This week in Rome, the Catholic Church continues its Jubilee Year of Hope with the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and the Jubilee of Youth.
Thousands of pilgrims have traveled to the city to participate in this week's celebrations, which will culminate in a grand Mass with Pope Leo XIV at Tor Vergata.
For these pilgrims, many of whom are young, faith is inspired not just by their journey to Rome but also by the example of saints and blesseds, including the soon-to-be-canonized Pier Giorgio Frassati.
This week, they have a special opportunity to venerate Blessed Frassati, as his remains are now present at the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva.
Santa Maria Sopra Minerva is a Gothic-style church belonging to the Dominican Order, to which Blessed Frassati belonged as a lay member. Frassati's incorrupt body arrived in Rome from his birthplace of Turin on the evening of July 25 to coincide with the Jubilee of Youth.
In a Mass celebrating the arrival of Blessed Frassati in Rome, Cardinal Baldo Reina reminded pilgrims that Frassati's life is meant to teach us that some of the most meaningful connections we will make are with the most vulnerable.
In recent days, many pilgrims have come to venerate Frassati's remains, which are placed before the main altar and will remain there until August 4, 2025. For these pilgrims, his example of joy, self-sacrifice, and a life of service is what makes him so popular with young people.
This is also an opportunity for some of these pilgrims to encounter the Dominicans, allowing them to learn more about the order and its charisms of prayer, study, and preaching.
As a recent pilgrim to Rome myself, I had the opportunity to visit Blessed Frassati, thanks to a Dominican priest friend. It was a special moment for me, as only a year ago, I had never even heard of Frassati.
After studying his life since then, I have come to admire this saint as a man of adventure. He inspires me and many other young people to embrace every vocation—whether married, religious, or priestly—as the greatest adventure we can have.
While venerating his body, I asked for his intercession to help me discover my vocation and to embrace it with the same joy he showed to everyone around him.
During this Jubilee week dedicated to missionaries and young people, the Church offers the faithful heroic examples of holiness and evangelization, showing that all are called to live and preach the Gospel.
For many of the young pilgrims currently in Rome, Blessed Frassati is a powerful witness to their mission of bringing the good news to those around them.
In a city full of the remains of saints and martyrs, the presence of Frassati's body offers young pilgrims an opportunity to connect with a more relatable saint.
With his upcoming canonization on September 7, 2025, the Church will present to the world a model and a patron for every young person, inviting them to embrace lives of service to the poor, commitment to prayer, and evangelization.
Here are some photos I took while visiting the incorrupt body of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati:
