When thinking of saints who fought against secularism and continued to keep Christ at the center of their lives, Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati comes to mind almost immediately. A young man from northern Italy, Pier was the child of a wealthy printer. Blessed Frassati could have had anything he wanted in life. His parents loved him very much and would have given him anything their wealth would afford. On Frassati’s 18 ^th birthday his parents offered him the choice between a car (just as they were being invented) or the cash they would have used to purchase the car. Pier chose the cash and gave it all away to the poor. 
 
While Frassati could have completely given in to the temptations of his modern world, he denied them. His parents’ generous allowance was spent on food, medicine, and clothing for the poor. His free time that could have been put to learning his father’s business or hanging out with the other rich kids was actually spent volunteering to lead his parish youth group, caring for the poor, and praying in front of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Instead of living like the great Gatsby, and he easily could have, Frassati couldn’t care less about his family wealth, the power that awaited him, the pleasure his parent’s wealth could offer him, nor the honor his family had. 
 
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati died on July 4, 1925 from polio, which he likely received from the poor people he cared for on a regular basis. At his funeral Mass held in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, Italy, it was not the upper-class elite who filled the Cathedral; rather, the Church was packed to standing room only with the poor and marginalized that Frassati helped. Each person told his parents about how their son purchased food, medicine, clothing, found housing, bathed the elderly, and the list went on. Blessed Frassati may not be canonized yet, but I’m certain he’s in heaven interceding for us so that we can resist secularism and focus on Christ. Let’s all follow his courageous example!