16 Things to Know About St. Pier Giorgio Frassati for His Feast Day

He climbed mountains, smoked pipes, and played pranks. A saint with a vibrant personality and a thriving social life, he was frequently found in the good company of friends for a ski trip, gelato treat, or discussion about Catholicism and politics. Pier Giorgio Frassati was a fun-loving and seemingly ordinary Italian young man who lived a deep faith in God and charity towards others, particularly the poor and marginalized. 

Last September, 100 years after this holy young man died at age 24, Pope Leo XIV raised Pier Giorgio Frassati to sainthood alongside St. Carlo Acutis. July 4, 2026 marks St. Pier Giorgio's very first feast day as an official canonized saint of the Catholic Church. To celebrate this day, we’ve collected some neat facts about this beloved young saint!

1. His full name was Pier Giorgio Michelangelo Frassati

His full first name was Pier Giorgio, and Michelangelo was his middle name, giving him a strong and saintly team of namesakes: St. Peter, St. George, and St. Michael the Archangel.

2. Pier Giorgio Was A Third Order Dominican 

During college, Frassati became a lay Dominican. He faithfully prayed the Rosary and Little Office of Our Lady daily, attending their meetings monthly. As part of his commitment, he took a new name, Girolamo (Jerome) after a 15th century priest whose spirituality Frassati admired. For this reason, he sometimes used the name "Brother Jerome" as an alias.

3. These Catholic Classics Captured His Heart

If he lived today, Pier Giorgio would likely be listening to Catholic Classics, subscribed to the Thomistic Institute, and a huge fan of Fr. Gregory Pine. Frassati read Aquinas’s Summa Theologica, calling it a “beautiful book” full of “sublime thoughts” and “great truths … written to exalt and glorify Divine Providence.” He was also deeply impacted by The Confessions of St. Augustine and told his friend Marco: "these days I alternate my arid studies with the most beautiful readings of St. Augustine; my soul has never till now experienced so forcefully such infinite pleasure.”

4. Pier Giorgio Loved A Good Prank & Wanted to Ban Sadness

Pier Giorgio Frassati shows that a life lived for God still holds plenty of room for joy and fun. He founded a silly little society for his closest friends called the “Tipi Loschi” or “Shady Characters.” Pier Giorgio invented nicknames for all his friends, a comic handbook for the group, and even an entirely fictional patron saint for them. “Few, but good, like macaroni” was the group's motto. Because of his goofiness, Frassati’s friends considered him a terror, but this was tongue-in-cheek, as his mischievous pranks were never cruel.

He once said: “You ask me if I’m happy; and how could I not be? Catholics can’t help being happy; sadness should be banned from the spirits of Catholics.” (source)

5. He’s Proof That You Don’t Need to Be Perfectly Smart to Be A Saint  

Very much above-average in holiness, Frassati was on the more average side academically. Learning to write was a nightmare for him, and he failed Latin at age 12. This frustrated him, especially since his sister Luciana was a gifted and successful student. But he became more determined and persevering in his studies as a young teenager, improving his academic performance. 

In college at the Polytechnic University of Turin, Pier Giorgio chose to study mining engineering. Rather than following his father in a journalism and publishing career, he wanted a profession that would allow him to serve Christ in the poor and marginalized. 

6. He Was An Aficionado Of The Arts

Pier Giorgio was a young man of good taste and many interests. He attended the opera to enjoy the productions of Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi and went to the theater with his friends to watch wholesome films. He browsed museums & exhibitions. His family members recalled seeing him walk up and down in the garden while reciting Dante and Shakespeare emphatically and poetically.

7. He Sang … But Never Quite In Tune

In writing about her brother, Luciana Frassati reports that Pier Giorgio was no Frank Sinatra. Although Pier Giorgio appreciated music, his own vocal skills were rather hopeless. At church, he modestly kept to the corners so his voice would not disrupt, but fearlessly sang out during public processions and joyfully led songs on outdoor adventures with his friends. When told his voice was out of tune, he gave an unfazed reply: “But the important thing is to sing.”

