DESPITE the exclusion of St. Pier Giorgio Frassati from the list of patron saints for the World Youth Day (WYD) 2027 in Seoul, South Korea, he is still an important intercessor for the youth, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, said on May 13.
Farrell said this in response to Frassati Society Philippines (FSP), the local promoters of the saint, who submitted an appeal to the dicastery on April 26, following the exclusion of the Dominican saint from the roster of WYD patrons.
The Irish-American cardinal said the Seoul organizers used an intensive process of discernment, involving youth participation and the dicastery’s approval, to select the patrons of WYD 2027.
“[It] expresses a vision of internationality in harmony with the significance of Korea’s hosting of World Youth Day for the Universal Church,” Farrell said in the letter, obtained by the Varsitarian from FSP spiritual adviser Fr. Christopher Jeffrey Aytona, O.P.
The patrons of WYD 2027 include Pope St. John Paul II, founder of World Youth Day; St. Andrew Kim Taegon, the first Korean priest and martyr, and companions; St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, an Italian-American missionary and patroness of immigrants; St. Josephine Bakhita, a Sudanese religious sister and patron of human trafficking survivors; and St. Carlo Acutis, patron of the internet.
“Although Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati was not included in this year’s official list of patron saints for World Youth Day, his life, witness, and intercession remain of outstanding significance, as he is remembered within the communion of saints as a faithful intercessor who continues to pray in a particular way for young people in the Church in Christ,” the dicastery added.
In a Facebook post on May 15, the FSP thanked the dicastery for considering its appeal and pledged prayers for the success of WYD 2027.
World Youth Day 2027 is set in Seoul, Korea, from August 3 to 8, 2027, with the theme “Take courage! I have overcome the world.” This will be the first World Youth Day under Pope Leo XIV’s papacy.
Frassati, Italian activist and lay Dominican, has been a recurring patron saint at WYD celebrations since Toronto 2002. He was a patron in Sydney 2008, Rio 2013, Krakow 2016, and Lisbon 2023.
Pope Leo XIV canonized him and St. Carlo Acutis on Sept. 7, 2025, his first canonizations as pontiff.
Frassati was known as the “Man of the Eight Beatitudes,” marked by a life of prayer, social advocacy, and service to the poor.
He is the patron saint of the youth and athletes, and will commemorate his first feast as a saint on July 4.
