(RMG - Madrid) – Young people, magicians and actors and many others look to the founder of the Salesians as their patron.  What have a magician, a soldier and an actor in common? They have this in common - if they want someone in heaven as their friend, they turn to Saint John Bosco. He is the patron of these professions and also of publishers, apprentices, filmmakers, students of vocational training, circus actors and film actors. They all appear in the list of professions that call on Don Bosco as patron protector.

by Javier Valiente, SDB

To be good at doing tricks or sleight of hand you have to have a lot of skill, so it might be no harm to have some help from above. In this case, you can do no better than to rely on St. John Bosco who performed as a magician and juggler in order to entertain and educate young people. In Spain, in 1953, Don Bosco was proclaimed patron of magicians and illusionists. In the prayer recited by illusionists long before Harry Potter, it says: "You who were a magician and by your good work became a Saint, pray that the work that I do may at least be able to change this plant.”

Even the soldiers of the Special Forces of the Spanish Army have Don Bosco as their patron, according to a declaration of the Military Ordinary, issued with the permission of the Congregation for Divine Worship.

Don Bosco has also been the patron of Catholic Publishers since 1946, and in 1958 he was declared the patron saint of apprentices in Italy. In Spain, also, he is the patron saint of students of Vocational Training. In some lists of heavenly patrons of worldly roles, Don Bosco appears as the patron saint of the actors who dub voices, of prison chaplains, and of those who work in the circus.

If a film director wants to make a good choice, he may turn to Don Bosco who,  traditionally, is considered the patron of the seventh art. Thus, in Spain, the Goya Awards of the Film Academy are conferred around the time of the feast of St John Bosco following the tradition of the old Union of Actors.

But perhaps the title that Don Bosco would be most happy to boast about is the one conferred upon him by John Paul II on 24 January 1989 when he proclaimed him "Father and Teacher of Youth", at the closing of the celebrations of the centenary of his death. This is the title that defines St John Bosco and that has become a programme of life for many educators who work with the charism of the saint of youth.

Published 26/01/2016