St. John Bosco
Patron of young people, apprentices, editors, schoolchildren
Saint John Bosco (1815–1888), known to the world as Don Bosco, dedicated his life to the rescue and education of the poor and abandoned boys of industrial Turin. From a single Sunday catechism class he built a network of oratories, trade schools, boarding houses and printing presses that became the Salesian Society, today one of the largest religious orders in the Church. His 'preventive system' replaced punishment with reason, religion and loving-kindness, and produced its own saints, beginning with his pupil Dominic Savio. He died exhausted from work, leaving behind 64,000 confreres and a method of education that still shapes Catholic schools on every continent.