Biographers report a funny conversation Don Bosco had with Cagliero's mother, Teresa, when he asked her permission to take him with him to Turin; "Do you want to sell your Giovannino to me?" he told her jokingly and she replied in her dialect, "Calves are sold, children are given away". "Better still," he retorted, "prepare him some laundry, and tomorrow I will take him with me”.
At the Oratory there was great poverty, but a lot of love: "Our dormitories, on the ground floor, were narrow, and had only the pave stones on the floor. In the kitchen there were a few tin bowls with their respective spoons. Forks, knives, napkins we saw many years later. The refectory was a canopy. Don Bosco served us at lunch, helped us keep the dormitory tidy, cleaned and patched our clothes, and did all the humblest of services ... We lived together in everything. More than in a boarding school, we felt we were in a family, under the direction of a father who loved us, and who was concerned only for our spiritual and material well-being".
When Don Bosco decided to give full life to a new Congregation, with regular enrolment and vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, the young John Cagliero pronounced that famous phrase, which has remained in the annals, and which also had a dragging force on others of the young men present: “Monk or no monk, I remain with Don Bosco”.
Fr Cagliero took his three-year vows on 14 May 1862, his perpetual vows, and was already a priest, on 15 November 1865.
He was the hero for the young people. He had an exuberant temperament, very impulsive, and he communicated to others the joy of living with Don Bosco: working, running, giving himself. Often, the boys, after Don Bosco's 'Salesian goodnight', would approach Fr Cagliero and greet him with spontaneous affection.x
Meanwhile, John Cagliero perfected his musical talents. Church services, academies, bands, made him a precocious and brilliant composer. Two of his operas, Il figlio dell'esule and Lo Spazzacamino, were praised by Giuseppe Verdi for their beautiful and moving music. They also reached the Court and were sung by the future Queen Margaret. The Requiem Mass for three voices was judged a 'jewel of faith and harmony'. His maestro Cerutti had it performed in the Royal House at the funeral for Carlo Alberto.
He was also volcanic in this: on 9 June 1868, the Mass for the consecration of the Church of Mary Help of Christians was sung in three choirs: a boy’s choir in two-voice on the cornice of the dome, another two choirs in three-voices under the dome and in the choir loft.
After his priesthood, he worked as a Salesian for 13 years, becoming a phenomenon of activities and projects, and also serving as Spiritual Director of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. He also dedicated himself passionately to the activity of composing sacred music, and wrote pieces rich in melodic vein, which especially in the early years (1860-70) were an important component of the oratorian environment.
In 1875 Don Bosco entrusted him with the leadership of the first group of Salesians who set off on a mission to Patagonia, Argentina.
Once he landed in Buenos Aires he began the apostolate among the Italian emigrants, who were numerous in that period of great emigration; he opened a parish in the poorest area of the city, he also founded churches, institutes, Salesian works; everywhere he spread Salesian ardour and joy.
After nine years in South America, in 1884 John Cagliero was consecrated bishop and Apostolic Vicar of Patagonia, thus becoming the first Salesian priest to assume the service of the episcopate. He was ordained in Turin, in the church of Mary Help of Christians, and his mother Teresa had the joy of seeing him with his episcopal insignia before she died at the age of 88. That day Cagliero also kept his hand with the bishop's ring hidden between the folds of his habit until Don Bosco arrived: the first kiss was rightfully his.
In his mission land, Monsignor Cagliero began the evangelization of the natives of Patagonia in grand style, he was forced to go on horseback, he lassoed, climbed mountains, reached remote tribes... always in search of souls.
He hastily returned to Turin as soon as he heard that Don Bosco was dying, and on 30 January 1888 he gave him his last kiss while reciting his last prayers. He returned to Patagonia immediately after the funeral.
In 1915 Pope Benedict XV created him a cardinal, at the age of 77; thus recognizing the merit of a life spent for the good of others, especially in the mission lands.
Returning to Italy for the last years of his old age, he died in Rome on 28 February 1926, at the age of 88. His body, initially buried in Rome, at the request of the Argentine Episcopate has been resting since 1964 in the 'Mater Misericordiae' Cathedral in Viedma, his first episcopal see.
