Salesian Order

Salesians of Don Bosco

Coat of Arms of the Salesians Logo of the Salesians
Map showing the regions marked with the locations of provincial and vice provincial headquarters.
Abbreviation	S.D.B.
Motto	Da mihi Animas cætera tolle ("Give me souls, take away the rest")
Formation	18 December 1859 (1859-12-18)
Founder	St. John Bosco
Type	Clerical Religious Congregation (Clerical religious institute of pontifical right)
Purpose	Dedicated to do apostolic works
Headquarters	Direzione Generale Opere Don Bosco, Via della Pisana 1111, Casella Postale 18333, 00163 Roma
Membership (2014)	15,298 (14,731 without novices and bishops)
Rector Major	Fr. Ángel Fernández Artime
Vicar of the Rector Major	Fr. Francesco Cereda
Main organ	Rector Major And General Council
Website	sdb.org/en
Formerly called	Society of St Francis of Sales

Coat of Arms of the Salesians

The Salesians of Don Bosco (or the Salesian Society, officially named the Society of St. Francis de Sales) is a Roman Catholic religious institute founded in the late nineteenth century by Italian priest Saint John Bosco to help poor children during the Industrial Revolution.

The Salesians' charter describes the society's mission as "the Christian perfection of its associates obtained by the exercise of spiritual and corporal works of charity towards the young, especially the poor, and the education of boys to the priesthood". The institute is named after Francis de Sales, an early-modern bishop from Geneva.

In 1845 Don John Bosco ("Don" being a traditional Italian honorific for a priest) opened a night school for boys in Valdocco, now part of the municipality of Turin in Italy. In the following years, he opened several more schools, and in 1857 drew up a set of rules for his helpers, which became the Rule of the Society of St. Francis de Sales, which Pope Pius IX approved definitively in 1873. The Society grew rapidly, with houses established in France and Argentina within a year of the Society's formal recognition. Its official print organ, the Salesian Bulletin, was first published in 1877.

Over the next decade the Salesians expanded into Austria, Britain, Spain, and several countries in South America. The death of Don Bosco in 1888 did not slow the Society's growth. By 1911 the Salesians were established throughout the world, including Colombia, China, India, South Africa, Tunisia, Venezuela and the United States.