The present essay has a rather modest aim. Steering clear of the complexities of a biographical reconstruction, it will simply describe Don Rosco’s last years, including his last illness and death, with focus on the person, and with emphasis on words and attitudes.
But if Marseilles was so close, why did “Paolino” Albera not come to Turin during those final days of January 1888? Why was he not at Don Bosco’s bedside? How did the death of his spiritual father and mentor impact on him?
Continue reading “Joseph Boenzi – Paolo Albera’s visits during Don Bosco’s last illness”
In the first part of his study on the “Bosco-Gastaldi conflict”, Arthur Lenti drew attention to another figure similarly involved in a painful controversy with the Archbishop of Turin, namely Sr. Marie-Louise-Angelique Clarac, foundress of the Sisters of Charity of St. Mary, also known as the Sisters of Charity of Good Counsel.
Thus the approval of the Salesian Constitutions in April 1874 was followed by a second and more bitterly fought phase of the conflict.
Continue reading “Arthur Lenti – The Bosco-Gastaldi conflict (1872-82), Part II”
The conflict between Archbishop Lawrence Gastaldi and Don Bosco may at first sight appear to have been, to put a facile contemporary label on it, a typical confrontation between institution and charism.
Continue reading “Arthur Lenti – The Bosco-Gastaldi Conflict (1872-82), Part I”
Turin’s EXPO ’84 was to become the bittersweet culmination of Don Bosco’s remarkable and varied career as publisher, author, and printer.
For almost 40 years he had been active in the cause of the Catholic press and as editor of educational publications.
Don Bosco’s biographer, Father John Baptist Lemoyne, notes that most of the boys who attended Don Bosco’s evening classes were hard-working young apprentices or youths who worked wherever they could find a job.
Included in the copious documentation that comprises the chronicles and annals of the early history of the Salesian Society in the Salesian archives in Rome, there is a treasure trove of diaries, journals, memoirs, and daybooks which chart the ebb and flow of the early years of the Oratory of Saint Francis of Sales.
One spring day in 1860 Don Bosco was startled by a newsvendor’s cry. “Read all about it! Don Bosco in jail!” He was both amused and bemused.
Continue reading “Michael Ribotta – Hero or villain: Don Bosco as seen in the press of his time”
During the years following the late nineteenth and early twentieth century the Italian immigrant made his way, educated his children, and contributed his many talents to the great melting pot, not only in New York City, but in the whole of the United States.
Continue reading “Philip J. Pascucci – Once upon a time in old New York”
In carrying out his humble apostolate on behalf of poor and abandoned boys, Saint John Bosco (1815-1888) came into frequent contact with the wealthy and the powerful of Piedmontese society.
Continue reading “Michael Mendl – St. John Bosco’s dealings with the Cavour family”
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