If Don Bosco happily joked with his boys to see them cheerful and serene, he also revealed in jest with his Salesians the esteem he had for them, the desire to see them form one big family with him, poor yes, but trusting in Divine Providence, united in faith and charity.

Don Bosco’s fiefdoms
In 1830 Margaret Occhiena, widow of Francis Bosco, made the division of the property inherited from her husband between her stepson Anthony and her two sons Joseph and John. It consisted, among other things, of eight plots of land comprising meadows, fields and vineyards. We know nothing precise about the criteria followed by Mamma Margaret in dividing her father’s inheritance between the three of them. However, among the plots of land there was a vineyard near the Becchi (at Bric dei Pin), a field at Valcapone (or Valcappone) and another at Bacajan (or Bacaiau). In any case, these three lands constitute the “fiefdoms” as Don Bosco jokingly termed his property.
The Becchi, as we all know, is the lowly hamlet where Don Bosco was born; Valcapponé (or Valcapone) was a site to the east of the Colle under the Serra di Capriglio but down in the valley in the area known as Sbaruau (= bogeyman), because it was thickly wooded with a few huts hidden among the branches that served as a place of storage for launderers and as a refuge for brigands. Bacajan (or Bacaiau) was a field east of the Colle between the Valcapone and Morialdo plots. Here are Don Bosco’s “fiefdoms”!
The Biographical Memoirs say that for some time Don Bosco had conferred noble titles on his lay collaborators. So there was the Count of the Becchi, the Marquis of Valcappone, the Baron of Bacaiau, the three lands that Don Bosco must have known to be part of his inheritance. “For some time now he had been in the habit of jestingly conferring titles of nobility such as “Count of Becchi” or “Marquis of Valcappone” on his senior lay co-workers, particularly [Joseph] Rossi, [Charles] Gastini, [Peter] Enria, [Andrew] Pelazza, and [Joseph] Buzzetti, not only within the Oratory but also outside, especially when traveling with any of them during the summer months” (BM VIII, 101).
Among these “noble” Salesians, we know for sure, that the Count of the Becchi (or of the Bricco del Pino) was Giuseppe Rossi, the first lay Salesian, or “Coadjutor” who loved Don Bosco like a most affectionate son and was faithful to him for ever.
Once Don Bosco went to the Porta Nuova station with Joseph Rossi, who was carrying Don Bosco’s suitcase. As usual, he arrived as the train was about to leave and all the coaches were full. The windows were either closed or had passengers blocking the view to convey the impression that there were no vacant seats in their compartments. Turning to Rossi, Don Bosco rather loudly remarked, “My dear Count, I regret inconveniencing you. You shouldn’t be carrying my suitcase.”
“Forget it. I feel honoured to be of service to you.” At hearing this, the passengers closest to them exchanged surprised looks.
“Don Bosco!” they immediately shouted. “We have two seats here. Please come in!”
“But I wouldn’t want to trouble you!” Don Bosco replied.
“Never mind! It’s a pleasure to have you. We have plenty of room!”
And so the “Count of the Becchi” was able to get on the train with Don Bosco and the suitcase.

The pumps and a shack
Don Bosco lived and died poor. For food he was content with very little. Even a glass of wine was already too much for him, and he systematically watered it down.
“Often he forgot to drink, taken up by quite different thoughts, and his table companions would have to pour wine into his glass. If the wine was good, he then would instantly reach for water to dilute it and ‘make it even better,’ as he would say. With a smile he would add, ‘I’ve renounced the world and the devil, but not the pumps.’ He drank only one glass at each meal.” (BM IV, 134).
Even for accommodation we know how he lived. On 12 September 1873 the General Conference of the Salesians was held to re-elect an Economer and three Councillors. On that occasion Don Bosco spoke memorable and prophetic words on the development of the Congregation. Then when he came to speak about the Superior Chapter, which by now seemed to need a suitable residence, he said, amidst universal hilarity: “Were it possible (he went on in a humorous vein) I would like to set up a shed in the middle of the playground for the chapter members so they could be isolated from all other mortals. But since they are still entitled to live on this earth, they may choose to reside in whatever house it may seem best.” (BM X, 464).

Otis, botis, pija tutis
Don Bosco also had a mysterious answer for a cleric or a student who asked him how he could know the future and guess so many secrets.
“I’ll tell you,’ he would reply. “The key to everything is Otis, Batis, Pia, Tutis. Do you know what that means?”
“No, Father!”
“Pay attention. It’s Greek.” And slowly he would repeat: “0-tis, Bo-tis, Pi-a, Tu-tis. ls it clear now?”
“No!”
“I know those words are hard to understand. That’s why I never reveal their meaning. No one knows it and no one ever will because it would not be wise for me to reveal it. It is the big secret to all my wonders. With this magic formula I can read consciences and solve any mystery. Let’s see how smart you are. See if you can make something out of it!” He would then repeat the four words while placing his forefinger successively on the questioner’s forehead, nose, chin, and chest, ending with an unexpected little tap on the cheek. The boy or cleric would laugh and, while kissing Don Bosco’s hand, still insist, “But, Father, at least translate those words.”
“I could, but you still wouldn’t understand.” And then playfully he would add in Piedmontese dialect, “When they give you a beating, take it like a man!” This conclusion would set them all laughing heartily. (BM VI, 236-237). And he meant that in order to become a saint, one must accept all the sufferings that life has in store for us.

Protector of tinsmiths
Every year the young boarders went on an outing to Monsieur Olive’s villa, the generous cooperator already known to us. On this occasion, the father and mother waited on the superiors while their children waited on their pupils. They also organized a lottery, giving a number to everyone of the superiors and boys so that everyone won something. In this way, the Olive family made a gift of their coach to the Oratory of St. Leo. This outing occurred during Don Bosco’s visit to Marseille in 1884, and an amusing incident occurred.
While the boys were playing in the gardens, a servant came running up to Madame Olive, greatly agitated.
“Madame, the pot where the soup is cooking for the boys is leaking badly and there is no way to stop it. We will have to go without soup.” The mistress of the house, who had immense faith in Don Bosco, had a sudden idea. She summoned all the boys and told them, “Listen, if you want to have some soup, kneel down here and say a Pater, Ave, and Gloria to Don Bosco, so that he may resolder the soup pot.”
The boys obeyed and instantly the pot stopped leaking. This is an historical event, and when Don Bosco heard it, he laughed heartily, saying, “From this day on, people will say that Don Bosco is the patron of tinsmiths.” (BM XVII, 36-37).

The Holy Shroud of Turin, one of Christianity’s most revered relics, has a thousand-year history intertwined with that of the House of Savoy and the Savoyard city. Arriving in Turin in 1578, it became an object of profound devotion, with solemn exhibitions linked to historical and dynastic events. In the 19th century, figures such as Saint John Bosco and other Turin saints promoted its veneration, contributing to its widespread appeal. Today, preserved in Guarini’s Chapel, the Shroud is at the centre of scientific and theological studies. In parallel, the Church of the Holy Shroud in Rome, linked to the House of Savoy and the Piedmontese community, represents another significant place, where Don Bosco attempted to establish a Salesian presence.

            The Holy Shroud of Turin, improperly called the “Santo Sudario” in Italian due to the French custom of calling it “Le Saint Suaire” was owned by the House of Savoy since 1463, and was transferred from Chambery to the new Savoy capital in 1578.
            In that same year, the first exposition was held, commissioned by Emanuele Filiberto in homage to Card. Charles Borromeo who came to Turin on pilgrimage to venerate it.

Expositions in the 19th century and veneration of the Shroud
            In the 19th century, the Expositionsin 1815, 1842, 1868 and 1898 are particularly worthy of note: the first for the return of the Savoy family to their states, the second for the wedding of Victor Emmanuel II to Maria Adelaide of Habsburg-Lorraine, the third for the wedding of Umberto I to Margaret of Savoy-Genoa, and the fourth for the Universal Exhibition.
            The nineteenth-century Turin saints, Cottolengo, Cafasso and Don Bosco, were devotees of the Holy Shroud, emulating the example of Blessed Sebastiano Valfré, the apostle of Turin during the siege of 1706.
            The Biographical Memoirs assure us that Don Bosco venerated it in particular at the Exposition in 1842 and 1868, when he also brought the boys from the oratory to see it (BM II, 91; IX, 70-71.
            Today, the priceless canvas, donated by Umberto II of Savoy to the Holy See, is entrusted to the Archbishop of Turin’s “Pontifical Custodian” and kept in the sumptuous Guarini Chapel behind the Cathedral.
            In Turin there is also, in Via Piave at the corner of Via San Domenico, the Church of the Holy Shroud, built by the Confraternity of the same name and rebuilt in 1761. Adjacent to the church is the “Sindonological Museum” and the headquarters of the “Cultores Sanctae Sindonis” Sodality, a centre for sindonological studies to which Salesian scholars such as Fr Natale Noguier de Malijay, Fr Antonio Tonelli, Fr Alberto Caviglia, Fr Pietro Scotti and, more recently, Fr Pietro Rinaldi and Fr Luigi Fossati, to name but the main ones, have made valuable contributions.

