St. John Bosco – Our Founder:

John Bosco was born on 16August 1815 at a little hamlet called Becchi, in northern Italy. When John was two, his father died, leaving the widow Margaret with an ailing mother- in- law, a step - son and two other boys to eke out a living on a farm in the hills of Piedmont. Love and hardship characterized the home. Despite all odds, John wanted an education; he wanted to become a priest.

At the age of twelve, he left home to find work. At fourteen, he found a tutor. At fifteen, he began taking jobs of any kind to pay for lodging and school. At the age of twenty six, he realized his dream.

“I want to be a priest who cares about children”, he said and that is what he did. He began, faltering and searching at first in the industrial city of Turin. His first permanent school was a broken down shed. The trades he had learnt while working his way through school became the trades he taught to classes given even in his kitchen. His mother joined him in Turin as “Mamma Margaret - Mother of Don Bosco’s orphans”.

Don Bosco called his Educational project “The Preventive System”. It is based entirely on Reason, Religion and above all, on Kindness. It follows the words of St. Paul, “Charity is patient and kind. It bears all things, hopes all things and endures all things” (1 Cor 13:4,7).

Dominic Savio, the school boy Saint, is the first among the best of Don Bosco’s pupils, a true model for the youth of our times; he is the most outstanding product of Don Bosco’s Preventive System of Education.

Who is Don Bosco? Historians know him as a social innovator, saint and educator. Common people claim him as a publisher and builder. Religious – minded people claim him as a clairvoyant, visionary and prophet. Churchmen and psychologists wonder at the catalogue of his prophetic “dreams” and prolific, even prodigal recourse to miracles. But his special mission was the care of youth. He was the priest who made them laugh, gave them food, enriched their minds, taught them trades and filled their souls with peace and joy. The Church has proclaimed him a Saint and the “Father and Teacher of Youth”.