The feast day of the 19th-century Italian saint who first came up with the idea of a "boys town" to help adolescents see their worthiness in light of their origin and destiny as sons of God is celebrated the last day of January.

Even as a poor, teenage farm boy, he was trying to get the attention of boys like himself, who lived in poverty and with hopelessness. He hoped he could convince them not to turn to meanness and crime.

Unusually strong and brilliant, this saint became a juggler, a magician and an acrobat, and used these great talents to get the attention of troubled boys. The price of admission to these shows was a prayer.

The saint's name? John Bosco. He went on to live his whole life helping ragged, abused and abandoned young people he met to find hope and joy. He became a priest, and he established schools and ministries for young ones. Ultimately he founded the Salesians, a religious order to teach and care for the young. The order was named for a saint he loved, St. Francis de Sales.

Because my married name was Bosco, I became very interested in this saint. When my second son was born, I named him John Dominic. The "Dominic" was for St. Dominic Savio, the pupil of the great children's saint. Dominic died at age 15, only three years after coming to Don Bosco's "boys town" to learn from the priest he revered. Dominic was proclaimed a saint by Pope Pius XII in 1954.

I remember a summer day when my John was 15. I was it the kitchen washing vegetables. He came up behind me, lifted my bent elbows and said, laughing, "Mom, you better pray you raised me right." He was referring to his strength --- so like his patron saint's --- that I always told him had to be used for the good of others.

I laughed too and then said: "I did. I named you after St. John Bosco."

Fast forward to Aug. 16, 1993: My son John and his wife Nancy had recently bought a new home in Montana and called to tell me they were taking a trip to Colorado. I said, "Have a good time, and I'll talk to you at the end of the week."

Somehow I was restless and decided to take a slow trip through Vermont to visit family members in Albany, N.Y. Driving through a small town, I saw a library having a book sale. I stopped, of course, and then my foot felt a book that had fallen on the ground. It was a book written for young people back in 1954: "St. John Bosco and the Children's Saint Dominic Savio," by Catherine Beebe. That date, Aug. 16, was the birth date of St. John Bosco. Of course I bought the book to give to my son.

But three days later I received the news from a sheriff in Montana that my son John and his wife had never left Montana. As they slept they had been murdered by an intruder with a 9 mm semi-automatic gun.

In a strange way, that book, discovered so "coincidentally," consoled me. I felt St. John Bosco had gotten in touch with me to tell me he was with John, his namesake, and Nancy. I give special thanks every year to St. John Bosco on his feast day, Jan. 31.

Antoinette Bosco is an author and columnist with Catholic News Service.