feast day: January 31
patron saint of: boys, editors, youth
about:
- born: 16 August 1815 (Castelnuovo d'Asti, Piedmont, Kingdom of Sardinia)
- died: 31 January 1888 (aged 72) (Turin, Kingdom of Italy)
- Italian: Giovanni Melchiorre Bosco
- popularly known as Don Bosco- founder of the Salesian Society
- major shrine: The Tomb of St John Bosco, Basilica of Our Lady Help of Christians, Turin, Italy
- was an Italian Roman Catholic priest of the Latin Church, educator and writer of the 19th century
- While working in Turin, where the population suffered many of the effects of industrialization and urbanization, he dedicated his life to the betterment and education of street children, juvenile delinquents, and other disadvantaged youth. He developed teaching methods based on love rather than punishment, a method that became known as the Salesian Preventive System. A follower of the spirituality and philosophy of Saint Francis de Sales, Bosco dedicated his works to him when he founded the Salesians of Don Bosco, based in Turin. Together with Maria Domenica Mazzarello, he founded the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, a religious congregation of nuns dedicated to the care and education of poor girls.
In 1876 Bosco founded a movement of laity, the Association of Salesian Cooperators, with the same educational mission to the poor. In 1875 he began to publish the Salesian Bulletin. The Bulletin has remained in continuous publication, and is currently published in 50 different editions and 30 languages.
Bosco established a network of organizations and centres to carry on his work. Following his posthumous beatification in 1929, he was canonized as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Pius XI in 1934.
- His work lives on in the Salesian order he founded.
- In His Footsteps:
John Bosco found God's message in his dreams. If you have some question or problem in your life, ask God to send you an answer or help in a dream. Then write down your dreams. Ask God to help you remember and interpret the dreams that come from God.
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PRAYER
source: http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=63
Saint John Bosco, you reached out to children whom no one cared for despite ridicule and insults. Help us to care less about the laughter of the world and care more about the joy of the Lord. Amen.
--------NOVENA IN HONOR OF ST. JOHN BOSCO
source: https://www.ewtn.com/Devotionals/novena/bosco.htm
Father and Teacher of the Young
In need of special help, I appeal with confidence to you, Saint John Bosco, for I require not
only spiritual graces, but also temporal ones, and particularly...
(add your personal intentions here)
May you, who on earth had such great devotion to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and to
Mary Help of Christians, and who always had compassion for those who were suffering,
obtain from Jesus and His Heavenly Mother the grace I now request, and also a sincere
resignation to the Will of God.
(Recite the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be)
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links/ sources:
- "John Bosco" (source: Wikipedia):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bosco
- "St. John Bosco" (source: Catholic Online):
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=63
-"St. Giovanni Melchior Bosco" (source: Catholic Encyclopedia):
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02689d.htm
- "Novena in Honor of St. John Bosco" (source: EWTN):
https://www.ewtn.com/Devotionals/novena/bosco.htm
- "St. John Bosco" (source: American Catholic):
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/saint.aspx?id=1277
- "Salesian Spirituality" (source: Salesian Spirituality):
http://www.sdb.org/en/Salesian_Saints/Salesian_Spirituality
http://www.salesianspirituality.com/
- "The Salesian Virtues" (source: Salesian Education):
http://www.salesianeducation.org/virtues/
