Saint Joseph Cafasso met Don Bosco when he was 12 years old, while Cafasso was already a seminarian.
Newsdesk (09/09/2025, Gaudium Press) Saint Joseph Cafasso met Don Bosco when the future Salesian founder was only 12 years old. Cafasso was a seminarian. The young Don Bosco found the seminarian curious and approached him, as he himself recounts:
“On the eve of a big celebration in my village, I saw a young seminarian standing by the door of the church who struck me as very friendly. I approached him and asked, ‘Reverend, would you like to come and enjoy our celebrations a little?’. With a pleasant smile, he replied, ‘Look, my friend, for those of us who are dedicated to the service of God, the best celebrations are those held in the church’. Encouraged by his kind response, I added, ‘Yes, but there is also much to enjoy and have a good time at our celebrations in the square’. He added, ‘What makes a good friend of God happiest is to participate very devoutly in the religious celebrations of the Church’. Then he asked me what studies I had done and if I had already received Holy Communion, and if I went to confession frequently. The church opened shortly afterwards, and before saying goodbye, he said to me: ‘Do not forget that for those who want to follow the priesthood, there is nothing more pleasant or attractive than that which serves to give glory to God and to save souls‘. And he said goodbye to me very kindly. I was amazed by the kindness of this young seminarian. I asked his name and was told, ‘He is Joseph Cafasso, a boy so pious that even as a child in the village they called him ‘the little saint’.“
‘Don’t forget that for those who want to follow the priesthood…’ the seminarian had said to the boy Bosco; it was probably a prophetic insight into the path that God had destined for him.
Ordained a priest, with dispensation, at the young age of 21
Joseph Cafasso was ordained a priest at age 21, with dispensation, and went to Turin to continue his studies. At the end of his three years of studies at ‘El Convictorio,’ a prepartory school for the priesthood, he was asked to stay there as a teacher, and then when the Rector died, he was made Rector, a position he held for 12 years until his death.
He trained more than 100 priests. His role models were St. Philip Neri and St. Francis de Sales. With the gentleness of St. Francis de Sales, he opposed the Jansenist and rigorist tendencies, which absurdly claimed that a person could not approach the Sacraments unless they were already extremely virtuous.
Saint Joseph Cafasso wanted his trainees to visit prisons and poor neighbourhoods so that they would develop sensitivity towards people who suffer.
He paid for St. John Bosco’s studies
John Bosco wanted to enter the seminary but did not have the money. St. Joseph Cafasso paid for half of the scholarship and arranged for the seminary to pay the other half if St. John Bosco would work as a Sacristan, barber,and tailor. After completing his studies at the seminary, St. Joseph Cafasso took him to Turin to pursue postgraduate studies at El Convictorio.
When St. John Bosco began his apostolate of gathering poor and abandoned street children, St. Joseph Cafasso always supported him, despite Bosco’s many critics. He alleviated the poverty of the nascent Salesian community by obtaining donations for them from wealthy individuals. Bosco’s community always recognized Cafasso as their patron and protector.
Bringing Peace to Prisoners
Saint Joseph Cafasso distinguished himself through his apostolate in prisons, where, with patience, grace, and little gifts, he gradually won the prisoners’ goodwill until they confessed their sins. He accompanied 68 prisoners condemned to death, and of these, only one died unrepentant. When someone was given the maximum sentence, that person would usually ask for the assistance of Fr. Cafasso.
One day, St. Joseph Cafasso took Don Bosco to see a gallows, but the young Bosco fainted!
Cafasso had what people recognized as ‘the Gift of Counsel’. All kinds of people came to his office seeking that voice they perceived as coming from God. His kindness and serenity also attracted people; he radiated a contagious joy that St John Bosco greatly admired and sought to imitate. He told the priests he was training that Jesus wanted them to imitate Him in His gentleness.
How Beautiful to Die on a Saturday …
He was very devoted to the Virgin Mary and spread that devotion widely. One day he said, ‘How beautiful it is to die on a Saturday, the day of the Virgin Mary, to be taken by Her to Heaven’. And he himself was blessed to die on a Saturday, the 23rd of June, 1860, when he was only 49 years old.
The funeral oration was given by his favourite disciple, Saint John Bosco. Pius XII canonized him in 1947.
With information from EWTN
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Compiled by Roberta MacEwan
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