The Life of St Dominic Savio

"Let us leave a saint to write the life of a saint," is said to have been the exclamation of the Angelic Doctor St. Thomas Aquinas, when he entered the cell of his brother doctor, St. Bonaventure, and found him absorbed in writing the life of his spiritual father, St. Francis. The peculiar value of the present little book is that it may be said once more to present the spectacle of a saint writing the life of a saint. Only whereas in St. Bonaventure’s case a son was writing the life of a father, in this case we have the unique example of a father writing the life of his spiritual son. The writer, the saintly Don Bosco, has already been declared Venerable, and the process for his Beatification is proceeding in Rome. Little Domenico Savio, whose biography was originally published by Don Bosco very shortly after the holy child’s death, was, as will be seen, Don Bosco’s spiritual child, and it is a subject of great joy to all his admirers that his cause also has at last been introduced at Rome with the approval of the Holy See. Note from St Athanasius Press. St Dominic Savio was canonized as the youngest non Martyr Saint on June 12, 1954 by Pope Pius XII. This biography written by St John Bosco of his pupil, Dominic Savio was a critical factor in his canonization.