Verso l’alto! Dominican Youth pilgrims in the footsteps of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

3 August 2023

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This summer the Dominican Youth Movement travelled to Turin and the Marian sanctuary of Our Lady of Oropa from 24-28th July 2023 for the 3rd Frassati Pilgrimage.

Fr Joseph Bailham OP, the DYM promoter, led the pilgrimage and was assisted by Dominican brothers Jerome Johnson and Augustine Chen. This pilgrimage and those before it have been in honour and in the footsteps of the Lay Dominican, Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, one of the patrons of World Youth Day.

For a third time a group of 20 pilgrims and 3 friars visited sites associated with Blessed Pier Giorgio, such as his parish church in Turin, his family’s summer home in the village of Pollone, and the Marian sanctuary of Oropa—a UNESCO heritage site—where the blessed used to visit regularly to pray and to hike up the surrounding mountains.

The pilgrimage began in Turin and included Mass at the cathedral and prayers at the tomb of Blessed Pier Giorgio, where his body is kept beneath a side altar of the cathedral. On the afternoon of the second day, the group travelled by coach to Oropa and remained there for the duration of the pilgrimage. There the group enjoyed time in prayer and time in nature, including an 8-hour hike to the summit of Mt Mucrone and back.

On the final day, before reaching the airport, the group stopped in Pollone at the summer home of the Frassati family, where we celebrated Mass and were generously hosted once again by Signora Wanda Gawronska, the niece of Blessed Pier Giorgio.

The days together were a time of prayer and a time of fraternity, truly grace-filled days.