THE UST Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati has been officially renamed the Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati Building following the Italian youth’s canonization.
The University announced the name change to kickstart adjustments in official records, building signages, and institutional communications.
“The University formally declares: That the edifice formerly known as the Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati Building shall henceforth bear, in all official documents and institutional usage, the name Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati Building,” the Office of the Secretary General said in circular released on Nov. 21.
The renaming is “[in] grateful acknowledgment of the Church’s definitive recognition of [Frassati’s] sanctity and in continuity with the University’s tradition of honoring witnesses of the Gospel and exemplars of faith, hope and love,” it added.
The updated name on the España side of the building was installed on Nov. 19, marking the first public display of the structure’s new name.
Standing at 22 stories, the Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati, O.P. Building is the tallest among all UST structures.
The building opened at the start of Academic Year 2019-2020 to welcome Grade 11 students of the Senior High School department. Construction began in October 2017.
It later became home to the students of the College of Information and Computing Science (CICS) following the academic unit’s inauguration in 2021. It also houses the Office of Information and Communications Technology and the Educational Technology Center.
The building is the first UST structure to be erected outside the walls of the Manila campus since the end of World War 2.
A “link bridge” connecting to the main campus was completed in March 2021.
Pope Leo XIV canonized St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, along with St. Carlo Acutis, at St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican on Sept. 7 — his first canonizations as pontiff.
Frassati was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1990 and was called the “Man of the Eight Beatitudes” for his commitment to living the virtues of the beatitudes through a life of prayer, social advocacy, and service to the poor.
He died in 1925 at the age of 24 after contracting polio while caring for the sick.
Frassati is the patron saint of the youth and athletes; his feast is commemorated on July 4.
