John Bosco
John Bosco | |
---|---|
Priest and Confessor "Father and Teacher of Youth" | |
Born | [1] Castelnuovo d'Asti, Piedmont, Sardinia-Piedmont | 16 August 1815
Died | 31 January 1888 Turin, Kingdom of Italy | (aged 72)
Venerated in | Catholic Church Anglican Communion[2] |
Beatified | 2 June 1929[3], Rome by Pius XI |
Canonized | 1 April 1934, Rome by Pius XI |
Major shrine | Basilica of Our Lady Help of Christians, Turin, Italy |
Feast | 31 January |
Attributes | Cassock, Biretta |
Patronage |
John Melchior Bosco,
A follower of the spirituality and philosophy of
On 18 April 1869, one year after the construction of the
In 1875, Bosco began to publish the Salesian Bulletin.[11] The Bulletin has remained in continuous publication, and is currently published in 50 different editions and 30 languages.[12] In 1876, he founded a movement of laity, the Association of Salesian Cooperators, with the same educational mission to the poor.[13] Bosco established a network of organizations and centres to carry on his work.
Bosco's sainthood cause was opened after his death, and following his beatification in 1929, he was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1934.
Life
John Bosco was born on the evening of 16 August 1815 in the hillside hamlet of Becchi, Italy. Becchi is located in a region that was called Castelnuovo d'Asti, which was later renamed Castelnuovo Don Bosco in honour of the saint.[14] He was the youngest son of Francesco Bosco (1784–1817) and Margherita Occhiena (1788–1856). He had two older brothers, Antonio and Giuseppe (1813–1862).[15] The Boscos of Becchi were farmhands of the Moglian Family. He was born in a time of great shortage and famine in the Piedmontese countryside, following the devastation wrought by the Napoleonic Wars and drought in 1817.[16]
When Bosco was little more than two years old, his father died, which left the support of three boys to his mother.[3] She played a strong role in Bosco's formation and personality,[17] and was an early supporter of her son's ideals.[18] In 1825, when he was nine, Bosco had the first of a series of dreams that would play an influential role in his outlook and work. This first dream "left a profound impression on him for the rest of his life" according to his memoirs.[19] Bosco apparently saw a multitude of very poor boys playing and blaspheming, and a man, who "appeared, nobly attired, with a manly and imposing bearing",[19] and said to him, "You will have to win these friends of yours not with blows, but with gentleness and kindness. So begin right now to show them that sin is ugly and virtue beautiful."[19]
Bosco, when he was ten years old started watching his classmates' attitudes, and in every fight was the referee. The older boys were scared of him because he knew their strengths and their weaknesses.[20] When travelling entertainers performed at a local feast in the nearby hills, he watched and studied the jugglers' tricks and the acrobats' secrets. He would then put on shows of his skills as a juggler, magician, and acrobat,[21] with prayers before and after the performance.[22] The money that he needed to prepare the shows was taken from selling the birds that he hunted and given to him by his mother.[23]
Poverty prevented any serious attempt at schooling. His early years were spent as a shepherd,
On a cold morning in February 1827, John left his home and went to look for work as a farm servant. At 12, he found life at home unbearable because of the continuous quarrels with Antonio. Having to face life by himself at such a young age may have developed his later sympathies to help abandoned boys. After begging unsuccessfully for work, he ended up at the wine farm of Louis Moglia.
Priesthood and first apostolates
After ordination, Bosco went to Turin, where Cafasso headed the Institute of Saint Francis of Assisi, which provided higher education for the diocesan priests. Turin then had a population of 117,000 inhabitants. The city reflected the effects of industrialization and urbanization. Numerous poor families lived in the slums of the city and had come from the countryside in search of a better life. During his studies, Bosco accompanied Cafasso in visiting the prisons and became concerned regarding the recidivism of young offenders. He began to work with orphaned and abandoned boys, teaching them catechism and helping them find work., and helping out at many country parishes.
Because of population growth and migration to the city, Bosco found the traditional methods of parish ministry to be inefficient. He decided that it was necessary to try another form of apostolate, and he began to meet the boys where they worked and gathered in shops and marketplaces. They were pavers, stonecutters, masons, and plasterers who had come from far away, as he recalled in his brief Memoires.
