John Bosco

The work of John Bosco took root in the oratory he established for the youth of Turin, which settled permanently in the working-class district of Valdocco, around the Pinardi house. There, he gathered poor boys, orphans, and apprentices, offering them a place of welcome, catechesis, schooling, and professional workshops. To perpetuate this mission, he founded the Society of Saint Francis de Sales in 1859, whose members would be called "Salesians" in homage to the holy Bishop of Geneva, a model of gentleness. The congregation received the approval of Pope Pius IX, who recognized the Society in 1869 and then its Constitutions in 1874. In 1872, with Saint Maria Domenica Mazzarello, Don Bosco founded the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in Mornese, a female branch dedicated to the education of young girls. He also initiated the Association of Salesian Cooperators, a network of laypeople supporting the work. Gifted with a keen sense of communication, he developed intense writing and popular publishing activities, and launched the construction of churches, including the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Turin. During his lifetime, his foundations were already spreading throughout Italy, France, and as far as Latin America, where he sent his first missionaries in 1875.

The spirituality of John Bosco is entirely directed toward the salvation of the young, which he summarizes in the motto "Da mihi animas, cetera tolle" ("Give me souls, take away the rest"). His reputation for holiness rests less on extraordinary phenomena than on tireless educational charity and a filial trust in Providence and the Virgin Mary, whom he honors under the title of Help of Christians. He developed and implemented the "preventive system," a pedagogical method set forth in an 1877 pamphlet, which rests on three pillars: reason, religion, and amorevolezza, that affectionate benevolence which prevents faults rather than punishing them. According to this principle, the educator must make himself present and close to the young, earn their trust, and accompany them with gentleness. Deeply attached to Saint Francis de Sales, from whom he adopted the spirit of meekness, Don Bosco united overflowing activity with an intense interior life, made of prayer, poverty, and apostolic zeal. This holiness lived out daily, in the midst of the most destitute youth, struck his contemporaries and made him, from the moment of his death, a model of the Christian educator.

The cause of John Bosco was introduced shortly after his death, supported by a vast reputation for holiness. He was beatified on June 2, 1929, by Pope Pius XI, who had known him personally. The same pontiff canonized him on April 1, 1934, Easter Sunday of the Holy Year of the Redemption, during a solemn ceremony at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. On this occasion, Pius XI honored the new saint with the title of "father and teacher of youth." His liturgical feast is fixed on January 31, the anniversary of his death, and he is inscribed in the General Roman Calendar as an obligatory memorial. His body is venerated in Turin, in the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians, which he had built in the heart of Valdocco. The relative speed of his canonization, less than half a century after his death, testifies to the universal influence that his educational and missionary work had already acquired.

The legacy of John Bosco continues through the vast "Salesian family" he brought into being: the Society of Saint Francis de Sales, the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, and the Salesian Cooperators are today among the most widespread Catholic educational presences in the world, through schools, vocational centers, oratories, and missions on every continent. The "preventive system" he formulated continues to inspire contemporary Catholic pedagogy, based on trust and prevention rather than punishment. Saint John Bosco is traditionally invoked as the patron saint of youth, students and schoolchildren, apprentices, and educators; he is also recognized as the patron saint of publishers and book artisans, in memory of his intense activity in writing and the popular dissemination of the faith. Numerous churches, schools, and institutions bear his name throughout the world. His Turinese Basilica of Mary Help of Christians remains a place of pilgrimage, as does the sanctuary of Colle Don Bosco, built on the site of his birth in the heart of Piedmont.