Don Bosco our founder
St.JohnBosco(1815-1888)
A Friend ofYouth
John Bosco was born on 16th August 1815 in the little hamlet of
Becchi some 20 km, from Turin, Italy. His father, Francis Bosco,
was a hard-working peasant who died when John was only two
years old. The grief-stricken words of his mother, telling him that he
was now fatherless remained deeply impressed in the child’s mind,
and perhaps helped to instill into his mind the intense pity for the
orphans and the homeless which became the dominant
note of his life.
The story of the exertions and sacrifices made by him and his
mother cannot be told here in detail. Working as a servant,
teaching, assisting a tailor, doing chores for a blacksmith and
keeping score at a billiard table were some of the things he did in
order to pay for his food, lodging and tuition while at school. But
the worst was over when in October 1835, with an outfit provided
by charitable neighbours, John Bosco entered the Ecclesiastical
Seminary at Chieri.
On 5th June 1841, John Bosco was ordained a priest. Disregarding
attractive offers of sacerdotal work, Don Bosco as he was from now
on called, went on to pursue a postgraduate course in theology,
together with some practical training in priestly duties.
Very soon Don Bosco became a frequent visitor to the poor
quarters of the city. Owing to its rapid expansion labourers were
crowding into Turin in great numbers. The young priest was
distressed by the swarms of neglected children whom he
encountered. In the miserable garrets and cellars which he visited,
he found exemplified all the evils of overcrowding, all the terrible
effects of herding the young and innocent with those already
corrupt. In the prisons he met youth serving terms for every type of
crime, while during the evening walks, he constantly met bands of
young people fighting. He decided that the work of his life would be
to redeem these miserable youths.
Don Bosco’s work for boys started with one boy, a mason’s
apprentice. Soon this boy brought others and the number of “Don
Bosco’s Friends” soon multiplied. Don Bosco gave them facilities
of games and taught them their religion.In the meantime Don Bosco had finished his post graduate course
of sacerdotal studies and was full-time employed in the work of the
oratory (Youth Club). Soon he started offering shelter to destitute
children who had nowhere to go. Thus in 1846 in his Sunday
Oratory there were over 600 boys while some 20 youngsters lodged
with him. Don Bosco’s Mother “Mamma Margaret”, as the boys
would affectionately call her, offered to come to Turin and help him.
With rooms, no matter how small, at his disposal, the young
priest’s ideal began to expand. He organized daily evening classes for
arithmetic, drawing, geography and grammar. It was also at this
time that this thorough-going teacher, finding it difficult to procure
textbooks really suited to his boys commenced writing his own.
The first was a History of the Church, the second The Metric
Decimal System Simplified. They were followed by a History of
Italy, a prayer-book for young people, and others many of which
went through many editions and attained enormous circulations.
As the number of boys in the oratory increased, Don Bosco started
buying up more and more land around the tiny original building all
with donations from his numerous benefactors in Italy and abroad.
During 1847 a new oratory was founded by Don Bosco in another
part of Turin. Two Years later it became necessary to open a third
oratory to look after the swarm of boys who flocked to the two
oratories.
Although enlarged and reconstructed more than once the first
building became quite inadequate. In 1856 it was demolished, and
an entirely new structure took its place. In 1853 two small
workshops had been opened; one a shoemaker’s, the other a tailor’s
for teaching the unemployed youngsters of the oratory a trade to
provide them with the means of earning an honest livelihood. A
workshop for teaching carpentry was soon followed by others for
bookbinding and cabinet making. Lastly, a modest printing press
was founded which has since developed into the great publishing
house known all over the world by the name “Societa Editrice
Internazionale.”
All this while, from his “old boys” Don Bosco had been building
up a society of men who would help him to develop his work and
would carry it on when he died. In December 1859 these young
men were formed into a simple society for this purpose. In may
1862, 22 of them took their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience
thus forming a true religious congregation. In 1869 this community
was officially recognized by the Catholic Church and took the name
of “Salesians” after St. Francis of Sales.
Don Bosco also founded a Congregation of religious nuns known as
the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians to educate girls with the
same methods as the Salesians used to educate the boys.
Now, what is the method which Don Bosco and his Salesians used in
order to educate boys? Don Bosco called it the ‘Preventive System’
and based it on REASON, RELIGION and KINDNESS. The
educator was to spend himself in the service of his pupils. He was
to be reasonable in the demands he made on them, he was to teach
them a deep love for truth and virtue and in all his dealings he was
to be patient and kind with them. Don Bosco told his disciples that
education was to be based on love and selfless service for the
physical, mental, emotional, moral and spiritual growth of his
pupils. His title book on The Preventive System in the Training of
Youth forestalled by half-a-century the educational methods which
were to be acclaimed as opening a new era when more fashionable
educationalists “invented” them.
In 1875, he opened a branch in Patagonia, South America. By 1876
there were 10 branches of the society, one of them in Nice, the first
in the French territory, which was followed by a college in Marseilles
in 1878. Soon the French foundation numbered a score and spread
to Belgium. Together with the spread of Salesian Schools came also
an increase in the number of Salesians. In 1880 they numbered over
900.
Praises and triumphs greeted Don Bosco in the last years of his life.
The government of Italy recognized him as an outstanding public
benefactor, educationists sought his advice and profited from the
system practised in his school. Church authorities including popes,
regarded his work as providential, rightly fitted to the needs of the
times. A third branch of Don Bosco’s work grew under the name of the Salesian Cooperators. These were ordinary
people in the world who helped Don Bosco’s work by means of
prayer and Co-operation.
He lived to be 73. Not a great age: no, but his work was done. So
indefatigably had he worked that it was firmly established that he could
no longer stand; his right hand was paralyzed. “Do you know where I
could buy a new pair of bellows” he asked pointing to his lungs “for
these won’t work much longer.” Hundreds of people, not counting
his own spiritual family, were anxiously waiting for news from the
sick room of the Oratory when he died. It was quarter to five in the
morning of 31st January 1888. Don Bosco was declared a Saint of
the Catholic Church on 1st April 1934.
Let us sum up the work of the farm-boy of Becchi. The society he
founded now numbers nearly 19000 members working in 128
countries through 2,000 institutions. In India alone, there are 2000
Salesians serving the educational needs throughout the country.
The Daughters of Mary Help of Christians have a membership of
19,000 and they work in 100 countries through 1,500 institutions.
The children educated by the Salesians and the Daughters of Mary
Help of Christians are a legion. Countless young men and women,
well established in society living useful to themselves and to their
fellow beings offer ceaseless thanks to Don Bosco for having saved
them from lives of crime and misery.
That is all; but then, that is all he wanted: to guide the young along the
path of virtue and goodness.
DON BOSCO’S TIPS TO SCHOOL CHILDREN
HINTS FOR STUDENTS IN DON BOSCO SCHOOL
(Given by Don Bosco)
ATTITUDE TO GOD
These evils draw God’s anger upon us. But if we keep these evils far away from us, God will never fail us with His blessings.