Dominic Savio

Dominic Savio (Domenico Savio) was born on 2 April 1842 at San Giovanni di Riva, in the commune of Riva presso Chieri in Piedmont, then part of the Kingdom of Sardinia. He was one of ten children of Carlo Savio, a blacksmith, and Brigida Gaiato, a seamstress. The family was poor and devout and moved during his childhood, first to Morialdo and later to Mondonio. From a very early age he was noted for piety unusual in a small child: he learned to serve Mass, was regular in prayer, and received First Holy Communion on 8 April 1849, at seven years old, earlier than the custom of the time. On that day he formed four resolutions that later biographers treat as the programme of his life: frequent confession and Communion, sanctification of Sundays and holy days, friendship with Jesus and Mary, and death rather than sin.

In October 1854, when Dominic was twelve, the priest John Bosco met him at Morialdo. Impressed by the boy's intelligence and seriousness, Bosco invited him to the Oratory of St Francis de Sales at Valdocco in Turin to study with a view to the priesthood. At the Oratory he was remembered as cheerful, academically diligent, and determined to avoid sin and to help companions. He had a strong devotion to the Eucharist and to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1856 he helped found among the boys the Company of the Immaculate Conception, a small association that supported Bosco's work, encouraged frequent Communion, and promoted good conduct. The principal narrative of his inner life comes from Don Bosco's later hagiographical biography, which attributes to him intense prayer, voluntary penances, and certain mystical experiences, including visions; those claims rest on that source and on the testimony of companions as Bosco recorded them.

Dominic's health was never strong. In early 1857 he fell seriously ill with what contemporaries described as inflammation of the lungs. Bosco sent him home to Mondonio in the hope that rest and country air would restore him. His condition worsened. He received the last sacraments and died on 9 March 1857, aged fourteen. Those present reported that his last words spoke of seeing wonderful things. He was first buried in the cemetery at Mondonio. In the early twentieth century his remains were translated to the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Turin, where they are still venerated.

Don Bosco published a life of Dominic Savio in 1859, which circulated widely in Salesian and Catholic circles and became the foundation of later devotion. The cause of beatification was taken up in the twentieth century. Pope Pius XII beatified him on 5 March 1950 and canonized him on 12 June 1954. His liturgical commemoration is kept on 6 May (his dies natalis is 9 March). Because of his youth and the character of the life presented by Bosco, he has been invoked as a patron of young people, students, boys, choirboys and choirs, the falsely accused, and juvenile delinquents. He is closely associated with the Salesian tradition, although he died two years before Bosco formally founded the Salesian Society and was never a professed religious.