RELICS OF BLESSED PIER GIORGIO IN POLAND
ANNA JANOWSKA
On the World Youth days, an unusual pilgrim, blessed Pier Giorgio Frasssati, whom John Paul II had named ‘A man of eight blessings’, will arrive in Poland in his relics.
In his Message on this year’s World Youth’s Days, pope Francis reminded the person of blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, as an example of a young man who ‘understood what meant having a merciful heart, sensitive to those in the most need. He devoted them much more than material gifts, he gave them himself, he devoted them his time, words, ability of listening’.
Peregrination of relics of blessed Pier Giorgio
Relics of blessed Pier Giorgio will arrive in Poland on 11 July this year. Their peregrination will begin in Rybnik, in the diocese of Katowice. On this day a car with the relics will be going along streets of the city in the afternoon – assisted by the youth on rollerblades – to the basilica of St. Anthony of Padwa. At 6 p.m. there will be the Holy Mass there, as well as a vigil prayer which will last till the next morning. On the route of the peregrination there are 10 Polish cities. From 23 to 31 July the relics of the Blessed will be placed in the basilica of the Holy Trinity of the Dominican Fathers at Stolarska street in Kraków, where a special program of adoring them was prepared, also referring to the 800th anniversary of the Dominican Order attributable to this year.
Full of passion and life
In the biography of Pier Giorgio Frassati and his family are also Polish threads.The blessed was born in Turyń in 1901, in a family which meant a lot in the political and social life at that time. He was a man full of joy and passion for life, and he wanted to devote himself to serving to others. He began his studies at the Mining Department of the Polytechnics in Turyń, because he wanted to get to know life conditions of mining families. His letters remained when he arrived in Katowice. He did not manage to realize his program – he died in 1925, suffering from Heine-Medin disease which he had caught during his visiting the ill in hospital. His younger sister Luciana got married to a Polish diplomat – Jan Gawroński. During war occupation, she was strongly engaged in helping Poles, cooperating with the underground activists, and living in Italy, she intervened in liberation of Polish prisoners, among the others, professors of the Jagellonian University. Whereas, her daughter, Wanda Gawrońska, helped Polish oppositionists and supported democratic changes in Poland for which she was awarded with the Cross of Commandos, the Order of Poland Rebirth.
Evangelization and mercifulness
Pier Giorgio was a person known as a saint man before beatification which was done by John Paul II in 1990. Today a group of apostolate and prayer founded by Pier Giorgio and his friends is called so – function all over the world, also in Poland.
Presence of the relics of the Blessed is an occasion for a particular prayer through the intercession of Pier Giorgio Frassati and reminding that in his biography there were difficult moments and that he chose his path of life on which what was very important were evangelization and mercifulness. In this way his person is inscribed in the motto of the World Youth’s Days: ‘Blessed the merciful as they will receive mercifulness’.
AA
„Niedziela” 28/2016