Through the Years :: Introduction 1957-1979 :: Intro :: Bernie Delaney's Team :: In the Beginning :: "Jack" (The Bocco) :: Most Successful Team Ever? :: Saint John Bosco		Saint John Bosco John Bosco was born on 16 August 1815, in Becchi, Castelnuovo d'Asti (today Castelnuovo Don Bosco). He came from a family of poor farmers. He lost his father, Francesco, at the age of two. His mother Margaret raised him alone, from his mother, John learned to see God in other faces, especially the poor. At the age of nine, John Bosco had a, great dream that marked his entire life. He saw a multitude of very poor boys fighting and cursing as they played. A Man of majestic appearance told him: With meekness and charity you will conquer these friends; and a Lady just as majestic added: Make yourself humble, strong and robust. At the right time you will understand everything. Little John understood that to do good for the poor he needed to study and become a Priest. On a cold February morning in 1827, John left home to find work as a farm servant. He was only 12.During the long night's, he went back to his books and studies. John returned home three years later and resumed his schooling, first at Castelnuovo and then at Chieri. He was intelligent and brilliant, and the best students of the school flocked around him. He founded what was known as the Happy Club. At 20 years of age, John Bosco took the most important decision of his life: he entered the Seminary. There followed six years of intense studies after which he was ordained priest. On 5 June 1841, the archbishop of Turin ordained John Bosco a priest. Now Don Bosco (in Italy the title given to a priest is Don) was finally able to dedicate himself full-time to the abandoned boys he had seen in his dreams. Don Bosco went through the city of Turin to see for himself the moral conditions of the young. He was shocked. Near the city public market he discovered vast numbers of poor people who barely eked out a living day after day. These boys who roamed the streets of Turin.But Don Bosco got his biggest shock when he entered the prisons. He wrote: "To see so many boys, from 12 to 18 years of age, all healthy, strong, intelligent, insect bitten, lacking spiritual and material food, horrified me." In the face of such a situation he made his decision: "I must prevent boys ending up here by whatever means I can." It was necessary to try new ways, to invent new schemes, to try another form of apostolate, meeting the boys in shops, offices, market places. Don Bosco began his work on 8 December1841 with just one boy. He took care of him. Three days later there were nine, three months later twenty-five and by summer eighty. Thus was born the youth centre (which he called an oratory). For Don Bosco the Oratory became his permanent occupation and he looked for jobs for the ones who were unemployed. He tried to obtain a fairer treatment for those who had jobs, he taught those who were willing to study after their day's work. But some of his boys did not have sleeping quarters and slept under bridges or in bleak public dormitories. His mother Margaret sold her farmhouse to help him with the city's poorest. The boys sheltered by Don Bosco numbered 36 in 1852, 115 in 1854, 470 in 1860 and 600 in 1861, and reached a maximum of 800 some time later. Some of these boys decided to do what Don Bosco was doing, that is, to spend their lives in the service of abandoned boys. And this was the origin of the Salesian Congregation. Among the first members were Michael Rua, John Cagliero (who later became a Cardinal), and John Baptist Francesia. In Autumn 1853 Don Bosco opened shoemaking and tailoring shops in the Oratory at Valdocco. The shoemaking shop was located in a very narrow place near the bell-tower of the church. With the success of these shops, Don Bosco built other shops aimed at training bookbinders, carpenters, printers and mechanics; six shops in which the privileged place was reserved for orphans, the poor and totally abandoned boys. Similar shops were very soon built in other Salesian houses outside Turin. To take care of these shops Don Bosco invented a new type of religious: the Coadjutors or Salesian Brothers. Working almost to exhaustion in the following years, Don Bosco accomplished many imposing works. Besides the Salesians, he founded the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and the Salesian Cooperators. He built the Sanctuary of Mary Help of Christians at Valdocco and founded 59 Salesian houses in six nations. He started the Salesian Missions in Latin America sending Salesian priests, brothers and sisters there. He published a series of popular books for ordinary Christians and for boys. He invented a System of Education founded on three values: Reason, Religion and Loving-kindness. Very soon people saw in it an ideal system to educate the young. When somebody would tell Don Bosco the list of the works he performed, he would interrupt the person and immediately say: "I have done nothing by myself. It is the Virgin Mary who has done everything." She had traced out his road in the famous dream he had when he was nine. Don Bosco died on 31 January 1888. To the Salesians who were keeping vigil around his bed he said in a whisper these last words: "Love each other as brothers. Do good to all and evil to none... Tell my boys that I wait for them all in Paradise." Back to Top

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