Don Bosco was a practical and enterprising man, a tireless and creative worker who committed all his energies to a vast apostolic project for the human and Christian education of the young.
Certain that he was called by God to this mission, he founded oratories, schools, workshops; he found work for the young; he committed himself to the Evangelization of the working classes and to the missions.

To carry out his apostolic project he involved many lay men and women, united in an association: the Salesian Cooperators.

He outlined a rule of spiritual life, simple but rich in content. A characteristic spirit, that of the Salesians, which particularly expresses and emphasizes certain Gospel values: strong pastoral charity, youthful dynamism, sense of the Church, family spirit, optimism, joy.