Saint John Bosco, founder of the Salesian Society, was born on 16 August 1815 in Becky, a mountain village near Castelnuovo in Piedmont, Italy. Two years after the saint’s death, the father died, leaving the mother of the saint, Margaret Bosco, in charge of their three sons. His early years were spent as a shepherd. John received his first lessons from his parish priest. He was a humorous and well-remembered man.
As the years went by, the unquenchable thirst for knowledge grew stronger in the saint. But because of the poverty at home, the saint often had to go to the field to pursue his studies. Nevertheless, the saint never gave up a restrained passion for learning. In 1835 he joined the seminary of John Cherie. After six years of study, he received the priesthood from Franzoni, the bishop of Turin.
The saint left the seminary to Turin and began his priestly endeavors with great enthusiasm. It was here that his life changed. Saint John Boscoeck was to accompany Don Cafasso on visits to the city’s prisons. The saint saw the plight of the children buried there. Abandoned for the influence of evil, there was nothing but hanging in front of them. It became a picture that never faded into the mind of the saint. The saint, therefore, made a firm decision to devote the rest of his life to the salvation of these destitute.
On December 8, 1841, the Holy Father drove an orphan boy out of the shrine, wearing a torn shirt, to prepare for his mother’s holy consecration feast. The saint heard him cry and called him back. Thus the friendship between the priest and the orphan boy Bartholomew grew quickly. He enthusiastically took on the task of teaching his first disciple, which he got from the street.
Soon after, Bartholomew got many friends, a love they had never experienced before. By February 1842, there were about 20 boys. By March 30 of the same year, and by March 1846, there were 400 children.
As the number of boys grew, they felt the inadequacy of a meeting place. In good times, they would go for walks on Sundays and holidays, and have lunch outside. Don Bosco, conscious of his disciples’ passion for music, organized old-fashioned musical instruments and formed a band. In 1844 Don Bosco appointed a fellow priest for Refugio. Don Borel gladly took on that responsibility.
With the permission of the Archbishop Franzoni, he added two rooms to the Refugio and converted it into a small shrine and dedicated it to St. Francis de Sale. The members of the Oratory were now organized in the Refugio. Many boys from neighboring districts applied for admission there. It was around this time (in 1845) that St. Donbosco’s nascent schools were opened, and when the workshops closed, the boys gathered in their rooms to study, and Saint Don Bosco and Don Borel educated them on the primary branches.
The success story of the Refugio Oratory was not a long one. The saint was so desperate that he had to leave his rooms. This, in turn, made him an obstacle to his efforts. His perseverance, even during these troubles, caused many to view him as insane. Attempts were made to put him in a madhouse. Many complaints were made against the saint by declaring that his society was a public nuisance because of the character of the saint’s disciples. So the Rhetoric of the Refugeo was moved from the Refugio to the three rooms on the road to Cotolengo, in St. Peter’s Church, St. Martin’s, where the mosques were reopened in an open ground.
In the end there was a basket up. There was also an oratory growing up, with about 700 members. Saint Don Bosco rented a house next to it. There his mother, also known as “Mama Margaret”, joined the saint, the first house of the Salesian Church, where the mother of the saint spent her last ten years caring for inmates. When the gentleman joined this oratory to help his son, the oratorial outlook was not so bright.
But they spent a small amount of their own money, separated from his home and up to his home, decorations, and jewelry. They gave mommy love for those kids on the street. Gradually, the number of niche classes increased and accommodations for those who wanted to stay. Thus the first Salesian home was established. There are about a thousand children now.
During this time, the municipal authorities had begun to recognize the importance of this holy initiative. The Holy See has begun to accumulate the necessary funds to start technical schools and workshops. The saint was able to build them without much difficulty. In 1868, the Saint decided to build a shrine there to meet the needs of the Waldoka in Turin. Accordingly, the saint prepared the plan of a shrine in the form of a cross in some 1500 square yards.
