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.
