Saint John Bosco

Giovanni Bosco was born on 16 August 1815 in the hamlet of Becchi, in Castelnuovo d'Asti, now called Castelnuovo Don Bosco, in Piedmont. His family were very poor farmers. His father, Francesco, died when he was two, leaving his mother, Margherita Occhiena, to raise three sons together with her half-paralyzed mother-in-law. Margherita taught him faith, prayer, and compassion, and in winter poor travelers who knocked at the door were taken in. Giovannino, as everyone called him, was bright. To pay for school he worked as a farmhand and learned tailoring and blacksmithing, and he helped other children with their lessons. He also entertained them and then invited them to pray.

At nine he had a dream that stayed with him all his life. In a courtyard he saw a crowd of ragged boys quarreling and swearing. A woman, whom he understood to be Mary, told him to grow humble and strong, and a man, whom he understood to be Jesus, said that with gentleness he would win these boys, who then turned from wild beasts into lambs.

He became a priest in 1841. Three years later, under a shed lent by the Pinardi family at Valdocco in Turin, he opened an oratory with his mother's help, to take boys off the streets, teach them a trade, and educate them in the faith. Turin was suffering the effects of industrialization, and the boys he gathered were street children, young offenders, and other disadvantaged youth. He built his teaching on love rather than punishment, a method known as the Preventive System. The poor shelter grew into the great church of Mary Help of Christians, where he is buried.

He founded the Salesian Society in 1854, dedicating it to Francis de Sales, and in 1872, with Maria Domenica Mazzarello, the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians for the care and education of poor girls. He began the Salesian Bulletin in 1875 and the Association of Salesian Cooperators in 1876, and in 1850 he drew up regulations to support apprentices who were out of work or ill. He also taught the boy Dominic Savio and wrote his biography, which helped bring Savio to canonization. Stories gathered around him as well. One of the best known tells how he multiplied bread for his boys, and another speaks of a big gray dog, called Grigio, that appeared out of nowhere to protect him from danger and then vanished.

Don Bosco died in Turin on 31 January 1888. He was beatified in 1929 and canonized by Pope Pius XI on 1 April 1934, and he is honored as the Father and Teacher of Youth.

Saint John Bosco, pray for us.