Celebrated in his recent canonization, Pier Giorgio Frassati embodied youthful zeal and deep compassion for those in need. On the eve of the ceremony, his nearly 100-year-old niece, Wanda Gawrońska, welcomed our EWTN crew into her home in Trastevere, Rome.
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As the daughter of the saint’s beloved sister Luciana, Wanda has dedicated her life to preserving and promoting her uncle’s spiritual legacy worldwide. Alongside cherished personal memories, she safeguards unique artifacts — including the ice axe Pier Giorgio used during his mountain climbs.
Although a century has passed since Pier Giorgio succumbed to polio at the age of 24 in 1925, Wanda remains steadfast in her belief that his legacy will endure forever. These are her words about Pier Giorgio Frassati:
The memory of him is still very much alive, not just in our family, but all around the world.
Truly… I wouldn’t say it’s surprising, because he was such a special person that even a hundred years later, young people across the world still look up to him — as a role model, a companion in life, someone whose strength and faith they can carry with them on their own journey.
It’s incredible — the very last thing, his final wish, was to write… He asked my mother to bring him the pieces of paper he had in the pocket of his jacket.
In those papers, he had the addresses of people he still wanted to help. And his last request was for a sheet of paper and a pen.
My mother told him, “I’ll write it for you,” because one of his arms was already paralyzed — he could barely move it anymore.
He wanted to write it himself — and honestly, it’s very hard to read what he wrote — but he did write it.
It said: “These are the injections for the Converso family…”
It wasn’t until 1952 that the Church officially declared that lay people, too, could strive for holiness.
But Pier Giorgio had already understood this — forty years earlier. Born in 1901, he realized well before that moment that a layperson also belongs fully to the Church, and that they, too, can pursue holiness and live a life united with Christ.
Pier Giorgio lived with Christ in his everyday life.
Cardinal Wojtyła was deeply devoted to the figure of Pier Giorgio. It was he, as a cardinal, who called him “the Man of the Eight Beatitudes.”
He said: “He died young, as saints often do…” And later, he had the joy of beatifying him himself.
There are testimonies from when Pier Giorgio was just three years old. One story tells of how he met a nun and said, “Quickly gather flowers and bring them to Christ.”
Another time, someone knocked at the door. Little Pier Giorgio was the first to reach it and saw a woman holding a child without shoes. Without hesitation, he took off his own shoes and gave them to the child.
Before anyone else in the family could even reach the door, he had already given away his shoes. Even at 4 or 5 years old, he showed such gestures — it’s clear that God had already given him love. He was born with this love for Christ.
When his father told him, “I can give you a car or money for your 21st birthday — which do you prefer?” He immediately said money, because then he could give it to those in need.
He wasn’t just an example of giving money. He showed how to find work for someone in need, how to spend hours sitting with a family where someone might have died, how to truly be a friend to the poor — which is more than just giving money. It’s quite strange, because someone once asked him, “How do you manage to go into those poor homes? Back then, they were really, really dirty. How can you bear to go into those filthy houses?” His answer was, “Christ comes to me in Holy Communion every day. I try to repay Him in the way I can by visiting His poor.” Then he added, “Around the poor, around the sick, I see a light — a light we don’t have.”
Learn more about Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati
Adapted by Jacob Stein
Produced by Alexey Gotovsky; Camera by Sergio Natoli; Video Edited by Giada D’Ottavi
