Canonization of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

Pope Leo XIV proclaims Saint a young layman who became a powerful source of inspiration for young people. His devotion to Saint Dominic was so profound that he embraced the habit of a Dominican tertiary on 28 May 1922. Despite coming from an upper-middle-class background, he chose to become "the porter of the poor", pulling carts loaded with the belongings of evicted families through the streets of Turin. He gave everything he had to those in need, including clothing, money and medicine. He visited struggling families in Turin's poorest neighbourhoods, providing them with food and paying their rent. He also found them jobs and medical care, always without his parents knowing. His days were balanced between prayer, service, study and friendship. His deep faith was nourished by the daily Eucharist, prayer and frequent confession. Born in Turin in 1901, Frassati initially studied at a classical high school before going on to study mining engineering at the Polytechnic University of Turin. His desire was to work in the mines to share the miners' hard life and support them in their dignity. An active member of Catholic Action, he died at the age of 24 in 1925, after just four days of illness due to sudden and aggressive poliomyelitis. “I like,” said Pope Paul VI about him, “his way of praying, during vigils and studies, in the simplicity of the Christian assembly, and in the silence of personal searching for God.” And in July 1932, Paul VI, then still Giovanni Battista Montini, addressed him prophetically: “One day, perhaps, the Church will tell us that indeed everything in you came from the power of God.” The stamp reproduces a portrait of Pier Giorgio Frassati, painted by Alberto Falchetti (1878–1951) and owned by the Frassati family.