Consider all his other writings related to biblical history, such as Maniera facile per imparare la Storia Sacra (An Easy Way to Learn Bible History), first published in 1850; Vita di San Pietro (The Life of St Peter), published in January 1857 as a booklet in the series ‘Letture Cattoliche’ (Catholic Readings); Vita di San Paolo (The Life of St Paul), published in April of the same year as a booklet in the Letture Cattoliche; The Life of St Joseph, published in the March 1867 issue of Letture Cattoliche; etc.

Don Bosco also kept maxims from Scripture as bookmarks in his Breviary and had sentences from Scripture painted on the walls of the portico at Valdocco.

From 1853 onwards, he wanted his clerical students of philosophy and theology to study ten verses from the New Testament every week and recite them verbatim on Thursday mornings.

At the beginning of the course, all the clerics held a copy of the Latin Vulgate Bible in their hands and had it open at the first lines of the Gospel of St Matthew. But Don Bosco, after reciting the prayer, began to say in Latin verse 18 of chapter 16 of Matthew: ‘Et ego dico tibi quia tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam, et portae inferi non praevalebunt adversus eam’: And I say to you: You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. He wanted his children to always keep this Gospel truth in their minds and hearts.

Source: Salesian Bulletin Online