The saint had to struggle to raise the necessary funds. However, with the help of some friends of Saint, the Holy One completed the construction of the shrine. The cost of the construction was about one million francs. The church was consecrated on June 9, 1868, and dedicated to the media of the Holy Mother of Christians. In the same year that the saint began the construction of the shrine, a committee of 50 priests and teachers, who had assisted him, formed a committee on the basis of a common law, and Pope Pius IX granted it a temporary and permanent approval in 1869.
Progress and features of the Oratory
It would be a failure if the saint described the popularity of the moratorium in which he had dedicated his life, without appreciating the spirit and spirit of the saint. In his first association with poor children, the saint never fails to see the flashes of kindness and encouragement in his dirty, torn shirt and sarcastic form.
When the number of her little disciples was small during the first few days, the saint attracted them by giving them small gifts and taking them for a walk in the favorite places of Turin. These excursions were on Sundays. He would offer the Holy Mass at the shrine of the village of St. Don Bosco and preach a small gospel. The next breakfast was followed by sports, afternoon prayer, followed by Scripture and lit. This is a day to be there. It was a regular sight for the saint to sit amongst the children kneeling in the ground ready for confession.
In Saint Donbosco’s teaching style, there was no discipline. He deliberately avoided situations that could lead to disobedience. If this is not appreciated, it is childish. According to Saint, a teacher must be like a father, a teacher, a friend. Throughout his life, he taught that a teacher should adopt a defensive style instead of discipline. Regarding discipline, the saint has said: “To the best of our ability we must avoid punishment. Try to find love before the fear is triggered.” In 1887 the saint wrote: “I do not recall them being externally punished; I have had much to gain from these children who are apparently hopeless by God’s grace,
In one of his books, the saint has mentioned the causes of evil. The main reason for this is the misguided kindness in caring for children. Children have the ability to learn very quickly, and their subtle powers will delight all who see them, but parents only succeed in convincing others that their child is loving, perfect, and intelligent. But the most important goal should be the will and child development of children.
Of all his pupils, Saint Donbosco sought to develop a musical taste. This is because music is a powerful influence in purgatory, because knowledge never shapes man, because it does not directly touch the heart. It gives us more power in recognizing good and evil, But knowledge alone is a weak weapon that needs to be guided properly. ”
The saint has truly learned the attitudes and tastes of his children, and the saint’s insight to understand children in a supernatural and clear manner has played little part in his success. In his Laws, he writes, “Constant Confession, Daily Holy Communion, Perpetual Eucharistic Acceptance: These are the pillars that hold the roof of education.”
Saint Don Bosco was a good confessor and spent many days among his children. He knew that education was not possible only with dignity and motivation. He recognized that entertainment had a positive impact on the child’s natural curiosity – his first suggestion. For the rest, he accepted Saint Philip Nir’s words: “I will not listen to you, unless you sin, as you wish.”
At the time of Saint Don Bosco’s death in 1888, the Salesian Society had around 130,000 children in 250 homes around the world. From there, about 180,000 children go on to study each year. In his mother’s house, Saint Don Bosco selected the smartest children and taught them Italian, Latin, French and mathematics. These were teachers in the newly emerging homes. Up to 1888, there were about 6,000 priests.
Of those, 1200 remained in the Society. There were schools for education, and then seminaries for those who were interested. On Sundays, there were church mosques, evening classes for adults and working people, schools for those who wanted to become priests in the evenings, vocational schools, and printing systems to promote reading in different languages. In addition, members of the Society also worked in hospitals and mental hospitals, caring for patients and visiting prisons.
Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, England, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Palestine and Algiers; Central America: Mexico, South America, Patagonia, Terra del Fuego, Ecuador, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, and Colombia. In the United States, the Salesian Society has four shrines: St. Peter and Paul in San Francisco, California, Copper Christi, St. Joseph’s in Oakland, California, and Transfiguration in New York City.
On January 31, 1888, the saint died, and on July 21, 1907, Pope Pius XII proclaimed himself blessed. In 1929, Pius XI was proclaimed Pope, and in 1934 he was declared a saint. He is also known as Saint Giovanni Melchior Bosco.
