Salesian Order

The Salesian Order - its official title is the Order of St. Francis de Sales - is a Roman Catholic religious order founded in 1859 by St. John Bosco (Giovanni Melchiorre Bosco, 1815-1888). Bosco, an Italian priest, worked throughout his life to help orphaned and homeless children in the city of Turin in northwest Italy, and the Salesian Order is dedicated to the education of young boys, especially those who are underprivileged. (A parallel order, the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco, is concerned with the education of girls.) Once established in Turin, the Order quickly expanded: by the 1860s there were Salesians working in France and in South America. and by the end of the first decade of the twentieth century the Order had spread throughout the world.

St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), after whom the Salesian Order is named, was Bishop of Geneva from 1602 to 1622. He worked to bring Protestants back to the Roman Catholic church, and was the author of Introduction to the Devout Life (Introduction à la vie dévote), one of the great works of Christian devotion.