At the end of a meeting with Pope Francis on November 25, 2024, the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, signed a decree attributing a miracle to the intercession of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati (1901-1925), who will be canonized on August 3, 2025.
Pope Francis had already announced during last week’s general audience that the young Italian Blessed would be canonized during the 2025 Jubilee.
During last week’s Wednesday general audience on November 20, Pope Francis had announced that Frassati would be canonized during the Jubilee of Youth, taking place from July 28 to August 3, 2025.
However, at the time a decree had not yet been published attributing a second miracle to the young man’s intercession, which is the Church’s condition for a blessed person to be recognized as a saint.
Frassati was beatified by John Paul II in 1990 after a first miracle was recognized.
Yesterday, on November 24, during the Sunday Angelus, Pope Francis explained that he had previously announced Frassati’s canonization as he had been informed by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints that his cause was about to be “successfully concluded.” He also specified the exact date of the event: August 3, 2025.
Today in fact, after he met privately with Cardinal Semeraro, the Pontiff authorized the publication of a decree officially attributing a second miracle to Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati.
The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints has not yet given any details explaining what kind of miracle it was.
A funny mountaineer from Turin
Pier Giorgio Frassati was a young man from Turin. A passionate mountaineer, he devoted his short life to serving the poor. He opposed the growing fascist movement in Italy and founded the “Society of the Tipi Loschi,” (roughly translated as “swindlers and swindlerettes”), a humorous association made up of his close friends but that also had a spiritual and social dimension. He died at the age of 24 of polio, and has since become an inspirational figure for Catholic youth.
Last June, the Pope had already said that Frassati, who was an active member of Catholic Action, would “soon be a saint.”
“Pier Giorgio was from a wealthy family, upper class, [his father Alfredo Frassati, was a politician and the director of the Italian daily La Stampa, Ed.], but he did not grow up ‘in cotton wool,'” Pope Francis said during an audience with an Italian association, using a typical Italian phrase to denote luxury. “He did not lose himself in the ‘good life,’ because in him was the sap of the Holy Spirit; there was love for Jesus and for his brothers and sisters.”
Pope confirms Carlo Acutis’ canonization date
During last week’s general audience the Pope had also announced that Blessed Carlo Acutis (1991-2006) will be canonized during the 2025 Jubilee during the Jubilee of Teenagers, from April 25 to 27.
At the time the Pope did not specify the exact date, but Domenico Sorrentino, the Archbishop of Assisi, where Carlo Acutis’ tomb is located, announced the same day that the canonization will be April 27.
The Pope confirmed this date during the Angelus on November 24.
And today we celebrate...