January 31 is the Memorial of St. John Bosco, "Apostle of Youth"

St. John Bosco was born Giovanni Melchior Bosco in a small village in the Piedmont of Italy in 1815. (Online articles don't explain how Giovanni Bosco became known as John Bosco, maybe someone here knows? Giovanni is the Italian for John, but I wonder why someone who spent his life in Italy became known by the English form of his name.)

After becoming a priest, John Bosco moved to the city of Turin and began to help the young people who were migrating to Turin in search of jobs. John Bosco wanted to help the young and especially turn them away from getting into trouble in the city.
He set up night classes for them first. Later he set up a boardinghouse for apprentices and workshops to train them. He founded a congregation called the Salesians, after St. Francis de Sales, to carry on this work, which it does today throughout the world. By the time St. John Bosco died in 1888, there were 130,000 young people living in 250 houses run by the Salesian Society. Every year, 18,000 "finished" apprentices left the Salesian homes to go to work. John Bosco had developed a system for finding the brightest pupils and training them to become teachers in the homes. As the Salesian Society developed, it provided schools for the youngest children up through seminaries for those who were called to the priesthood.

The most interesting thing I read was about St. John Bosco not believing in punishment for children. He believed in the importance of play but also the importance of forming character and a sense of duty. He also thought music was very important, and that daily Mass, frequent Confession, frequent Communion were the "pillars to sustain the edifice of education." St. John Bosco wrote:

"Instruction", he said, "is but an accessory, like a game; knowledge never makes a man because it does not directly touch the heart. It gives more power in the exercise of good or evil; but alone it is an indifferent weapon, wanting guidance."

St. John Bosco is patron saint of apprentices, young people, laborers, students, editors, and Mexican young people.

I did a novena to John Bosco because he is an excellent man. Love the quote,"Instruction", he said, "is but an accessory, like a game; knowledge never makes a man because it does not directly touch the heart. It gives more power in the exercise of good or evil; but alone it is an indifferent weapon, wanting guidance."
Blessings!