Turin, Italy, Feb 13, 2006 / 22:00 pm
Olympian and cross-country skier Rebecca Dussault has placed her Olympic quest and hopes for a medal in the hands of her patron, Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. Appropriately, Blessed Frassati was a Turin native and a lover of sport.
The day before her first race — the 15-km Cross-Country Pursuit — Dussault made a pilgrimage to the Cathedral of San Giovanni Battista, where Frassati’s remains are kept. She asked her patron to inspire her with the same spirit that inspired him to climb mountains and to help the impoverished, reported the Washington Post.
This wasn’t her first visit to her patron’s tomb. Last summer, she traveled to Turin with her family to visit the cathedral, tour the Frassati family home, and visit Frassati’s sister, Luciana, who is 103.
Frassati, a rich young man who dedicated his energies to the poor, died 80 years ago of polio, which he contracted from those he helped. He was 24. Frassati was buried in a Turin park, but when his body was moved to the cathedral in 1981, the casket was opened and his body was found to be incorrupt. He still needs two miracles to be made a saint, and Dussault hopes that her medal win could be his first miracle.