“To The Top” and “Always Close to Jesus!”
Next month 2 impressive young men with holy souls will be named saints.
Pope Leo XIV will canonize Blesseds Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis on Sept. 7 in Rome.
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati – “To live without a Faith… is not living but existing.”
Verso I’alto! – This Italian phrase, meaning, “To the top,” was written by Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati on a photo of him mountain climbing. It was one of the last taken of him. A month later he died of polio on July 4, 1925, at the age of 24.
“To the top” is how he lived life – focusing upward and onward – working to get closer to God and Heaven.
“The higher we go, the better we shall hear the voice of Christ,” he said.
Frassati was from a well to do family, fun-loving, adventurous, popular, and handsome. Vanity was not an issue for him. He enjoyed life to its fullest which he also meant for him serving the least among us – the poorest of poor, the sick, and the forgotten. Most who knew him didn’t know that latter. He didn’t boast of helping the needy, and when friends did hear about it they’d question how he could even stand to be in such filth and stench.
Hundreds of people lined the streets and followed his coffin for his funeral procession. His family was in awe, when they came to realize that the majority of the mourners paying respects were the men, women, and children he lovingly, happily, and humbly served for seven years. Until that moment his servant leadership sacrifices were unknown by his affluent family.
Blessed Carlo Acutis – “Always be close to Jesus.”
The canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis is one of the most anticipated worldwide in years. The tech savvy teen’ created an online exhibit of Eucharistic miracles from around the globe. He was born in London and grew up in Milan, Italy.
Blessed Carlo Acutis is beloved in the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston for the same reasons as our brothers and sisters around the world, but also because he is the namesake of our Catholic youth adventure camp in Huttonsville, since 2021.
Blesseds Carlo and Pier Giorgio, pray for us!
