On September 7, 2025, 100 years after the death of Pier Giorgio Frassati, the young Italian who died suddenly of acute polio will be canonized by Pope Leo XIV in Rome. Timothée Croux, a seminarian from the Diocese of Meaux, currently studying in Rome, was deeply impressed by the figure of the young man from Turin.
Interview with Timothée Croux, co-author of a book about soon-to-be-canonized Pier Giorgo Frassati, a young Italian who helped the poor and rejected Fascism.
In a book co-written with Father Emmanuel de Ruyver (Pier Giorgio Frassati, Un aventurier au Paradis, “Pier Giorgio Frassati, an Adventurer in Paradise,” published in French), he recounts the edifying journey of the man he describes as a “complete saint.”
A role model for young people
How did you come to know Pier Giorgio Frassati?
Timothée Croux: I learned about him through Scouting. I discovered a role model for young men like myself: a witness who practiced boundless charity, who had formed chaste and solid friendships, and who, like me, loved nature and the mountains. In high school in Paris, my spiritual director also gave me his biography to read.
Last year, I did a year-long internship in a parish in the Diocese of Rome. In the adoration chapel, the parish priest had hung a portrait of Pier Giorgio Frassati. The future saint has in fact accompanied me throughout my vocational journey.
Is he a role model for the young Italians you’ve met?
Croux: I have the impression that Pier Giorgio Frassati is better known in France or the United States [than in Italy]. There, this figure of the young Christian adventurer who calls us to surpass ourselves and strive for holiness has been widely promoted. In Italy, lately, it’s mainly Carlo Acutis who’s being talked about. He’ll be canonized on the same day.
How can Pier Giorgio Frassati's life enlighten young Catholics today?
Croux: Pier Giorgio Frassati can give young people the desire for holiness. For him, being a saint was a daily quest. He wasn’t a priest and he didn’t end up a martyr. But from his earliest childhood, he strove to live the Gospel to the letter, with disconcerting freedom.
Love for the poor
The poor were always at the heart of his concerns. As a young child, when a poor mother and her barefoot child knocked on the Frassati family's door, Pier Giorgio gave them his shoes and asked them to leave before his parents noticed. Until the eve of his death, he took care to send money or medicine to the most vulnerable. As John Paul II said, Pier Giorgio Frassati was the man of the eight beatitudes.
Where did this intense charity come from?
Croux: The Frassati family was very wealthy. His father, Alfredo Frassati, was a senator, ambassador, and director of the major daily newspaper La Stampa. Pier Giorgio grew up in this milieu of the Catholic upper middle class in Turin. But it was a conventional Catholicism, and it wasn’t his parents who pushed him toward the poor. In fact, it was only after his death that they discovered the extent of his work, when thousands of people wanted to pay tribute to him.
I believe that his generosity was a gift from God that he cultivated over the years. His enthusiasm for the poor was also linked to his love for the Eucharist. At the age of 13, he obtained his mother's permission to attend Mass every day. He would say, “Jesus visits me every day through Communion, and I visit him back in a very modest way by visiting the poor.” He understood that the Eucharist was the sacrament of charity.
Sacrificing for his principles
You mentioned his parents. What kind of relationship did he have with them?
Croux: People often talk about a supposed conflict between them. I would say it was more a case of misunderstanding. Pier Giorgio received a strict upbringing. Despite his efforts, he wasn’t a very good student, and his father was very strict with him. He wanted his son to one day take over the management of La Stampa. Pier Giorgio, however, embarked on studies to become a mining engineer in order to be closer to the poor. But he had great respect for his parents. He knew that when his father asked him to take over, he would do so.
When the young Frassati fell in love with a young woman, he eventually decided to renounce his feelings for her. Was this due to family pressure?
Croux: He had indeed fallen in love with Laura Hidalgo, a young woman from a much more modest background than his own. But he knew deep down that such a relationship couldn’t end in marriage. No doubt he didn’t want to hurt his parents. So, out of love for them—but also for Laura, whom he didn’t want to hurt—he chose to renounce his feelings.
This episode may be difficult to understand today, but it testifies to Pier Giorgio's greatness of soul. For him, starting a relationship meant turning towards marriage. His testimony also shows that there’s always a choice to be made when it comes to love. There’s something reassuring about this. [It reinforces the fact that] just because a seminarian or priest falls in love doesn’t mean he has to give up celibacy!
Promoting peace
Pier Giorgio Frassati was a man of action, committed to social justice but also to peace. How can he be a source of inspiration today?
Croux: Pier Giorgio took courageous stands against war. In 1923, when the French army invaded the Ruhr in response to Germany's failure to pay war reparations, he took up his pen to write a message of support to Catholic youth in a German newspaper. It was unacceptable to him that a foreign army should cross the borders of a sovereign state.
In the current European context, this gives us food for thought. In fact, Pier Giorgio was involved in a project of Catholic students advocating for Pax Romana in Europe. He felt that European Christians had a role to play in establishing true peace.
The last time I saw Wanda Gawronska, Pier Giorgio's 97-year-old niece, she was saddened to see that war had returned to Europe. She asked me if any students had any ideas for reviving Pax Romana.
And?
Croux: Several initiatives have developed in Europe, such as European Scouting and Erasmus. On a global scale, we can highlight World Youth Day, which aims to bring Christian youth together and promote peace, as Pope Leo XIV did during the Jubilee of Youth.
Rejection of fascism
What was Pier Giorgio Frassati's position on fascism?
Croux: He never accepted any kind of friendship with fascism. Pier Giorgio was close to the Italian Popular (or People’s) Party, founded by a priest, which promoted the principles of Christian democracy. But he was disappointed when this movement compromised with the fascists in 1922.
The following year, he also resigned from a group of Catholic students, the Cesare Balbo Circle, when he learned that the group's banner had been displayed on a balcony in honor of Mussolini as he passed through the streets of Turin.
For Pier Giorgio, politics was a service, especially to the poor. It was impossible to support a movement based on the glorification of force. His moral strength enabled him to break with movements, even when some of his close friends and family were members.
