St. John Bosco was born on a poor farm near Turin, Italy, in 1815. At an age when the modern child would be enjoying the pastime of a kindergarten education, he was out on the hillside tending sheep. At about his ninth year, when he expressed the desire to become a priest, it was found possible to let him commence his education by walking more than four miles daily
for half a year. The other half, in Spring and Summer, was spent in
the fields. The day before he entered the seminary, his mother, laying her
hands on his shoulders as he stood robed in his clerical dress, said: “To see you dressed in this manner fills my heart with joy. But remember that it is not the dress that gives honor to the state, but the practice of virtue. If at any time you come to doubt your vocation, I beseech you, lay it aside at once. I would rather have a poor peasant for my son than a negligent priest. When you came into the world I consecrated you to Our Lady; when you began to study I bade you honor her and have recourse to her in all your difficulties; now I beg you to take her for your Queen.”

Today the motto on the Salesian coat of arms: Da mihi animas cetera tolle tibi – “Give me only souls and keep all the rest,” bears witness to the fidelity of Don Bosco to the words of a truly Christian mother.

This admirable “Apostle of Youth” is almost our contemporary. He founded the Salesian Society of St. Francis de Sales and the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians. His life’s work was consecrated to the care of young boys and girls. He died in 1888, and was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1934.

Prayer: O God, Thou who hast raised up Blessed John Bosco, Thy Confessor, to be a father and teacher of youth, and have willed that through him, with the help of the Virgin Mary, new families should flourish in Thy Church, grant, we beseech Thee, that inflamed by the same fire of love, we may labor to seek souls and serve Thee alone. Amen.

Lives of the Saints, pages 57-58