The spirituality of St. John Bosco and the formation of youth

Abstract

The scope of this paper is to present the educational system of St. John Bosco and show how, more than a mere pedagogy, it is also a spirituality for the formation of youth. To do so, it is necessary to present the influences which helped to form his personality. This is important because his educational system reflects his personality. I will therefore present Don Bosco' s childhood influences, including a brief look at the historical context. These early experiences lead to Don Bosco' s vocation for the priesthood. This will lead to his formation as a priest and to the tum his vocation took, that is, that of an educator. The system he developed is the result of his mentality, formed by experiences, as a priest-educator. From this I propose to extract five basic characteristics of his spirituality, showing that his educative system is a spirituality, applied for the formation of the young.