06 May - Dominic Savio, born 02 April 1842 in Riva di Chieri in the Kingdom of Sardinia. He came from a relatively poor family. His father, Charles Savio, is a blacksmith and his mother is a seamstress; they will have eight other children. Soon his parents taught Dominic to pray, to love God.
He went to Mass almost every day and became an altar boy. At the age of seven, he was asked to make his First Communion, which was relatively rare at the time; the usual age was 12. As he was intelligent, his parents tried to give him a complete education. But the village of Murialdo where the family lives does not have a school. Dominic travels the 4 km that separate him from Castelnuovo d'Asti, where there is a school, 4 times a day. Many people are surprised to see the little boy making this long journey, but he always answers them: "I am not alone, I am with God". At school, he is soon noticed for his great qualities. Rather appreciated by his classmates, he says himself that his best friends will always be Jesus and Mary.
Don Bosco visited the region in 1854: he was told about this pious and intelligent boy. After meeting and interviewing him, he decided to take him to his school, the Oratory of St. Francis de Sales, which is located in Turin, in the Valdocco district, which has about 115 children. He spoke to Don Bosco about his dream: to become a saint. Don Bosco responded that he must do everything with joy and a smile. One day, two students, after a serious argument, decide to fight to the death. Dominic came to them, put himself between them and held up a cross, telling them to hit him first. A few days later, he manages to reconcile them. He founded a group of young people, the Society of the Immaculate Conception, with the aim of edification and sanctification of its members.
But of fragile health, Dominique fell ill in June 1856. Don Bosco, worried, sent him to Mondonio to breathe the air of his birth so that he could rest. He stays there for two months and returns to Turin at the end of August. He entered second grade, but he fell ill again. Don Bosco sends him to the infirmary and then, hoping that the local air will make him healthy again, asks Charles Savio to come and fetch his son. Dominic returned to Mondonio on March 1. He died of tuberculosis there on March 9, 1857, around 10 p.m. in the evening. Just before he died, he said to his parents with an air of ecstasy: "Oh, how beautiful what I see!".
In 1858 Don Bosco wrote a book about Dominic to highlight his exemplary life and holiness. Multiple miracles, unexplained by the medical science of then and nowadays, led to the opening, at the Holy See, of his successive processes of beatification and then canonization, canonical processes that lasted 21 years (1933-1954), according to which he was proclaimed saint by Pope Pius XII on June 12, 1954. St. Dominic Savio is the patron saint of children and adolescents, as well as of many Catholic schools throughout the world. Pius XII officially gave him as an example and model and as protector of youth, especially of Pueri Cantores. He is also the patron saint of mass servers.
Contenu soumis à la licence CC-BY-SA. Source : Article Dominique Savio de Wikipédia en français (auteurs)
