Handsome, holy Italian man known for skiing, charity

Published: 2006-02-17

TURIN, Italy (CNS) -- Once upon a time, a young, handsome fellow, sporting skis and chewing on a cigar, zipped across the Alpine peaks in Bardonecchia, about 75 miles east of Turin. Just a few months before he died in 1925 at the age of 24, Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati had competed in a 15-kilometer race in the same mountains where the Olympic snowboarding competition was being held during the XX Olympic Winter Games. "Who can imagine how happy he would be today to see the Olympics here" in his own backyard, said Cardinal Severino Poletto of Turin. "He's a great saint," he told Catholic News Service, "a modern model of holiness and youth." In order to tell Olympic visitors more about Turin's favorite saint-in-the-making, two Blessed Pier Giorgio associations came together to set up two exhibits for the duration of the games. One was set up in a small church in Bardonecchia and another in a Turin church where Blessed Pier Giorgio was made a Third Order Dominican, a lay order.

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