War and Peace

It only takes a glance at a photo of Pier Giorgio Frassati to know that he was a happy person.  His smile is captivating and exudes an inner peace.  So it is easy to forget - or, perhaps, to never have known at all - that he grew up in the midst of one of the deadliest wars of all time.  

In 1915, Pier Giorgio (pictured here on his Confirmation day) was confirmed less than one month after Italy entered World War I.  He was 14 years old and very aware of the devastation and loss of life taking place.  He even commented to a member of the household staff that he would give his life that very day if it would bring an end to the war.

The end did not come until 1918.  At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year, the fighting stopped.  No country was really the winner.  Negotiations went on until the Treaty of Versailles was eventually signed the following June and officially brought the war to its end. 

For Pier Giorgio, the end of the war in 1918 was "the most beautiful day of our country."  He celebrated it with great joy, vigorously ringing the church bells.  When American president Woodrow Wilson advocated for lasting peace, Pier Giorgio was one of the first to run shouting, "Viva, Wilson!"

As Italian soldiers returned from the front, Pier Giorgio recognized their many needs and sought a way to help.  This was a primary motivation for him to join a conference of St. Vincent de Paul at age 17 and formalize his commitment to works of charity.  For years, he followed closely the way the German people were treated after the war.  It led him to disdain the French government - calling its members "the Sons of Darkness."  Both he and his father had a foreboding that Germany would rise up in defiance which did come to pass with the reign of Adolf Hitler. His life cut short, Pier Giorgio did not have to live through the atrocities Germany would inflict.

Pier Giorgio longed for peace and wrote about it often in his letters.  His teen and young adult years, however, were marked by far more war than peace.  Still, his faith grounded him and he outwardly manifested the deep interior peace that came with his daily encounter with Christ in the Holy Eucharist.  "I believe that we must still wait a long time for true peace," he wrote to a friend. "However, our Faith teaches us that we should always keep the hope that we will enjoy it one day."

The ceasefire on November 11, 1918 was known in Pier Giorgio's lifetime and for many decades afterward as Armistice Day.  It was eventually changed to be a day of remembrance not just for the veterans of World War I but veterans of all conflicts.  Here in the United States we now call it Veterans Day.  Thank a veteran today.  That's what Pier Giorgio would do.  He had such great respect for those who served.  We should, too.

Verso l'alto!  ///cmw

p.s. Go Navy!