Bicentenary of the birth of Don Bosco

Giovanni Melchiorre Bosco, known as Don Bosco, was born in 1815 in a farm of Castelnuovo d’Asti. On the occasion of the bicentenary of his birth, the Republic of San Marino issued two values of €1.20 and €2.40 to pay homage to a man who founded the Salesian Society and the congregation of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, which nowadays are spread in 132 countries. Since he spent his life at the service of the young people, the poor and the sufferers, he was known everywhere. Schools, hospitals, oratories and parishes are headed to him. After his beatification in 1929, he was canonized as a saint in 1934 and Pope John Paul II gave him the title of "Father and Master of Youth" in 1989. The two stamps designed by the Sammarinese artist Laura Temellini show two portraits of the Saint.