The Church of the Holy Shroud in Rome
            A Church of the Holy Shroud also exists in Rome along the street of the same name that runs from Largo Argentina parallel to Corso Vittorio. Constructed in 1604 to a design by Carlo di Castellamonte, it was the Church of the Piedmontese, Savoyards and Niçois, built by the Confraternity of the Holy Shroud that had sprung up in Rome at that time. After 1870 it became the special church of the House of Savoy.
            During his stays in Rome, Don Bosco celebrated Mass in that church several times and formulated a plan for it and the adjacent house in line with the purpose of the then extinct Confraternity, dedicated to charitable works for abandoned youth, the sick and prisoners.
            The Confraternity had ceased operating at the beginning of the century and the ownership and administration of the church had passed to the Sardinian Legation to the Holy See. By the 1960s, the church was in need of major renovations, so much so that in 1868 it was temporarily closed.
            But already in 1867 Don Bosco had come up with the idea of proposing to the Savoy Government to hand over the use and administration of the church to him, offering his collaboration in money to complete the restoration work. Perhaps he foresaw the entry of the Piedmontese troops into Rome not far away and, wishing to open a house there, he thought of doing so before the situation precipitated making it more difficult to obtain the Holy See’s approval and the State’s respect for agreements (BM IX, 192, 223, 301.
            He then presented the request to the government. In 1869, during a stopover in Florence, he prepared a draft agreement which, on reaching Rome, he presented to Pius IX. Having obtained his assent, he moved on to the official request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but, unfortunately, the occupation of Rome then came to jeopardise the whole affair. Don Bosco himself saw the inappropriateness of insisting. Taking on a Roman church belonging to the Savoy by a religious Congregation with its Mother House in Turin at that time, could have appeared an act of opportunism and servility towards the new Government.
            After the breach of Porta Pia, with a minute dated 2 December 1871, the Church of the Most Holy Shroud was annexed to the Royal House and designated as the official seat of the Palatine Chief Chaplain. Following Pius IX’s interdict on the Chapels of the former Apostolic Palace of the Quirinal, it was in the Church of the Shroud that all the sacred rites of the Royal Family took place.
            In 1874 Don Bosco again tested the ground with the Government. But, unfortunately, intemperate news leaked from the newspapers definitively put a stop to the project (BM X, 532-533).
            With the end of the monarchy on 2 June 1946, the entire Shroud complex passed under the management of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic. In 1984, following the new Concordat which sanctioned the abolition of the Palatine Chapels, the Church of the Shroud was entrusted to the Military Ordinariate and has remained so to this day.
            However, we would like to recall the fact that Don Bosco, in seeking a favourable opportunity to open a house in Rome, set his eyes on the Church of the Holy Shroud.

Don Bosco’s devotion to Mary stems from a filial and vibrant relationship with Mary’s maternal presence, which he experienced throughout every stage of his life. From the votive pillars erected during his childhood in Becchi, to the revered images in Chieri and Turin, and the pilgrimages he made with his boys to the sanctuaries of Piedmont and Liguria, each stop reveals a different title for the Virgin—Consolata, Addolorata, Immacolata, Madonna delle Grazie, and many others—that speaks to the faithful of protection, comfort, and hope. However, the title that would forever define his veneration was “Mary Help of Christians”: according to Salesian tradition, it was the Madonna herself who indicated it to him. On December 8, 1862, Don Bosco confided to the cleric Giovanni Cagliero: “Up until now,” he added, “we have celebrated the feast of the Immaculate Conception with solemnity and pomp, and on this day our first works of the festive oratories began. But the Madonna wants us to honor her under the title of Mary Help of Christians: the times are so sad that we truly need the Most Holy Virgin to help us preserve and defend the Christian faith.” (MB VII, 334)

Marian titles
            To write an article today on the “Marian titles” under which Don Bosco venerated the Blessed Virgin during his life may seem out of place. Someone, in fact, might say: Isn’t there just one Our Lady? What is the point of so many titles if not to create confusion? And then, after all, isn’t Don Bosco’s title for her Mary Help of Christians?
Leaving deeper reflections that justify these titles from a historical, theological and devotional point of view to the experts, we will content ourselves with a passage from Lumen Gentium, the document on the Church of the Second Vatican Council, which reassures us, reminding us that Mary is our mother and that “her constant intercession continued to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation. By her maternal charity, she cares for the brethren of her Son, who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and cultics, until they are led into the happiness of their true home. Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked by the Church under the titles of Advocate, Auxiliatrix, Adjutrix, and Mediatrix.” (Lumen Gentium 62).
These four titles admitted by the Council, well considered, encompass in synthesis a whole series of titles and invocations by which the Christian people have called Mary, titles that made Alessandro Manzoni exclaim
“O Virgin, O Lady, O All-holy One, what beautiful names every language holds up to thee: more than one proud people boast to be in thy gentle guardianship” (from The Name of Mary).
The Church’s liturgy itself seems to understand and justify the praises raised to Mary by the Christian people, when it asks.”How shall we sing your praises, Holy Virgin Mary?”
So, let us leave doubts aside and go and see what Marian titles were dear to Don Bosco, even before he spread that of Mary Help of Christians throughout the world.

In his youth
The little niches scattered along city streets in many parts of Italy, the country chapels and pedestals found at road crossroads or at the entrance to private roads in our lands, are a heritage of popular faith that even today time has not erased.
It would be an arduous task to calculate exactly how many can be found on the roads of Piedmont. In the ‘Becchi- Morialdo’ area alone there are about twenty, and no less than fifteen in the Capriglio area.
They are mostly votive pedestals inherited from the old ones and restored several times. There are also more recent ones that document a piety that has not disappeared.
The oldest pedestal in the Becchi region appears to date back to 1700. It was erected at the bottom of the ‘plain’ towards the Mainito, where the families living in the ancient Scaiota’ later a Salesian farmstead, now undergoing renovation, used to meet.
This is the Consolata pedestalwith a small statue of Our Lady of Consolation, always honoured with country flowers brought by devotees.
John Bosco must have passed by that pedestal many times, taking off his hat, perhaps bending the knee and murmuring a Hail Mary as his mother had taught him.
In 1958, the Salesians renovated the old pedestal and, with a solemn religious service, returned it o renewed worship by the community and the population.
That little statue of the Consolata may be the first effigy of Mary that Don Bosco worshipped outdoors in his lifetime.

In the old house
            Without mentioning the churches in Morialdo and Capriglio, we do not know exactly which religious images hung on the walls in the Biglione farmstead or at the Casetta. We do know that later in Joseph’s house, when Don Bosco went to stay there, he could see two old pictures on the walls of his bedroom, one of the Holy Family and the other of Our Lady of the Angels. So assured Sister Eulalia Bosco. Where did Joseph get them? Did John see them as a boy? The one of the Holy Family is still on display today in the middle room on the first floor of Joseph’s house. It depicts St Joseph seated at his work table, with the Child in his arms, while Our Lady, standing on the other side, watches.
We also know that at the Cascina Moglia, near Moncucco, as a boy John used to say prayers and the rosary together with the owners’ family in front of a small painting of Our Lady of Sorrows which is still kept at the Becchi on the first floor of Joseph’s house in Don Bosco’s room above the head of the bed. It is very blackened with a black frame outlined in gold on the inside.
At Castelnuovo John then had frequent occasions to go up to the Church of Madonna del Castello (Our Lady of the Castle) to pray to the Blessed Virgin. On the Feast of the Assumption, the villagers carried the statue of the Madonna in procession. Not everyone knows that that statue, as well as the painting on the icon on the high altar, depict Our Lady of the Cincture, a devotion of the Augustinians.
In Chieri, John Bosco student and seminarian cleric prayed many times at the altar of Our Lady of Graces in the Cathedral of Santa Maria della Scala, at the altar of the Holy Rosary in the Church of San Domenico, and before the Immaculate Conception in the Seminary chapel.
So in his youth Don Bosco had the opportunity to venerate Mary Most Holy under the titles of the Consolata, Our Lady of Sorrows, Our Lady of Grace, Our Lady of the Rosary and the Immaculate.

