John Bosco

John Melchior Bosco was born 16 August 1815 in Piedmont and ordained a Catholic priest who went to work in Turin as the city choked on the human cost of the Industrial Revolution. He spent his days with the boys no one wanted - street children, young offenders, the poor - and developed teaching methods that replaced the rod with relationship, a system drawn from the spirituality of Francis de Sales. In 1850 he drafted mutual aid regulations for young Catholic workers who'd lost jobs or fallen sick. In 1859 he founded the Salesians of Don Bosco in Turin; with Maria Domenica Mazzarello he later established the Salesian Sisters to educate poor girls. He taught Dominic Savio and wrote the biography that carried the boy to sainthood. In 1875 he launched the Salesian Bulletin, still published in 30 languages, and the next year founded the Association of Salesian Cooperators to widen the mission. He died 31 January 1888, was canonized in 1934, and left a network of schools and centres that outlasted him.