St. John Bosco: Feast Day, Patronage & Prayers
Feast day: January 31 (Memorial of St. John Bosco, Priest)
Patron of: Young people, students, apprentices, and editors.
About St. John Bosco
St. John Bosco was born in 1815 in a poor farming family near Turin, in northern Italy. His father died when he was two, and his mother, Margherita, raised him in deep faith. At the age of nine he had a dream in which he was told to win over wild boys "not with blows but with gentleness." He learned juggling and acrobatics to draw other children to hear the catechism, and after years of hardship he was ordained a priest in 1841.
In the growing industrial city of Turin, Don Bosco found many poor boys roaming the streets or working in terrible conditions. He gathered them into his Oratory, a place for prayer, play, schooling, and training in trades, and his mother came to help him care for them. His "preventive system" of education was based on reason, religion, and loving kindness. In 1859 he founded the Salesians, named for St. Francis de Sales, and later, with St. Mary Mazzarello, the Salesian Sisters. He died in 1888 and was canonized in 1934. His motto was "Give me souls, take away the rest."
Prayers to St. John Bosco on Daily Catholic Prayers
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