Saint Dominic Savio, died at 14

Saint Dominic Savio was born April 2,  1842 and he died on March 9, 1857. He was a 19th-century Italian teenager who was a student of Saint John Bosco. Saint Dominic Savio was studying to be a priest when he became ill and died at the age of fourteen, probably from pleurisy. He was known in his brief life for his piety and devotion to the Catholic faith. Saint Dominic Savio and was canonized a saint by Pope Pius XII in 1954. Sanit John Bosco regarded Saint Dominic Savio very highly, and wrote a biography of his young student, The Life of Dominic Savio. Have you read the Biography?

Saint Dominic Savio Biography

Saint Dominic Savio was born on  April 2, 1842 in northern Italy. His baptismal name, Domenico, means “of the Lord” and the surname Savio means “wise.” Savio’s father was a blacksmith and his mother, a seamstress. He was one of ten children. The family was poor, hardworking, and pious. Saint Dominic Savio’s parents took great care to give him a Christian upbringing. By the age of four, he was able to pray by himself. Saint John Bosco has several records of him.

Fr. Giovanni Zucca was the chaplain of Dominic’s church noted that when Saint Dominic Savio was five years old that he came to notice Dominic due to his regular church attendance with his mother, and his habit of kneeling down outside the church to pray (even in the mud or snow) if he happened to come to church before it had been unlocked in the morning. The chaplain also notes that Savio made good progress school because of cleverness and his desire to work hard. At the age of five, he learned to serve Mass, and he was permitted to make his First Communion at an early age.

In the middle nineteenth century, it was customary for children to receive their First Communion at twelve. After initial hesitation, and subsequent consultation with other priests, the parish priest agreed to permit Saint Dominic Savio to receive his First Communion at seven, since he knew the catechism and understood much about the Eucharist. He spent a lot time praying and reading in preparation.

Saint John Bosco devotes a chapter to tell of Dominic’s First Communion. He says that years later, whenever he talked of the day of his First Communion, Saint Dominic Savio did so joyously: “That was the happiest and most wonderful day of my life,” he noted. Bosco records that on the day of his First Communion, Dominic made some promises. These are the promises made by Dominic, , at the age of seven:

I will go to Confession often, and as frequently to Holy Communion as my confessor allows,
I wish to sanctify the Sundays and festivals in a special manner,
My friends shall be Jesus and Mary, death rather than sin.

Dominic went to secondary school at the County School. Now ten years old, he walked daily to and from school. In his biography of Saint Dominic Savio, Saint John Bosco tells how a local farmer once asked him, on a hot sunny day, if he was not tired from walking, and Dominic replied: “Nothing seems tiresome or painful when you are working for a master who pays well.”

Dominic died on March 9, 1857 after a period of failing health. He went home. In his first four days at home his appetite decreased and his cough worsened; this prompted his parents to send him to the doctor, who, at once, ordered bed rest. Inflammation was diagnosed, and as was the custom at that time, the doctor decided to perform bloodletting.

On the evening of March 9, 1857, after being visited by his parish priest, he asked his father to read him the prayers.. Then he slept a while, and shortly awakened and said in a clear voice, “Goodbye, Dad, goodbye … what was it the parish priest suggested to me … I don’t seem to remember … Oh, what wonderful things I see …”. With these words he died.

Conclusion

Despite the fact that he was considered to have died at too young an age, he was fourteen, to be considered for sainthood, Saint Dominic Savio was considered eligible for such a singular honor on the basis of displaying “heroic virtue” in his everyday life. He was canonized a saint on June 12, 1954 by Pope Pius XII, making him the youngest non-martyr to be canonized in the Catholic Church.  That was until the canonizations of Francisco and Jacinta Marto, of Fatima. He shows that even the very young can be holy.