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John Bosco was born on August 16, 1815, in hillside hamlets of Becchi, Italy, the youngest of three boys. His parents worked as farmhands in the area.
When John was only 9 years old, he had a vivid dream. In the dream, he was in a field of rowdy young boys who were cursing and misbehaving. In the dream, he jumped into the crowd to tame them with fists and shouting. Suddenly, however, a figure appeared to John and put him in charge of the boys. The figure told John that he should lead the boys not with anger and violence, but with gentleness and kindness. The apparition also told John that this would be his life’s work.
John’s older brothers made fun of him when he told them about his dream. One brother was so harsh toward John, in fact, that John ran away from home and became a shepherd.
As a youth, John had great abilities as a juggler, magician and acrobat. With these gifts, he was able to attract young people for shows that he would put on for them. Before and after his performances, he would lead the crowds in prayer.
When he was around 15, a holy priest encouraged him to enter a seminary. Because John was so poor, his friends had to take up collections to get him all the clothes, books, and other things he needed for the seminary.
As a young priest, Fr. John first was assigned as a chaplain of a girls’ boarding school, but he also visited prisons, taught catechism, and assisted in parishes. While visiting prisons, he saw young boys treated terribly. And in his ministry, he began to attract young orphan boys. He eventually enlisted his mother, “Mama Margherita,” to help him take care of orphans.
Fr. John and his group of boys were evicted from one place after another because the exuberant boys were often too noisy for the neighborhoods. When he would be thrown out of one place, he would simply find another.
In time, Fr. John attracted other men to his work, and this formed the beginning of a new religious order. Because Fr. John admired St. Francis de Sales very much, his new congregation became known as the Salesian Fathers. Later, he founded the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, an order for religious sisters to do the same work for girls that he was doing for boys. Finally, he founded a group called the “Salesian Cooperators” who were lay people interested in helping him. He also published a Salesian bulletin that today is published in many languages.
Fr. John set up schools for his boys to teach them trades such as shoemaking, tailoring, bookbinders, and others. He also made sure every child had a safe place to live. Fr. John gave his entire life to his boys, and nothing was too good for them – especially his total devotion, love, and self. In fact, Fr. John Bosco once wrote this:
“I have promised God that until my last breath I shall have lived for my poor young people. I study for you, I work for you, I am also ready to give my life for you. Take note that whatever I am, I have been so entirely for you, day and night, morning and evening, at every moment.”
Fr. John Bosco was also a leader in nursing the sick in a cholera epidemic in Turin in 1854. Recovering himself from a hemorrhage, Fr. John did not hesitate to throw himself into caring for the sick while most of the population refused to care for the sick out of fear. He not only nursed the sick, but he enlisted all his boys to help him. He told the boys that if they trusted in God’s grace and committed no mortal sins, they would not become infected. So, the boys jumped in to help, carrying the sick to hospitals and the dead to mortuaries. By the time the epidemic ended, over 1,400 people had died. Not one of Fr. John’s boys became infected.
We should not be surprised at how Fr. John and boys were protected from cholera, for even before the epidemic hit, Fr. John Bosco had already gained a reputation as a miracle worker. His nursing work in the cholera epidemic, and the safe delivery of his boys, simply increased his miracle-worker reputation among the populace.
Fr. John Bosco died on January 31, 1888, and Pope Pius XI canonized him on April 1, 1934.
St. John Bosco’s feast day is January 31st. St. John Bosco is a patron saint of editors, publishers, schoolchildren, young people, magicians, and juvenile delinquents.
Today, Salesians are found all over the world serving poor boys and girls and leading them to a better life.
