“2025 will mark the centenary of the death of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, a young man born and raised in Turin, venerated by the Church for the great impetus of his Christian faith and for the contagious example of charity lived in daily life, especially towards the poor. I would like to announce that on 4 July 2024 we will open a year of special celebrations in view of the centenary, a year to deepen our knowledge and veneration of the ‘man of the eight beatitudes’, as he was defined with a very beautiful image by Pope Saint John Paul II”: this is what Msgr. Roberto Repole, Archbishop of Turin and Bishop of Susa, wrote in his message to the Church of Turin and the city for the opening of the Frassatian Year.
“I hope,” the archbishop continued, “that it will be an important year for the Christian community and for the city, which counts Frassati among its exemplary sons. I hope that many of you will want to participate this year in the liturgical feast of Blessed Frassati: it will be celebrated in the cathedral on the evening of Thursday, July 4 at 9:00 p.m. Together, let us dedicate this year to comparing ourselves with the luminous life of the young Frassati, together let us invoke his intercession in our lives and, while I bless you from the bottom of my heart, I wish everyone a good and fruitful journey.”
While in the diocese of Biella, the Frassatian Year will open on Wednesday 3 July with a Eucharistic celebration and evening adoration in the park of the family villa in Pollone, in Turin the start will be on Thursday 4 July with the prayer of Lauds at 8:00 in the church of Crocetta.
In the evening, the appointments in the cathedral with a meeting at 8:45 pm on the churchyard to experience two moments: a presentation of Frassati through a theatrical reading and the proposal of the official hymn ‘Verso l’alto’ by the Grande Coro Hope; at 9 pm the Eucharistic celebration presided over by the auxiliary bishop, Monsignor Alessandro Giraudo; followed by the Eucharistic adoration at the altar of the tomb of the blessed, animated by the young people of AC and FUCI, ending at 11:30 pm.
