As ILS students, many of us believe we already know all there is to know about Don Bosco. But for new students, those who might not have been paying full attention in religion class, or those who just forgot, it’s important to know a bit about the man that La Salle has made their patron Salesian saint.

Don Bosco was born in Turin, Italy, a place many of us probably already associate with Jesus (the Shroud of Turin). He was ordained a priest in 1841, and went on to found the Salesian order we all have come to love.

His main passion was to help kids. At the time in Italy, there were the rumblings of the Industrial Revolution. Many kids were forced to work harsh hours doing difficult manual labor. Many people lived in poverty, and squalor was widespread.

Don Bosco as a priest knew it was his job to help those kids. He reached out, trying to help them find and see God in their lives, and urging them down the right path. That’s why he opened his oratory.

The main purpose of his famous oratory was to provide the boys who went there with religious instruction, a good education, and a place to play. By the end of his life, it formed into a full fledged grammar and technical school for boys. A church was also built. With the inspiration of St. Francis de Sales (from whom we take the name Salesian), St. Mary Mazzarello, who began a similar program for girls, and 22 others, the Salesians had formed in 1859!

With ideas like the aforementioned in mind, ILS and other Salesian schools all follow in Don Bosco’s example and focus on providing their students with the same: a place to play, learn, and pray. That’s why we have a new motto every year. Even if it sounds a little silly to us, it’s really so that we could take that message into our hearts and practice it in our lives. Even if we don’t listen to it every day, the fact that we hear it so often is certainly in our heads and hearts, and we will act on it even subconsciously.

So, with all that said, those are the most important parts of Don Bosco’s ministry, and how it came to affect us, here at school. To read more about Don Bosco, take a look at this article from Encyclopedia Britannica.