Don Bosco was the founder of the Salesian Society. Born of poor parents at

Becchi, a hill-side hamlet 15 miles outside Turin, 16 August 1815.

When he was little more than two years old his father died, leaving the

support of three boys to the mother, Margaret Bosco. John received his

first instruction at the hands of his mother. He possessed a ready wit, a

retentive memory, and as years passed his appetite for study grew

stronger. Owing to the poverty of the home, however, he was often

obliged to turn from his books to the field, but the vocation he had never

left him. In 1835 he entered the seminary at Chieri and after six years of

study was ordained priest by Archbishop Franzoni of Turin in 1841.

Don Bosco went to Turin for further studies in Pastoral Theology under Fr

(now Saint !) Joseph Cafasso. It was here that an incident occurred which

opened up to him the mission that would fill his life.. One of his duties was

to accompany Don Cafasso upon his visits to the prisons of the city, and

the condition of the children confined in these places, abandoned to the

most evil influences, and with little before them but the gallows, made

such a indelible impression upon his mind that he resolved to devote his

life to the rescue of these unfortunate outcasts.

Don Bosco was vesting for Mass, the sacristan drove from the Church a

ragged urchin because he couldn’t serve Mass. Don Bosco heard his cries

and recalled him, and in the friendship which sprang up between the

priest and the teenager was the first seed of the "Oratory". (a sort of Youth

Club that provided games to attract and catechism to educate.) The

mission would grow so that every Salesian House became a Home where

you belong, a Church where you relate to God, a School where you learn

to become a good citizen and a Playground where you socialize, relax and

enjoy yourself.

Don Bosco entered eagerly upon the task of instructing the first pupils

February 1842, the Oratory numbered twenty boys, in March of the same

year, thirty, and in March 1846, four hundred.

Over the next few years, as the number of boys increased it became more

difficult to find a place to host their activities and it became a sort of

“Wandering Oratory”. In good weather walks were taken on Sundays and

holidays to spots in the country about Turin where lunch was eaten and

games played. Realising the charm which music held for the untamed

spirits of his disciples Don Boso organised a band for which some old

brass instruments were procured. It was about this time (mid-1840s) that

Don Bosco began his night schools and with the closing of the factories the

boys flocked to his rooms where he and Don Borel instructed them in

rudimentary trades.

To his great distress Don Bosco was subjected to petty annoyances and

obstacles which, at times, seemed to spell the ruin of his undertaking. His

perseverance in the face of all difficulties led many to the conclusion that

he was insane, and an attempt was even made to confine him in an asylum

–A story worth telling! Complaints were lodged against him, declaring

his community to be a nuisance, owing to the character of the boys he

befriended…..Finally, he was able to buy a rough shed upon the site of

which grew up an Oratory that counted seven hundred members, Don

join him and be a mother to the orphans. The evening classes increased

and gradually dormitories were provided for many who desired to live at

the Oratory.

In 1859 he founded the Salesian Society….so called to remind us that he

wanted all the members to imitate the kindness and gentleness of St

Francis of SALES.

Don Bosco's method of study knew nothing of punishment. Observance of

rules was obtained by instilling a true sense of duty, by removing all

occasions for disobedience, and by allowing no effort towards virtue,

however trivial it might be, to pass unappreciated. He held that the

teacher should be father, adviser, and friend, and he was the first to adopt

do not remember ever using formal punishment; and with God's grace I

have always obtained, ( from apparently hopeless children) not alone what

duty exacted, but what my wish simply expressed."

The chief object should be to form the will and to temper the character.

At the time of Don Bosco's death in 1888 there were 250 houses of the

Salesian Society in all parts of the world, containing 130,000 children, and

from which there annually went out 18,000 finished apprentices. In the

Today the Salesians are the 2nd largest Congregation in the Church,