Though he died when he was just 15 years old, St. Dominic Savio displayed a remarkable depth of humanity and holiness. He is one of the youngest non-martyr saints to be canonized by the Church.

He was born in Italy in 1842 to a peasant family and, even as a young boy, had a desire to become a priest. St. John Bosco was fostering vocations among young men who might one day become priests to help him in his work with wayward boys. He took Dominic, aged 12, into his care and training at an oratory that John founded in Turin.

Dominic had clear sight of what was right and wrong and acted decisively. When he received his first Communion, he adopted a personal motto: “Death, but not sin!” He would often slip away from the playground during a recess to make a visit to the Blessed Sacrament.

One time, he broke up a fight between two boys who were ready to beat each other with stones by holding up a crucifix between them. “Before you fight, look at this,” he said. “Say, ‘Jesus Christ was sinless and he died forgiving his executioners. I am a sinner, and I am going to outrage him by being deliberately revengeful.’ Then you can start, and throw your first stone at me.”

Though he was strictly observant of rules, Dominic was also quick to laugh, which sometimes got him into trouble with his superiors. He was also a great storyteller, which endeared him to younger boys especially.

John Bosco led the boys in a healthy and balanced spirituality, insisting on cheerfulness, playfulness, and attentiveness to duties. Dominic followed his lead—he would often say, “I can’t do big things. But I want all I do, even the smallest thing, to be for the greater glory of God.”

John Bosco wrote the biography of Dominic himself and took special care to write only what he had observed himself. He recorded Dominic’s spiritual gifts judiciously, including his supernatural knowledge of people in need or his insight into the future. For example, one time Dominic asked John to follow him into the city. Dominic led the priest to an apartment building, rang on a door, and promptly left. The door was answered by a man who was dying and had just been asking for a priest so he could make his last confession.

Dominic would often get caught up in rapturous prayer—to the point that he would lose track of time or get lost in the experience. On one occasion, he was found standing in the same position in prayer for six hours, thinking that the Mass he had been at had not yet ended. He called them his “distractions,” saying, “It seems as though heaven is opening just above me. I am afraid I may say or do something that will make the other boys laugh.”

Dominic was in poor health, and he was sent home from the oratory in Turin for some fresh air. Doctors diagnosed him with inflammation of the lungs and bled him, according to the practice of the time. Dominic’s health slowly declined and received the anointing of the sick before dying on this date in 1857. Just before he died, he sat up and said these last words, “I am seeing the most wonderful things!”

Though many objected to such a young person being held up as a saint, Pope St. Pius X, who began the canonization process for Dominic, said, “A teenager such as Dominic, who bravely struggled to keep his innocence from Baptism to the end of his life, is really a saint.” St. Dominic’s relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica, and his image is used here with permission from Catholic.org.

St. Dominic Savio, young teenage saint and visionary—pray for us!