Contents:
- Introduction
- 1. Historical approach
- A commitment of fidelity
- Appreciation of our past history
- A new mentality
Antonia Colombo – La profecía a la que está llamada la educación salesiana hoy
Este aporte ha sido ofrecido con ocasión del centenario de la presencia de las Hijas de Maria Auxiliadora en Colombia. Con estas reflexiones la autora desea unirse al camino de búsqueda de nuevos avances en la calidad educativa, tanto en el campo de la escuela, como también en los demás ambientes educativos salesianos del vasto continente americano.
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Josephine Giorgi – St. Luigi Versiglia and Bishop Walsh of Maryknoll
A different type of writing comes to us from Josephine Giorgi, the second cousin of St. Luigi Versiglia. Josephine lives in Springfield, Massachusetts. The excerpt from a biography of Bishop James Walsh of Maryknoll by Raymond Kerri son exemplifies the apostolic spirit of the two Salesian martyrs along with Bishop Walsh’s deep esteem for them.
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Michael Mendl – “The zeal of the salesians is just the thing”. Founding of the salesian work in New York
Over one hundred years ago, on November 28, 1898, three Salesians arrived in New York to initiate a Salesian apostolate among the Italian immigrants of that metropolis. In March of the previous year four of their confreres had undertaken a similar mission in San Francisco.
Giovanni Bosco – The two “official” regulations (1877)
In the years from 1853 to 1862, Valdocco was transformed from a festive Oratory—an open institution—into a complex work: hospice and boarding, college with boarding section, trade workshops, internal classes and publishing centre, amongst the most important sections.
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Giovanni Bosco – First salesian colleges founded outside Turin (1863-1864)
“One and not the last study by Don Bosco this year,” writes J. B. Lemoyne referring to 1863 “was the foundation of the college at Mirabello. He had written up its regulations, using the ones at the Oratory as a basis, specifying all the duties of individual superiors and of the pupils, changing what might not be appropriate for the nature of this Institute.” These “regulations,” that remained simply handwritten for many years, according to what we have from Lemoyne, “had to be the founding statute for all the other Houses that would be opened over time. This meant they were given much importance.”
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Giovanni Bosco – School and boarding house at Mornese Nizza Monferrato – FMA (1873-1878)
The Programme—also called Regulations—of the school in Mornese was printed by Don Bosco at the Oratory Press like all the other Regulations for Salesian houses. The text copies many of the items in use at colleges he founded.
Giovanni Bosco – Summary of goodnights to the boys at Valdocco (1864-1877)
Amongst the more original practices put in place as part of the educational praxis at Valdocco, and maintained in the Salesian tradition that then followed from it, we would have to highlight the “Goodnights”: brief “talks” or “short speeches” after night prayers. Don Bosco addressed the pupils in the presence of their educators (superiors of the house, teachers assistants), in a familiar way using simple and attractive language.
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Giovanni Bosco – Guidelines for running salesian houses (1863-1887)
The origin of this authoritative document, the Confidential Reminders, is a letter written to Fr Michael Rua whom Don Bosco called on to take up the running of the first Salesian house outside Turin in autumn 1863: the college or junior seminary of St Charles in Mirabello Monferrato. In a letter sent to the young Rector/Director, Don Bosco wanted to pass on pedagogical and spiritual guidelines which had already been in practice at Valdocco. These were to also characterise the apostolic and educational work in the new foundation.
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Giovanni Bosco – Sources prior to the first missionary expedition
The first seven documents offered here belong in some way to the first missionary expedition which sailed from Genoa on November 14, 1875.
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Giovanni Bosco – A missionary project in rapid development
What were Don Bosco’s missionary plans for Argentina once he had set foot in that land? With the information in his possession thanks to research by Fr Giulio Barberis, and to correspondence with local authorities and Salesian missionaries, six months after the first expedition Don Bosco was able to send the Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide, Cardinal Alessandro Franchi, a first report on the immediate results of the work of Salesian missionaries in Argentina (no. 98). He asked for financial aid and the setting up of an Apostolic Prefecture for the territories of Pampa and Patagonia to refer those who belonged to no institution either ecclesiastical or civil.
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