Giovanni Celestino Filippo Massaglia was born in Marmorito (Asti, Italy) on May 1, 1838, to Pietro Giovanni and Anna Maria Caresio. He arrived at Valdocco in November 1853 and Don Bosco dressed him in the clerical habit two years later, on 30 September.
Dominic and John attended the same school year at Valdocco, 1854/55, and the first half of the following one.
They were models of virtue and prompted each other to walk the path of holiness. Members of the same Company of the Immaculate, they both died at a very young age (18 and 14 respectively), a few months apart.
The young Massaglia was also included in the Encyclopedia of Saints, Blesseds, and Witnesses of the Faith.
Don Bosco wrote in the preface to the "Life of the young Dominic Savio, pupil of the Oratory of St. Francis de Sales" (1859): Divine Providence deigned to send us several models of virtue; such were Fascio Gabriele, Rua Luigi, Gavio Camillo, Massaglia Giovanni, and others.