8. He Drank Coffee … Sometimes Twice A Day

If your secret to getting through stressful days is a good caffeinated brew or two, St. Pier Giorgio and you have something in common! During one exam week, Frassati wrote to his friend, “I had to drink huge doses of coffee so that I could study.” These “huge doses of coffee” would have been the delectable Italian caffè or espresso, which is strong but taken in smaller quantities. He reportedly took these coffees twice a day sometimes, as on his trip to Germany, while with friends, and at home on the mornings that he fasted.

9. As An Athlete, Pier Giorgio Ran To Mass 

Pier Giorgio’s athleticism paid off on days when he had to be home from Mass in a pinch! In summertime, he asked the family gardener to wake him by tugging on a rope tied to his foot and hanging out the bedroom window. After climbing out the window, he ran 5 kilometers uphill for morning Mass at the Marian Sanctuary of Oropa near his family’s Alpine summer home. He gave the money he would otherwise have used on public transportation to the poor. 

10. Adoration and Prayer Were His Night Life 

St. Pier Giorgio lived a deeply Eucharistic life, often coming to Adoration at odd hours even if it meant spending the night in hiking clothes before an outing the next day. A priest who saw him kneeling during night Adoration in the Turin Cathedral observed:  “Melted wax dripped from the candles onto his suitcoat, and he didn’t seem to notice it all, so absorbed was he in his prayers.”

11. Pier Giorgio’s Famous “Verso l’Alto” Line Comes From His Final Mountain Climb

“With every passing day, I fall madly in love with the mountains.”

Believe it or not, that’s a real, authentic saint quote, written by Frassati himself to a friend. The many existing photos of a rugged Pier Giorgio skiing and rock-climbing prove that mountains held a special place in his heart. He wrote, “If my studies would allow me to do it, I would spend entire days on the mountains contemplating in that pure air the greatness of the Creator.” 

Many Catholics know the phrase “Verso l’Alto!” or “To The Heights!” because of Pier Giorgio Frassati. Actually, Pier Giorgio had signed these words, a true mountaineer’s motto, on a photograph of his last climb just weeks before his death.

12. On His Deathbed, He Asked For Ice Cream 

Two evenings before his death on July 4, 1925, when Pier Giorgio was already gravely ill with polio, he asked for ice cream. His sister later wrote, regretfully, that he was not brought this treat, but instead enjoyed a caffè e latte and a cold zabaione, a creamy dessert made with egg yolks, sugar, and sweet wine. 

13. The Crowds At His Funeral Held Up Traffic 

Mr. and Mrs. Frassati were shocked to see their son’s funeral flooded with crowds: thousands of his friends. In addition to the young people who climbed mountains with him, the church brimmed with thousands of poor industrial workers, unemployed, and homeless persons from Turin, who all came to mourn the loss of a true friend. According to his sister, Pier Giorgio’s funeral procession so filled the streets that the trams were forced to a standstill. 

14. Pier Giorgio’s Death Converted His Parents

Pier Giorgio’s parents were deeply moved when they realized in hindsight what a remarkable son they had. His father, a cradle Catholic who had lapsed into agnosticism, returned to the sacraments, and his parents reconciled their relational difficulties soon after their son’s death. 

15. He is Patron of World Youth Day

Two popes highlighted him as an exemplary model for today’s youth. Pope John Paul II declared Pier Giorgio Frassati patron saint of World Youth Day, calling him the “Man of the Beatitudes” because he lived Christian charity so deeply. And in his post-synodal apostolic exhortation Christus Vivit, Pope Francis called Frassati “a young man filled with a joy that swept everything along with it, a joy that also overcame many difficulties in his life.” Pier Giorgio's relics were brought to Rome in summer 2025 for the Jubilee of Youth.

16. His Remains Are in the Same Cathedral as Jesus’s Shroud

After his beatification in 1990, St. Pier Giorgio’s body (recently found incorrupt) was moved from his family’s crypt in Pollone to the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, Italy. 

This same cathedral houses the Shroud of Turin, the cloth that covered Christ’s body and still bears its miraculous imprint from when he laid in the tomb! The actual Shroud is not displayed for public viewing (only a replica), and neither is Frassati’s body, but the presence of both these relics makes the Turin Cathedral a site of many graces.