In Turin
            In Turin John Bosco had already gone to the Church of Our Lady of the Angels for the examination for admission to the Franciscan Order in 1834. He returned there several times to do the Spiritual Exercises, in preparation for Holy Orders, in the Church of the Visitation, and received Holy Orders in the Church of the Immaculate Conception at the Archiepiscopal Curia.
When he arrived at the Convitto he certainly often prayed before the image of the Annunciation in the first chapel on the right in the Church of St Francis of Assisi. On his way to the Duomo and entering, as is still the custom today, through the right-hand portal, how many times will he have paused for a moment in front of the ancient statue of the Madonna delle Grazie, known by the old Torinese as La Madòna Granda.
If we then think of the pilgrimages or walks that Don Bosco used to make with his rascals from Valdocco to Turin’s Marian shrines in the days of the itinerant Oratory, then we can recall first of all the Sanctuary of the Consolata, the religious heart of Turin, full of memories of the first Oratory. Don Bosco took his youngsters many times to the Consolà. And it was to the Consolà that he resorted in tears at the death of his mother.
But we cannot forget the city outings to Madonna del Pilone, Madonna di Campagna, to Monte dei Cappuccini, to the Church of the Nativity at Pozzo Strada, to the Church of the Graces at Crocetta.
The most spectacular pilgrimage of those early Oratory years was to Our Lady of Superga. That monumental Church dedicated to the Nativity of Mary reminded Don Bosco’s youngsters that the Mother of God is ‘like a dawn rising’, a prelude to the coming of Christ.
So Don Bosco made his boys experience the mysteries of Mary’s life through her most beautiful titles.

On the autumn walks
            In 1850 Don Bosco began walks beyond Turin first to the Becchi and the surrounding area, then to the hills of Monferrato as far as Casale, of Alessandria as far as Tortona and in Liguria as far as Genoa.
In the early years his main, if not exclusive, destination was the Becchi and surroundings, where he celebrated the feast of the Rosary with solemnity in the little chapel erected on the ground floor of his brother Joseph’s house in 1848.
The years 1857-64 were the golden years of the autumn walks, and the boys took part in them in ever larger groups, entering the villages with the brass band at their head, festively welcomed by the people and the local parish priests. They rested in barns, ate frugal peasant meals, held devout services in churches and in the evenings gave performances on an improvised stage.
In 1857 a pilgrimage destination was Santa Maria di Vezzolano, a sanctuary and abbey so dear to Don Bosco, located below the village of Albugnano, 5 km from Castelnuovo.
In 1861 it was the turn of the sanctuary at Crea, famous throughout Monferrato. On that same trip Don Bosco again took the boys to Madonna del Pozzo (Our Lady of the Well) at San Salvatore.
On 14 August 1862 from Vignale, where the youngsters were staying, Don Bosco led the happy group on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Madonna delle Grazie at Casorzo. A few days later, on 18th October, before leaving Alexandria, they went again to the cathedral to pray to Madonna della Salve, venerated with such piety by the Alexandrians, for a happy conclusion to their walk.
Also on the last walk of 1864 in Genoa, on the way back, between Serravalle and Mornese, a group led by Fr Cagliero went on a devout pilgrimage to the shrine of Nostra Signora della Guardia, in Gavi.
These pilgrimage-trips traced the vestiges of a popular religiosity characteristic of our people; they were the expression of a Marian devotion, which John Bosco had learnt from his mother.

And then again...
In the 1860s the title of Mary Help of Christians began to dominate Don Bosco’s mind and heart, with the construction of the church he had dreamt of since 1844 and which then became the spiritual centre of Valdocco, the mother-church of the Salesian Family, the radiating point of devotion to Our Lady, invoked under this title.
But Don Bosco’s Marian pilgrimages did not cease because of this. It is enough to follow him on his long journeys through Italy and France and see how often he took the opportunity for a fleeting visit to the shrine of the local Virgin.
From Madonna di Oropa in Piedmont to Our Lady of the Miracle in Rome, from Our Lady of the Boschetto in Camogli to Our Lady of Gennazzano, from Madonna del Fuoco in Forlì to Madonna dell’Olmo (Elm) in Cuneo, from Our Lady of Good Hope in Bigione to Our Lady of Victories in Paris.
Our Lady of Victories, placed in a golden niche, is standing, holding her Divine Son with both hands. Jesus has his feet resting on the starry ball representing the world.
Don Bosco before this Queen of Victories in Paris gave a “sermon de charité” in 1883, that is, one of those conferences to obtain help for his works of charity for poor and abandoned youth. It was his first conference in the French capital, in the shrine that is to Parisians what the shrine of the Consolata is to the people of Turin.
That was the culmination of Don Bosco’s Marian wanderings, which began at the foot of the Consolata pillar under the Becchi’s “Scaiota”.

Saint Dominic Savio, the “little great saint,” lived his brief but intense childhood among the hills of Piedmont, in places now steeped in memory and spirituality. On the occasion of his beatification in 1950, this young disciple of Don Bosco was celebrated as a symbol of purity, faith, and devotion to the Gospel. We retrace the principal places of his childhood—Riva presso Chieri, Morialdo, and Mondonio—through historical testimonies and vivid accounts, revealing the family, scholastic, and spiritual environment that forged his path to sainthood.

            The Holy Year 1950 was also the year Dominic Savio was beatified, which took place on 5 March. The 15-year-old disciple of Don Bosco was the first lay saint ‘confessor’ to ascend the altars at such a young age.
            On that day, St Peter’s Basilica was packed with young people who bore witness, by their presence in Rome, to a Christian youth entirely open to the most sublime ideals of the Gospel. It was transformed, according to Vatican Radio, into an immense and noisy Salesian Oratory. When the veil covering the figure of the new Blessed fell from Bernini’s rays, a frenzied applause rose from the whole basilica and the echo reached the square, where the tapestry depicting the Blessed was uncovered from the Loggia of Blessings.
            Don Bosco’s educational system received its highest recognition on that day. We wanted to revisit the places of Dominic’s childhood after re-reading the detailed information of Fr Michele Molineris in his Nuova Vita di Domenico Savio, in which he describes with his well-known solid documentation what the biographies of St Dominic Savio do not say.

At Riva presso Chieri
            Here we are, first of all, in San Giovanni di Riva presso Chieri, the hamlet where our “little great Saint” was born on 2 April 1842 to Carlo Savio and Brigida Gaiato, as the second of ten children, inheriting his name and birthright from the first, who survived only 15 days after his birth.
            His father, as we know, came from Ranello, a hamlet of Castelnuovo d’Asti, and as a young man had gone to live with his uncle Carlo, a blacksmith in Mondonio, in a house on today’s Via Giunipero, at no. 1, still called ‘ca dèlfré’ or blacksmith’s house. There, from ‘Barba Carlòto’ he had learned the trade. Some time after his marriage, contracted on 2 March 1840, he had become independent, moving to the Gastaldi house in San Giovanni di Riva. He rented accommodation with rooms on the ground floor suitable for a kitchen, storeroom and workshop, and bedrooms on the first floor, reached by an external staircase that has now disappeared.
            The Gastaldi heirs then sold the cottage and adjoining farmhouse to the Salesians in 1978. And today a modern youth centre, run by Salesian Past Pupils and Cooperators, gives memory and new life to the little house where Dominic was born.

In Morialdo
            In November 1843, i.e. when Dominic had not yet reached the age of two, the Savio family, for work reasons, moved to Morialdo, the hamlet of Castelnuovo linked to the name of St John Bosco, who was born at Cascina Biglione, a hamlet in the Becchi district.
            In Morialdo, the Savios rented a few small rooms near the entrance porch of the farmstead owned by Viale Giovanna, who had married Stefano Persoglio. The whole farm was later sold by their son, Persoglio Alberto, to Pianta Giuseppe and family.
            This farmstead is also now, for the most part, the property of the Salesians who, after restoring it, have used it for meetings for children and adolescents and for visits by pilgrims. Less than 2 km from Colle Don Bosco, it is situated in a country setting, amidst festoons of vines, fertile fields and undulating meadows, with an air of joy in spring and nostalgia in autumn when the yellowing leaves are gilded by the sun’s rays, with an enchanting panorama on fine days, when the chain of the Alps stretches out on the horizon from the peak of Monte Rosa near Albugnano, to Gran Paradiso, to Rocciamelone, down as far as Monviso. It is truly a place to visit and to use for days of intense spiritual life, a Don Bosco-style school of holiness.
            The Savio family stayed in Morialdo until February 1853, a good nine years and three months. Dominic, who lived only 14 years and eleven months, spent almost two thirds of his short existence there. He can therefore be considered not only Don Bosco’s pupil and spiritual son, but also his countryman.

