Father & Son / Men's Pilgrimage

THE JOURNEY

Toward the Heights: Turin and the Piedmont Alps with St. John Bosco and St. Pier Giorgio Frassati

Where

Italy

Length

About eight days

Status

Under consideration

This journey would set two saints of the same city side by side. St. John Bosco was a priest who became a father to boys who had none; St. Pier Giorgio Frassati was a young layman who led his friends to Mass, to the poor and up mountains. It would be made from two bases, Turin and Oropa. The first days would stay in Turin, at Don Bosco's Valdocco and his birthplace, then in Frassati's parish churches and at his tomb in the cathedral, in the same aisle as the chapel where the Shroud of Turin is kept. From there the road would climb: on foot to the abbey of St. Michael above the Susa Valley, then to Pollone and up to the Marian sanctuary of Oropa, where Frassati went to pray, and to the summit that now bears his name. The order runs from fatherhood to friendship to the mountain, and from the city to the heights. The physical effort would be real; this is not a coach tour of churches.

The route, and why each place belongs

1. 1

   Turin: Valdocco, the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians

   Why it belongs

   Valdocco is where Don Bosco's fatherhood took shape. On Easter Sunday 1846 his wandering Oratory settled here in a shed, the Pinardi house, which became its first chapel: a place where poor boys found a courtyard, a trade and the sacraments. He built the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians beside it, and his remains rest there at the altar dedicated to him. In 1989 St. John Paul II proclaimed him Father and Teacher of Youth. A man who is responsible for younger men, as a father, coach, teacher or employer, would find his own work described here.

   What you would do there

   The group would pray at Don Bosco's tomb and before the image of Mary Help of Christians, then go through the Pinardi chapel and the Museo Casa Don Bosco, which the Salesians keep in the rooms where he lived. Mass in the basilica would be sought where the schedule permits. Older men could be given a plain question to carry through the day: which younger man has been entrusted to me?

2. 2

   Colle Don Bosco (Becchi)

   Why it belongs

   This is where the story starts: the farm hamlet in the hills outside Turin where Giovanni Bosco was born on 16 August 1815. By the account given at the site, he lost his father at two and was raised by his mother, Margherita, and the family's small house is still shown. For fathers and sons, and for men who grew up without a father, the hill puts the question of who forms a boy in front of them.

   What you would do there

   The pilgrims would visit the family house and the Basilica of Don Bosco, which the Salesians say stands on the site of the house where he was born, and keep a time of silence on the hill. A waymarked route, the Cammino di Don Bosco, links Valdocco with the hill; where a suitable final stretch can be confirmed with the route's own guide, the group could arrive on foot, and otherwise it would arrive by road.

3. 3

   Turin: the churches of Pier Giorgio Frassati

   Why it belongs

   Frassati's holiness was lived in an ordinary week in this city. The Archdiocese of Turin lists the parish of La Crocetta, where he went to daily Mass and joined Catholic Action; San Domenico, where he became a Dominican tertiary in 1922; Santa Maria di Piazza, where he kept night adoration; the Consolata, under whose bell tower he met his companions of the St. Vincent de Paul Society before visiting the poor; and the Cottolengo, where he visited the sick. Pope Leo XIV recalled that friends called him 'Frassati Transport Company' for the carts of supplies he pulled through these streets.

   What you would do there

   This would be a day on foot through the city, church to church, at the pace of a student walking to Mass before lectures. The group would pray briefly in each church and stay longer at the Consolata, the Marian sanctuary of Turin, for the Rosary and for Confession where confessors are available. The Cottolengo is a working house of care and would be entered only if the institution is able to receive visitors. The day could include an act of service or almsgiving agreed beforehand with a local parish or conference of St. Vincent de Paul, where that can be arranged.

4. 4

   Turin Cathedral: Frassati's tomb and the Shroud

   Why it belongs

   After his beatification in 1990 Frassati's remains were brought from Pollone to the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, where his altar is on the left side, in the same aisle as the chapel in which the Shroud of Turin is kept. The Shroud is not visible: it lies sealed in a conservation case and is brought out only for public expositions that the Pope decides. Speaking in this cathedral in 1998, St. John Paul II said: 'Since it is not a matter of faith, the Church has no specific competence to pronounce on these questions.' He called the Shroud 'a mirror of the Gospel'; Benedict XVI called it 'an Icon written in blood'. It belongs here because men who have come to ask for strength would stop before an image of the Passion.

