New saints for young people to imitate

Our Holy Father Pope Francis has given the youth and young adults of the Church two great gifts for the upcoming Holy Year: the canonizations of Blessed Carlo Acutis and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, two young Catholics who were recognized during their lifetimes for extraordinary faith and holiness. 

Pope Francis announced this good news after his Wednesday audience, Nov. 20.  While their faith, holiness and witness were “extraordinary” for their ages, their everyday lives were fairly “ordinary” and easily relatable for young people in our time. 

Blessed Carlo Acutis was born on May 3, 1991, in London, England, before his parents moved to Milan, Italy. Although his mother has said publicly that they were not particularly religious or devout, from his earliest years Carlo exhibited great devotion to the Lord Jesus, especially in the Eucharist, and to his Catholic faith. He visited and prayed before Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament in his parish church each day and attended Mass whenever possible. He developed a deep devotion to Our Blessed Mother and prayed her Rosary daily. 

Carlo was a great example of kindness and charity to his peers, especially those who were troubled or in need. At the same time, he could regularly be found competing in sports, listening to music, playing video games and other activities typical of the children of his day. He had a fascination and facility with computers and is now known throughout the world for a website he created, charting all the Eucharistic miracles ever recorded.  His young life is an amazing story of deep and great faith in action, too much to capture in this brief account. Carlo died of leukemia on Oct. 12, 2006, giving witness to a comment he once made to his mother when he was only seven years old: “to always be united to Jesus: this is my life plan.”  He is regarded as the Church’s “first millennial saint!”

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati was born on April 6, 1901, in Turin, Italy.  Growing up in a politically active family, Pier Giorgio developed a strong sense of social justice and concern for the poor.  He has been frequently quoted as saying “Charity is not enough; we need social reform.” 

Frassati was a deeply religious young man and encouraged his peers to follow the Gospel of Christ.  Although he was not a successful academic student in school, he was known for remarkable practical intelligence and a wisdom beyond his years. He was a professed member of the Third Order of St. Dominic and belonged to his local St. Vincent de Paul Society while participating in the Catholic Action movement. His love for the Lord and for the poor and homeless was well known in his city and beyond.
Pier Giorgio had many friends among whom he developed a reputation as a prankster and practical joker. He loved the outdoors, was an active mountaineer, athlete and swimmer, participating in all these activities whenever possible. He frequented museums with his friends and enjoyed going to the opera and movies. He lived a remarkable life, balancing a profoundly deep faith with activities common to his peers. 

A now famous photograph of Frassati during his last mountain climb was inscribed by him with the phrase, “verso l’alto,” meaning “to the heights.”  He died from polio at the age of 24 on July 4, 1925.  His last words, while dying in his mother’s arms, were “may I breathe forth my soul in peace with you.”

Speaking to youth in Turin after visiting Frassati’s tomb in 2010, the late Pope Benedict XVI invited all Catholic adolescents and young adults to follow Pier Giorgio’s example “to discover that it is worth it to commit oneself for God … to respond to His call in the fundamental decisions and the daily ones, even when it is costly.” 

These two young Catholics are striking examples for Catholic youth of what it means to live the Catholic faith from the earliest years of life.  Their canonization is an invitation to young people in the Church to follow that same path on “the highway to heaven.”

Here in the Diocese of Trenton, both saints-to-be hold a meaningful place in our diocesan life. As Bishop, I placed young Catholics throughout the Diocese, especially students in our diocesan Catholic schools, under the special patronage of Blessed Carlo Acutis at the annual Catholic schools Mass on Oct. 12, 2022. 

St. Dominic Parish in Brick has a diocesan shrine dedicated to Blessed Carlo Acutis, with a first-class relic of Blessed Carlo obtained by hospital chaplain Father Marian Kolorzycki and carried by the future saint’s own mother to its place in the shrine during her visit there for Mass on Oct. 1, 2023.  “What a moment of grace,” remarked pastor Father Brian Woodrow on the occasion. The shrine is open daily for the devotion and veneration of the faithful. 
 
During his ministry as vocation director, Father Jason Parzynski dedicated his vocation work to the special patronage of Pier Giorgio Frassati.  His residence at the time bore Frassati’s name.  Recently, Father Parzynski named the Youth Hall at St. David the King Parish, West Windsor, where he is pastor, the “Frassati Youth Hall.”  He will soon display a second-class relic of Frassati there.  It is a small piece of the bedsheets upon which Pier Giorgio died that Father Parzynski obtained from Frassati’s niece during his seminary studies in Rome 2005-2006.

In this season of Thanksgiving, we express our gratitude to God for placing these two young saints-to-be in our midst and we pray for their intercession for the Catholic youth and young adults of the Diocese of Trenton.