January 31 | Saint John Bosco

Welcome, young history buffs and curious minds, to My Daily Saint, the podcast that digs deep into the incredible lives of the saints, those remarkable people who shaped history and continue to inspire us today. Forget dusty old portraits and boring stories. Today, we're diving into the life of a man who could juggle, perform magic tricks, and who faced down mobs of angry critics to save the lives of young people. Today, we are talking about St. John Bosco. Let's start with a nightmare, or rather, a dream that changed history.

Imagine you are nine years old. You are asleep, and suddenly you find yourself standing in a massive field. But it's not peaceful. You are surrounded by a crowd of boys who are screaming, fighting, and shouting terrible blasphemies. It's chaotic and scary. In the dream, the nine-year-old John Bosco wanted to stop them. His instinct was to jump in and fight, to force them to stop. But then, a mysterious voice cut through the noise. Some say it was the voice of Jesus, or the Virgin Mary.

The voice gave him a command that seemed impossible in the middle of a riot. Not with blows, but with charity and gentleness must you draw these friends to the path of virtue. That dream didn't just fade away when he woke up. It stayed with him and impacted him for his entire life.

It was the spark that eventually helped John decide to become a priest. But John Bosco wasn't going to be a typical priest. He was going to be a performer. Have you ever tried to get your friends to pay attention to something serious, and they just ignored you? John figured out a cheat code. In his youth, he started learning how to perform magic tricks and juggling acts. He would gather his peers around, entertain them with a show, and once he had their attention, he would end the performance by retelling the homilies he had heard at church and praying with them.

He used entertainment to bring them to faith. John was born into a poor family in Becci, Italy, back on August 16, 1815. His father died when John was only two, leaving his mother to raise John and his two brothers alone in poverty. While his mother taught him the importance of faith and charity, his older brother was a different story. His brother actually opposed John's dream of joining the priesthood, and made John's time at home very hostile.

The environment became so toxic that John actually had to leave his own family and go work on a farm for three years. He had to work various trades just to get through school, so he could finally enter the seminary. After he was ordained a priest in 1841, John was sent to the city of Turin. It was the height of the Industrial Revolution, and people were flooding into the city. What John saw there broke his heart. He witnessed severe poverty. But what disturbed him most was seeing how many boys were locked up in prison before they were even 18 years old.

He saw their physical poverty, but also their spiritual poverty. Remembering his dream, not with blows, but with charity, John began to minister to them. He didn't build a prison. He built a community. He started a group called the Oratory of St. Francis de Sales. This wasn't just a church group. It was a lifeline. He educated the boys, trained them in trades so he could get jobs, and topped them the faith. And he didn't do it alone. His own mother, known as Mama Margaret, came to help him in his mission to save these boys.

John Bosco believed that a teacher should be a mentor and a friend, not a punisher. He spent his time walking in the fields with the youth, praying with them, and hearing their confessions. But even with all this love and charity, the world tried to stop him. John faced constant trials. Finding a place for the boys to stay was a nightmare. They often had to meet in sheds or open fields because they didn't have reliable accommodations. Many people criticized John personally, calling him mentally unstable and claiming he was unfit to help these delinquents.

They thought he was crazy for treating these troubled boys with such kindness. But John Bosco didn't quit, and the results speak for themselves. By the time he died on January 31, 1888, his group was serving over 130,000 youth in 250 houses. That is a massive legacy. He was canonized on April 1, 1934. St. John Bosco is the patron saint of apprentices, editors and publishers, schoolchildren, and juvenile delinquents. But, perhaps fittingly for the boy who juggled to get people to listen to the gospel, he is also the patron saint of stage magicians.

Think about how you react when people are difficult or annoying. St. John Bosco taught us to avoid punishing and to try to gain love before inspiring fear. This week, if you are in a position of leadership, don't use your power to boss them around. Instead, try to be a mentor and friend. Use your talents to bring people together, just like John used his magic tricks. Thank you for joining us on My Daily Saint. We look forward to sharing another incredible story of faith and courage with you tomorrow.