   What you would do there

   The pilgrims would pray at Frassati's altar and ask his prayers by name for the young men they are responsible for. Further along the same aisle they would pray in front of the chapel of the Shroud and read the Passion in silence; what they would have before them is the closed case, not the cloth. The chapel cannot be approached during Masses and other celebrations, so this prayer would be fitted around the cathedral's own worship. The Museum of the Shroud, a short walk away, could be visited afterward.

5. 5

   Sacra di San Michele

   Why it belongs

   The abbey of St. Michael the Archangel stands on the summit of Monte Pirchiriano at the mouth of the Susa Valley, about forty kilometres from Turin. Its first church dates from the late tenth century, it was a Benedictine house until 1622, and it was entrusted to the Rosminian fathers in 1836. It is not a place of either saint's life or work, and it is not offered as one. Its tie to this pilgrimage is the general Catholic heritage of an ancient abbey and the climb itself: an old mule track on the Via Francigena, lined with Stations of the Cross, on which men who have spent three days in city churches would begin to pray with their legs.

   What you would do there

   From the village of Sant'Ambrogio the group would climb trail 502, a steep mule track that rises about 600 metres past fifteen Stations of the Cross; the abbey's own site reckons it at about an hour and a half, and a group would allow longer. The Way of the Cross could be prayed station by station on the ascent. At the top the pilgrims would enter the abbey church and pray there. Those unable to climb could go up by road.

6. 6

   Pollone

   Why it belongs

   Pollone, near Biella, was the Frassati family's summer home. Villa Ametis, built by his grandfather in 1875, is still a private family house, and his American association says his room is kept there with his skis in the corner. He was buried in the village cemetery from 1925 until 1990, and St. John Paul II prayed at that tomb in July 1989, telling the people of Pollone that he too, in his youth, had felt the good influence of Pier Giorgio's example.

   What you would do there

   The pilgrims would pray in the parish church and at the family tomb in the cemetery, where the path named after him is reported to begin. Where the family and the parish are able to receive a group, they could also visit the house and his room; this is by private arrangement and cannot be assumed. From Pollone the group would go up to Oropa by road. A walk up to the sanctuary could be offered to those who are able only once a marked route has been confirmed locally.

7. 7

   Sanctuary of Oropa

   Why it belongs

   Oropa is a Marian sanctuary at about 1,200 metres in the Biellese Alps, documented from the thirteenth century and by local tradition founded by St. Eusebius of Vercelli. Its statue of Our Lady, the Black Madonna, is kept in the Old Basilica. In April 1925 Frassati wrote that it was his custom, every time he left Pollone, to go up to Oropa to pray, and to remember a friend at the feet of the brown Madonna. St. John Paul II, praying the Angelus here in 1989, recalled that Pier Giorgio used to come up to recollect himself in prayer.

   What you would do there

   The group would go first to the Old Basilica to greet Our Lady, as he did. A base at Oropa would give unhurried evenings: the Rosary in the Old Basilica, Confession where confessors are available, the chapels of the Sacro Monte on the hillside, and time for fathers and sons to talk. One full day here would be left largely free, placed where possible between the arrival and the mountain day.

8. 8

   Poggio Frassati, on the Sentiero Frassati

   Why it belongs

   On the back of a photograph taken on his last climb, in the Lanzo Valleys in June 1925, Frassati wrote 'Verso l'alto', toward the heights; he died a few weeks later. The phrase was never his motto, but it has become the name for his way of living. Above Oropa and Pollone a waymarked path, the Sentiero Frassati, climbs to an open summit at 1,980 metres now called Poggio Frassati. He belonged to the Italian Alpine Club. This would be the day on which the body does what the soul is asking.

   What you would do there

   With a qualified local mountain leader, the group would climb trail D41 from the Tracciolino road above Oropa. The Biella tourism board gives the ascent as about 900 metres and two hours to the top, which is a fit walker's time, so a group would allow a good deal longer; it also warns that the trail is unclear in places. The path passes a stone altar at the Alpetto Superiore pasture. On the summit the pilgrims would pray the Rosary and name aloud the men they came for. Weather would decide the day, and anyone not climbing would keep the day at the sanctuary.

No dated departures are currently announced. This is a journey Bold Pilgrim is considering, described so you can picture it. Dates, priest, Gateway Airport and price are published on a departure itself, and only when confirmed.