Giovanni Bosco A fraction of Castelnuovo d’Asti (now Castelnuovo Don Bosco) on August 16, 1815.
The father, Francesco, who had married in second wedding Margherita Occhienahe died when he was two years old and the difficulties were certainly not lacking in the house also because the half -brother Antonio was against being studied the boy who also showed uncommon intelligence.
At the age of nine, Giovanni made a dream that revealed the mission to which the Lord called him: he found himself in the midst of boys who blasphemed, screamed and quarreled and while he rushed against them with punches and kicks to make them desist, saw them In front of him a man with a very bright face he presented himself by saying: «I am the son of Colei that your mother taught you to greet three times a day“And he added:” Not with beatings, but with meekness and charity you will have to earn these friends of yours. So immediately put on them on the ugliness of sin and the preciousness of virtue ».
Then a majestic woman appeared, the Virgin Mary who, showing him the field to work – “kids, dogs and several other animals” – said to him: “Make up humble, strong and robust” and, posing his hand on his head, concluded: “At the time you will understand everything.”
A difficult family story
Already then Giovanni on Sunday, after the Vespers, gathered his peers on the lawn in front of the house, entertaining them with various games and with stunts he had learned from the jumps of the fairs, Then he repeated them the preaching he had listened to in the church and that, having endowed an exceptional memory, he remembered perfectly.
After the First Communion (March 26, 1826) to escape the arrogance of the half -brother, he had to leave home, working as a boy at Cascina Moglia.
There, in November 1829, returning from a mission preached to Buttigliera d’Asti, he came across Don Giovanni Calosso, chaplain of Mordialdo who, knowing where he came from, asked him to say something about the preaching he had listened to and the boy He repeated entirely. The amazed priest committed himself to helping him in the studies giving him the first Latin lessons.
Unfortunately the good priest suddenly died a year later and Giovanni could resume studying only in 1831, Finishing elementary and gymnasium in four years in record times. You paid the school by doing all sorts of crafts: tailor, bartender, carpenter, shoemaker, blacksmith apprentice.
The beginning of the apostolate among young people
On October 25, 1835, at the age of twenty he entered the seminary of Chieri remaining six years and on June 5, 1841 he was ordained a priest. Immediately afterwards, on the Council of San Giuseppe Cafasso, he moved to the ecclesiastical boarding school in Turin to improve in moral theology and prepare for the ministry. And in the electric church of San Francesco d’Assisi on 8 December of that same year his apostolate began by making friends with a young bricklayer, Bartolomeo Garelli, who had been mistreated by the sacrist because he did not know how to serve the mass. Don Bosco made him recited an ave Maria and invited him to return to him with his friends. Thus was born the oratory.
Initially, the meetings took place in theHospital of Santa Filomena For disabled girls, who was building themselves in Valdocco on the initiative of the servant of God Giulia Colbert, Marquise of Barolo, because Don Bosco had been taken by the Marquise as the second chaplain of the “Refuge”, a structure built by her to encourage reintegration into society of ex -prisoners and to save girls at risk from the street.
A hospital room was transformed into a chapel and dedicated to San Francesco di Sales, of which the Marquise had made the image painted on a wall. The oratory, overcome several crossings, then found its definitive headquarters a few hundred meters, always in Valdocco, in April 1846: Over time, an internship for students and craftsmen would have been added, While in 1852 the dedicated church was blessed S San Francesco di Sales. A few years later the Salesian congregation at the service of youthwhich would have reached incredible development in Italy and abroad.
Youth books
In his tireless Educational apostolatethe saint also found time to write numerous youth books. In those years the Sacred history, ecclesiastical history, the life of Luigi Comolloa young seminarian his companion of studies who died in the concept of holiness, the Crown of seven painsThe Guardian angel star And The young man provisionthe latter translated, still living, in French, Spanish and Portuguese.
In 1853 the publication of the Catholic readings for the preservation of faith in the people, who had immediate success. Then followed hagiographic works such as the Life of St. Joseph and the Lives of the Popes of the first centuries. In 1877 the Salesian bulletinstill widespread in the world in 56 editions and in 26 languages reaching 135 countries.
It was still he who made the first typography as a graphic school. Obviously, given the anti -clerical climate of the time, the Oratory of Valdocco was subject to visits and inspections by the liberal government, to which the unconditional loyalty of Don Bosco to the Pope was known.
However, the fame he had earned for his educational work among young people he allowed him to be a mediator in the contrasts between the Italian state and the Holy See, such as in reporting to the government the names of possible bishops for vacant churches. For this he is considered one of the forerunners of the conciliation between the state and the Church.
Devotion to Maria Ausiliatrice
In 1868 he had been consecrated to Valdocco la Basilica of Maria Ausiliatrice, The result of the extraordinary graces of the Madonna and the faith of the saint who, four years later, inspired by the above, made another monument to the Virgin, founding The Institute of the Daughters of Mary Ausiliatrice For the education of female youth after meeting a group of young people, somehow consecrated, directed by Don Domenico Pestarino and animated by Santa Maria Sunday Mazzarello.
Meanwhile, the houses of the Salesians multiplied and in 1876 Don Bosco organized the first missionary expedition, in a destination for the Argentine Republic. Since then the expansion has been proceeding at an increasingly intense pace. In 1880 Leo XIII entrusted to the saint the construction of the Temple of the Holy Heart in Romeand for this reason Don Bosco went began in Paris, arousing admiration for miracles and exceptional graces obtained by him; In 1886 he went to Spain, accepted equally triumphantly by the population.
He just had time to go to Rome for the inauguration of the Basilica of the Holy Heart, while his health conditions aggravated. He died on January 31, 1888. He was beatified by Pius XI in 1929 and can be remedied on Easter day (April 1) of 1934.
John Paul II called him “Father and master of youth»For his pedagogy, summarized in “Preventive system”, which is based on three pillars: religion, reason and lovingness And it is proposed to form good Christian and honest citizens. One of the masterpieces of his pedagogy was S. Domenico Savio. Don Bosco, one of the most loved saints, invites, is also one of the most invoked and popular for the graces that are obtained incessantly for his intercession.
