St. John Bosco

Father and Teacher of Youth
"God gave him wisdom and understanding and a heart as vast as the sand on the seashore." With these words, the Church ushers in the feast on January 31 in honour of St. John Bosco, affectionately known to his spiritual sons and daughters all over the world as Don (Father in Italian) Bosco.

John (Italian: Giovanni) Melchior Bosco was born of poor parents in a little cabin at Becchi, a hillside hamlet near Castelnuovo, Piedmont, Italy on 16 August, 1815. When he was little more than two years old his father died on May 11, 1817, he was only 33 years of age, leaving the support of three boys to the mother, Margaret Bosco. The mother, Margaret Occhiena, had to struggle to bring up the family. Her lively faith, her confidence in God, her spirit of prayer, her strength of spirit enabled her to tide over difficult times. These sterling qualities were absorbed by John as he grew up under her loving care.

Don Rua writes: "His confidence in God was so great that whenever he found himself faced with a difficulty greater than usual, he seemed to be more joyful than was his custom." Cardinal Cagliero testifies that Don Bosco would repeat in moments of severe trial, "There is a God in Israel - let nothing disturb us, let nothing frighten us."

Devotion to Mary
"I learnt to recite the Rosary on the knees of my mother," Don Bosco often told his pupils. He was very particular that the Rosary should be recited in all his houses. Every year he took a group of boys to the chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary at Becchi for the feast in October. En route they entertained the towns with their band and singing.

"Be devout to Our Lady," was the advice Mamma Margaret gave her son John when he left in 1830 to stay and study at Castelnuovo. On October 25, 1835, after John received the cassock and was preparing to join the Seminary at Chieri, his mother took him aside and said, "When you came into the world, I entrusted you to the Blessed Virgin; when you commenced your studies I recommended you to practise devotion to Her; now I urge you to give yourself wholly to Her. Associate with companions who are devoted to Her and when you are a priest do you utmost to draw people to Her." In 1941 he was ordained priest on the eve of Trinity Sunday by Archbishop Franzoni of Turin.

Today, Don Bosco's name is so linked with the Blessed Virgin that she is often known as "The Madonna of Don Bosco." He raised several monuments in honour of Our Lady.

Character and Growth of the Oratory
Leaving the seminary after his ordination, Don Bosco went to Turin where he entered zealously upon his priestly labours. It was here that an incident occurred which opened up to him the real field of effort of his afterlife. One of his duties was to accompany Don Cafasso upon his visits to the prisons of the city, and the condition of the children confined in these places, abandoned to the most evil influences, and with little before them but the gallows, made such a indelible impression upon his mind that he resolved to devote his life to the rescue of these unfortunate outcasts. On the eighth of December, 1841, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, while Don Bosco was vesting for Mass, the sacristan drove from the Church a ragged urchin because he refused to serve Mass. Don Bosco heard his cries and recalled him, and in the friendship which sprang up between the priest and Bartollomea Garelli was sown the first seed of the "Oratory", so called, no doubt, after the example of St. Philip Neri and because prayer was its prominent feature. Don Bosco entered eagerly upon the task of instructing thus first pupil of the streets; companions soon joined Bartholomeo, all drawn by a kindness they had never known, and in February, 1842, the Oratory numbered twenty boys, in March of the same year, thirty, and in March, 1846, four hundred.

In his vision or dream which he is said to have had in his early boyhood, wherein it was disclosed to him what his lifework would be, a voice said to him: "Not with blows, but with charity and gentleness must you draw these friends to the path of virtue."

Don Bosco's method of study knew nothing of punishment. And in 1887 he wrote: "I do not remember to have used formal punishment; and with God's grace I have always obtained, and from apparently hopeless children, not alone what duty exacted, but what my wish simply expressed." In one of his books he has discussed the causes of weakness of character, and derives them largely from a misdirected kindness in the rearing of children. Parents make a parade of precocious talents: the child understands quickly, and his sensitiveness enraptures all who meet him, but the parents have only succeeded in producing all affectionate, perfected, intelligent animal. The chief object should be to form the will and to temper the character. In all his pupils Don Bosco tried to cultivate a taste for music, believing it to be a powerful and refining influence.

In his rules lie wrote: "Frequent Confession, frequent Communion, daily Mass: these are the pillars which should sustain the whole edifice of education." Don Bosco was an indefatigable confessor, devoting days to the work among his children. He recognized that gentleness and persuasion alone were not enough to bring to the task of education. He thoroughly believed in play as a means of arousing childish curiosity -- more than this, he places it among his first recommendations, and for the rest he adopted St. Philip Neri's words: "Do as you wish, I do not care so long as you do not sin."

