Saint Dominic Savio

Dominic Savio (Italian: Domenico Savio; 2 April 1842 – 9 March 1857) was a 19th-century Italian teenager who was a student of John Bosco and became a Catholic saint. He was studying to be a priest when he became ill and died at the age of 14, possibly from pleurisy. He was noted for his piety and devotion to the Catholic faith, and was canonized a saint by Pope Pius XII in 1954. Bosco regarded Savio very highly, and wrote a biography of his young student, The Life of Dominic Savio. This volume, along with other accounts of him, were critical factors in his cause for sainthood. Despite the fact that many people considered him to have died too young to be considered for sainthood, he was considered eligible for such a singular honour on the basis of displaying "heroic virtue" in his everyday life. Savio was canonised a saint on 12 June 1954 by Pope Pius XII, making him the youngest non-martyr to be canonised in the Catholic Church, until the canonisations of Francisco and Jacinta Marto, the pious visionaries of Fatima (aged 10 and 9 respectively), in 2017. Much of the biographical information known about Savio comes from his biography written by John Bosco, in addition to the testimonies given by Savio's family and friends. The son of Carlo and Brigitta Savio, Dominic was born on 2 April 1842 in the village of Riva, 2 miles (3 km) from the town of Chieri, in Piedmont, northern Italy. His baptismal name, Domenico, means "of the Lord" and the surname Savio means "wise". His father was a blacksmith and his mother, a seamstress. His parents had ten children in all. The family was described as poor, hardworking and pious. When he was two years old, his parents returned to their hometown at Murialdo on the outskirts of Castelnuovo d'Asti and from where they had gone to Riva in 1841. His parents took great care to give him a Christian upbringing. By the age of four, he was able to pray by himself and was occasionally found in solitude, praying.