Giovanni Bosco  was born into a peasant family in the Becchi, a fraction of Castelnuovo d'Asti (now Castelnuovo Don Bosco) on August 16, 1815. His father, Francesco, who had married Margherita Occhiena in a second marriage, died when he was two years old and at home certainly there were no difficulties also because the stepbrother Antonio was against letting the boy study, even though he showed an uncommon intelligence. At the age of nine, Giovanni had a dream that revealed to him the mission to which the Lord was calling him: he found himself in the midst of boys who were cursing, screaming and arguing and while he threw himself at them with fists and kicks to make them desist, he saw in front of him a man with a very bright face who introduced himself to him saying: "I am the Son of the one your mother taught you to greet three times a day" and added: "Not with beating, but with meekness and charity you will have to earn these friends of yours. Therefore, immediately put yourself to give them an instruction on the ugliness of sin and the preciousness of virtue ”. Then a majestic-looking woman appeared, the Virgin Mary who, showing him the field to work - "kids, dogs and several other animals" - said to him: "Make yourself humble, strong and robust" and, placing her hand on his head, concluded: "In due time you will understand everything."