St Dominic Savio

Today we honor one of the youngest saints in the Catholic Church. Before St Jacinta and St Francisco Marto (the Fatima children) were canonized recently, he was the youngest saint (not martyred) to be venerated in the church. Born on April 2, 1842 in Piedmont Italy, he was a very devout young boy who wanted to become a priest. He received his First Holy Communion at the age of 7, at a time when the custom was that children would receive communion at the age of 12. But his parish priest noticed how devoted he was to the Eucharist, and made an exception for Dominic. He was noticed by St John Bosco, the founder of the Salesian Order, and took him under his wings. Unfortunately, he became very sick, asked for confession, communion and the final anointing, and died peacefully on March 9, 1857, aged 14. Soon after the death of Dominic, John Bosco wrote his biography, 'The Life of Dominic Savio,' which contributed to his canonization. The original Italian edition was considered so well written during the time of Don Bosco that, along with his History of Italy and Ecclesiastical History, it was used in many public schools as part of the course materials on the Italian language. St Dominic Savio was canonized by Pope Pius XII on June 12, 1954. Quite a number of schools were named in his honor, among them in Austin, Texas, and Niagara Falls, New York, also 5 schools in Canada, a few in India, the Philippines and Australia, as well as the ever-growing Savio College, in Dingli, Malta.