Saint John Bosco   
     Feast Day: January 31st

  Patron Saint of Catechists

“Do you want your companions to respect you? Always think well of everyone, and be ready to help others. 
Do this and you will be happy. ”  -St. John Bosco

     John Bosco was born on August 15, 1815, in rural Italy. He was the son of a farmer, who died when he was only 2 years old. John helped his mother and brothers to run the farm, and all his life he had a great physical strength as a result. 

His mother raised him to be very aware of God in his life. He loved being an altar server and praying in the local church. When he was still young, he had a dream in which the Blessed Mother revealed to him God’s call to work with young boys and bring them from terrible circumstances to happiness and faith.

     John also felt the call to the priesthood, and was ordained in 1841. He had a reputation for an amazing memory, as well as a penchant for magic tricks and athletics.

  At that time in Italy, the rise of industry had tossed many families into extreme poverty. Children were forced to leave home at an early age to fend for their own food in the streets, or to find work at slave wages. 

     Out of love for them, Don Bosco began a project called the “oratory”, a place where such boys could gather and find food, schooling, education in the faith, trade skills, housing, and recreation. With the help of one other priest and almost no money, Don Bosco entrusted this mission to the Blessed Mother and began doing what he could. Within a decade, there were hundreds of boys coming to the Oratory, which attracted enough priests and followers that Don Bosco then obtained special permission from Pope Pius IX to begin a new religious Order– the Salesians— to do similar work for the youth throughout the world. By the time he died in 1888, the first Oratory had 700 boys, and Salesians were working in many other countries. Several of his boys had died and were already beatified; others were priests, and several were bishops.

      But Don Bosco remained a humble priest. Many miracles and revelatory dreams are associated with his life and work, but the greatest miracle is the incredible transformation that he made in the lives of thousands of youth by his prayer and dedication to their welfare. He was canonized in 1935, and is the patron of catechists.