Saint John Bosco
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- "Don Bosco" redirects here. For other uses, see Bosco (disambiguation).
Giovanni Melchior Bosco (August 16 1815 – January 31 1888), commonly called Don Bosco was an Italian Catholic priest, educator and recognized pedagogue, who put in practice the dogma of his religion, employing teaching methods based on love rather than punishment. He placed his works under the protection of Francis de Sales; thus his followers styled themselves the Salesian Society.
Bosco succeeded in establishing a network of centers to carry on his work. In recognition of his work with disadvantaged youths, he was canonized in 1934.
| St. John Bosco | |
|---|---|
| |
| Holy Hierarch | |
| Born | August 16 1815, Castelnuovo, Piedmont, Italy |
| Died | January 31 1888, Turin, Italy |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholicism |
| Beatified | 1929 |
| Canonized | 1934 |
| Major shrine | Basilica of Our Lady Help of Christians: The Tomb of St John Bosco |
| Feast | January 31 |
| Attributes | Educator, Minister |
| Patronage | Christian apprentices, editors, and publishers |
| Novena To St John Bosco Practitioners begin this prayer on January 23 and end on the feast day of St. John Bosco, January 31. They are enjoined to remember the intentions of the Salesians of Don Bosco, and their work to help underprivileged youth in developing countries across the world. | |
Childhood and vocation
Giovanni Bosco was born in 1815 in the farming hamlet of Becchi, in Monferrato (Piedmont, Northern Italy), not far from Turin.When he was little more than two years old his father died, leaving the support of the sons Antonio (oldest) and Giovanni (youngest) to their mother, Margherita. Giovanni Bosco's early years were spent on the farm, but he showed ready intelligence and aptitude for study, which was favored by his mother but opposed by Antonio, now head of the family.
Bosco liked to gather other children, entertain them with magic, jokes and stories, and teach them Catholic catechism (something like Sunday school). Through a series of vocation dreams, he felt called to help poor children like himself, by becoming a priest whom they could approach easily, not like the cold, standoffish clergy he had known.
Bosco frequented the public elementary school in Castelnuovo at the age of 15. He quickly completed the lower grades and graduated with honors in 1835. Then he was accepted into the diocesan seminary at Chieri. After six years of study, in 1841, he was ordained a priest in Turin, becoming known as Don Bosco, or “Father Bosco”.
Early ministry
Don Bosco began as the chaplain of a girls’ boarding school founded in Turin by the Marchioness di Barolo, called the Rifugio ("Refuge"). But he had many ministries on the side such as visiting prisoners, teaching catechism and helping out at country parishes. A growing group of boys would come to the Rifugio on Sundays and feast days to play and learn their catechism. They were too old to join the younger children in regular catechism classes in the parishes, which mostly chased them away. This was the beginning of the “Oratory of St. Francis de Sales”. Because of all their disorderly racket, the Marchioness spared her girls the distraction by terminating Bosco’s employment at the Rifugio.Don Bosco and his Oratory wandered around town for a few years and were turned out of several places in succession. Finally, he was able to rent a shed from a Mr. Pinardi. His mother moved in with him. The Oratory had a home, then, in 1846, it was in the new Valdocco neighborhood on the north end of town. Next year, he and "Mamma Margaret" began taking in orphans.
Foundation of the Salesian Family
Even before this, however, Don Bosco had the help of several friends at the Oratory. There were zealous priests like Don Cafasso and Don Borel, some older boys like Giuseppe Buzzetti, Michele Rua, Giovanni Cagliero and Carlo Gastini, and Don Bosco’s own mother. Some local politicians helped out while others hindered his efforts.One friend was Justice Minister Urbano Rattazzi, who did not support the Church, but nevertheless recognized the value of Don Bosco’s work. While Rattazzi was pushing a bill through the Sardinian legislature to suppress religious orders, he advised Don Bosco on how to get around the law and found a religious order to keep the Oratory going after its founder’s death. Bosco had been thinking about that problem, too, and had been slowly organizing his helpers into a loose “Congregation of St. Francis de Sales”. He was also training select older boys for the priesthood on the side. Another supporter of the religious order idea was the reigning Pope, Pius IX.
