St. John Bosco (16 August 1815 – 31 January 1888)
St. John Bosco was born near Turin, Italy. Like many Saints, he was a poor farm
lad, who was brought up by his holy mother in the love of God and Our Lady.
John's father died when he was young and his mother had to work very hard to
feed her family. John, too, worked as hard as he could to help his mother. He
was an intelligent lad, who knew how to keep his playmates from offending God.
He would do tricks to win their attention and then he would talk to them about
spiritual things.
In order to become a priest, John had to work his way through school. He did
all kinds of work. He was a carpenter, a shoemaker, a cook, a pastry-maker, a
farmer, and many other things. At the same time he was a fine student and
always happy and cheerful.
After he became a priest, Don Bosco, which means Father Bosco, began his great
mission of helping orphan boys. He gathered together hundreds of these boys who
had no home. He taught them all kinds of work, so that they would not steal and
get into trouble. At first people were angry with Don Bosco, because they did
not think those boys would turn out to be good. But he proved that they would.
"Do you want to be Don Bosco's friend?" he would ask each new boy who
came to him. "You do? Then, you must help me save your soul." Every
night, he wanted his boys to say three Hail Mary's, so that the Blessed
Mother would help them avoid sin. He also recommended that they go to
Confession and Communion as often as possible.
One of Don Bosco's boys became a saint, St. Dominic Savio.
Later on, Don Bosco founded two Religious Orders to take care of poor children
and he also built many homes and schools for them.
Let us help our parents at home as much as we can. The more things we learn
to do, the better we can serve God.
