Photo: Pier Giorgio is wearing the party hat.
April 1, 1901 - July 4, 1925
Happy Birthday!
"Born to a rich and politically influential family; his mother was the painter Adelaide Ametis; his father was an agnostic, the founder and editor of the liberal newspaper La Stampa, and became the Italian ambassador to Germany. A pious youth, average student, outstanding athlete and mountain climber, he was extremely popular with his peers, known by the nickname "Terror" due to his practical jokes. He was tutored at home for years with his younger sister Luciana. He studied minerology in an engineering program after graduating high school. He worked often with Catholic groups like Apostleship of Prayer and the Company of the Most Blessed Sacrament that ministered to the poor and promoted Eucharistic adoration, Marian devotion, and personal chastity. He became involved in political groups like the Young Catholic Workers Congress, the Popular Party, the Catholic Student Federation, Catholic Action and Milites Mariae that supported the poor, opposed Fascism and worked for the Church's social teachings. Enrolled as a Dominican tertiary on 28 May 1922, taking the name Girolamo (Jerome). Especially devoted to the teachings of Saint Catherine of Siena and Saint Thomas Aquinas. He spent his fortune on the needy and visited the sick; during this ministry he contracted the disease that killed him." - Patron Saints Index
Thank you for posting this, Terry! I *love* Blessed PGF! Any man who doesn't take himself too seriously, but who takes Jesus *very* seriously, if a great man in my book. He lived life joyously, serving God fully in his own state of life, even when he had disappointments, such as when his family forbid him from marrying the young lady he loved because she was not high enough on the social scale for them. Even to his last breath, he was concerned for the poor and handed his sister some prescriptions to fill for poor families he had befriended. He may have been a Dominican, but I think he had a bit of Franciscan in him, too. Blessed Pier Giorgio, pray for us, who are suffering with the coronavirus and the quarantine!
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