John Bosco's birth in 1815 saw Napoleon defeated at Waterloo, the Congress of Vienna and temporary peace restored in Europe. In 1820, John Bosco, when only five, was already teaching catechism to his friends at Becchi. At nine years old, John Bosco had a dream, which was to inspire his pedagogical purpose to educate poor and deprived children.

From 1828 to 1830, with the deaths of two successive popes, Leo XII and Pius VIII, John Bosco was struggling to gain, despite poverty and adversity, an education to fit him for his life's work. In 1831, at the age of 16, amid widespread social and political uncertainty, he decided to enter the priesthood and so began his secondary studies in Chieri, near Turin. After finishing his schooling, he entered the seminary at Chieri on 30 October 1835. From 1835 to 1840 he studied for the priesthood, was ordained and said his first Mass in 1841.

By 1843, Don Bosco had begun his first evening classes for poor boys; the next year saw the beginnings of his first Festive Oratory, which in modern parlance means boys' club or youth centre, in Turin and from 1844 to 1847 Don Bosco began regular evening schools and organised catechetical instruction. He put into practice methods of education which gained university recognition. Yet in an atmosphere of change Bosco founded his first Sodality of St Aloysius, took in boarders at Valdocco, opened another oratory at Porta Nuova in Turin, began his first retreats for boys and found time to publish his Il GIovane Provveduto.

There were vast changes in Church and State in 1848 in most of Europe and popular opinion hardened against the Church, some priests being openly attacked in the streets. In Turin, in 1848 Don Bosco himself narrowly escaped death and in the same year survived a severe beating at the hands of a gang.

He had already started showing political acumen in refusing to take part in political demonstrations. This policy of Bosco's was to come to his aid when the Church, largely due to the rising forces of liberalism, was to suffer severe losses in power, status and followers. During this time Don Bosco increased and expanded his oratories and works despite a mounting fever of revolution in Turin.

From 1849 to 1853 there were further changes in the political structures in some of the kingdoms of Italy. By 1850 Pius IX returned to Rome from exile. During this time of upheaval Don Bosco steadily consolidated his oratories, erected a new church and hospice for his oratory boys and the professional schools for boarders were begun, despite personal threats and attempts on his life by anti-clerical factions. In 1853 he wrote the first of his apologetics, the Letture Cattoliche (Catholic Readings).

Between 1854 and 1859 the struggle continued between the Church and the State in parts of Europe. In 1855 there was an alliance between Piedmont, France and England: 1856 saw the Congress of Paris, while in 1858 there were the apparitions at Lourdes.

Don Bosco, despite further inroads of anti-clericalism, continued his work. He gained encouragement from Urbano Rattazzi, an anti-clerical, to found a religious society. Ratazzi was impressed by the educational method of Don Bosco and urged his government to adopt them. A year after a visit to Rome for his first audience with Pius IX, Don Bosco, in December 1859, announced the foundation of the Salesian Society.

From 1860 to 1864 political turmoil continued in most parts of the Italian peninsula. It was during periods of upheaval and change that Don Bosco expanded his educational system to include provinces outside Turin and crystallised his pedagogical ideas. In 1863 he established his first school outside Turin, at Mirabello. In the same year he built a new church, Mary, Help of Christians. Another school outside Turin was opened at Lanzo in 1864.

In 1867 he visited Rome for the second time and in the same year he opened a new college at Mornese, some 90 kilometres to the east of Turin. In the same year he widened his educational horizons to provide for the education of young girls who were taught by the same methods as those applied in his oratories in Turin and elsewhere.

In 1870 he declined the Cardinal's hat, an offer from Pius IX, on the grounds that his work would be hampered if he were raised to the hierarchy: his educational ideas largely depended on a simple approach, a cardinalship could only hinder the rapport he already had with his charges. His request was that he remains a simple man. In 1871 he pioneered a federation for some of his past pupils. Later this idea of keeping in touch with past pupils became one of the features of the Salesian pedagogy. By 1872, the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians was founded. It was to become a counterpart of Bosco's Salesians. In the same year, Don Bosco took over the college at Valsalice and began his methods there. By 1874 the Constitutions of his Society were approved and in 1875 the first Salesian missionaries departed for Argentine and closer to home, in Nice, another Salesian school was founded.

In the next two years, Don Bosco founded the Salesian Co-Operators, members of the laity who were prepared to cooperate with Salesians on a firm basis. Meanwhile, a second Salesian missionary contingent gathered in Rome in preparation for field work in South America. The first Salesian Bulletin was published in 1877, the year in which the First General Chapter of the Salesian Order was held. In 1880, while Don Bosco was journeying through France, at a time when religious Orders were being restricted there, the Salesians received assurances that their work in France would not be interrupted. A second General Chapter of the Salesian Society was also held in1880, the year in which Leo XIII entrusted to Don Bosco the building of the church of the Sacred Heart in Rome.

Don Bosco, again in France in 1881, received an enthusiastic reception and in 1883 spoke with Victor Hugo, who described the priest-educator as a "legendary figure". By 1884 a Salesian House was established in Spain and in 1885 Don Bosco formally handed over the reins to Don Michael Rua. Now deteriorating in health, Don Bosco in 1886 was welcomed in Spain. He made his last journey to Rome in 1887, to consecrate the church of the Sacred Heart, near Stazione Termine.

Bosco died on 31 January 1888. His funeral was attended by thousands and he is buried at Valsalice, Turin. His Feast Day is today, 31 January.