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 Saint Dominic: Centennial of Death Stamps on Left: Saint Dominic Savio Stamps on Right: Saint Dominic Savio with Saint John Bosco Scott 219-222 (1957) May 6 is the feast day of Saint Dominic Savio. Unlike many saints, whose feast days are commemorated on the dates of their deaths, Saint Dominic Savio’s feast day is celebrated on May 6 because his original feast day and date of death, March 9, frequently conflicts with the liturgical season of Lent. Saint Dominic is one of the very young saints venerated by the Church and is fairly well known. The stamps above were issued in 1957 to commemorate the centennial of his death. Dominic was born in 1842 in Riva, Italy. At the young age of 12, he joined Saint John Bosco as a student at the Oratory in Turin. He greatly impressed Don Bosco with his wishes to be a priest and the desire to work with neglected boys. A peacemaker and an organizer, young Dominic founded a group he called the Company of the Immaculate Conception. All the members of this group, except Dominic, would constitute the beginnings of Don Bosco's Salesian congregation in 1859. Dominic spent many hours in prayer, which he called "my distractions". One of Dominic's lasting quotes is: "I can’t do big things. But I want all I do, even the smallest thing, to be for the greater glory of God".Dominic always suffered from poor health. Due to lung problems and, unfortunately, the methods of treatment of the time, his condition worsened and he died on March 9, 1857, at the age of 14.  Fresco of Dominic Savio Saint Joseph Church, Pallanza (Verbania, Piedmont, Italy) Photo by Syrio From Wikimedia Commons, used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license Saint John Bosco wrote the biography, The Life of Dominic Savio, a book that contributed to the cause for Dominic's canonization. Since saints were viewed as older and wiser individuals, certainly not youngsters like Dominic, at the time it was argued that he was too young to be canonized. Pope Pius X disagreed and insisted that the cause for Dominic’s canonization be initiated. Dominic Savio was declared Venerable in 1933 by Pope Pius XI, who described him as "small in size, but a towering giant in spirit." He was beatified in 1950 and declared a saint in 1954, both by Pope Pius XII. At the time of his canonization, there was only one younger saint, Saint Maria Goretti, who died at age 11 and was canonized in 1950. Saint Dominic is the patron saint of two groups of young boys we would consider at the opposite ends of the spectrum: choir boys and juvenile delinquents. In addition to the individual stamps of this issue, the four stamps were printed on sheets that contained an inscribed corner block, sometimes referred to as an "ornamental corner block". As an example, the stamps of the Dominic Savio issue were printed in panes configured in a grid of eight by eight spaces, totaling 64 spaces. This would have resulted in odd total prices for the full sheets. To circumvent the problem, the four upper right hand corner spaces on the sheets were not printed with stamps but formed a statement regarding the price for the full sheet of the stamps. Thus each sheet had 60 stamps and 4 spots forming the corner block inscription. The corner block translates to read: "The sheet of sixty stamps is worth XXX lire". This practice was used for only a few years and with a limited number of stamp issues. Below are the ornamental corner blocks for the stamps of the Saint Dominic Savio issue: 
 
 Saint Dominic Savio Issue of 1957 (Scott 219-222) Ornamental Corner Blocks REFERENCES: |
