A boy so young and so rich normally prefers a different kind of life.

Today marks the canonisation of two young men – St Pier Giorgio Frassati and St Carlo Acutis. About which of them were these words written? Well, they were written about St Carlo by his former childminder Rajesh Mohur, a Hindu who converted because of St Carlo’s holy example. But they could equally be applied to St Pier Giorgio and indeed to our own Fr Willie.  All three were rich young men who grew up with comfort and ease, but whose precocious holiness made them very different from other rich young man. When we look at the lives of saints and other holy men and women we find many commonalities (perhaps there is a hint in that for us!). Today we will look at St Pier Giorgio and St Carlo and consider particular similarities between them and Fr Willie.  Each of them lived with a profoundly deep spirituality and self-sacrificing love for others. This is true, also, of St Carlo, who, though he died very young, also lived with great holiness. He was much more than a teenager who set up a website, as he is sometimes presented in the popular imagination. 

One of the most striking similarities was the charity they lived as young boys. Each of them grew up with wealth.  St Pier Giorgio’s father owned a newspaper, was a member of the Italian Senate and Ambassador to Germany. St Carlo’s father owned an insurance company. In contrast, Fr Willie’s father had the comfortable, but less prestigious role of a clerk of in the courts. All three of them lived a remarkable charity as young men, giving away their own clothes, belongings and pocket money for the poor and helping the servants in their houses. While these stories are well known in the life of St Pier Giorgio and Fr Willie, they are less well known about St Carlo – he gave away his shoes, bought sleeping bags for the homeless, worked in soup kitchens and sent money to the missions. As he said on one occasion

Money is nothing more than shredded paper. What counts in life is the nobility of the soul, that is, the way we love God and neighbour.   

Those who experienced the love of these young men mourned their deaths. In Fr Willie’s case, the soldiers who experienced his care were devastated at his death. This was to be expected. But when St Pier Giorgio and St Carlo died, their families were surprised to find the poor and the homeless turn up to give respect to these young men who lived such a profound charity and care for the forgotten of their cities. 

All three had a great devotion to Mary and the saints. St Pier Giorgio had a particular devotion to St Paul. As he said in a letter to a friend:

The mind every now and then finds peace and relief and spiritual enjoyment in reading Saint Paul. I’d like you to try and read St. Paul: he is marvellous and the soul is uplifted by this reading and we are prodded to follow the right way and to return to it as soon as we leave it through sin.

But in the case of Fr Willie and St Carlo, we find a particularly striking similarity – a really great love and devotion to St Gemma.

Compare these words of Fr Willie

Took Gemma for my patroness and protector…I have already felt her powerful help.

With these from St Carlo, written when he was just 7 years old in the visitor’s book at her shrine in Lucca:

As you can see, I allow myself to be guided by you. I am afraid, yet fear will not stop me. But you continue to be close to me, like Padre Pio. I love you both so much.

All three, of course, were devoted to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Compare St Pier Giorgio

I urge you with all the strength of my soul to approach the Eucharist Table as often as possible. Feed on this Bread of the Angels from which you will draw the strength to fight inner struggles

With St Carlo:

The Eucharist is my highway to Heaven. When we face the sun we get a tan … but when we stand before Jesus in the Eucharist, we become saints.

And with Fr Willie:

Try “basking in the sun of God’s love,” that is, quietly kneeling before the Tabernacle, as you would sit enjoying the warm sunshine, not trying to do anything, except love Him; but realizing that, during all the time you are at His feet, more especially when dry and cold, grace is dropping down upon your soul and you are growing fast in holiness.

We could go on and on with spiritual comparisons and with aspects of their characters and temperaments, especially their good humour and love of adventure and sports, areas of particularly great similarity between St Pier Giorgio and Fr Willie. But in conclusion, let us reflect on the one similarity between all the saints: we are sanctified by God’s grace, but we have to want, and fight, to co-operate with that grace and to become holy. It does not happen by accident. 

St Pier Giorgio:

It is a difficult battle, but we must strive to win it and to rediscover our small road to Damascus in order to walk toward the destination to which we all must arrive.

St Carlo:

You, too, can be a saint. But you need to want it with your whole heart, and if you do not yet desire it, ask the Lord for it with insistence. 

Fr Willie:

Why are we not saints? Want of courage and want of patience. We give up, we have not the strength of will and determination to succeed which the saints had.

 The day has come for St Pier Giorgio Frassati and for St Carlo Acutis. Let us work and pray that the day will soon come for Fr Willie.