St. Dominic Savio

St. Dominic Savio (2 April 1842 – 9 March 1857) was an Italian boy from near Turin who became a pupil of St. John Bosco at the Oratory in that city. From early childhood he displayed remarkable piety, purity, and cheerfulness, taking as his motto "Death rather than sin." He organized a Company of the Immaculate Conception among his fellow students to support Don Bosco's work and to encourage one another in virtue.

He pursued sanctity through ordinary schoolboy life — study, friendship, small acts of charity and self-denial — rather than through extraordinary penances, which Don Bosco moderated in him. His health failed and he died at only fourteen, having asked to see "the beautiful things" as he passed. His mentor wrote his biography, and he was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1954, becoming a model of youthful holiness and patron of choirboys and young students.