The Oratorio was not simply a charitable institution, and its activities were not limited to Sundays. For Don Bosco, it became his permanent occupation. He looked for jobs for the unemployed. Some of the boys did not have sleeping quarters and slept under bridges or in bleak public dormitories. Twice, he tried to provide lodgings in his house. The first time, they stole the blankets; the second, time, they emptied the hayloft. He did not give up, and in May 1847, he gave shelter to a young boy from Valencia in one of the three rooms he was renting in the slums of Valdocco, where he was living with his mother. He and his mother began taking in orphans. The boys sheltered by Don Bosco numbered 36 in 1852, 115 in 1854, 470 in 1860, and 600 in 1861, reaching a maximum of 800 sometime later.[31]
Bosco and his oratory moved around town for several years; he was turned out of several places in succession. After only two months based in the church of St. Martin, the entire neighbourhood expressed its annoyance with the noise coming from the boys at play. A formal complaint was lodged against them with the municipality. Rumours also circulated that the meetings conducted by the priest with his boys were dangerous; their recreation could be turned into a revolution against the government. The group was evicted.[32]
Work with apprentices
In the archives of the Salesian Congregation is a contract of apprenticeship, dated November 1851; another one on stamped paper costing 40 cents, dated 8 February 1852; and others have later dates. They are among the first contracts of apprenticeship to be found in Turin. All of them are signed by the employer, the apprentice, and Don Bosco. In those contracts, Don Bosco touched on many sensitive issues. Some employers customarily made servants and scullery boys of the apprentices. Don Bosco obliged them to agree to employ the boys only in their acknowledged trade. Employers used to beat the boys, and Don Bosco required them to agree that corrections be made only verbally. He cared for their health and demanded that they be given rest on feast days and an annual holiday. Despite all the efforts and contracts, the situation of the apprentices of the time remained difficult.[31]
One influential friend was the Piedmontese justice minister
Bosco disliked the ideals that had been exported by Revolutionary France, as part of the process of
In November 1854, Bosco sent a letter to King
Opposition to Bosco and his work came from various quarters. Traditionalist clergy accused him of stealing the young and old people away from their own parishes. Nationalist politicians, including some clergy, saw his several hundred young men as a recruiting ground for revolution. The Marquis de Cavour, the chief of police in Turin, regarded the open-air catechisms as overtly political and a threat to the state and was highly suspicious of Bosco's support for the powers of the papacy. Bosco was interrogated on several occasions; no charges were made. Closure may have been prevented by orders from the king that Bosco was not to be disturbed.[40] Several attempts were also made on Bosco's life, including a near-stabbing, bludgeoning, and a shooting. Early biographers put that down to the growing influence of the Waldensians in opposition to Catholic clergy.[41]
Foundation of Salesians of Don Bosco
Some of the boys helped by Don Bosco decided to do what he was doing: working in the service of abandoned boys. That was the origin of the Salesian Congregation. Among the first members were Michael Rua,[42] John Cagliero (who later became a Cardinal), and John Baptist Francesca. In 1857 Bosco drew up a set of rules for his helpers. This rule was approved definitively in 1873 by Pope Pius IX as the Rule of the Society of Saint Francis de Sales.
In 1859, Bosco selected the experienced priest Vittorio Alasonatti, 15 seminarians, and one high school boy and formed them into the Society of St. Francis de Sales. That was the nucleus of the Salesians, the religious order that would carry on his work. When the group had its next meeting, it voted on the admission of Joseph Rossi as a lay member, the first Salesian brother. The Salesian Congregation was divided into priests, seminarians, and coadjutors (the lay brothers).
