Hi!
The Catholic Church recently celebrated the canonizations of two young men, St. Carlo Acutis and St. Pier Giorgio Frassati. They are two saints that I look up to so much! Because of the canonization, there’s been lots of new videos and things about their lives, one of them was the docudrama called, “To the Top – Pier Giorgio Frassati,” from EWTN. They also put out a documentary about St. Carlo and our family watched both of them to help us prepare for the canonization and get to know these guys even more.
My favorite was this one about St. Pier Giorgio! It was just so well done and it helped me learn more about the kind of person he was. It really inspired me and St. Pier Giorgio is one of my new favorites!
I thought that having it as a docudrama, with the actors and stuff, was a very creative way to tell parts of his story. Of course that can be challenging when you make up stuff about his life that isn’t actually true, but I still liked it.
I’ll share some more about it below.
What’s something you liked about it (and why)? There were so many things I liked about it. I especially liked the scene where he showed up to the party that his upper-class, influential family was hosting. His family relationships were complicated and strained, but it portrayed him still being faithful to them and coming to the party… even if he had no shoes because he gave them away! I’m not sure this specific example ever happened but I’m sure he was still faithful to his family despite the challenges with them.
I also really liked the part when he gives a coat to the new guy that joins their mountain climb, and then later, when he and this guy are sitting together, someone asks Pier Giorgio where his coat is. We didn’t know that the coat was his personal one! Pier Giorgio insisted that the other guy keep it and that he “runs hot.” That just showed the beautiful generosity and selflessness that Pier Giorgio had.
What’s something you disliked about it (and why)? I wasn’t a big fan of the main girl character, she felt a little insincere. And they also didn’t do a great job explaining who the people were, for example I’m guessing that girl was the one who Pier Giorgio liked and wanted to marry eventually. They hinted that they liked each other, but still, they didn’t explain who any of his friends were. And Ben (who knows Pier Giorgio the best) said that one of the main guys was Marco, who is known to be Pier Giorgio’s best friend. I wish they would have explained all this a bit more. But I get it, this wasn’t a movie about his whole life or about his friend’s lives, it was just highlighting a specific time and certain aspects of his life.
What was your biggest takeaway or lesson? One of my biggest takeaways was seeing his joy. Especially with how he’d be so joyful around his friends and peers, like through the Shady Characters Society (I love this! It was their Christ-centered group of friends who helped each other overcome “scruples and melancholy,” and strive for holiness. They often went on adventures and they didn’t take themselves too seriously. They made holiness more joyful and attractive!). God has been talking to me lately about being more joyful and evangelizing through my example. Seeing how Pier Giorgio lived really hit close to home in terms of all this! From what it seems like, he was just so happy and enthusiastic about the faith, but it didn’t come off too forced, nor did he put people off because of it. He was so genuine, he loved Jesus so much, and he would live out what he taught. He was very generous and kind to everyone, including the poor. This example is one of the main things I took from the show, and I know, it was acting so it might not be completely accurate but it goes along with things I’ve heard about him.
A cool part about this movie was that they had a whole section at the end which was more documentary style, with people talking about his life and stuff like that. Something one lady said really got my attention, “Nobody wants to follow a sad saint. Or someone who doesn’t have a life outside church. Pier Giorgio was known as a big practical joker but when it came to the things of the Lord, there couldn’t have been someone more serious.”
Yes! This is so good, and this is how I want to be too! I want to be so joyful and happy that it attracts people to God. And I want to have a great personality and life outside of church which would help relate to and attract people, and also to just have a great group of friends like his Shady Characters Society. I want to be fun and silly, but to still take God seriously. So my biggest takeaways were seeing St. Pier Giorgio’s examples and relating it to my life.
What is something you’re curious to learn more about as a result of this experience? I think this goes without saying but I’d like to learn more about St. Pier Giorgio Frassati! I’d like to learn more about his life, maybe I could read a book about him, and I’d like to see if he had any writings of his own.
Here’s the link to the movie if you want to check it out, I’d recommend it!
https://youtu.be/ASkdgHEd6a4?si=R1hT-AiVQ7cxeBEr
Thank you for reading!
God bless!
Lucy