John Bosco was born in a little hamlet of Becchi some twenty kilometers from Turin, Italy. His father, Francis Bosco, was a hard Jworking peasant who died when John was only two years old. The grief-stricken words of his mother, telling him that he was now fatherless remained deeply impressed in the child's mind and perhaps, helped to instil in his mind, an intense pity for the orphans and the homeless which became the dominant note of his life.
The story of the exertions and sacrifices made by him and his mother cannot be told here in detail. Working as a servant, teaching, assisting a tailor, doing chores for a blacksmith and keeping score at a billiards table, were some of the things he did in order to pay for his food, lodging and tuition while at school. But the worst was over when in October 1835, with an outfit provided by charitable neighbours, John Bosco entered the seminary at Chieri.