In each issue as we countdown toward the new millennium, we are bringing you the countdown of the TOP 100 CATHOLICS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY as voted upon by the readers. We will spotlight each of the 100 Top Catholics chosen by readers over a three month period of time earlier this year. We received a total of 23,455 votes nominating 728 candidates for "Top 100 Catholics of the 20th Century" consideration. The top five vote-getters garnered 9,477 with the top ten registering a total 13,470 and the top twenty-five totaling 18,085 or 77% of the entire vote. The Top 100 chosen received 21,603 votes with those 628 candidates not making the list receiving 8% of the vote.
Caliber-wise in the final tally, DAILY CATHOLIC readers made excellent choices and there is a good balance throughout the century list. Eight of the nine Roman Pontiffs of this century made the list except for Pope John Paul I whose pontificate lasted only one month. There are five Saints and six Blesseds as well as seven whose cause for Beatification has been introduced to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The voters selected fifteen cardinals, seven bishops, nineteen priests, seven nuns and two lay brothers. The laity is well represented with four entertainers, four politicians, six renowned secular authors, and numerous dynamic Marian luminaries that have proved their worth through the fruits they have produced by their efforts. Education checks in with several who made the list in all aspects of scholastics including two university presidents and the pro-life movement also has several organizers who made the list as well as well-known leaders of various Catholic non-profit organizations dedicated to upholding the truths of the Church.
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99. Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati
Considered the "Man of the Beatitudes," Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati was the 99th person chosen on the list of the TOP 100 CATHOLICS OF THE CENTURY. Born in Turin, Italy on Holy Saturday, April 6, 1901 during the pontificate of Pope Leo XIII. Early in life he exuded a holiness and love for God in his prayer life, receiving his First Holy Communion at the age of ten and Confirmation at fourteen. Even though he was not intelligent and failed his exams, his father, who became Senator of the Kingdom of Turin in 1913, sent him to a private Jesuit High School where he excelled in athletics and embraced the beatitudes fully, showing by his example how a Catholic should truly live and embody the message of the Gospel. He joined several Catholic clubs, including the "Apostleship of Prayer" and the "Company of the Most Blessed Sacrament," promoting Eucharistic adoration and Marian devotion, as well as staunchly defending the Virtue of Chastity during a time when society was questioning values. He joined other groups which had as their agenda service to the poor and he threw himself into this ministry. After graduating high school in 1918 towards the end of World War I, he enrolled in a trade school in Turin with an interest in minerology.
It was a year later though, that would effect the rest of his life when he enrolled in the Italian Catholic Students Federation and the St. Vincent de Paul Society. He had always had a special place in his heart for the poor and even though he came from a wealthy family which was politically powerful, he used these attributes to help others, spending his own money on the needy and downtrodden and personally visiting the sick at every opportunity he could living the Beatitudes as Jesus preached. In 1920 when his father was appointed Italian ambassador to Berlin, Pier capitalized on this to become more politically active with the express purpose of helping others and fending off the communist threat in Italy, being instrumental in establishing the "Popular Party" which was the newly-founded Catholic Party. Two years after active lobbying, he became a Dominican Tertiary taking the name Girolamo. A year later, in 1925 while visiting the sick, specifically afflicted with polio, he contracted the crippling, deadly disease and, five days after detection and immense suffering, Our Lord took him Home on July 4, 1925 at the young age of 24.
Shortly after his death his cause for beatification was introduced but was delayed for many years, but in 1989 Pope John Paul II flew to Pollone to pray at Venerable Pier's grave and a year later on May 20, 1990 the Holy Father beatified him in St. Peter's Square in Rome as the "Man of the Eight Beatitudes" proclaiming, "Prayer and contemplation, silence and reception of the Sacraments give tone and substance to his varied apostleships; and his life, enlivened by the Spirit of God, is transformed into a wonderful adventure." The Pope put his words in the present tense to encourage youth all over the world to emulate his virtues. Such an organization is the Frassati Society of Young Adult Catholics which is holding its annual Conference next week in Rensselaer, Indiana with the theme "Defending your Faith" which is what Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati did throughout his short, but rewarding life.
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