SAINT OF THE DAY
TUESDAY, 6 MAY, 2025
SAINT DOMINIC SAVIO
(2 April 1842 - 9 March 1857)
St. Dominic Savio was born in Riva, Italy, in 1842. He was one of ten children of Carlo and Birgitta Savio. Carlo was a blacksmith and Birgitta was a seamstress. When he was five years old, he learned to serve at Mass. When Don Bosco was looking for young men to train as priests for his Salesian Order, his parish priest suggested Dominic Savio.
St. Dominic Savio was twelve when he met Don Bosco. He became more than a credit to Don Bosco's school. He organized a group of boys into the Company of the Immaculate Conception. Besides its religious purpose, the boys swept and took care of the school and looked after the boys that no one seemed to pay any attention to. When, in 1859, Don Bosco chose the young men to be the first members of his congregation, all of them had been members of Dominic's Company.
For all that, Dominic was a normal, high-spirited boy who sometimes got into trouble with his teachers because he would often break out laughing. However, he was generally well disciplined and gradually gained the respect of the tougher boys in Don Bosco's school.
In other circumstances, Dominic might have become a little self-righteous snob, but Don Bosco showed him the heroism of the ordinary and the sanctity of common sense. "Religion must be about us as the air we breathe," Don Bosco would say, and Dominic Savio wore holiness like the clothes on his back.
LOVE FOR THE HOLY EUCHARIST: Mamma Margaret (mother of St. John Bosco), who had come to Turin to help her priest son, one day said to him: “You have many good boys, but no one surpasses the beauty of heart and soul of Dominic Savio”. And she explained: “I see him always praying, even remaining in Church after the others; every day he leaves recreation to visit the Blessed Sacrament; when he is in Church, he is like an angel in Heaven”.
LOVE FOR MARY: On December 8, 1854, when Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, Dominic consecrated himself to Mary and began to advance rapidly in holiness. In 1856, he founded the Immaculate Conception Sodality among his friends. This was a group dedicated to apostolic action and peer ministry.
He called his long hours of prayer "his distractions." In 1857, at the age of fifteen, he caught tuberculosis and was sent home to recover. On the evening of March 9, he asked his father to say the prayers for the dying. His face lit up with an intense joy and he said to his father: "I am seeing most wonderful things!" These were his last words.
Thought for the Day: "I can't do big things," St. Dominic Savio once said, "but I want everything to be for the glory of God." His was the way of the ordinary: cheerfulness, fidelity in little things, helping others, playing games, obeying his superiors. This heroism in little things is the stuff of holiness.
DOMINIC ALWAYS KEPT THESE RULES, WHICH HE HAD WRITTEN IN A BOOK ON HIS FIRST COMMUNION DAY:
1. I will go to Confession and Communion often.
2. I will keep holy the Feast days.
3. Jesus and Mary will be my best friends.
4. I would rather die than commit a sin.
PATRON: Choirboys, the falsely accused, and juvenile delinquents.
PRAYER: Dear Saint Dominic, you spent your short life totally for love of Jesus and His Mother. Help youth today to realize the importance of God in their lives. You became a saint through fervent participation in the sacraments, enlighten parents and children to the importance of frequent confession and Holy Communion. At a young age you meditated on the sorrowful Passion of Our Lord. Obtain for us the grace of a fervent desire to suffer for love of Him.
We desperately need your intercession to protect today's children from the snares of the world. Watch over them and lead them on the narrow road to Heaven. Ask God to give us the grace to sanctify our daily duties by performing them perfectly out of love for Him. Remind us of the necessity of practicing virtue especially in times of trial. Amen.
St. Dominic Savio, you who preserved your Baptismal innocence of heart: Pray for us!