and the Church.
Q: What about romance? I heard he was attracted to a girl but broke it off because his Mother objected?
A: Actually his Mother never knew about the girl. Her name was Laura Hidalgo a student three years his senior and a member of his group of friends known as ‘tipi loschi’ or the ‘riff raff society’. He developed an attraction for her but his sister Luciana warned him that their Mother would not approve of her because she was beneath their station in society. Giorgio never pursued it after that. How astonishing is that? It was not a painless decision for Pier Giorgio, although neither the girl nor his Mother ever knew of his feelings.
Q:That’s just weird. He could have negotiated something.
A: It’s only weird for us today when kids tell their parents what to do, what they want, and insist on their own way. Of course he could have probably negotiated a deal - but his Mother was, should I say, rather ‘high strung’ - it wasn’t a very happy home - this would have made things worse and maybe sent his Mother over the edge. He possessed an heroic degree of obedience coupled with charity, something we hardly understand in today’s world.
Q: What else impressed you so much about him?
A: His Eucharistic piety. It is said that he seemed to be in ecstasy when making his thanksgiving after Communion. I like the fact that he spent time after Mass to make his thanksgiving, a long time. I also appreciate his devotion to Our Lady and her rosary. OH! And he never wore outward signs of his piety, like medals and pins and things - he never wore his religion on his sleeve as it were.
Q: Finally, if you knew him then, would you guys be friends?
A: I don’t know. Probably not - his parents wouldn’t have approved of me. I would have liked him to be my best friend, I know he is - now - in Heaven, but I think I’d probably be one of his charity cases when he was alive. He would have seen me then, as he does now, as someone who needs a lot of help and prayers.
July 4th is the feast day of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati.