Bosco then worked with
When Bosco founded the Salesian Society, the thought of the missions still obsessed him but completely lacked the financial means. For three years he collected information about different countries. A request from Argentina turned him towards the Indians of Patagonia, and a study of its people convinced him that the country and its inhabitants were the ones that he had seen in his dream. In late 1874, Bosco received letters from the Argentine consul at Savona requesting that he accept an Italian parish in Buenos Aires and a school for boys at San Nicolas de Los Arroyos. [citation needed]
Bosco regarded it as a sign of Providence and started to prepare a mission. Adopting a way of
Salesian Preventive System and other works
This section needs additional citations for verification. (March 2012) |
In the years that Bosco had spent running his oratory and giving spiritual and practical instruction to the boys he had housed there, he relied on a different approach to education and general instruction, which he believed to be superior to traditional educational methods, such as school discipline, which he labelled as a repressive system of education. On 12 March 1877, Bosco gave an opening address on the systems of education during the day for the opening of the St. Peter's Youth Center in the new quarters of the Patronage de Saint Pierre in Nice in which he first mentioned the term "Preventive System".[45]
Upon his return to Turin, Bosco wrote down the address as a polished essay under the title The Preventive System in the Education of the Youth, which was published in 1877 and in which he included in the initial draft of the Rule for the Salesian Order.[46] It espoused the values of reason, religion, and loving kindness with a goal of producing "good Christians and honest citizens".[12] That was the only attempt that Bosco made at a systematic exposition of his educational system. Though the idea itself was not innovative by any means, Bosco having drawn the inspiration for his system through the contemporary criticisms of the punitive and outdated educational systems prevalent in Europe during his time, and he was one of the first to combat it and to put his criticisms into practice.[47]
Though Bosco's written works were little known outside of his own order and the subscribers of his Salesian Bulletin, which he founded in August 1877, he wrote frequently and voluminously. Though Don Bosco was described as more of a man of action than a scholar,[48] he was an exceptional historian. He penned the 1881 A Compendium of Italian History from the Fall of the Roman Empire, which was translated and continued to the present by John Daniel Morell and was noted by scholars for its cultural importance on the knowledge base of ancient to modern civilization.[49] He was also a skilled biographer. His two most well-known biographies were on his mentor, Joseph Cafasso,[50] and one of his students, Dominic Savio, which would later be instrumental in his canonization.[51]
Works
Following are Bosco's works in roughly chronological order.
- Essays published in the volumes of Catholic Readings (Letture Cattoliche), 1853–1884[52]
- 1853
- ”Announcements for Catholics”
- “The Instructed Catholic”
- “Historical Notes on the Miracle of the Blessed Sacrament at Turin”
- “Fact of Our Times”
- “A Dispute Between a Lawyer and a Protestant Minister”
- “Notes on the Life of the Youth Luigi Comollo”
- “The Conversion of a Waldensian”
- “A Collection of Strange Contemporary Happenings”
- “The Six Sundays in Honour of St. Aloysius Gonzaga”
- “The Jubilee”
- 1855
- “An Easy Method of Learning Sacred History”
- “Talks on Confession”
- “Life of St. Martin, Bishop of Tours”
- “The Value of a Good Upbringing”
- 1856
- “Life of St. Pancras”
- 1857
- “Life of St. Peter”
- “Two Conferences on Purgatory”
- “Life of St. Paul”
- “Lives of the Sovereign Pontiffs Linus, Cletus, and Clement”
- “Lives of the Sovereign Pontiffs Anacletus, Evaristus, and Alexander I”
- “Lives of the Sovereign Pontiffs Sixtus, Telesphorus, and Hyginus”
- 1858
- “Lives of the Sovereign Pontiffs Anicetus, Soter, Eleutherus, Victor, and Zephirinus”
- “The Month of May, Consecrated to Mary Immaculate”
- “The Christian’s ‘Porta Tecum’”
- “Life of the Sovereign Pontiff Callistus I”
- 1859
- “Life of the Youth Dominic Savio”
- “Life of the Sovereign Pontiff Urban I”
- “Lives of the Sovereign Pontiffs Pontian, Anteros, and Fabian”
- “The Persecution of Decius and the Pontificate of St. Cornelius I”
- 1860
- “Lives of the Sovereign Pontiffs St. Lucian I and St. Stephen I”
- “The Pontificate of St. Sixtus II and the Glories of St. Laurence”
- “Biography of Fr. Joseph Cafasso”
- 1861
- “A Family of Martyrs”
- “Biographical Note on Michael Magone”
- “The Pontificate of St. Dionysius”
- “Biography of Silvio Pellico”
- 1862
- “The Pontificates of St. Felix I and St. Eutychian”
- “The New Charm of an Old Soldier of Napoleon”
- 1863
- “Historical Notes on BI. Catherine De-Mattei”
- “The Pontificate of St. Caius”
- 1864
- “The Pontificates of SS. Marcellinus and Marcellus”
- “Episodes Pleasant and Contemporary”
- “The Little Shepherd of the alps”
- 1865
- “The House of Fortune”
- “Dialogues on the Jubilee”
- “The Peace of the Church”
- “Life of Bl. Mary of the Angels, C.S.”
