For over 100 years, the meteoric 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 ingrained “Verso l’alto!” into our lexicon of personal 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, twenty-three year old Pier Giorgio studies mining engineering by day, and visits the poor by night, shouldering one request after another. He climbs mountains with friends, receives Holy Communion daily, and struggles to keep up with his exams. He falls in love with a young librarian and agonizes about how to tell her — and his parents. In every way, he lives an intense but ordinary life as a Catholic layman 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, the departure of his beloved sister, and the corruption of his city by Fascist agitators. He will realize that his parents will never accept the woman he loves, and must decide: her, or them? Finally, on a morning in late June of 1925, he will wake with a strange fever, and all his dreams will halt.

FRASSATI weaves these strands together into the sweeping tapestry that was Pier Giorgio’s last year of life before his death on July 4, 1925. In this last 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 “ordinary” life is suffused 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.