In this holy year of 2025, marked by the Jubilee for Youth, news of great spiritual significance is rekindling the fervor of the faithful: the incorrupt body of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati will be exposed for the veneration of young pilgrims in Rome from July 26 to August 4. An announcement that stirs deep emotion in the Church, as the witness of this young Italian, who died at only 24 years old, continues to inspire entire generations.
The coffin containing the incorrupt body of the Blessed will be transferred from the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, where it normally rests, to the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in the heart of Rome. This emblematic site will welcome the faithful throughout the Youth Jubilee, from July 28 to August 3, before the closing Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV at Tor Vergata University.
This is not the first time Frassati's relics have traveled the world: in 2008, they were already sent to Sydney, Australia, for the World Youth Days, at the request of Cardinal George Pell.
Initially scheduled for August 3, the canonization of Pier Giorgio Frassati will finally take place on Sunday, September 7, at the same time as that of Blessed Carlo Acutis. This double event, awaited by millions of young Catholics, will be a major milestone of the jubilee year and a vibrant call to holiness for youth.
Born in 1901 in Turin into an influential family, Pier Giorgio Frassati led a life resolutely turned toward heaven while being firmly anchored in the world. A member of the Dominican Third Order, a passionate mountaineer, active in politics, he devoted his free time to serving the poorest: he distributed food, clothing, medicine, visited the sick, the abandoned, and tirelessly bore witness to the love of Christ in the most miserable neighborhoods of the city.
It was while serving in this way that he contracted polio, which claimed his life in July 1925, exactly 100 years ago. This centenary was commemorated this weekend in several cities in northern Italy.
In 1981, during the opening of his coffin as part of his beatification process, a stunning surprise awaited the doctors and clergy members: Pier Giorgio's body had remained intact, preserved from all corruption. A fact that the Church considers a supernatural sign, testifying to the truth of the Resurrection and the eternal life promised to the just.
Frassati's motto, "Toward the Top" (Verso l'alto), is still today brandished as a banner by thousands of young Catholics. It summarizes his life: a race toward holiness, an ascent both physical (in the Alps he so loved) and spiritual, always animated by an ardent, joyful, luminous faith. A faith that is not content with words, but that acts, serves, and humbles itself to lift others up.
This Youth Jubilee in Rome, with the exceptional presence of his incorrupt body, will be a rendezvous of grace, a spiritual convocation, a call to transcendence for an entire generation seeking solid landmarks and models of life. May Pier Giorgio Frassati, this "saint of the young" with a soul of fire and a frank smile, draw us, too, toward the heights of charity and truth.
"The faith I have received as a gift, I want to share with others."
— Pier Giorgio Frassati