John Bosco
Saint John Bosco is the patron of youth, students, and apprentices because his whole priesthood was given to poor and abandoned boys: in the slums of Turin he gathered street children, taught them trades, set up workshops and oratories, and even drew up formal apprenticeship contracts to protect them from exploitation — the first of their kind. He is patron of editors and publishers because he was a tireless writer and printer himself, founding a Catholic press and producing cheap, popular books and pamphlets to form the young; he took Saint Francis de Sales, master of the gentle pen, as patron of his Salesians. His “Preventive System” — reason, religion, and loving-kindness instead of punishment — is why teachers and youth workers claim him as their own.
Saint John Bosco was an Italian priest who founded the Salesians, dedicated to the education of disadvantaged youth. Born in 1815 in Piedmont, he grew up in poverty but through his intelligence and perseverance became a priest. He developed the “Preventive System” of education based on reason, religion, and kindness rather than punishment. He established schools, workshops, and publications for young people.
