Patron of Students, Young Catholics, Mountaineers, Youth groups
Pier Giorgio was born on April 6, 1901 in Turin, Italy, of a prominent family. His father, an agnostic, owned the liberal newspaper, La Stampa, served in the Italian Senate and later became an ambassador to Germany.
Of a different frame of mind and stance of soul than that of his father, young Pier Giorgio was deeply spiritual. The Holy Eucharist and the Blessed Virgin Mary were the two devotions around which revolved his prayer life, a life he never hesitated to share with his friends.
While pursuing a mining engineering degree, he became involved in Catholic youth groups, the Apostleship of Prayer, Catholic Action and was a Dominican Tertiary. He helped establish the paper Momento based on Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical, Rerum Novarum. In 1918, he joined the St. Vincent de Paul Society and spent much of his time helping the poor by sharing with them his allowance and even the clothes off his back.
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