Don Bosco was born in a little hamlet of Beechi near Turin (Italy). From his very childhood DON BOSCO spent himself wholly in healing human miseries. He saw and foresaw the dangerous surging tide of misled headlong among the youth of the lower classes pointing them the only way to a better place in this life and in the life to come.
He did not talk much, he acted. He did not write long and elaborate educational treatises. His example was the best one. When asked about the secret of his great success with youngsters, he simply answered: ‘love, gentleness and charity’. These were the basic principles of his educational system. “Praise rather than blame, Privation rather than punishment.” There were his watchwords. He surrounded the boys with an atmosphere of love, freedom and familiarity which made them grow up in spontaneity and creative activity. He used to say, “it is not enough to love the young, they must know that they are loved”.
To day Don Bosco fathers and Brothers belonging to the religious order that he started and called Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB), numbering over 17,000 carry on his work for the education and well-being of modern youth clubs, camps, schools, colleges, technical schools and hostels spread over 132 countries of the world.