Big news for devotees of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. According to Christine Wohar of FrassatiUSA, the body of the young Italian role model for youth will be going to World Youth Day in Sydney. In addition, his tomb was recently re-opened and his body was again confirmed as incorrupt.
Pier Giorgio’s tomb was opened this past Monday in Turin where he was again confirmed incorrupt. Plans are now underway for him to make the trip to Australia and be among the youth of the world who will gather there. I am not aware of something like this being done before for World Youth Day. I do know for certain that Pier Giorgio’s remains have never left Turin since being placed there following his beatification in 1990.
She also mentions that the official Frassati association in Italy, headed by his niece Wanda Gawronska, is preparing a special medal to be made available for sale, including in the US. It will be based on the original medal designed by Pier Giorgio’s mother upon his death in 1925.
They are also editing together a book of Pier Giorgio’s letters, which they hope to have published this summer.
Catholic News Service has a story with more details on the World Youth Day plans.
I find the practise of digging up the dead, for any reason, a bit creepy. As for dragging them across the world to Australia to be put on exhibit! Words fail me.
Well, the creepy feeling is a modern one because ours is the first generation with such squeamishness. Thus the millennia-old practice of relics.
Also, saints’ relics have often traveled for veneration. If people can’t go on pilgrimage, then the saint will come to them.
Nitpick: given that the article said “tomb”, I don’t think that “digging up” was any part of the process.
The remains of the saints are not really in the same case as ordinary remains. Ordinary bodies are sacred in the “don’t mess with ‘em” way. Saintly people’s bodies are more like sacramentals; they were dedicated to God’s use while alive, and so they’re still working for God when they’re dead. They’re not all the way to being glorified bodies, but they’re a lot further along than, say, mine.
This is an important visible sign to us that our bodies are not just husks or clothes. They suffered the fall just as our souls did, and they also participate right along with our souls in the process of becoming holy, and will reunite with our souls in the end. They are both “us”, and we should never forget that.
Finally, if God didn’t want us to do this, He wouldn’t cause so many miracles to happen through the saints’ bodies and body parts. Our Jewish fathers and mothers saw it happen, and so did the early Christians with the bodies of martyrs and saints. We just follow their lead and God’s obvious will.
I admit that the Frassati thing is pretty wild, but then, Frassati always liked to travel and do wild things. He probably exerted some influence.
The incorrupt body of a holy man,woman or child is, from a Catholic’s point of view, God’s startling message to us all, reminding us that He exists, that He loves as INDIVIDUALLY and wants us to know and love Him.
This Saint’s body has been incorrupt since 1925 when he died.
We live in a world where the human body is often shown no respect whether alive or dead, whether it is the body of an aborted baby, a victim of crime or of war.
Do those who claim to be squeamish that the incorrupt body of a saint is shown to all to venerate and ponder, ever watch the world news where the bodies of slaughtered people are shown on a daily basis, anonymous and unidentified?
Our entertainment in the films be it war dramas, murder mysteries, or thrillers usually depicts dead bodies in various stages of decomposition and/or mutilation.
However, those who view this particular body must wonder: Why?
Why has it never decayed? Who is responsible for preserving it? Thoughts may even turn to God!!!
We hope and pray that many who have never considered the place of God, our Creator, in their lives, will acknowledge Him and come to know and love the Son, Jesus, Who loves, inspired and sanctified the living body of this Saint who died 83 years ago, but who is with Him for all eternity.