Feast of St. Dominic Savio

St. Dominic Savio was born in Italy in 1842. He was very pious and was always trying to imitate Christ. He was a good friend of St. John Bosco.

When he was 12 he went to a school run by Don Bosco. He always set a good example and when fights started he always tried to settle them in the most charitable way. He was always sure never to do anything that would not please God, and tried to make sure his classmates didn't either. For instance, one time when a magazine was sent to the school filled with bad pictures, a crowd of boys were looking at the shameful magazine when St. Dominic Savio went over to see what they were looking at. One glance at the horrid pictures was enough - he took the magazine and tore it into shreads saying, "Poor us! Did God give us eyes to look at such things as this? Aren't you ashamed?"

Then a boy replied "We were just looking at it for the fun of it."

So, St. Dominic said " Sure for fun, and in the meantime you are preparing yourself to go to hell!"

Then, another boy asked " What's the matter with looking at them anyway?"

St. Dominic replied "If you don't see anything wrong this is even worse, it means you are used to looking at these kinds of things." The rest didn't say a word, because they knew he was right.

One day, when St. Dominic was 15, he started feeling a bit sick, so he was sent home, but he just kept getting worse and worse. On his deathbed, he said goodbye to his loving parents. Suddenly, he seemed so happy and said "I am seeing such wonderful things!" and never said anything more.

His feast is March 9th.

He is the patron saint of the falsely accused, all children, and choir boys.

He is the patron saint of all children because of his good example to them, and because he tried never to let any of his classmates fall into sin.

~by Theresa