02/07/2023
St. John Bosco (San Giovanni Bosco), popularly known as Don Bosco, was born near Torino (Piemonte), Italy. He was a Roman Catholic priest and a pioneer in educating the poor and founded the Salesian order.
While working as a priest in Torino, where the population suffered many of the ill-effects of industrialization and urbanization, he dedicated his life to the betterment and education of street children, juvenile delinquents, and other disadvantaged youth. Don Bosco drew up regulations to forbid employer abuse of apprentices, a sweeping reform for that time. He was one of the pioneers of Mutual Aid Societies that were initiated as collaborative financial support to young workers in the city.
He developed teaching methods based on love rather than punishment, a method that became known as the Salesian Preventive System and later founded the Salesians of Don Bosco order.
Don Bosco is the patron saint of apprentices, editors and publishers, schoolchildren, magicians, and juvenile delinquents. His shrine is the Basilica di Santa Maria Ausiliatrice in Torino (pictured). It was originally part of the home for poor boys founded by John Bosco, it now contains the remains of Bosco, and 6,000 relics of other saints.
