Today, start 1st novena to SAINT Frassati (since his canonization)
First novena to St. Pier Giorgio Frassati begins on June 25, following his canonization in Rome. The novena will run until the vigil of his feast day. Frassati's canonization in September 2025 has spurred worldwide devotion. The event marks a historic moment for Frassati devotees around the world.
3 months ago
The Catholic community worldwide has launched the first novena honoring St. Pier Giorgio Frassati since his canonization on 7 September 2025, beginning on 25 June 2026 and concluding on the vigil of his feast day. 1
Pier Giorgio Frassati, the young Italian layperson known for his love of the mountains, service to the poor, and joyful faith, was declared a saint by Pope Leo XIV in a ceremony at St. Peter’s Basilica on 7 September 2025. 1
Assess the impact of canonization on contemporary Catholic devotion
Canonization tends to strengthen contemporary Catholic devotion in three main ways: it offers the faithful a clear, publicly proposed model of holiness, it provides ecclesial credibility and limits (through rigorous discernment), and it can shape devotional life in practice—especially in an age of fast media circulation—while requiring careful protection of the proper relationship between devotion and liturgical worship.
When the Church canonizes someone, it does not merely recognize private piety; it presents a saint as a lasting, ecclesial gift meant to guide the faithful. John Paul II describes holiness as the Church’s highest “peak,” and says that God’s presence and face are made vivid in the saints (citing Lumen gentium).
John Paul II also links canonizations directly to the Church’s mission of gratitude, honor, imitation, and invocation: through beatifications and canonizations the Church “renders thanks,” “honors,” and “invokes [the saints] as intercessors,” while also presenting them as examples “for the imitation of all the faithful” called by baptism to holiness.
Pope Francis reinforces that saints are not remote fantasies: they arise from the “concrete life” of Christian communities and remain rooted in family, work, social life, and the everyday struggle to do God’s will. That realism makes canonized saints especially effective for contemporary devotion, because they validate holiness in ordinary circumstances.
A major contemporary need is trust—especially when claims of holiness circulate widely online. The Church’s canonization process is meant to provide that trust by discipline, rigor, and verification. In 1975, an official statement emphasizes that the saints’ “officially declared” increase is not the result of “easy devotional inflation,” because the processes before beatifications and canonizations are “complex” and “rigorous,” with careful historical and critical examination of “heroic” virtues and with two checks: a negative one (“non-cult,” to ensure no undue popular influence during the process) and a positive one regarding miracles as a transcendent confirmation of divine approval.
Relatedly, the Church’s current procedural framework (promulgated in 1983 and then followed through later instructions) situates canonization in a structured ecclesial inquiry involving bishops and the competent dicastery.
This matters devotionally. Francis explains that the fama sanctitatis (reputation of holiness) does not come primarily from hierarchical announcements; it arises among the faithful and is meaningful when it is “spontaneous, stable, enduring,” and continues to yield “salutary effects” despite “fashions of the moment.” In other words: canonization should confirm a devotion that has already been tested by time and fruit, not merely a temporary wave of enthusiasm.
Canonization often revitalizes devotion by making a saint’s spiritual “path” easier to grasp and imitate. The Holy See Press Office, for example, presents St. Josemaría Escrivá as someone who taught “Christian devotions,” sacraments, love for the Church and the Pope, and the sanctification of work through a life shaped by prayer and devotion to Our Lady. The account explicitly connects the worldwide reception of his spirituality (through books and catechetical journeys) to the process that culminated in canonization after confirmation of a miracle.
Similarly, the rite and accompanying commentary for canonizing Pier Giorgio Frassati (and Carlo Acutis) presents their spirituality as accessible: daily Mass, prayer, especially Eucharistic Adoration, and frequent Confession—paired with devotion to saints and Mary, and concrete charity toward the poor and sick.
Even in a broader apostolic message, Pope Leo XIV urges the faithful to keep before them newly canonized saints as “help” for discerning serious responsibilities with wisdom and prudence.
So, canonization can impact devotion not only by increasing awareness, but by giving a sharper focus to practices already valued in Catholic life—Eucharist, Confession, Marian devotion, and charity—now tied to a clearly recognized heavenly intercessor and an imitable witness.
Contemporary devotion is shaped by rapid communication. Pope Francis notes that media access can bring about “better knowledge” of candidates for beatification or canonization, but warns that digital media and social networks can also produce “exaggeration or misrepresentation dictated by less than noble interests.” Therefore, wise discernment is necessary in examining the contours of holiness reputations.
This yields a specific devotional consequence: canonization can normalize authentic devotion when it is received within the Church’s discernment and catechesis; but it can also amplify distortions if attention focuses on sensational narratives rather than the Church’s proven criteria and the saint’s enduring spiritual fruits.
Canonization does not mean treating saints as divine. Liturgical scholarship observes that the Church has not wanted to encourage an attitude that tends toward a “divinization of the saints” or a “deviation of liturgical worship.”
At the level of popular devotion, another caution is needed. Liturgical studies describe why tangible devotion arises (the saint feels “close” and “reassuring”), but insist that traditional rites must be “exactly observed” because they are the conditions of the covenant between saint and people. The same source adds that popular devotion can risk deviations and abuses; instead of merely opposing it, the Church should evangelize and Christianize it—showing how the saint exemplified a Gospel dimension and reminding people that the saint leads the faithful to God.
In practice, this means canonization most fruitfully impacts devotion when it results in:
Canonization has a notably positive impact on contemporary Catholic devotion when three conditions are met:
Where these conditions fail—especially in a media-driven environment—canonization can be accompanied by exaggeration or distortion, making Pope Francis’s call for prudence and wise discernment particularly urgent.
In sum: canonization tends to deepen devotion by giving the faithful a trustworthy, public path to holiness, while simultaneously requiring careful ecclesial and catechetical guidance so that contemporary enthusiasm remains faithful to the Church’s understanding of saints, worship, and intercession.