In 1859, Bosco selected the experienced priest Don Alasonatti, 15 seminarians and 1 high school boy and formed them into the “Society of St. Francis de Sales”. This was the nucleus of the Salesians, the religious order that would carry on his work. When the group had their next meeting, they voted on the admission of Joseph Rossi as a lay member, the first Salesian brother. The Salesian Congregation was divided into priests, seminarians and “coadjutors” (the lay brothers).
Next, he worked with Don Pestarino, [Mary Mazzarello] and a group of girls in the hill town of Mornese. In 1871, he founded a group of religious sisters to do for girls what the Salesians were doing for boys. They were called the “Daughters of Mary Help of Christians”. In 1874, he founded yet another group: the “Salesian Cooperators”. These were mostly lay people who would work for young people like the Daughters and the Salesians, but would not join a religious order.
By this time Italy was united, with borders similar to those of today, under Piedmontese leadership. The poorly-governed Papal States were merged into the new kingdom. It was generally thought that Don Bosco supported the Pope, but he never commented on politics.
The Preventive System
Don Bosco's capability to attract numerous boys and adult helpers was connected to his “Preventive System of Education”. He believed education to be a “matter of the heart”, and said that the boys must not only be loved, but know that they are loved. He also pointed to three components of the Preventive System: reason, religion, and kindness. Music and games also went into the mix.Don Bosco gained a reputation early on of being a saint and miracle worker. For this reason Rua, Buzzetti, Cagliero and several others began to keep chronicles of his sayings and doings. Preserved in the Salesian archives, these are invaluable resources for studying his life. Later on, the Salesian Don Lemoyne collected and combined them into 45 scrapbooks with oral testimonies and Don Bosco’s own Memoirs of the Oratory. His aim was to write a detailed biography. This project eventually became a nineteen-volume affair, carried out by him and two other authors. These are the Biographical Memoirs. It is clearly not the work of professional historians, but a somewhat uneven compilation of those chronicles that preserve the memories of teenagers and young adults under the spell of a remarkable and beloved father figure.
Death and canonization
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Don Bosco died on January 31, 1888.
His funeral was attended by thousands, and very soon after there were popular demands to have him canonized. Accordingly, the Archdiocese of Turin began to investigate and witnesses were called to determine if his holiness were worthy of a declared Saint. As expected, the Salesians, Daughters and Cooperators gave fulsome testimonies. But many remembered Don Bosco’s controversies in the 1870s with Archbishop Gastaldi, and some others high in the Church hierarchy thought him a loose cannon and a wheeler-dealer. In the canonization process, testimony was heard about how he went around Gastaldi to get some of his men ordained, and about their lack of academic preparation and ecclesiastical decorum. He was certainly not above exaggerating the number of boys in his schools and oratories to market his enterprises. Political cartoons from the 1860s and later showing him shaking money from the pockets of old ladies, or going off to America for the same purpose, were not forgotten. These opponents, including some Cardinals, were in position to block his canonization. Many Salesians feared around 1925 that they would succeed.
Pope Pius XI had known Don Bosco, and pushed the cause forward. Bosco was declared Blessed in 1929, and a Saint on Easter Sunday of 1934.
Study resources
Sources
- Giovanni Bosco, Memoirs of the Oratory. Translated by Daniel Lyons. New Rochelle NY: Don Bosco Publications, 1989.
- Giovanni Battista Lemoyne, Eugenio Ceria, Angelo Amadei, Biographical Memoirs of St. John Bosco. New Rochelle NY: Don Bosco Publications, 1965-2004. These volumes translate id., Memorie Biografiche di San Giovanni Bosco. Turin: SEI, 1898-1939, 19 vol.
Studies
- François Desramaut, Don Bosco et son Temps. Torino: SEI, 1996.
- Pietro Stella, Don Bosco: Religious Outlook and Spirituality. Translated by John Drury. New Rochelle, NY: Salesiana Publishers, 1996.
- Morand Wirth, Don Bosco and the Salesians. New Rochelle NY: Don Bosco Publications, 1982. Translation by David de Burgh of id., Don Bosco e i Salesiani: Centocinquant' anni di Storia. Torino: SEI, 1969.
See also
- redirect
External links
- [Salesians of Don Bosco website (multi-lingual website)]
- [Salesians of the UK]
- [National Salesian Websites in Europe]
- [Salesian Missions]
- [Salesians of the US]
- [Colle Don Bosco]
- [Salesians in Portugal]
- [Links to Salesians all around the world]
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