History Of Don Bosco - full story.....

he history of our society can be traced to an obscure village in the north of Italy called Becchi.Our history began, we may say, when little John Bosco dreamed a very strange dream at the age of 9.Or we may date the origins of our society to a surprise encounter that brought him face to face witha frightened street urchin in a church sacristy on 8 December 1841. Or perhaps to the little band of 17 young men to whom Don Bosco first gave the title ‘Salesians’ on 26 January, 1854.

Young John Bosco was born on 16 August 1815 in the small village townland of Castelnuovo d’Asti, in Piedmont, popularly called “i Becchi”.While still a child, his father’s death made him feel the sorrow of so many orphans for whom he would become a loving father. He found, however, in his mother Margherita an example of Christian life which made a deep impression on his soul.

John Bosco, later to be known as Don Bosco, was born on 16 August 1815 in Becchi, a little hamlet in northern Italy . The story of the Salesian Society can be traced back to that tiny village, where John Bosco grew up as a lad. Already at the age of two and a half, he lost his father. It was an experience that he would never forget and made him feel the sorrow of so many fatherless children in anticipation, whose father and friend he would later become.

His widowed mother Margaret (later to be known as Mamma Margaret to the whole Salesian world) looked after him along with his elder brother Joseph and his step-brother Antony (from the first marriage of his father, Francis) and his grandmother.

Don Bosco the dreamer
It was again in that small village the story unfurled itself: little John Bosco had a very strange (prophetic) dream at the age of 9. He seemed to be in the midst of a crowd of boys at play, some of whom were, however, cursing, others fighting. Suddenly, the young John threw himself at these, shouting and hitting and kicking them to make them be quiet. But a man of majestic bearing appeared before him and said, “Not with blows, but with kindness and love you must win over these your friends. I shall give you a Teacher under whose guidance you will become wise”. Then there appeared a lady of majestic bearing.

John understood that the person was Jesus and the lady was, the Virgin Mary. He accepted her as his “mother and teacher ”. He put all his works under her protection and he honoured her as “Mary, Help of Christians”.

Next morning on the breakfast table the dream was interpreted by the other family members in different ways; and finally when it came to his mother, she said, “ Who knows, God is calling you to be a priest!”

Even after he became a priest he was given clear instructions from heaven by means of dreams or visions.

Don Bosco the Founder
This conviction that he was called to work for poor youngsters led John to become an acrobat, a magician, a singer, a story teller and a juggler so as to be able to attract youngsters to him and to keep them away from sin. “If they are with me”, he used say to his mother, “they don't curse” .

Wishing to become a priest he would work by day, and spend the nights at his books. Finally at the age of twenty, he was able to enter the Seminary in Chieri and to be ordained a priest in Turin in 1841, at the age of twenty-six. Yes, finally a priest he became, against many odds, especially the stout opposition of his step-brother, Antony .

From the heavenly inspirations that he received from time to time and from his experience he knew that God wanted him to be “ a priest for and of the young people ”. And the first chance came with a surprise encounter that brought him face to face with a frightened street urchin in a church sacristy on 8 December 1841 . That was the humble beginning of a future glorious venture.

The one-boy-of-8-December encounter gradually began to multiply. In those days there was no dearth of poor youngsters in Turin : they were orphans, or from broken families, or abandoned, or looking for work, and were exposed to many dangers of both body and soul. They came in groups, and Don Bosco started to gather them together on Sundays, sometimes in a Church, or out on a grassy meadow, or yet again in a town square to get them to play and to instruct them in the Catechism. After five years of enormous difficulties, he managed to establish and open his first “Oratory” in Valdocco area on the outskirts of Turin . Strictly speaking “oratory” meant a place of prayer. For Don Bosco it was a place of prayer, study, games, music and acting, and all sort of fun, and all that the youngsters loved and liked to do – except sin and evil.

There the boys found food and a bed, and above all a father in Don Bosco and a mother in his Mamma Margaret. There the boys studied or learned a trade, but above all they learned to love the Lord. Not only Don Bosco loved the boys, but he was loved in return – by youngsters many of whom had never experienced any love so far. When asked about the secret of his success, he would reply, “With kindness and love I try to win over these friends of mine for the Lord” . On them he spent what little money got (literally) by begging, his time, his most extraordinary talents and his health. For them and with the collaboration of some of them, he founded the Salesian Family, composed of priests and lay people.

Wishing to extend his apostolate also to young girls, in collaboration with St Maria Domenica Mazzarello, he founded the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. He added a third branch to his family with a founding the Association of Salesian Cooperators (consisting of lay men and women). Later, after Don Bosco's death in 1888, other groups, of Relgious and non-religious men and women, were founded by members of the original Salesian Family. Today the Salesian Fathers and Brothers (SDB's) number over 15,000 and the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians (FMA's) almost same number, and along with the members of the other branches (over two dozens of them) the Salesian Family members number a few hundred thousands.

Today the Salesian Family is a very flourishing group, spread through the entire world in the service of young people, of the poor and suffering, with educational institutes of every type and level, technical and professional institutes, hospitals, dispensaries, oratories and parishes – and all kinds of activities on behalf of the poor and needy youngsters.

Don Bosco the man of God
Don Bosco spent all his free time, some of which he snatched from sleep, writing and popularising simple booklets of Christian teaching for ordinary people. Besides being a man of the high practical charity, he was a great mystic. His entire work took its origins from an intimate union with God. From his youth he had earnestly cultivated this and he grew in a faithful and filial abandonment to the plan which God had laid down for him, and was guided in each step by the Mother of God. He was a harmonious combination of what was spiritual and what was human. So much so his followers called him, “ Union with God”. His personality was exceptionally balanced in all aspects. No wonder his disciples call him, “Don Bosco - deeply human and profoundly divine”.

To this was added the exceptional ability of discernment of the human soul, matured by long daily hours spent in the confessional, in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament and in continual contact with young people and with persons of every age and condition.

With his young people, he became a saint and made saints of them. The boy saint, St Dominic Savio and Bl. Michael Rua and Bl. Philip Rinaldi are striking example. He formed generations of saints by reminding them of God's, of the reality of death, of the need of prayer, of fleeing from sin and the occasions which lead to sin, and of frequenting often the Sacraments.

“My dear boys”, he used to say, “I love you with all my heart and it is enough that you are young for me to love you”. He loved in a manner that made each person feel special. “You will find writers more talented by far and more learned than I, but with difficulty, will you ever find anyone who loves you in Jesus Christ more than I and who wants your true happiness”. Finally, exhausted by unceasing work, he fell seriously ill. It was especially moving that many young men offered their own life to God in exchange for his. “…What I have done, I have done for the Lord … More could have been done …But my children will do that ...Our Congregation is guided by God and protected by Mary Help of Christians”. One of his last recommendations was,

“Tell the boys I am waiting for them in heaven …”

He died on 31 January 1888 , in his humble room at Valdocco, at the age of 72 years. On 1 April 1934 , Pope Pius XI, who had known him personally, proclaimed him a Saint.

Today, after a century and two decades his holy death, seeing the prodigious growth and expansion of his Salesian Family, his sons and daughters exclaim with a feeling of humble gratitude that Don Bosco was raised up specially by God and the Society of St. Francis de Sales came into being not as a merely human venture but by the initiative of God.