- 1866
- “Valentine or the Opposed Vocation”
- 1867
- “The Centenary of St. Peter the apostle”
- “Life of St. Joseph”
- “News and Stories”
- 1868
- “Severino, or the adventures of a Young alpinist”
- “Marvels of the Mother of God”
- “Life of St. John the Baptist”
- “Remembrance of a Solemnity”
- 1869
- “The Catholic Church and Its Hierarchy”
- “Association of the Devotees of Mary, Help of Christians”
- “The General Councils and the Catholic Church”
- “Angelina, or the Little Orphan Girl of the Apennines”
- 1870
- “Nine Days Consecrated to the august Mother of Our Saviour”
- “Church History”
- 1871
- “The Apparition of the Blessed Virgin at La Salette”
- “Pleasing Facts From the Life of Pius IX”
- 1872
- “The Centenary of St. Eusebius the Great”
- 1874
- “Massimino, or the Encounter of a Boy with a Protestant”
- 1875
- “The Jubilee of 1875”
- “Mary, Help of Christians”
- 1877
- “The Little Cloud of Carmel”
- 1878
- “The Loveliest Flower of the Apostolic College”
- 1883
- “The Catholic in the World
- 1884
- “New Stories of Luigi Comolli”
- Series started by Don Bosco
- The friend of youth, a politico-religious paper (1849)
- 1851
- Synoptic tablet (on the Catholic Church)
- Flying leaflets
- 1851
- "Il Galantuomo". A national almanac began (1854)
- Salesian Bulletin (since 1877)
- Critical works
- Forty Dreams of St. John Bosco (critical edition published in 1977, originally published as a dream journal in 1855)
- The Preventive System in the Education of the Youth (1877)
- A Compendium of Italian History from the Fall of the Roman Empire (1881)
- Posthumous works
- Memoirs of the Oratory of Saint Francis de Sales (written between 1815 and 1855, published posthumously in 1989)
- The spiritual writings of Saint John Bosco (1984)
- Dreams, Visions, and Prophecies of Don Bosco (1999)
- The Unpublished Don Bosco (compiled by Mario Balbi and published in 2005)
Death and canonization
Saint Bosco died on 31 January 1888. His funeral was attended by thousands. The Archdiocese of Turin investigated, and witnesses were called to determine if Bosco was worthy to be declared a saint. The Salesians, Daughters, and Cooperators gave supportive testimonies.
Bosco had been popularly known as the patron saint of illusionists. On 30 January 2002,
In popular culture
Bosco is the patron saint of
Bosco was the subject of the 1935 biopic
References
- ^ "Saint John Bosco | Biography & Facts | Britannica". Britannica.com. Retrieved 29 June 2023.
- ^ a b "The Calendar". The Church of England. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
- ^ a b c d "Catholic Encyclopedia: St. John Bosco (Don Bosco)". Newadvent.org. Retrieved 29 June 2023.
- ^ Lemoyne, Amadei & Ceria 1965–1988, Volume I, 1815 – 1840, p. 26
- ^ Coulter, Myers & Varacalli 2012
- ^ Luciano Canepari. "Bosco". DiPI Online (in Italian). Retrieved 11 January 2021.
- ^ Morrison 1999, p. 51
- ^ Farmer 2004, p. 121
- ^ Lemoyne, John Baptist (1967). Biographical Memoirs of St. John Bosco. Vol. IV. New Rochelle, New York: Salesiana Publishers. pp. 52–56.
- ^ "ADMA - Association Mary Help of Christians, Torino-Valdocco | 16". donbosco-torino.it. Archived from the original on 19 November 2017. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
- ^ Lemoyne, Amadei & Ceria 1965–1988, Volume XIII (1877–1878), p. 191
- ^ a b "The Salesian Bulletin in the World". Eircom.net, Dublin. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
- ^ "Salesian Cooperators". Salesians of Don Bosco, Province of Mary Help of Christians, Melbourne. Archived from the original on 20 February 2011. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
- ^ "St. John Bosco - Patron Saint of Young People and Editors / Publishers | Christian Apostles.com". ChristianApostles.com. 9 January 2021. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
- ^ Lemoyne, Amadei & Ceria 1965–1988, Volume I, Chapter 3, pp. 20–28
- ^ The Piedmont drought lasted from 1817 to 1819. See The Majesty of Charleston by Peter Beney, p.64, 2005 edition.