In Mondonio
            Why the Savio family left Morialdo is suggested by Fr Molineris. His uncle the blacksmith had died and Dominic’s father could inherit not only the tools of the trade but also the clientele in Mondonio. That was probably the reason for the move, which took place, however, not to the house in Via Giunipero, but to the lower part of the village, where they rented the first house to the left of the main village street, from the Bertello brothers. The small house consisted, and still consists today, of a ground floor with two rooms, adapted as a kitchen and workroom, and an upper floor, above the kitchen, with two bedrooms and enough space for a workshop with a door on the street ramp.
            We know that Mr and Mrs Savio had ten children, three of whom died at a very young age and three others, including Dominic, did not reach the age of 15. The mother died in 1871 at the age of 51. The father, left alone at home with his son John, after having taken in the three surviving daughters, asked Don Bosco for hospitality in 1879 and died at Valdocco on 16 December 1891.
            Dominic had entered Valdocco on 29 October 1854, remaining there, except for short holiday periods, until 1 March 1857. He died eight days later at Mondonio, in the little room next to the kitchen, on 9 March of that year. His stay at Mondonio was therefore about 20 months in all, at Valdocco 2 years and 4 months.

Memories of Morialdo
            From this brief review of the three Savio houses, it is clear that the one in Morialdo must be the richest in memories. San Giovanni di Riva recalls Dominic’s birth, and Mondonio a year at school and his holy death, but Morialdo recalls his life in the family, in church and at school. ‘Minòt‘, as he was called there – how many things he must have heard, seen and learnt from his father and mother, how much faith and love he showed in the little church of San Pietro, how much intelligence and goodness at the school run by Fr Giovanni Zucca, and how much fun and liveliness in the playground with his fellow villagers.
            It was in Morialdo that Dominic Savio prepared for his First Communion, which he then made in the parish church of Castelnuovo on 8 April 1849. It was there, when he was only 7 years old, that he wrote his “Reminders”, that is, the resolutions for his First Communion:
            1. I will go to confession very often and take communion as often as the confessor gives me permission;
            2. I want to keep feast days holy;
            3. My friends will be Jesus and Mary;
            4. Death but not sin.
            Memories that were the guide for his actions until the end of his life.
            A boy’s demeanour, way of thinking and acting reflect the environment in which he lived, and especially the family in which he spent his childhood. So if one wants to understand something about Dominic, it is always good to reflect on his life in that farmstead in Morialdo.

The family
            His was not a farming family. His father was a blacksmith and his mother a seamstress. His parents were not of robust constitution. The signs of fatigue could be seen on his father’s face, his mother’s face stood out for its delicate lines. Dominic’s father was a man of initiative and courage. His mother came from the not too distant Cerreto d’Asti where she kept a dressmaker’s shop “and with her skill she made it possible for the local inhabitants to get clothes there rather than go elsewhere.” And she was still a seamstress in Morialdo too. Would Don Bosco have known this? His conversation with little Dominic who had gone to look for him at the Becchi was interesting:
“Well, what do you think?”
            “It seems to me that there is good stuff (in piem.: Eh, m’a smia ch’a-j’sia bon-a stòfa!).”
“What can this fabric be used for?”
            “To make a beautiful suit to give to the Lord.”
“So, I am the cloth: you be the tailor; take me with you (in piem.: ch’èmpija ansema a chiel) and you can make a beautiful suit for the Lord.” (OE XI, 185).
            A priceless conversation between two countrymen who understood each other at first sight. And their language was just right for the dressmaker’s son.
            When their mother died on 14 July 1871, the parish priest of Mondonio, Fr Giovanni Pastrone, said to his weeping daughters, to console them: “Don’t cry, because your mother was a holy woman; and now she is already in Paradise.”
            Her son Dominic, who had preceded her into heaven by several years, had also said to her and to his father, before he passed away: “Do not weep, I already see the Lord and Our Lady with open arms waiting for me.” These last words of his, witnessed by his neighbour Anastasia Molino, who was present at the time of his death, were the seal of a joyful life, the manifest sign of that sanctity that the Church solemnly recognised on 5 March 1950, later giving it definitive confirmation on 12 June 1954 with his canonisation.

Frontispiece photo. The house where Dominic died in 1857. It is a rural dwelling, likely dating from the late 17th century. Rebuilt upon an even older house, it is one of the most cherished landmarks for the people of Mondonio.

            One evening, saddened by a certain general indiscipline noticed at the Valdocco Oratory among the boarders, Don Bosco came, as usual, to say a few words to them after evening prayer. He stood for a moment in silence on the small desk at the corner of the porticoes where he used to give the youngsters the so-called “Good Night”, which consisted of a short evening sermon. Glancing around, he said:
            “I am not satisfied with you. That’s all I can say tonight!”
             Then, without allowing them to kiss his hand [a customary mark of respect to a priest] he would slowly walk away toward the stairs leading to his room without saying another word. Stifled sobs could be heard while tears
ran down many faces as all went to bed sorrowful and pensive. To them, offending Don Bosco was the same as offending God.  (BM IV, 394).

The evening peal
            Salesian Fr John Gnolfo says in his study: Don Bosco’s “Good Night”, points out that the morning is the awakening of life and activity, the evening instead is suitable for sowing an idea in the minds of young people that germinates in them even while sleep. And with a daring comparison he even refers to Dante’s ‘evening peal’:
            Era già l’ora che volge il desìo
            ai naviganti e intenerisce il core…
            “It was the hour when longing stirs
             the hearts of sailors and softens their souls…”
            It is precisely at the hour of evening prayer that Alighieri describes, in fact, in the eighth Canto of “Purgatory”, the kings in a small valley while they sing the hymn of the Liturgy of the Hours Te lucis ante terminum... (Before the light ends, O God, we seek Thee, that Thou mayest keep us).
            Don Bosco’s “Good Night” was a fond and sublime moment! It began with praise and evening prayers and ended with his words that opened his children’s hearts to reflection, joy and hope. He really cared about that evening meeting with the whole Valdocco community. Fr G. B. Lemoyne traces its origin to Mamma Margaret. The good mother, putting the first orphan boy who came from Val Sesia to bed, offered some recommendations to him. From there came the beautiful custom in Salesian boarding schools of addressing brief words to the youngsters before sending them off to rest (BM, 142). Fr E. Ceria, quoting the Saint’s words when thinking back to the early days of the Oratory, “I began to give a very short little sermons in the evening after prayers” (MO, 156 New Rochelle, 2010), thinks rather of a direct initiative of Don Bosco. However, if Fr Lemoyne accepted the idea of some of the early disciples, it was because he thought that Mamma Margaret’s “Good Night” emblematically fulfilled Don Bosco’s purpose in introducing that custom (Annals III, 857).

Characteristics of the “Good Night”
            A characteristic of Don Bosco’s “Good Night” was the topic he dealt with: some topical time that made an impression, something actual that created suspense and also allowed questions from the listeners. Sometimes he would ask questions himself, thus establishing a dialogue that was highly attractive to all.
            Other characteristics were the variety of topics covered and the brevity of the discourse to avoid monotony and consequent boredom in the listeners. However, Don Bosco was not always brief, especially when he recounted his famous dreams or the journeys he had made. But it was usually a speech of just a few minutes.
            These were, in short, neither sermons nor school lessons, but short affectionate words that the good father addressed to his sons before sending them off to rest.
            Exceptions to the rule, of course, made an enormous impression, as happened on the evening of 16 September 1867. After every means of correction had been attempted by the superiors, some boys turned out to be incorrigible and were a scandal to their companions.
            Don Bosco stood up on the little podium. He began by quoting the Gospel passage where the Divine Saviour pronounces terrible words against those who scandalise the children. He recalled the serious admonitions he had repeatedly made to the boys causing scandal, the benefits they had obtained at the college, the fatherly love with which they had been surrounded, and then he continued:
            “They think they are not known, but I know who they are and could name them in public. If I do not name them, do not think that I am not fully aware of them…. That if I wanted to name them, I could say: It is you, A… (and pronounced first and last name) a wolf who prowls among his companions and drives them away from the superiors by ridiculing their warnings… It is you, B… a thief whose words tarnish the innocence of others… You, C… a murderer who with certain notes, with certain books, tears Mary’s children from her side… You, D… a demon who spoils his companions and prevents them from attending the Sacraments with your taunts…”
            Six were thus ‘named’. Don Bosco’s voice was calm. Every time he mentioned a name, a muffled cry from the culprit could be heard echoing amidst the sullen silence of his stunned companions.
            The next day some were sent home. Those who were allowed to stay changed their lives: the “good father” Don Bosco was not an easy-going man! And exceptions of this kind confirm the rule of his “Good Night”.

