A man of the Beatitudes

I'm currently reading a biography of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, written by his sister Luciana Frassati. A few years ago I saw his picture in a chapel in Italy and had no idea who this person was. It is relatively unusual to see a modern saint depicted in church, particularly someone who is young and - for want of a better word - normal.

I suppose it is this very normality - I think I'm going to have to refer to him as PGF for the rest of this post - that makes his story so striking. PGF was a keen sportsman, a great mountaineer and skier, and someone who lived life to the full. He was one of those happy, well-balanced people, who was always surrounded by friends and who was the life and soul of the party.

And yet he had a secret life, unknown to many and misunderstood by a few, not least his family. He developed an intense spirituality, based on the Eucharist and the Blessed Mother which launched him into a life of heroic service among the poor. He joined the St Vincent de Paul Society at the age of seventeen and spent most of his spare time in the slums of Turin, assisting the needy in whatever way he could. He would travel third class or avoid public transport altogether so that the money saved could help other people. He was constantly slipping out to visit the sick in hospital and kept a strict account of people he was intending to assist financially.

There isn't space to list the incredible acts of charity he managed to squeeze into his short life. What amazes me, is how he found time to live such a normal, regular life on top of this. He coped with studies, exams, everyday family life and activities with friends - the usual mundane stuff that all of us experience. And yet somehow, God transformed him into something exceptional.

All this got me thinking about that other great man of the Beatitudes, Blessed John Paul II. It is fitting that this particular Pope - another keen athlete in his youth - should have been the one to beatify PGF in 1990. One of these men lived into old age, the other died as a young man. But the quality of their lives came from the same source - complete submission to the will of Christ. It is this that makes them both so exceptional but at the same time so ordinary.