Pier Giorgio Frassati was born in Turin on April 6, Holy Saturday, 1901, to Alfredo, founder of the daily newspaper “La Stampa” in 1895, and Adelaide Ametis.

His mother stands out for her strong character and artistic temperament. A year later the Frassatis will give Pier Giorgio a sister, Luciana, who will become his inseparable playmate and study companion. The Frassati family can be considered to belong to the local upper middle class and is culturally liberal in feeling, with the agnostic father and the mother a formal believer: from her Pier Giorgio receives the first rudiments of Catholicism, while faith, instead, will mature in him in an unexpected way, becoming the very foundation of his life.

He received his scholastic education at the public school “Massimo d'Azeglio” and then, the “Istituto Sociale” of the Jesuits. The contact with Ignatian spirituality and the formation imparted led the young Pier Giorgio to take Communion every day, and subsequently to enter the Conferences of St. Vincent. Although he came from a bourgeois family, as a young man he chose to be close to the needy by becoming the “porter” of the poor, dragging carts loaded with household goods of the evicted through the streets of Turin. As a member of the Conference of St. Vincent he visited the neediest families to whom he offered comfort and tangible help. His deep faith is nourished by daily Eucharist, prayer, frequent confession. He is in love with the Word of God: in his time it is reading reserved in fact for consecrated people, but he obtains the texts to read them personally. Trusting completely in the words of Jesus, he sees the presence of God in his neighbor, he considers himself "poor like all the poor": he is generous with words and gestures of fraternal charity, both alone and in the organized form of the Conferences of Saint Vincent, in the streets of Turin, in the poor neighborhoods, at Cottolengo.

In 1918 he enrolled in Mechanical Engineering (with a specialization in mining) to be able to dedicate himself to Christ among the miners, who were among the humblest and least qualified workers. In 1919 he joined the FUCI (Italian Catholic University Federation). He joined Catholic Action by participating in the Milites Mariae circle , adopting the PAS motto “Prayer, Action and Study”.

In the strong tensions of the first post-war period, he was involved in a social apostolate, which also saw him present in factories. Convinced of the need for social reforms, in 1920 he joined the Italian Popular Party, which he considered a useful tool for creating a more just society. In the same period, his father was appointed Ambassador to Germany. In Berlin, Pier Giorgio visited the poorest neighborhoods and came into contact with the circles of young German Catholic students and workers. In September 1921 in Rome, during a large demonstration of the Catholic Youth, he defended the flag of his circle from the assault of the Royal Guards, being arrested. The writings of Saint Catherine of Siena and the fiery speeches of Savonarola encouraged him to enter the Third Dominican Order in 1922, taking the name of Brother Girolamo. As a fervent disciple of Saint Dominic, he recited the Rosary every day, declaring that “I always carry my will – showing the rosary – in my pocket”. He is a member of numerous ecclesial associations, into which he pours the many interests of his ardent Christian life.

His days were therefore divided between prayer, helping the needy, studying and friends. After his death, his parents learned from their son's friends, and from those who had received his help, the lifestyle of this boy who ran through the streets of Turin, always on foot because he offered the money for the tram in alms, to buy medicine for the sick, even donating his clothes for those who did not have them. His parents often scolded him because he always arrived late, being unaware of their son's charitable life.

The young Pier Giorgio had also thought about priestly consecration but chose to live his vocation to holiness in the lay state because this lifestyle allowed him to share up close the world of workers and the poor through personal social action.

He is passionate about mountains and sports, and joins the Italian Alpine Club and the Giovane Montagna association. He often organizes trips with friends (the Società dei Tipi Loschi) that become occasions for apostolate. He goes to the theater, the opera, visits museums, loves painting and music, knows entire passages of Dante by heart. He is always attentive, however, to the needs of others, especially the poor and the sick, to whom he gives time, energy, and his very life.

Almost at the finish line of his degree, with two exams to go, he died of fulminant polio, probably contracted while assisting the poor. The first symptoms, migraine, loss of appetite and fever, appeared on June 30. He died in Turin on Saturday, July 4, 1925. Two days later, the overflowing crowd at the funeral began to reveal to his family and the world the greatness of his Christian testimony. Thus began, starting from this great fama sanctitatis, the path that would lead to his beatification, presided over by the Holy Father Saint John Paul II, in a Saint Peter's Square packed with the faithful.

• https://www.causesanti.va/it/santi-e-beati/pier-giorgio-frassati.html