The key to morality
            There was a reason why, one day in 1875, Don Bosco listed the secrets employed at Valdocco to those who were amazed that the Oratory did not have certain disorders complained of in other colleges, and among them he pointed out the following: ” Another powerful means of persuasion, exercising a good influence over the boys, was the short fatherly talks addressed to them every evening after prayers. These short talks forestalled any trouble” (BM XI, 203-204).
            And in his precious document onThe Preventive System in the Education of Youth, he left it written that the “Good Night” from the Rector of the House could become “the key to morality, good progress and success in education” (Constitutions of the Society of St. Francis de Sales, p. 239-240).
            Don Bosco saw that his boys experienced their day between two solemn moments, even if they were of very different kinds. In the morning the Eucharist, so that the day would not dampen their youthful ardour, in the evening, prayers and the “Good Night” so that before sleep they would reflect on the values that would illuminate the night.

Blessed Don Filippo Rinaldi, the third successor of Don Bosco, is remembered as an extraordinary figure, capable of uniting in himself the qualities of Superior and Father, a distinguished master of spirituality, pedagogy, and social life, as well as an unparalleled spiritual guide. His deep admiration for Don Bosco, whom he had the privilege of knowing personally, made him a living testimony of the founder’s charisma. Aware of the spiritual importance of the places linked to Don Bosco’s childhood, Don Rinaldi paid particular attention to visiting them, recognizing their symbolic and formative value. In this article, we retrace some of his visits to Colle Don Bosco, discovering the special bond that connected him to these holy places.

For the shrine of Mary Help of Christians
With the inauguration of the little shrine to Mary Help of Christians, which Fr Paul Albera wanted built opposite Don Bosco’s cottage, and precisely from 2 August 1918, when Archbishop Morganti, archbishop of Ravenna, assisted by our Major Superiors, solemnly blessed the church and bells, the permanent presence of the Salesians at the Becchi began. Fr Philip Rinaldi, Prefect General, was also there on that day, and with him Fr Francesco Cottrino, the first rector of the new house.
            From then on, Fr Rinaldi’s visits to the Becchi were repeated every year at a steady pace, a true expression of his great affection for the good Father Don Bosco, and of his keen interest in purchasing and appropriately arranging the memorable places of the Saint’s childhood.
            From the handful of news items from the Salesian house at the Becchi it is easy to deduce the care and love with which Fr Rinaldi promoted and personally followed the work needed to honour Don Bosco and appropriately serve  pilgrims.
            So, in 1918, after coming to the Becchi for the blessing of the church, Fr Rinaldi returned there on 6 October together with Cardinal Cagliero for the Feast of the Holy Rosary, and took the opportunity to start negotiations for the purchase of the Cavallo House behind Don Bosco’s.

Care for the work on the cottage
            In 1919 Fr Rinaldi made two visits to the Becchi: one on 2 June and the other on 28 September, both in view of the restoration work to be carried out in the historic area known as Colle (Don Bosco).
            There were three visits in 1920: one on 16-17 June, to negotiate the purchase of the Graglia house and the Bechis brothers’ field; one on 11 September to visit the works and the Graglia property; and, finally, one on the 13th of the same month to attend the drafting of the deed for the purchase of the Graglia house.
            There were two visits in 1921: on 16 March, with Archbishop Valotti, for the project of a road leading to the Sanctuary and a Colmn and Pilgrims Area on piazetta; on 12-13 September, with Archbishop Valotti and Cavaliere Melle, for the same purpose.
            In 1922 Fr Rinaldi was again at the Becchi twice: on 4 May with Cardinal Cagliero, Fr Ricaldone, Fr Conelli and all the Members of the General Chapter (including Salesian Bishops), to pray at the Casetta after his election as Rector Major; and on 28 September with his closest collaborators.
            He then arrived there on 10 June 1923 to celebrate the Feast of Mary Help of Christians. He presided at Vespers in the sanctuary, gave the sermon and imparted the Eucharistic blessing. In the Academy that followed, he presented the Cross “Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice” to Mr Giovanni Febbraro, our benefactor. He then returned there in October with Cardinal Cagliero for the feast of the Holy Rosary, celebrating Mass at 7 a.m. and carrying the Blessed Sacrament in the Eucharistic procession, which was followed by the blessing imparted by the Cardinal.
            On 7 September 1924 Fr Rinaldi led the Pilgrimage of Fathers and Past Pupils from Turin Houses to the Becchi. He celebrated Holy Mass, gave the sermon and then, after breakfast, took part in the concert organised for the occasion. He returned again on 22 October of the same year, together with Fr Ricaldone, and Valotti and Barberis, to resolve the thorny issue of the road to the shrine, which involved difficulties on the part of the owners of the adjacent land.
            Fr Rinaldi was at the Becchi on three occasions in 1925: on 21 May for the unveiling of the plaque to Don Bosco, and then on 23 July and 19 September, accompanied this time again by Cardinal Cagliero.
            On 13 May 1926 Fr Rinaldi led a pilgrimage of about 200 members of the Don Bosco Teachers’ Union, celebrating Mass and presiding at their meeting. On 24 July of the same year he returned, together with the whole Superior Chapter, to lead the pilgrimage of Rectors of Houses in Europe; and again on 28 August with the Superior Chapter and the Rectors of Houses in Italy.

Renovation of the historical centre
            Three other visits by Fr Rinaldi to the Becchi date back to 1927: 30 May with Fr Giraudi and Valotti to determine building works (construction of the portico, etc.);  30 August with Fr Tirone and the Directors of the festive Oratories; and 10 October with Fr Tirone and the young missionaries from Ivrea. On the latter occasion Fr Rinaldi urged the Rector at the time, Fr Fracchia, to place plants behind the Graglia house and in the meadow of the Dream,
            Fr Rinaldi was at the Becchi in 1928 on four occasions: On 12 April with Fr Ricaldone for an examination of the work carried out and work in progress. On 9-10 June with Fr Candela and Fr V. Bettazzi for the Feast of Mary Help of Christians and for the inauguration of the Pilone del Sogno. On this occasion there was a sung Holy Mass and, after Vespers and the afternoon Eucharistic Blessing, blessed the Pilone del Sogno and the new Portico, addressing everyone from the balcony. In the evening, he attended the light show. On 30 September, he came with Fr Ricaldone and Fr Giraudi to visit the Gaj locality. On 8 October he returned at the head of the annual pilgrimage of young missionaries from Ivrea. It was in that year that Fr Rinaldi expressed his desire to purchase the Damevino villa to use as accommodation for pilgrims or, better still, to assign it to the Sons of Mary aspiring missionaries.
            As many as six visits were made to the Becchi in 1929: – The first, on 10 March, with Fr Ricaldone, was to visit the Damevino villa and the Graglia house (the first of which was later purchased that same year). As Don Bosco’s beatification was imminent, Fr Rinaldi also wanted a little altar to the Blessed to be set up in the kitchen of the Casetta (which was carried out later, in 1931). – The second, on 2 May, was also a study visit, with Fr Giraudi, Mr Valotti and the painter Prof. Guglielmino. – The third, on 26 May, was to attend the feast of Mary Help of Christians. The fourth, on 16 June, was with the Superior Chapter and all the members of the General Chapter for the Feast of Don Bosco. The fifth, on 27 July, was a short visit with Fr Tirone and Bishop Massa. The sixth, finally, was with Bishop Mederlet and the young missionaries of the Ivrea House, for whom Fr Rinaldi made no secret of his predilections.
            In 1930 Fr Rinaldi came twice more to the Becchi: on 26 June for a brief reconnaissance visit of the various localities; and on 6 August, with Fr Ricaldone, Mr Valotti and Cav. Sartorio, to search for water (which Fr Ricaldone then found in two places, 14 and 11 metres away from the spring called Bacolla).
            In 1931, which was the year of his death on 5 December, Fr Rinaldi came to the Becchi at least three times: on 19 July, in the afternoon. On that occasion he recommended the commemoration of Don Bosco on the 16th of each month or the following Sunday. On 16 September, when he approved and praised the recreation camp prepared for the young people of the Community. On 25 September, and it was the last, when, with Fr Giraudi and Mr Valotti, he examined the plan for the trees to be planted in the area (it will be carried out later, in 1990, when the project for the planting of 3000 trees on the various slopes of Colle dei Becchi began, precisely in the year of his beatification.).
            Not counting any previous visits, there are therefore 41 visits made by Fr Rinaldi to the Becchi between 1918 and 1931.

