Saint John Bosco

Italian canonized Catholic priest, a pioneer in educating the poor, and founder of the Silesian Order.

John Bosco’s father died when he was two and he was brought up in a peasant family by his loving and very pious widowed mother. He and his older brother Joseph, supervised by their stepbrother, Anthony, tackled the endless farm work with energy. From an early age he was drawn to work among boys and young men, hearing the voice of the Master urging him on to this work. Ordained a priest on 5 June 1841 he settled in a suburb of Turin, Italy and soon had hundreds of youths attending his chapel and evening classes. He opened a boarding-school for apprentices and established workshops to teach tailoring, shoemaking and other trades to adapt the young men for the first industrial revolution in Italy.

In Turin, on the evening of 18 December 1859 he and 22 companions founded the Society of St. Francis de Sales, which before his death had spread to England, France, Spain and South America. Because of his admiration for the spirit of St. Frances de Sales he called his helpers Silesians. They offered a general education and taught skills in agriculture and trade. Girls were also helped in a similar manner when he established the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians with the aid of St. Mary Mazzarello, a peasant woman from Genoa.

Known for his missionary work, he led expeditions to Asia, Africa and Latin America. While he was in Brazil, he predicted the exact place for the future capital.

Don Bosco died on 31 January 1888 in Turin, aged 72. On Easter Sunday, 1 April 1934, his personal friend Pope Pius XI declared Don Bosco a saint; the Pope called him "a giant of sanctity." His feast day is 31 January.

A centennial observation in 1988 included the Italian motion picture "Giovanni Bosco," which starred Ben Gazzara.