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Page 1 of 5  A complete resume of the life and work of Saint John Bosco with references, comments and analysis from prominent scholars on the life of the saint and educator, either admirers or critics.
Comments and observations for inclusion can be sent to this email.
John Bosco (in Italian Giovanni Melchiore Bosco, IPA: [ɡjovani ɱeʟkiõrre ʙðskð]; born 16 August 1815 [1] – d. 31 January 1888), was an Italian Catholic priest, educator, philanthropist and writer of the 19th century, who dedicated his life to the education and improvement of life of children and young people from underprivileged communities, especially farm migrants to the city. To do so, he used a method of education opposed to punishment like it was common at the time in the schools and calling it the preventive system. [2]
As an admirer and scholar of the spirituality and philosophy of Francis de Sales, Bosco dedicated his works to him when he founded the Society of St. Francis de Sales, known also as the Salesian Society or the Salesians of Don Bosco.
He also founded, together with Maria Domenica Mazzarello, the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians or Salesian Sisters a religious congregation of religious sisters dedicated to the care and education of poor girls.
In 1876 he founded also a movement of laity, the Salesian Cooperators, with the same educational mission to the poor. [3] In 1875 he published the first Salesian Bulletin that he named Bibliofilo Cattolico - Bollettino Salesiano Mensuale (The Catholic Book Lover - Salesian Monthly Bulletin.) [4][5] The Bulletin not only has continued to be published without interruption since then, but it is currently published in 50 different editions and 30 languages. [4]
 A representation of Don Bosco in Helio Faria, Brazil.
Bosco lived between 1815 and 1888, a time of social, political, ideological, artistic and scientific turbulence. In the 19th century, Italy was at the center of great changes in Europe. Bosco was technically an Italian only after 1870, 18 years before his death, when Italy was unified. He was born in the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia and it was his nationality until he was 55 years of age.
Most of the states in which was divided the Italian Peninsula were linked to non-Italian dynasties like Habsburg and Bourbon. However, the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia was ruled by the House of Savoy that was considered the authentic Italians and, therefore, would inheritance the title of King of Italy with King Victor Emmanuel II in 1870. At the other side, theVatican was ruling over some southern provinces of the peninsula known as Papal States. John Bosco, therefore, was born in one of the most important states that was to play a key role in the Unification of Italy.
 John Bosco was the nearest priest to the pontificate of Pope Pius IX, the last King-Pope of the 'Papal States.'
Turin
Turin was the capital of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. It became the capital of Unified Italy in 1861[6] before the Capture of Rome on September 20, 1870.[7] Under King Victor Emmanuel II and Primer Minister Camillo Benso, conte di Cavour, Turin passed through a big transformation and industrial revolution since 1850.[8] The city attracted an always increasing number of rural migrants and families from other Italian provinces, most of them impoverished children and youth. They were contracted as cheap labor in the factories. While the city was growing, the countryside was depleted due to the Napoleonic Wars of the beginning of the 19th century.
As a new-ordained priest, John Bosco arrived to Turin in 1841, just at the moment of the beginning of the industrial revolution. Don Bosco was, therefore, impressed by the situation of the child workers and abandoned youth.
Pontificate
The success of the educative works of Don Bosco and the foundation of the Salesian Congregation, keep a special relation with the Pope. But two popes in special were very near to Don Bosco: Pius IX (1792 - 1878), who is the longest reigning pope and the last pope-king of the Papal States; and Leo XIII (1810 - 1903), who supported the Salesians in the expansion of their educative works to other continents.
The 19th century
The 19th was a century of deep world transformations and revolutions. It got the first consecuences of the French Revolution and the advance of nationalist movements throughout Europe and the Americas. It was also the century of the Industrial Revolution, the development of the modern concepts of democracy, the years of great invents for science and technology, the time of the dialectical materialism and the Impressionism in art. When John Bosco was born in 1815, the Spanish Empire was at the beginning of its decay, first during the Napoleonic invasions and in 1810 with the lost of its Hispanic American colonies. The birth of new nations in the Americas would be vital for the development of the Salesian works of Don Bosco outside Europe. But while the Americas got rid of their colonial masters, Africa and Asia would endure their arrival during the 19th century.
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