            For the education of his youngsters Don Bosco made much use of music. Even as a boy he loved singing. As he had a beautiful voice, Mr Giovanni Roberto, head cantor of the parish, taught him Gregorian chant. Within a few months, John was able to join the orchestra and perform musical parts with excellent results. At the same time, he began to practise playing a spinet which was a plucked string instrument with a keyboard, and also the violin (BM I, 173).
            As a priest in Turin, he acted as music teacher to his first oratory boys, gradually forming real choirs that attracted the sympathy of the listeners with their singing.
            After the opening of the hospice, he started a school of Gregorian chant and, in time, also took his young singers to churches in the city and outside Turin to perform their repertoire.
            He composed hymns such as the one to the Infant Jesus, ‘Ah, let us sing in the sound of jubilation…’. He also initiated some of his disciples into the study of music, among them Fr John Cagliero, who later became famous for his musical creations, earning the esteem of experts. In 1855 Don Bosco organised the first instrumental band at the Oratory.
            He did not, however, get ahead of the good Don Bosco! Already in the 1860s he included a chapter on evening music classes in one of his Regulations in which he said, among other things:
‘From every student musician a formal promise is demanded not to go and sing or play in public theatres, nor in any other entertainment in which Religion and morality could be compromised’ (MB VII, 855).

Children’s music
            To a French religious who had founded a festive Oratory and asked him if it was appropriate to teach music to boys, he replied: ‘An Oratory without music is like a body without a soul!’(BM V, 222).
            Don Bosco spoke French quite well albeit with a certain freedom of grammar and expression. One of his replies concerning the boys’ music was famous in this regard. Father L. Mendre of Marseilles, parish priest of St Joseph’s parish, was very fond of him. One day, he sat beside him during entertainment in the Oratory of St Leo. The little musicians would occasionally play a flat note or two. The abbot, who knew a lot about music, winced each time. Don Bosco whispered into his ear in his French: “Monsieur Mendre, la musique de les enfants elle s’écoute avec le coeur et non avec les oreilles’ (Father Mendre, children’s music is listened to with the heart and not with the ears). The priest later recalled that occasion countless times, revealing Don Bosco’s wisdom and goodness (BM XV, 58 n.3).
            All this does not mean, however, that Don Bosco put music before discipline in the Oratory. He was always amiable but did not easily overlook failures of obedience. For some years he had allowed the young band members to go for a walk and a country lunch on the feast of St Cecilia. But in 1859, due to incidents, he began to prohibit such entertainment. The youngsters did not protest openly, but half of them, urged on by a leader who had promised them to obtain permission from Don Bosco, and hoping for impunity, decided to leave the Oratory anyway and organise a lunch of their own accord before the Feast of St Cecilia. They had taken this decision thinking that Don Bosco would not notice and would not take action. So they went, in the last days of October, to lunch at a nearby inn. After lunch they wandered around the town again and in the evening they returned to dine at the same place, returning to Valdocco half-drunk late at night. Only Mr Buzzetti, invited at the last moment, refused to join them and warned Don Bosco. The latter calmly declared the band disbanded and ordered Buzzetti to collect and lock up all the instruments and think of new pupils to start instrumental music. The next morning, he sent for all the unruly musicians one by one, telling each of them that they had forced him to be very strict. Then he sent them back to their relatives or guardians, recommending some more needy to city workshops. Only one of the mischievous boys was later accepted because Fr Rua assured Don Bosco that he was a naive boy who had allowed himself to be deceived by his companions. And Don Bosco kept him on probation for some time!
            But with sorrows one must not forget consolations. 9 June 1868 was a memorable date in Don Bosco’s life and in the history of the Congregation. The new Church of Mary Help of Christians, which he had built with immense sacrifices, was finally consecrated. Those who were present at the solemn celebrations were deeply moved. An overflowing crowd packed Don Bosco’s beautiful church. The Archbishop of Turin, Archbishop Riccardi, performed the solemn rite of consecration. At the evening service the following day, during Solemn Vespers, the Valdocco choir intoned the grand antiphon set to music by Fr Cagliero: Sancta Maria succurre miseris. The crowd of faithful was thrilled. Three mighty choirs had performed it perfectly. One hundred and fifty tenors and basses sang in the nave near the altar of St Joseph, two hundred sopranos and contraltos stood high up along the railing under the dome, a third choir, made up of another hundred tenors and basses, stood on the orchestra that then overlooked the back of the church. The three choirs, connected by an electric device, maintained synchrony at the Maestro’s command. The biographer, present at the performance, later wrote:
            “The harmony of all three choirs singing in unison cast a spell over the entire congregation.  As the voices blended together, the listeners felt that they had been immersed into a sea of voices which rose from all directions.  During the singing, Canon John Baptist Anfossi was kneeling behind the main altar with Don Bosco. As far as he could remember, he had never seen or heard Don Bosco stir or say anything while at prayer. On this occasion, however, Don Bosco
looked at him with moist eyes full of joy and whispered, ‘Dear
Anfossi, doesn’t it feel like being in heaven?”
(BM IX, 128).

            On the first anniversary of Don Bosco’s death his Past Pupils wanted to continue to celebrate the Feast of Recognition, as they had done every year on 24 June, organising it for the new Rector Major, Fr Rua.
            On 23 June 1889, after placing a memorial stone in the Crypt at Valsalice where Don Bosco was buried, they celebrated Fr Rua at Valdocco on the 24th.
            Professor Alessandro Fabre, a past pupil from 1858-66, took the floor and said among other things:
            “You will not be disappointed to know, dear Fr Rua, that we have decided to add as an appendix the inauguration on 15 August next of another plaque, the commission for which has already been given and the design is reproduced here. We will place it on the house where our dear Don Bosco was born and lived for many years, so that the place where the heart of that great man who was later to fill Europe and the world with his name, his virtues and his admirable institutions might remain a signpost for contemporaries and posterity will remain a place where it first beat for God and for mankind.”
            As can be seen, the Past Pupils’ intention was to place a plaque on the Casetta at the Becchi, which everyone believed was Don Bosco’s birthplace, because he had always indicated it as his home. But then, finding the Casetta in ruins, they were encouraged to redo the inscription and place the plaque on Joseph’s house nearby, with the following wording dictated by Prof. Fabre himself:
            On 11 August, a few days before Don Bosco’s birthday, the Past Pupils went to the Becchi to unveil the plaque. Felice Reviglio, Parish Priest at St Augustine’s, and one of Don Bosco’s very first pupils, gave the speech on the occasion. Talking about the Casetta he said: “The very house near here where he was born, which is almost completely ruined…” is “a true monument of Don Bosco’s evangelical poverty.”
            The “completely ruined” Casetta had already been mentioned in the Salesian Bulletin in March 1887 (BS 1887, March, p. 31), and Fr Reviglio and the inscription on the plaque (“a house now demolished”) were evidently speaking of this situation. The inscription covered the unfortunate fact that the Casetta, not yet Salesian property, now seemed inexorably lost.
            But Fr Rua did not give up and in 1901 offered to restore it at the Salesians’ expense in the hope of later obtaining it from the heirs of Antonio and Giuseppe Bosco, as happened in 1919 and 1926 respectively.
            When the work was completed a plaque was placed on the Casetta with the following inscription: IN THIS HUMBLE COTTAGE, NOW PIOUSLY RESTORED, FATHER JOHN BOSCO WAS BORN ON 16 AUGUST 1815
            Then also the inscription on Joseph’s house was corrected as follows: “Born here in a house now restored… etc.”, and the plaque was replaced.
            Then, when the centenary of Don Bosco’s birth was celebrated in 1915, the Bulletin published the photo of the Casetta, specifying: “It is the one where the Venerable John Bosco was born on 16 August 1815. It was saved from the ruin to which time had condemned it, with a general repair in the year 1901.”
            In the 1970s, archival research carried out by Commendatore Secondo Caselle convinced the Salesians that Don Bosco had indeed lived from 1817 to 1831 at the Casetta purchased by his father, his home, as he had always said, but he had been born at the Biglione farmstead, where his father was a share farmer and lived with his family until his death on 11 May 1817, at the top of the hill where the Church to St. John Bosco now stands.
            The plaque on Joseph’s house had been changed, while the one on the Casetta was replaced by the current marble inscription: THIS IS MY HOUSE DON BOSCO
            The Past Pupils’ opinion in 1889, with the words “Born near here in a house now demolished” now took on another meaning; it did not mean the Caasetta at the Becchi.

