FRASSATI

by Stephen Davies & Melissa Davies

stephen@crownsandvines.com | 585-329-5224

His death made a city weep. His life will make the whole world wonder.

A feature-length drama about the last year of Pier Giorgio Frassati’s life.

For over 100 years, the life and death of St. Pier Giorgio Frassati (1901-1925) has amazed millions with its extraordinary and dramatic heights. Many Catholics have heard about the cheerful, popular, cigar-smoking mountain climber. Many of us have seen the charming photographs, attended “Frassati” young adult groups, and added “Verso l’alto!” to our personal lexicon of catchphrases.

But how many have understood the sheer magnitude and drama of his life — a life pained by misunderstandings in his family, rocked by upheaval in his society, and stitched together by constant and hidden sacrifices? How many of us have heard the whole story?

In the spring of 1924, 23-year-old Pier Giorgio studies by day and visits the poor by night, bringing food, aid, and kindness to the most desperate souls. He falls in love with his friend Laura and agonizes about how to tell her — and his parents. He climbs mountains, promotes the Catholic faith tirelessly, and tangles with Communists and Fascists during the tumultuous rise of Mussolini. Loud and boisterous in personality; humble and discreet in charity, he is recognized everywhere, and yet remains a mystery to those closest to him — to outward appearances, little more than an ordinary young man of his time.

The times, however, will not let him be. Before a year has passed, he will witness the collapse of his parents’ marriage, a painful separation from his beloved sister, and the gradual corruption of his social world by Fascism. He will realize that his parents will never accept the woman he loves nor his vocational mission and must decide: their way or his? And all the time, the hourglass of his life is silently emptying…

FRASSATI weaves these strands together into the epic tapestry that was Pier Giorgio’s last year of life before his death on July 4, 1925. In this final year, a youth in the prime of his life will make a complete sacrifice of himself. Will the student perpetually behind in his studies pass the ultimate test?

In our own lives, Pier Giorgio has become a dear friend, prayerful companion, and nothing short of an inspiration. He reminds us that every Christian’s life is built with the extraordinary drama of salvation, lived out day by day. We believe that now is the time to adapt his story for a new generation – a story to bring hope to a confused world, to call the young and old up to the heights, and stir in us all the Courage of Christ.