Saint Dominic Savio (1842-1857)
Dominic was born on 2nd April
1842 at San Giovanni di Riva, near Chieri (Turin). When he
made his first Holy Communion, at the age of seven, he wrote
down the following as his plan of life: “I will go to
confession very often and go to communion as often as my
confessor gives me permission. I will celebrate Sundays and
feast days as holy days. Jesus and Mary will be my friends.
Death rather than sin.”
When he was twelve he was accepted by Don Bosco to go to the
Oratory in Turin, and he asked Don Bosco to help him ‘become
a saint’. He was a gentle lad, always calm and cheerful, and
he put great efforts into his studies and into helping his
companions in every way, teaching them their Catechism,
tending the sick, sorting out quarrels, etc.
One day he told a boy who had just arrived at the Oratory:
“You ought to know that here we find holiness through being
very happy! We try to avoid sin, which robs us of God’s
grace and our peace of mind, and we carry out our duties as
well as we can.”
Dominic kept faithfully to this plan, strengthened by the
sacraments and his devotion to Mary, and accepted hardships
gladly. God blessed him with special gifts. When Pius IX
proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception on 8th
December 1854, Dominic consecrated himself to Mary and began
to make even greater progress in holiness. In 1856 he set up
the ‘Sodality of Mary Immaculate’ with a group of his
friends, to carry out apostolic work together. Mamma
Margaret (Don Bosco’s mother), who had come to Turin to help
her priest son, said one day: “You have many good boys, but
none can match the good heart and soul of Dominic Savio. I
see him so often at prayer, staying in church after the
others; every day he slips out of the playground to make a
visit to the Blessed Sacrament. When he is in church he is
like an angel living in Paradise.”
Dominic died in Mondonio on 9th March 1857, just under a
month before his fifteenth birthday. His remains are in the
Basilica of Mary Help of Christians. He was canonized on
12th June 1954.
Pope Pius XI described him as “small in size, but a towering
giant in spirit.” He is the patron saint of boy choristers.
|