The place names at Becchi
            Did the Bosco family live at Cascina Biglione when John was born?
            Some have said that this is in doubt, because they almost certainly lived in another house owned by Biglione at “Meinito”. Proof of this would be   Francesco Bosco’s Will, drawn up by notary C. G. Montalenti on 8 May 1817, where we read: “… in the house of Signor Biglione inhabited by the testator in the region of the Monastero borgata [hamlet] at Meinito…”. (S. CASELLE, Cascinali e Contadini del Monferrato: i Bosco di Chieri nel secolo XVIII, Rome, LAS, 1975, p. 94).
            What can be said about this opinion?
            Today, “Meinito” (or “Mainito”) is merely the site of a farmstead located south of Colle Don Bosco, beyond the provincial road that goes from Castelnuovo towards Capriglio, but at one time it indicated a more extensive territory, contiguous to one called Sbaraneo (or Sbaruau). And Sbaraneo was none other than the valley to the east of the Colle.
            “Monastery”, then, did not only correspond to the current wooded area close to Mainito, but covered a vast area, from Mainito to Barosca, so much so that the Casetta at the Becchi was recorded in 1817 as “region of Cavallo, Monastero” (S. CASELLE, op. cit., p. 96).
            At a time when there were not yet any maps with numbered plots, farmsteads and estates were identified on the basis of place names or toponyms, derived from surnames of ancient families or geographical and historical features.
            They served as landmarks, but did not correspond to today’s meaning of “region” or “hamlet” except very roughly, and were used with much freedom of choice by notaries.
            The oldest map of the Castelnovese, preserved in the municipal archives and kindly made available to us, dates back to 1742 and is called the “Napoleonic Map”, probably because of its greater use during the French occupation. An extract of this map, edited in 1978 with photographic elaboration of the original text by Mr Polato and Mr Occhiena, who compared the archive documents with the lots numbered on the Napoleonic Map, gives an indication of all the land owned by the Biglione family since 1773 and worked by the Bosco family from 1793 to 1817. From this “Extract” it appears that the Biglione family did not own any land or houses at Mainito. And on the other hand, no other document can be found so far that proves the contrary.
            So what meaning can the words “in Mr Biglione’s house… in the Monastero region of the hamlet of Meinito” have?
            First of all, it is good to know that only nine days later, the same notary who drew up Francesco Bosco’s will, wrote in the inventory of his inheritance: “… in the house of Signor Giacinto Biglione inhabited by the unnamed pupils [Francesco’s sons] in the region of Meinito…”. (S. CASELLE, op. cit., p. 96), thus promoting Mainito from “borgata” to “regione” in just a few days. And then it is curious to note that even the Cascina Biglione proper, in different documents appears as Sbaconatto, in Sbaraneo or Monastero, in Castellero, and so on and so forth.
            So where are we at? Taking everything into account, it is not difficult to realise that it is always the same area, the Monastero, which at its centre had Sbaconatto and Castellerò, to the east the Sbaraneo, and to the south the Mainito. Notary Montalenti chose “Meinito” as others chose “Sbaraneo” or 2Sbaconatto” or “Castellero”. But the site and the house were always the same!
            We know, moreover, that Mr and Mrs Damevino, owners of Cascina Biglione from 1845 to 1929, also owned other farmsteads, at Scajota and Barosca; but, as local elders assure us, they never owned houses at Mainito. Yet they had bought the properties that the Biglione family had sold to Mr Giuseppe Chiardi in 1818.
            All that remains is to conclude that the document drawn up by notary Montalenti on 8 May 1817, even if it contains no errors, refers to the Cascina Biglione proper, where Don Bosco was born on 16 August 1815, his father died on 11 May 1817 and the grandiose Temple to St John Bosco was built in our days.
            The existence, finally, of a fictitious Biglione house inhabited by the Bosco family at Mainito and then demolished whenever or by whoever before 1889, as some have speculated, has (at least so far) no real evidence in its favour. When the Past Pupils the words “Born here at…” in Becchi (see our January article) they certainly could not have been referring to Mainito, which is over a kilometre from Joseph’s house!

Cascine, massari and mezzadri
            Francesco Bosco, farmer at the Cascina Biglione, wishing to set up his own business, bought land and the Becchi house, but death took him suddenly on 11 May 1817 before he had been able to pay all his debts. In November, his widow, Margaret Occhiena, moved with her children and mother-in-law into the Casetta, which had been renovated for the purpose. Before then, the Casetta, already contracted by her husband since 1815 but not yet paid for, consisted only of “a croft and adjacent stable, covered with tiles, in poor condition” (S. CASELLE, Cascinali e contadini […], p. 96-97), and therefore uninhabitable for a family of five, with animals and tools. By February 1817 the notarial deed of sale had been drawn up, but the debt was still outstanding. Margaret had to resolve the situation as guardian of Anthony, Joseph and John Bosco, by then small owners at the Becchi.
            It was not the first time that the Bosco family moved from the status of massari to becoming smallholders and vice versa. The late Comm. Secondo Caselle has given us ample documentation of this.
            Don Bosco’s great-great-grandfather, Giovanni Pietro, formerly a massaro (sharecropper) at the Croce di Pane farmstead, between Chieri and Andezeno, owned by the Barnabite Fathers, in 1724 became a shrecropper at the Cascina di San Silvestro near Chieri, belonging to the Prevostura di San Giorgio. And the fact that he lived in the Cascina di San Silvestro with his family is recorded in the Registri del Sale of 1724. His nephew, Filippo Antonio, fatherless and taken in by Giovanni Pietro’s eldest son, Giovanni Francesco Bosco, was adopted by a great-uncle, from whom he inherited a house, garden and 2 hectares of land in Castelnuovo. But, due to the critical economic situation he found himself in, he had to sell the house and most of his land and move with his family to the hamlet of Morialdo, as a sharecropper of Cascina Biglione, where he died in 1802.
            Paolo, his first-born son, thus became the head of the family and the farmer, as recorded in the 1804 census. But a few years later, he left the farmstead to his half-brother Francesco and went to settle in Castelnuovo after taking his share of the inheritance and buying and selling. It was then that Francesco Bosco, son of Filippo Antonio and Margherita Zucca, became a massaro of Cascina Biglione.
            What was meant in those days by cascina, massaro and mezzadro?
            The word cascina (in Piedmontese: cassin-a) indicates in itself a farmhouse or the whole of a farm; but in the places we are talking about, the emphasis was on the house, i.e. the farm building used partly as a dwelling and partly as a rustic house for livestock, etc. The massaro (in Piedmontese: massé) in itself is the tenant of the farmstead and the farms, while the mezzadro (in Piedmontese: masoé) is only the cultivator of a master’s land with whom he shares the crops. But in practice in those places the massaro was also a sharecropper and vice versa, so that the word massé was not much used, while masoé generally indicated the massaro as well.
            Mr and Mrs Damevino, owners of Cascina Bion or Biglione al Castellero from 1845 to 1929, also owned other farmsteads, at Scajota and Barosca, and, as Mr Angelo Agagliate assured us, they had five massari or sharecroppers, one at Cascina Biglione, two at Scajota and two at Barosca. Naturally, the various massari lived in their own farmstead.
            Now, if a farmer was a farmer, e.g., at Cascina Scajota, owned by the Damevino family, he was not called “living in the Damevino house”, but simply “alla Scajota”. If Francesco Bosco had lived in the supposed Biglione house at Mainito, he would not, therefore, have been said to have lived “in Mr Biglione’s house” even if this house had belonged to the Biglione family. If the notary wrote “In Signor Biglione’s house inhabited by the testator below”, it was a sign that Francesco lived with his family at Cascina Biglione proper.
            And this is further confirmation of the previous articles that refute the hypothesis of Don Bosco’s birth at Mainito “in a house now demolished”.
            In conclusion, one cannot give exclusive importance to the literal meaning of certain expressions, but must examine their true meaning in the local usage of the time. In studies of this kind, the work of the local researcher is complementary to that of the academic historian, and particularly important, because the former, aided by detailed knowledge of the area, can provide the latter with the material needed for general conclusions, and avoid erroneous interpretations.

