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A Life Sketch |
John Bosco was born on the 16th of August 1815, at Becchi, a hamlet belonging to the municipality of Castelnuovo d'Asti (today Castelnuovo Don Bosco) in Italy. He came from a family of poor farmers.
He lost his father, Francesco, at the age of two. His mother Margherita raised him with tenderness and energy. She taught him to cultivate the soil and to see God behind the beauty of the heavens, the abundance of the harvest, the rain which showered the vines. Mamma Margherita, in the church, learned to pray, and she taught her children to do the same. For John, to pray meant to speak with God on his knees on the kitchen pavement, as well as to think of him while seated on the grass, gazing at the heavens.From his mother, John learned to see God also in other faces, those of the poor or those of the miserable ones who came knocking at the door of the house during winter, and to whom Margherita gave hot soup, and some times even mended their shoes.
The Great Dream
At the age of nine, Don Bosco had the first, great dream that marked his entire life. He saw a multitude of very poor boys fighting and cursing as they played. A Man of majestic appearance told him: "With meekness and charity you will conquer these friends". And a Lady just as majestic added: "Make yourself humble, strong and robust... At the right time you will understand everything".
The years that followed were given direction by that dream. Son and mother saw in it the indication of a way of life.
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DON BOSCO'S SUCCESSORS
Blessed Michael Rua
- First Succesor of Don Bosco (1837-1910)
Father Michael Rua had been Don Bosco's principal associate for more than thirty years, and the mark left by this first successor on Don Bosco's many-faceted work continued into the first half of the twentieth century. His administrative abilities combined with his extraordinary activity, and particular kind of sanctity made him the man of Providence who was not only able to save the Salesian Society and its two branches from collapse but also ensure their progress in spite of inevitable setbacks.
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"No one digs a
gold mine under a
paved street.
You need a rocky hill
to find gold"
—St. John
"Don" Bosco
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