From Blessed to Saint: A Novena’s Ascension Mirrors Frassati’s Own Journey

For decades, the faithful have turned to Pier Giorgio Frassati in prayer, seeking his intercession as a blessed. But this year, something has shifted in the spiritual firmament. The novena that began on June 25 is no longer a petition to a blessed, but a prayer to a fully recognized saint of the Church. This transition, marked by Frassati USA’s release of a new video novena, reflects not merely a change in title, but a deepening of the spiritual relationship between the faithful and this young Italian mountaineer.

“This year is the first ever novena to SAINT Pier Giorgio Frassati,” Christine Wohar, executive director of Frassati USA, told OSV News. The distinction is profound. Where once the faithful asked for his blessed assistance, they now honor his full and certain place in the heavenly court. The novena, which has been prayed since 1994—four years after his beatification—now carries the full weight of the Church’s recognition of his heroic virtue.

St. Pier Giorgio’s appeal lies in his integration of the sacred and the ordinary. A daily communicant who climbed mountains while reciting the rosary, he lived his faith not in a monastery but on the trails and in the slums of Turin. His service to the poor, hidden from his wealthy family until his funeral at age 24, speaks to a generation seeking authenticity. Father Charles Mangano, whose Long Island-based young adult group produced the new video, noted that the saint’s first feast day invites a renewed contemplation of how earthly pursuits can become paths to divine encounter.