- ^ Lemoyne, Amadei & Ceria 1965–1988, Volume I, Chapter 7, pp. 44–49
- ^ "Venerable Margaret Occhiena". Salesian Society of Don Bosco. 8 February 1995. Archived from the original on 20 May 2010. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
- ^ a b c Lemoyne, Amadei & Ceria 1965–1988, Volume I, Chapter 15, pp. 95–96
- ^ Bosco, John (1976). Memorias del oratorio. Turin. p. 5.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Willey, David (2 June 2002). "Magician priest wants patron saint of magic". BBC News.
- ^ "31 January: Saint John Bosco". Magnificat.ca. 14 November 2008. Archived from the original on 14 November 2008. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
- ^ Eugene Ceria SDB; Lawrence Castelvecchi SDB; Michael Mendl SDB, eds. (6 December 2007). "3". Memoirs of the Oratory of Saint Francis de Sales 1815 – 1855: The autobiography of Saint John Bosco. Translated by Daniel Lyons, SDB. Archived from the original on 6 December 2007.
- ^ "www.salesians.org.uk/uploads/footprintsvocationdonbosco.pdf" (PDF).
- ^ a b Lemoyne, Amadei & Ceria 1965–1988, Volume I, Chapter 22, pp. 142–152
- ^ "Don Bosco, Friend of the Youth". Salesians of Australia. Archived from the original on 8 June 2010. Retrieved 30 May 2010.
- ^ Lemoyne, Amadei & Ceria 1965–1988, Volume I, Chapter 24, pp. 159–163
- ^ Now hosts an exhibition dedicated to the John Bosco.
- ^ "Saint John Bosco", Franciscan Media
- ^ Villefranche, Jacques-Melchior. Life of Don Bosco, (Lady Martin, trans.) Burns & Oates, 1899, p. 25
- ^ a b ""Don Bosco's Story", ewtn".
- ^ D'Espiney, Charles (1884). Don Bosco: A Sketch of His Life and Miracles.
- ^ ISBN 9781594741845.
- ISBN 9781576073551.
- ^ Villefranche, Jacques-Melchior (1898). The Life of Don Bosco: Founder of the Salesian Society. Burns & Oates. pp. 15–16.
- ^ Giovanni Bosco: 'Storia ecclesiastica ad uso delle scuole' (in Italian). Vol. 37 (19600 ed.). Rome: Editrice LAS. 1976. p. 496.
- ^ a b Mendl, Michael (2004). "The Dreams of St. John Bosco". Journal of Salesian Studies. Vol. 12 (2 ed.). pp. 321–348. Archived from the original on 8 February 2017. Retrieved 12 July 2007.
- ^ a b Eugene Ceria SDB; Lawrence Castelvecchi SDB; Michael Mendl SDB, eds. (6 December 2007). "55". Memoirs of the Oratory of Saint Francis de Sales 1815 – 1855: The autobiography of Saint John Bosco. Translated by Daniel Lyons SDB. p. 802. Archived from the original on 6 December 2007.
- ^ Petoia, Erberto (June 2007). "I sinistri presage di Don Giovanni Bosco". Medioevo: 70.
- ^ Butler 1999, Volume I
- ^ Charles D'Espiney, Don Bosco: A Sketch of His Life and Miracles, 1884
- ^ "Bl. Michael Rua (Beatified: 1972)". Salesian Missions. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
- ^ "MARIA DOMENICA Mazzarello, santa in "Dizionario Biografico"".
- ^ "Associazione Cooperatori Salesiani", Pontifical Council for the Laity
- ^ "The Salesian Preventive System of St. John Bosco (Don Bosco) (Educational Philosophy of Don Bosco - Don Bosco's Way, Style, Approach, Method, System, etc.... of Educating and Accompanying Young People Today)". donboscowest.org/. Don Bosco West. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
- ^ Bosco, Giovanni Melchor (1877). "Regolamento per le case della Società di S. Francesco di Sales". Tipografia Salesiana (OE XXIX): 3–13.
- ^ Frith-Powell, Louise. "The "Preventive System": Walking Alongside". humanumreview.com. Humanum Review. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
- ^ Nanni, Carlo (2003). "Il Sistema Preventivo di Don Bosco". Elledici: 7.
- ISBN 978-0344015984.
