Turning bad boys into saintly men: The work of Saint John Bosco

The tragedy of boys failing to grow into good men is not a modern phenomenon. While there are many reasons that young men today drift through life or engage in dangerous behaviors, this is not a new problem.

In the twenty-first century, this probably has much to do with boys lacking father figures in their lives because of the Sexual Revolution. In nineteenth-century Italy, another revolution was at least partly to blame: the Industrial Revolution.

Granted, many boys in Italy in the 1800s fell into lives of crime for other reasons. Plagues and famines created numerous orphans, depriving children of family support and education. Italy was also plagued by movements which advocated violence for the sake of political change, which attracted young, angry men.

But the Industrial Revolution led many people to move from rural areas to big cities. Once workers took jobs in factories, however, they discovered long workdays, dangerous working conditions, and the ultimate downside of unexpected unemployment: starvation. Hungry boys became thieves, angry boys became anarchists, and some boys never had the chance to grow up at all.

The same thing could have happened to young John Bosco (1815-1888). His father died when he was only two years old, and his mother (Venerable Servant of God Margherita Occhiena Bosco) had to raise three boys on her own. Fortunately for John, his mother was a strong, devout woman whose faith never faltered, even when there was not enough food to feed her children.

Although John recognized a call to the priesthood when he was a teenager, he was poor. He had to work to earn money first to help his family and then to save up for his education. He was only fifteen years old when he was befriended by a remarkable priest: Father (now Saint) Joseph Cafasso.

Despite his own health issues, Father Cafasso lived an ascetic life and became a popular seminary lecturer in Turin. Cafasso developed an apostolate to the poor, particularly through his outreach to death-row prisoners. He also served as a spiritual advisor to men and women, some of whom, besides Bosco, are now honored by the Church for their holy lives.¹

Cafasso’s approach to dealing with people, whether they were rich or poor, priests or prison inmates, was founded on the gentle teachings of the French spiritual director and saint, Francis de Sales. When Bosco became a priest, he used that same approach. Setting aside the prospect of a promising career as a diocesan priest and the support of a wealthy Marquessa, Bosco founded an apostolate to serve needy boys.

Fr. Bosco’s goal was to bring boys—and later girls, with the help of religious sister Saint Maria Domenica Mazzarello—to Jesus Christ and the sacraments. Despite repeated health problems often caused by overwork, Bosco gave everything to this cause. He recognized that most of the boys who ended up in trouble were lonely, were ignorant of their Catholic faith, and were simply imitating the bad behavior they saw in other boys. Those harmful examples often led them straight to prison.

That’s why John went looking for those kinds of boys in the most dangerous parts of town. He treated the dirty, smelly, ignorant boys he met like friends, not thieves. He helped them find jobs and places to sleep. He invited them to Sunday events, which included fun activities as well as Mass and (cleverly disguised) religious instruction. Bosco had taught himself magic and acrobatic tricks as a child to lure other boys to join him for Mass, and he never forgot to try to connect with boys through the ordinary and natural loves of children.

Although he faced constant opposition from people who thought his boys were irredeemable, his apostolate gradually grew to include group homes, schools, and a religious congregation of priests and sisters who were trained to follow his approach in dealing with children. Because his methods emphasized the teachings of Saint Francis de Sales, his order became known as the Society of Saint Francis de Sales, also called the Salesians of Don Bosco.

Only God knows how many boys John Bosco saved from a life of crime, but he also helped some boys recognize a religious vocation. For example, one pious teenager from a poor family, Dominic Savio (1842-1857), entered Bosco’s school hoping to become a Salesian priest and educate boys, just like Bosco. Savio died too young to achieve that goal, but he was an inspiration to other boys through his love of prayer, devotion to the Eucharist, cheerfulness, and hard work, along with a very human joy in playing with his friends. Savio was canonized in 1954.

Savio is not the only Salesian saint. Some of the men Bosco personally taught have also become saints,² while other saints, like Savio, wanted to become Salesian priests but did not live long enough to be ordained.³ Some died as martyrs,⁴ while others founded their own religious orders based on the pattern of the Salesian order.⁵ Some Salesian saints were religious sisters,⁶ while another was a religious brother.⁷

Just like every parent and teacher, Saint John struggled to know how to deal with difficult, angry children and not respond in kind. The answer to that dilemma came to him through a childhood dream. In that dream, young Bosco saw a group of fighting boys and tried to stop them by shouting and swinging at them. Our Lord and the Blessed Mother appeared to him and told him to respond with gentleness, love, and humility if he wanted to turn “wild animals” into gentle lambs.

Bosco received many more insightful dreams during his life. Many of these dreams seemed to be a heavenly response to Bosco’s constant concern about the ultimate destination of his boys. For example, the angels who appeared to him in dreams often warned him about the specific dangers his boys were facing and told him about the bad decisions they were currently making. Although Fr. Bosco was careful to state that these were simply dreams when he shared them with his boys, he also used them to help the children recognize how important it was to be constantly directing one’s life toward God and by obeying his commandments. The accuracy of these insights also reminded the boys that angels—and God—were watching them.

Parents, teachers, and others who interact with children today are usually not blessed with the gift of prophetic dreams to help them in such a direct way. But there are other lessons from the life of Saint John Bosco for those who know troubled children and teens.

For example, Bosco’s life proves that even saints need faithful parents and mentors to direct them in their lives. He certainly benefited from the example of godly men and women. Similarly, we too can try to help the children in our lives by simply and quietly living our lives as faithful Catholics, particularly when we know they are watching.

But what attracted boys and men to follow Don Bosco was something more than his morally upright personal example. He wasn’t just a kind father figure. He wasn’t merely a humble, faithful priest. He was more than a dreamer or a prophet.

Saint John Bosco had a magnetic effect on children and adults because of his profound joy. Bosco possessed an abundance of Christlike joy, which is far more than mere pleasure or happiness. Our Lord Himself explained the kind of joy that His disciples should possess:

By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.⁸

If we are ardently seeking to live like sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, if we are wholeheartedly trying to abide in the love of our Savior, and if we open our hearts to the movement of the Holy Spirit, we too will be full of joy. God willing, we will also possess those other fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.⁹

When we, as Christians, bear those signs of His presence in our lives, we will be able to captivate the hearts of children and adults who seem most unreachable. And that will bring about a new, joyful kind of revolution, the coming of Heaven into the broken, hungry hearts of our children.

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