Don Bosco was truly gifted with many qualities: a keen mind, a powerful memory, enormous strength. While in the seminary he supported himself by working as a tailor, blacksmith, shoemaker, carpenter, violinist, acrobat, and magician. All these talents came in handy during his lifetime of working with youngsters.

Don Bosco used all his talents for God and for the mission entrusted to him, to be an Apostle of the poor and abandoned youth. He lost his father when he was barely two years old. Yet he became a father to thousands of youngsters. He went to school only at the age of 15 after overcoming several hurdles. Yet he founded many technical, academic and boarding schools for others. The politicians of his day were closing down monasteries and convents, and banning Religious Orders. Yet he had the courage to found the Salesian Society for men (1859); the Institute of the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians, for women (1872); and the Association of Salesian Cooperators for lay people (1876).

Our Lady, Help of Christians
In 1868 to meet the needs of the Valdocco quarter of Turin, Don Bosco resolved to build a church. The church was consecrated 9 June, 1868, and placed under the patronage of Our Lady, Help of Christians. In the same year in which Don Bosco began the erection of the church fifty priests and teachers who had been assisting him formed a society under a common rule which Pius IX, provisionally in 1869, and finally the Salesian Society was given permanent status within the Catholic Church in 1874.

He used devotion to Our Lady to lead people to the Holy Eucharist. He raised three monuments in honour to her: the Basilica of Mary, Help of Christians at Turin; the Institute of the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians, which he said was a living monument to thank our celestial Mother for all the favours she had showered on him; and the Work for Late Vocations, which he termed the "Sons of Mary" project.

Trust in Divine Providence
To Don Bosco we may apply the words of Holy Scripture concerning Abraham: "He believed against all hope and became the father of many peoples."

Don Bosco would undertake mighty works with little or nothing in his purse. His contractors and suppliers, however, were perfectly sure that everything would be taken care of. "Would that we were as certain of being paid by everyone as we are by Don Bosco. He may be slow but he never fails, for he has Divine Providence at his disposal. Don Bosco's word is more than a banknote."

In his life, the supernatural became natural
Don Bosco gently passed away at 4:45 a.m., January 31, 1888. "Tell my boys that I await them in heaven," he had whispered 3 days earlier. He was canonized on Easter Sunday, April 1, 1934 by Pope Pius XI, who declared, "In his life, the supernatural became natural and the extraordinary the ordinary."

In 1988, on the occasion of the first centenary of his death, Pope John Paul II proclaimed Don Bosco the "Father and Teacher of Youth" and in his letter of declaration, singled out the interchange between education and holiness as the characteristic aspect of Don Bosco's personality: "He was a holy educator, he drew his inspiration from a holy model: St. Francis de Sales, he was the disciple of a holy spiritual director - St. Joseph Cafasso, and he was able to form from among his boys a holy pupil - St. Dominic Savio."

Statistics
At the time of Don Bosco's death in 1888 there were 250 houses of the Salesian Society in all parts of the world, containing 130,000 children, and from which there annually went out 18,000 finished apprentices. In the motherhouse Don Bosco had selected the brightest of his pupils, taught them Italian, Latin, French, and mathematics, and this band formed a teaching corps for the new homes which quickly grew up in other places. Up to 1888 over six thousand priests had gone forth from Don Bosco's institutions, 1,200 of whom had remained in the society. The schools begin with the child in his first instruction and lead, for those who choose it, to seminaries for the priesthood. The society also conducts Sunday schools, evening schools for adult workmen, schools for those who enter the priesthood late in life, technical schools, and printing establishments for the diffusion of good reading in different languages. Its members also have charge of hospitals and asylums, nurse the sick, and do prison work, especially in rural districts. The society has houses in the following countries: Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, England, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Palestine, and Algiers; in South America, Mexico, in South America, Patagonia, Terra del Fuego, Ecuador, Brazil, Paraguay, The Argentine Republic, Bolivia, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, and Colombia. In the United States the Salesians have four churches: Sts. Peter and Paul and Corpus Christi in San Francisco, California; St. Josephs in Oakland, California; and the Transfiguration in New York City. Very Rev. Michael Borghino, Provincial for America, resides in San Francisco.