- ^ Under Joseph Cafasso, Bosco would later become a priest when he started the work. It has since spread worldwide through the religious congregation that he founded: the Salesians of Don Bosco. He has also been declared a saint and their hometown has been renamed in his honor.
- ^ Bosco, Giovanni Melchor. "The Life of St. Dominic Savio". Our Lady of the Rosary Library. Archived from the original on 2 December 2006. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
- ^ "Writings of Don Bosco". Retrieved 15 July 2023.
- ^ "San Giovanni Bosco – Opere Edite. Elenco cronologico". DonBoscoSanto.eu. Retrieved 28 June 2023.
- ^ Cerrato, Natale; Ribotta, Michael (1993). "EXPO' 84 and Don Bosco's peerless-to- paper-to-print presentation". Journal of Salesian Studies. IV (1). Institute of Salesian Studies Berkeley California: 87–98. Retrieved 28 June 2023 – via Salesian OnLine Resources, 13 April 2020.
- ^ a b "Magicians Want Don Bosco Declared Their Patron". Zenit News Agency. 29 January 2002. Archived from the original on 7 August 2011. Retrieved 7 August 2011.
Bibliography
- General
- Butler, Alan (1999). Butler's lives of the saints. Tunbridge Wells: Burns & Oates. ISBN 0860122522.
- Farmer, David Hugh (2004). The Oxford Dictionary of Saints (5 ed.). Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. ISBN 0198609493.
- Coulter, Michael L.; Myers, Richard S.; Varacalli, Joseph A. (2012). "Bosco, St. John (1815–1888)". Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought, Social Science, and Social Policy Supplement. Vol. 3. Scarecrow Press. pp. 36–38. ISBN 978-0810882669.
- Publications of the Holy See
- Pope Pius IX (2 June 1929), Appostolic letter Mirabilis Deus on the occasion of the Beatification of Father John Bosco (in Italian), Vatican: Holy See
- Pope Pius IX (1 April 1934), Lettera Decretale di Sua Santità Pio Xi "Geminata Laetitia" che Proclama Santo Don Giovanni Bosco [Decretal Letter Geminata Laetitia for the canonization of Father John Bosco] (in Italian), Vatican: Holy See
- Publications of the Salesians of Don Bosco
- Lemoyne, Giovanni Battista; Amadei, Angelo; Ceria, Eugenio (1965–1988). Borgatello, Diego (ed.). Biographical Memoirs of St. John Bosco. New Rochelle, New York: Don Bosco Publications.
- Memorie Biografiche di San Giovanni Bosco (in Italian). Archived from the original on 18 June 2013. Retrieved 21 May 2012.
19 volumes: Vols. 1–9 by Lemoyne); 10 (1939, by Amadei); 11–19 (1930–1939, by Ceria
- Memorie Biografiche di San Giovanni Bosco (in Italian). Archived from the original on 18 June 2013. Retrieved 21 May 2012.
- Morrison, John (1999). The Educational Philosophy of Don Bosco (Indian ed.). Guwahati, India: Don Bosco Publications. ISBN 81-87637-00-5.
Further reading
- Publications of the Salesians of Don Bosco
- Bosco, Giovanni (1989). Memoirs of the Oratory. New Rochelle, New York: Don Bosco Publications. ISBN 0-89944-139-4.
- Desramaut, François (1996). Don Bosco et son Temps. Turin: Società Editrice Internazionale. ISBN 9782906295605.
- Lenti, Arthur J. Don Bosco: History and Spirit. Rome: Editrice Libreria Ateneo Salesiano. A 7-volume series.
- Stella, Pietro; Drury, John (1996). Don Bosco: Religious Outlook and Spirituality. New Rochelle, New York: Salesiana Publishers. ISBN 0-89944-162-9.
- Wirth, Morand (1982). Don Bosco and the Salesians. New Rochelle, New York: Don Bosco Publications. Translation of id. (1969). Don Bosco e i Salesiani: Centocinquant'anni di storia. Turin: Società Editrice Internazionale.
External links
- "Dreams (Prophecy) of Don Bosco".
- "Salesians of Don Bosco Official Website".
- "Salesians of the UK".
- "Don Bosco's important writings" (in Italian).
- "Founder Statue in St Peter's Basilica".
- "Saint John Bosco: Modern Apostle of Youth". Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. 2 April 2008.
- "Development office of the Salesian". Province of St.Joseph, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, INDIA.
- Works by John Bosco at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)