THE VENERABLE DON BOSCO
He was born at Chieri, April 2, 1842, and died at Mondonio, March 9, 1857. In October 1864, Don Bosco first met him and seeing in a brief time the beauty of his soul he took him to Turin as one of his chosen boys. Upon the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854 he formed an association in honor of Mary Immaculate and drew up a rule for its members, the chief maxim of which was "Serve ye the Lord with joy." He used to say: "He who seeks before all things the will of God is on the road to sanctity." This innocent and zealous youth was favored with many supernatural communications from God. Don Bosco describes a wonderful vision he had of the return of England to the Catholic faith; it was only a little later that Pius IX established the Catholic hierarchy in England. When Heaven was spoken of he would faint away in his companions' arms. After Dominic's death many extraordinary favors were obtained through his prayers; ten of these supernatural graces have been related by Don Bosco. The Cause of his Beatification was introduced on February 11, 1914.
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