Michael Ribotta – The day they shut down the oratory school

On June 30, 1879, after numerous attempts to stave off the inevitable, Don Bosco was finally compelled to shut down his oratory school in Valdocco.

As a consequence more than 300 boys began an unexpected and prolonged vacation.

But for Don Bosco it was anything but a restful respite. For him the school’s closure was the beginning of an ordeal that would last almost eighteen months. What he had struggled so long to achieve and so hard to consolidate his cherished oratory school-was now on the verge of extinction.

Reference time period: 1855 – 1879

Reference institution:
Institute of Salesian Studies