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The saints

St. Pier Giorgio Frassati

A young mountaineer from Turin who served the poor in secret and wrote two words on his last photo: to the heights.

Feast: 4 July (date from the Roman Martyrology; not on the universal calendar) · 1901 to 1925 · The modern era · Turin, Italy

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Black-and-white photograph of St. Pier Giorgio Frassati in a suit and tie, arms folded.

Luciana Frassati, 2014. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Home / The saints / St. Pier Giorgio Frassati

The Alps above Turin

Pier Giorgio was the son of a powerful family in Turin, a student who loved mountains, jokes and his friends.1

Pope John Paul II called him the man of the Beatitudes.1

Few people knew how much of his time and money went quietly to the poor.

Patron of young people and young adults1; athletes1; ordinary people1

01St. Pier Giorgio Frassati

To the heights

He took his friends climbing and made room on the way for prayer, Mass and talk about faith.1

After what became his last climb, he wrote on a photograph: Verso l’alto, to the heights.1

He died at twenty-four, and Pope Leo XIV canonized him with Carlo Acutis in 2025.2

Live it this week

Take a friend up a mountain

Pier Giorgio mixed climbing, friendship and prayer. Plan a hike or long walk with a friend this week and build in a few minutes of prayer at the top.

Notes

How we know · 2 sources for this page
  1. USCCB: “Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati”. usccb.org. usccb.org
  2. Vatican News: “Pope: Saints call us to look to God, make masterpieces of our lives”. vaticannews.va. vaticannews.va

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.