St. Dominic Savio Prayer Card (PC-52)
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PC-52 — St. Dominic Savio Prayer Card
"Small in size, but a towering giant in spirit" — the boy saint who decided to become a saint and did
He was twelve years old when he made up his mind. Having just arrived at Don Bosco's Oratory in Turin, the young blacksmith's son from the village of Riva sat down and wrote out his personal rule of life in the little notebook he carried for his First Communion resolutions. It read: "I will try to give my heart to God and to keep it for Him alone. I will try to make death rather than sin my enemy. Jesus and Mary shall be my best friends. Death sooner than sin."
He was not performing. He meant every word. And for the next two and a half years, he lived them.
Born into a peasant family in Riva, Italy, young Dominic joined St. John Bosco as a student at the Oratory in Turin at the age of twelve. He impressed Don Bosco with his desire to be a priest and to help him in his work with neglected boys. A natural leader and peacemaker, he founded a group he called the Company of the Immaculate Conception which, besides being devotional, aided John Bosco with the boys and with manual work. He spent long hours in prayer — hours he cheerfully called "my distractions" — and was known to fall into what could only be described as mystical raptures during his thanksgiving after Mass. He once told Don Bosco: "It seems heaven is opening just above me."
He was also, by all accounts, a perfectly ordinary and joyful boy. He played games, laughed with his friends, and competed in his studies. Don Bosco's great lesson to him — that holiness is found in everyday cheerfulness, not in extraordinary austerity — shaped everything. Pope Pius XII, at his canonization, described him as "small in size, but a towering giant in spirit."
His health led to lung problems and he was sent home to recuperate. He died on March 9, 1857, after receiving the Last Sacraments. He was fourteen years old. He was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1954, making him at the time the youngest non-martyr to be canonized in the Catholic Church. He is the patron saint of choirboys, the falsely accused, and juvenile delinquents. His feast day is May 6th.
Perfect for: Children, Catholic youth, choirboys, May 6th feast day, First Communion gifts, Catholic school communities, and any young person who wants a saint who truly understands what it means to be young and trying to be holy at the same time.