Founder of the Salesians; dedicated his life to disadvantaged youth

Today we celebrate the “Prince of Education” (as Pope Pius XI proclaimed Don Bosco, 1815–1888). Once ordained, in Turin he made his true passion a reality: the education of young people, especially the poorest and most abandoned. Every Sunday he gathered a small group of neglected youths in a kind of school that he called the “festive oratory.” By 1856, he already had 150 boarders, four workshops, a printing press, and ten priests. The day students numbered 500. In 1859, Don Bosco and his twenty-two companions decided to organize the congregation of the Salesians. Shortly thereafter came the foundation of a women’s congregation, the Daughters of Our Lady, Help of Christians. —“I have promised God that until my last breath I shall have lived for my poor young people” (Saint John Bosco).