Other Activities

In addition to his educational endeavours and his priestly ministry of religious services and preaching, Don Bosco undertook a multitude of other activities in the effort to promote his work and to adequately care for those in his charge. Attending to the material, pastoral and spiritual welfare of the rapidly expanding network of communities under his care and the continual need to secure the financial resources to fund and support his humanitarian, charitable and religious activities, meant that his time was increasingly occupied with meetings, travel and writing. In response to the need for educational resources for his students Don Bosco authored numerous texts in mathematics, spirituality, history and religion. He established his own printing press, edited several popular magazines and wrote a number of books, pamphlets and biographies in order to provide his students and his growing public audience with written materials appropriate for their human and spiritual formation.
Don Bosco was also called upon to undertake numerous other activities. He acted as a mediator between the Papacy and civil authorities throughout Italy, built numerous churches, schools and oratories, commissioned a series of missionary expeditions to South America and founded two organisations of lay people to assist him in his work.
The name "Don Bosco" became extraordinarily well known throughout Europe - especially Italy, Spain and France as a result of his prolific activity in such a wide range of civil and ecclesial projects. The nature of his work for young people and the novel, if not revolutionary, approach that he adopted captured the imagination of people from every stratum of society. Even towards the end of his life, Don Bosco's charismatic reputation for holiness and his popularity as a preacher and writer resulted in tens of thousands of people gathering to see and listen to him in each of the cities that he visited on tours of France and Spain.