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The saints

St John Bosco

A ragged boy chased out of a sacristy, and the priest who called him back.

Feast: 31 January · 1815 to 1888 · Becchi and Turin, Italy

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A photograph of Don Bosco in Turin in 1880: an elderly priest in a cassock, seated, with a gentle face.

Attributed to Carlo Felice Deasti, 1880. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

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Turin, 8 December 1841

It is the feast of the Immaculate Conception, and a young priest is vesting for Mass.1

The sacristan is driving a ragged boy out of the church because he refuses to serve Mass.1

The priest hears his cries and calls him back.1

The boy’s name was Bartolomeo Garelli. Within five years four hundred boys would be following him in.

01St John Bosco

The Oratory

From that friendship grew the Oratory: twenty boys in February 1842, thirty in March, and four hundred by March 1846.1

Don Bosco had been born to poor parents in a little cabin at Becchi, and his father died when he was barely two.1

It was a familiar sight to see him in the field surrounded by kneeling boys preparing for confession.1

02St John Bosco

The Salesians

He founded the Salesian Society, and died on 31 January 1888.1

Pope Pius XI canonized him in 1934.1

A photograph of Don Bosco in Turin in 1880: an elderly priest in a cassock, seated, with a gentle face.
Don Bosco in Turin, photographed in 1880. Attributed to Carlo Felice Deasti, 1880. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

He did not wait for street boys to become respectable. He went and found them.

Notes

  1. Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “St. John Bosco (Don Bosco)”. New Advent edition. newadvent.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: Douay-Rheims, Challoner revision (public domain). Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an error.