BORN 1815; DIED 1888 love purity. Mary PRIEST AND FOUNDER then appeared, FEAST DAY: JANUARY 31 changed the �t. John �osco children from INETEENTH - wild beasts to CENTURY lambs, and told NTURIN, Italy him he must do was caught the same. Hu- up in the wars for miliations dur- Italian unification ing his early years and in the industri- in school rein- al revolution. Chil- forced his intention dren were the chief to treat children with victims, many living kindness and love. without care or supervi- As he grew older, sion. To these precious John supported him- young souls God sent a self while in school by man with boundless ener- taking jobs that equipped gy, unfaltering faith, and an him with skills useful for extraordinary love for chil- his future work with chil- dren. He sent them St. John dren. He was blessed with a Bosco, who asked of God: KERRIS PAUL brilliant mind, an exception- “Give me souls; take away the al memory, a knack for story- rest.” telling, great charm, and a heart John was born in Becchi near the town full of laughter. When he was sixteen, he of Castelnuovo east of Turin, in northwest- began his high-school education at Chieri ern Italy. He was the younger of two sons of south of Turin, and at twenty entered the Francesco Bosco, a peasant farmer, and his sec- seminary there. The rector, St. Joseph Cafasso, ond wife Margherita Occhiena, a devout and in- obtained financial support for him. At twenty- dustrious woman. He also had one older half- six, he was ordained and sent to postgraduate brother. Francesco’s death when John was two study at a college in Turin. There his pastoral left the family in poverty. From the age of five, duties included visiting the poor, prison minis- he felt a desire to teach catechism. With deter- try, and catechizing boys who no longer lived in mination, he set out to acquire the skills and ap- a family setting — the refuse of the streets. titudes he needed to attract the young, going to Several months after his ordination, John — circuses and fairs to learn skills such as tightrope now as a priest called Don Bosco — was pre- walking, acrobatics, juggling, and magic tricks. paring to celebrate Mass when a boy was rude- The first inkling of his vocation came in a dream ly ejected by the sacristan when he balked at at the age of nine. He was in the midst of a serving Mass. Overhearing, John had the boy crowd of children swearing and fighting, whom brought back, spoke kindly to him, and invit- he tried and failed to stop with his fists. Je- ed him to return the next Sunday with friends. sus appeared to John in his dream and told him Nine youngsters came. These became the first that he could help the boys only by being kind, members of a “festive oratory” that, before long, leading them, and teaching them to hate sin and numbered more than a hundred street urchins, The Association for Catechumenal Ministry (ACM) grants the original purchaser (parish, local parochial institution, or individual) permission to reproduce this handout. toughs, and petty criminals who came for Sun- immense educational gifts. He developed an ed- day Mass, instruction, and play. For three years, ucational method that relied on “reason, religion, he maintained the oratory at the college, but as and kindness.” He scandalized the professionals, it grew he needed more space. However, the who saw him as overindulgent and unwilling to presence of such a large crowd of unruly boys inflict punishment. But he knew that the use of made him unable to use any site for long. His punishment was far less effective than kindness, determination despite so much opposition con- and he was endlessly patient with his boys. The vinced a few of his friends that he was not sane, proof was in his results: the boys followed him in and they even tried unsuccessfully to have him everything. John practiced what he termed “pre- committed to an asylum. ventive education,” intended to teach virtue and In 1844, John was assigned assistant chaplain prevent evils rather than mend them. His starting of a refuge for girls. John converted two rooms point was the dignity and freedom of each of his near the prop- young charg- erty into a cha- es, in whom he pel. However, instilled mor- he was soon re- al values and fused permis- taught a sense sion for the ora- of duty and per- tory to continue sonal respon- and was forced sibility. He al- to resign his ways applauded chaplaincy. Af- their efforts at ter several more virtue, and gave rejections, in them no occa- 1846 he leased sions to be dis- a piece of land obedient. He with a large filled their lives old shed. The with worth- oratory, now Basilica of Superga in Turin, Italy, where St. John Bosco while activi- grown to four would often take large groups of boys on day trips ty so that there hundred boys, was no idle time gained a permanent home. He nearly died from for mischief. A bishop once remarked “he im- pneumonia three months later. After he recov- bues his boys with such a spirit of piety that he ered, his mother came with him. The following almost inebriates them.” He wanted these boys year, in a nearby rented house, he and his mother to become saints, and admonished them to go to opened a boarding house for forty boys. “Mam- confession regularly, receive Communion often, ma Margherita” gave all her time and love to her go to Mass daily, and chose a confessor to whom son’s boys for ten years until her death. In 1853, they could open their hearts. he opened two workshops on the premises to In the early years, John had as many as ten train apprentices as shoemakers and tailors. By priests as teachers, but because the boys were 1856 he was caring for five hundred fifty boys difficult to handle and the priests had not been among three oratories and the boarding-house, trained in John’s educational methods, few stayed and had added workshops for printing, book- for any length of time. In 1850, he decided to re- binding, carpentry, and mechanics. By 1868, the cruit priests himself, founding a separate school number of boys had grown to eight hundred, en- for this purpose. St. Dominic Savio, who arrived rolled in the workshops and in schools of arts and in 1854, was one of his recruits. Although St. sciences for the more gifted and a school of liberal Dominic died just before his fifteenth birthday, arts for boys preparing for the priesthood. a group he had founded within the school were Although not trained as a teacher, John had among the first members of the religious order St. John Bosco ~ Page 2 John founded in 1854, called Salesians of Don Miracles of every sort were a common fea- Bosco (SDB). He named the order after the sev- ture of John’s life. On one occasion, he multi- enteenth-century bishop of Geneva, St. Francis plied twenty loaves of bread so that four hun- de Sales, who was renowned for his kindness and dred boys each received a loaf; on another, the gentleness. Despite strong governmental hostili- same thing happened with chestnuts. Once ty to religious orders, one of the most anti-clerical when there were far more communicants than local government officials promised John’s Sale- hosts, the Body of Christ was multiplied in his sians support because he worked for the poor. ciborium so that all who wished could receive In training his teachers, John focused first of their Lord. He healed a blind girl, and peo- all on how they taught. They were to love their ple were cured when he blessed them. Once students as they would love their own sons. He he raised a fifteen-year-old from the dead long demanded that his teachers, most of all, be kind. enough to hear his final confession, and sev- He opposed focusing solely on a child’s talent and eral instances of bilocation and prophecy also accomplishments but failing to form his will and occurred. Pope Pius XI said of his life: “The character as a type of misplaced “kindness.” He supernatural almost became natural, and the ex- insisted that everyone who worked with his chil- traordinary ordinary.” dren must earn the students’ In 1872, with St. Mary trust and give a clear Chris- “He imbues his boys Mazzarello, John founded tian witness of intimacy with with such a spirit the Daughters of Mary Help God in their own life. He of Christians (FMA or Sale- also believed that good music of piety that he almost sian sisters), dedicated to the greatly assisted in the growth inebriates them.” care of poor girls. When Ital- of the minds of the young, ians began to emigrate to Lat- helped to civilize them, and awakened the spiri- in America, he directed the Salesians to under- tual part of human nature. He was ever-mindful take missionary work. By his death, there were of entertainment as a means to lure the young and already over seven hundred sixty Salesian priests of a child’s need for joy, fun, and laughter. and brothers and nearly as many Salesian sisters. John had the gift of reading souls. Some- Today there are some forty thousand Salesian times in his dreams he would see individual boys priests, brothers, and sisters staffing over four in his care.