Feast day: 6 May
Saint Dominic Savio
A Piedmontese boy formed by Saint John Bosco at the Oratory of Turin, who died at fourteen and became the youngest non-martyr canonized saint.
Celebrated on 9 March in the Salesian family.
- Born
- 2 April 1842, San Giovanni di Riva, Piedmont (Italy)
- Died
- 9 March 1857, Mondonio, Piedmont (Italy)
- Canonization
- Beatified 5 March 1950 by Pius XII; canonized 12 June 1954 by Pope Pius XII.
- Country
- Italy
Biography
Early piety
Son of a blacksmith and a seamstress, Dominic served Mass from the age of five and was allowed to make his First Communion at seven, unusual at the time, writing then the resolutions: 'Death rather than sin.'
With Don Bosco
Accepted at the Oratory of Valdocco in 1854, he impressed John Bosco by his cheerful ordinary holiness: no extraordinary penances, but perfect duty, peacemaking among the boys, and care for newcomers. He founded the Company of the Immaculate Conception, whose members later formed the first Salesians.
Death and biography
Weak lungs forced him home in 1857; he died on 9 March saying he saw 'wonderful things'. Don Bosco wrote his life two years later, and it became one of the most read youth biographies in the Catholic world.
Timeline
- 1842 — Born in Piedmont
- 1849 — First Communion at seven years old
- 1854 — Enters Don Bosco's Oratory at Valdocco
- 1856 — Founds the Company of the Immaculate Conception
- 1857 — Dies at Mondonio on 9 March
- 1954 — Canonized by Pius XII
Dates marked ~ are traditional or debated among historians.
Symbols
Schoolboy's clothes — Sanctity in ordinary student life.
Marian medal — His devotion to the Immaculate Conception.
Virtues & spiritual lessons
Cheerfulness, purity, faithfulness in small duties, and the conviction that holiness consists in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.
Importance in the Church
Canonized as proof that children can reach heroic virtue, and the emblem of the Salesian educational method of joy, duty and the sacraments.
Quotes
“Death rather than sin.”
First Communion resolutions, 1849
“Here we make holiness consist in being very cheerful.”
Reported by Don Bosco, Life of Dominic Savio
Prayers
Prayer to Saint Dominic Savio
Saint Dominic Savio, friend of Jesus and of Mary Immaculate, you became a saint while still a schoolboy. Help the young to love purity, to be joyful in duty, and to prefer death to sin; and protect mothers who await their children. Amen.
Prayer used in Salesian houses.
Places
Basilica of Mary Help of Christians, Turin — Where his relics rest.
Valdocco, Turin — Don Bosco's Oratory where he lived.
Related saints
Entries are drawn from the Roman Martyrology, the General Roman Calendar, canonization records of the Holy See, and the saints' own writings. Where a date, quotation or attribution is uncertain, it is marked as such. (63 saints)