A “modern witness” and a “courageous defender” of hope, “on behalf of the young Christians of the 20th century”: in celebrating the beatification of Pier Giorgio Frassati (1901-1925) on May 20, 1990, John Paul II didn’t hide his personal affection for this “joyful and enthusiastic apostle of Christ.”
“The lifestyle of Pier Giorgio Frassati, a modern young man full of life, doesn’t present anything extraordinary,” acknowledged John Paul II, while noting that “it’s precisely this that makes his virtue so original, inviting reflection and encouraging imitation.”
The Polish pope notes that Frassati’s 24 years of life showed “a continuous crescendo until the last days of the illness that would lead to his death” in 1925. He explains that “his taste for beauty and art, his passion for sports and the mountains, and his attention to social issues did not prevent him from maintaining a constant relationship with the Absolute.”
“The message that Pier Giorgio Frassati conveys to the people of our time, especially to you, young people, who desire to offer a concrete contribution of spiritual renewal to this world of ours, which sometimes seems divided and languishing due to a lack of ideals,” John Paul II emphasized in his 1990 homily.
These words resonate particularly strongly in 2025, a year marked by numerous signs of discontent among young people, but also by the reawakening of a spiritual thirst.
Frassati, a role model for the “WYD generation”
Over the past 30 years, Pier Giorgio Frassati has become a popular figure among young Catholics, especially those who participated in the various World Youth Days initiated during the pontificate of John Paul II. A key figure has also contributed to making this figure known: Wanda Gawronska, the niece of the new saint. Born in 1929, this former fashion photographer didn’t know her uncle, who died four years earlier, but she remains very active in promoting his cause.
Wanda Gawronska is the daughter of Luciana Frassati (1902-2007), Pier Giorgio's sister, who lived as long a life as her brother's was short. She’s Polish on the side of her father, the diplomat Jan Gawronski (1892-1983). Upon becoming president of the Pier Giorgio Frassati Association, Wanda Gawronska set out to raise awareness of her uncle's ordinary yet inspiring life.
Frassati thus became a well-known figure not only in Italy but also in Poland, where the future Pope John Paul II already considered him a role model before his election to the See of Peter.
“John Paul II said that Pier Giorgio was a model for all of us,” Wanda Gawronska said in an interview with Aleteia in 2018. She said that she had received a letter from a young Polish man who wrote to her: “Pier Giorgio managed to achieve holiness, so why shouldn't I? It's worth trying.”
John Paul II, visiting an exhibition on Frassati organized at the Lateran on March 30, 1985, signed the guest book with this simple expression: “Pier Giorgio - young man of the beatitudes.” It was a way of saying that he considered him “a fully happy man,” seeing him as a luminous and inspiring figure for new generations.
John Paul II, a bridge between Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis
The other saint canonized on Sunday also has a connection with Poland and John Paul II: Carlo Acutis owes much of his spiritual awakening to a young Polish nanny, Beata, who took care of him during his childhood in the early 1990s. This young woman, who greatly admired John Paul II, introduced the child to Marian devotion, charity towards the poor, and the fundamentals of the catechism.
It’s certainly largely thanks to her that young Carlo was able to develop a vibrant faith, which would eventually inspire his parents, who found their way back to the Church after a long period of distance. It was with his parents that the young man met John Paul II during a pilgrimage to Rome.
If Karol Wojtyla was a disciple of Frassati, Carlo Acutis was, in a way, a disciple of John Paul II: the Polish saint will therefore be at the center of this highly anticipated double canonization, which will be followed with particular enthusiasm in Poland.