            The oldest pillar in the Becchi area appears to date back to 1700. It was erected at the bottom of the plain towards the “Mainito”, where the families who lived in the ancient “Scaiota” used to meet. It then became a Salesian farmstead, which has now been renovated and converted into a youth house that hosts groups of young pilgrims to the Church and the Don Bosco House.
            This is the Consolata pillar, with a statue of Our Lady of Consolation, always honoured with country flowers brought by devotees. John Bosco must have passed by that pillar many times, taking off his hat and murmuring a Hail Mary as his mother had taught him.
            In 1958, the Salesians restored the old pillar and, with a solemn religious service, began the renewed worship of the community and the population, as recorded in the Chronicle of that year kept in the archives of the “Bernardi Semeria” Institute.
            That statue of the Consolata could therefore be the first image of Mary  that Don Bosco venerated in his boyhood at his home.

At the “Consolata” in Turin
            Already as a student and seminarian in Chieri Don Bosco must have gone to Turin to venerate the Consolata (BM I, 200). But it is certain that, as a new priest, he celebrated his second Holy Mass precisely at the Shrine of the Consolata “to thank the Great Virgin Mary for the innumerable favours she had obtained for me from her Divine Son Jesus.” (MO 96).
            In the days of the wandering Oratory with no fixed abode, Don Bosco went with his boys to some churches in Turin for Sunday Mass, and mostly they went to the Consolata (BM II, 104, 193).
            In  May 1846-47, in order to thank Our Lady for having finally given them a stable home, he took his youngsters there to receive Holy Communion while the Oblate Fathers of the Virgin Mary, who officiated at the Shrine, were available to hear their confessions.
            When, in the summer of 1846, Don Bosco fell seriously ill, his boys not only showed their grief in tears, but fearing that human means would not suffice for his recovery, they took turns from morning to night at the Shrine of the Consolata to pray to Our Lady to preserve their sick friend and father.
            There were those who even made childish vows and those who fasted on bread and water so that Our Lady would hear them. They were heard and Don Bosco promised God that even his last breath would be for them.
            The visits of Don Bosco and his boys to the Consolata continued. Invited once to sing Mass in the shrine with his youngsters, he arrived at the appointed time with the improvised “Schola cantorum”, bringing with him the score of a “mass” he had composed for the occasion.
            The organist there was the famous maestro Bodoira whom Don Bosco invited to play the organ. The latter did not even take a look at Don Bosco’s score, but when he was about to play the music, he did not understand it at all and, leaving the organist’s post in a huff, he left.
            Don Bosco then sat down at the organ and accompanied the Mass following his composition studded with signs that only he could understand. The young men who had previously been lost trying to follow the famous organist, continued to the end without a cue and their silvery voices attracted the admiration and sympathy of all the faithful at the service.
            From 1848 until 1854 Don Bosco accompanied his boys in procession through the streets of Turin to the Consolata. His youngsters sang praises to the Virgin along the way and then participated in the Holy Mass he celebrated.
            When Mamma Margaret died on 25 November 1856, Don Bosco went that morning to celebrate the Holy Mass of suffrage in the underground chapel of the Consolata, stopping to pray at length before the image of Our Lady, begging her to be a mother to him and his boys. And Mary fulfilled his prayers (BM V, 374).
            Don Bosco at the Shrine of the Consolata not only had occasion to celebrate Holy Mass several times, but one day he also wanted to serve Mass there. Entering the shrine to pay a visit, he heard the signal for Mass to begin and realised that the altar server was missing. He got up, went to the sacristy, took the missal and served Mass with devotion (BM VII, 57).
            And Don Bosco’s attendance at the Shrine never ceased especially on the occasion of the Novena and the Feast of the Consolata.

Statuette of the Consolata in the Pinardi Chapel
            On 2 September 1847 Don Bosco bough a statuette of Our Lady of the Consolata for 27 lire, placing it in the Pinardi Chapel.
            In 1856, when the Chapel was being demolished, Fr Francis Giacomelli, a seminary companion and great friend of Don Bosco, wishing to keep for himself what he called the most distinguished monument of the foundation of the Oratory, took the statuette to the family home to Avigliana.
            In 1882, his sister had a pillar with a niche built at the house and placed the precious relic there.
            When the Salesians came to know about the pillar in Avigliana, after the Giacomelli family home was being demolished, they managed to get the ancient statuette back. On 12 April 1929 it returned to the Turin Oratory after 73 years from the day Fr Giacomelli had removed it from the first chapel (E. GIRAUDI, L’Oratorio di Don Bosco, Torino, SEI, 1935, p. 89-90).
            Today the historic little statue remains the only reminder of the past in the new Pinardi Chapel, as its dearest and most precious treasure.
            Don Bosco, who spread devotion to Mary Help of Christians throughout the world, never forgot his first devotion to the Virgin, venerated from his childhood at the Becchi pillar under the effigy of the “Consolata”. When he arrived in Turin as a young diocesan priest, during the heroic period of his “Oratory”, he drew light and advice, courage and comfort for the mission that the Lord had entrusted to him from Our Lady of the Consolata in her Sanctuary.
            This is also why he is rightly considered one of Turin’s saints.

            Piedmont in the early 19th century was still a peripheral area compared to the rest of Italy. The language spoken was Piedmontese. Italian was only used in special cases, just like one wears a special suit on special occasions. The upper classes preferred French in writing and resorted to dialect in conversation.
            In 1822, King Charles Felix approved a regulation for schools with special provisions for the teaching of Italian. However, these provisions were not very effective, especially given the method by which they were applied.
            It is therefore not surprising that the correct use of Italian also cost Don Bosco no little effort. There is a reason why, in his Memoirs it is easy to find Piedmontese words Italianised or Italian words used with dialect meanings as in the following cases:
            “I noticed that […] a sfrosadore was appearing” (ASC 132 / 58A7), where sfrosadore (Piedmontese: sfrosador) stands for fraudster, and likewise, “Don Bosco with his sons could cause a revolution at any time” (ASC 132 / 58E4), where figli (Piedmontese: fieuj) stands for youngsters. And so on.
            If Don Bosco was then able to write with propriety of language, combined with simplicity and clarity, it is due, among other things, to the patient use of the dictionary which Silvio Pellico advised him to use (MB III, 222).

A correction
            A significant example can be found in the correction of a sentence in the first dream he described in his Memoirs, “Renditi sano, forte e robusto”.
            Don Bosco, revising the manuscript, drew a line through the word “sano” (healthy) and wrote “umile” (humble)” in its place  (ASC 132 / 57A7).
            What did Don Bosco really hear in his dream and why did he then change that word? There has been talk of a change of meaning made for didactic purposes, as seems to have been Don Bosco’s custom at times in narrating and writing down his dreams. But could it not instead be a simple clarification of the original meaning?
            At 9 years of age the little John Bosco only spoke and heard Piedmontese. He had just started studying “the elements of reading and writing” at Fr Lacqua’s school in Capriglio. At home and in the village, only dialect was used. In church, he would hear the parish priest or chaplain read the Gospel in Latin and explain it in Piedmontese.
            It is therefore more than reasonable to assume that in a dream John heard both the “dignified man” and the “Lady of stately appearance” express themselves in dialect. The words he heard in the dream must then be recalled in dialect. Not: “humble, strong and energetict”, but rather “san, fòrt e robust” in the characteristic local accent.
            In such circumstances these adjectives could not have a purely literal but a figurative meaning. Now “san”, in a figurative sense, means: without wickedness, upright in moral conduct, i.e. good (C. ZALLI, Dizionario Piemontese-Italiano, Carmagnola, Tip. di P. Barbié, 2 a ed, 1830, vol. II, p. 330, used by Don Bosco); “fòrt e robust” means “strength” with stamina in the physical and moral sense (C. ZALLI, op. cit., vol. I, 360; vol. II, 309).
            Don Bosco would never again forget those three adjectives “san, fòrt e robust” and when he wrote his Memoirs, while at first glance he translated them literally, thinking back on it later, he found it more appropriate to better specify the meaning of the first word. That san (= good) for a 9-year-old boy meant obedient, docile, not capricious, not haughty, in a word, “humble”!
            It would therefore be a clarification, not a change of meaning.

Confirmation of this interpretation
            Don Bosco, in writing his Memoirs, candidly emphasised the shortcomings of his boyhood. Two passages taken from the same Memoirs confirm this.
            The first concerns the year of his first Confession and Communion for which Mamma Margaret had prepared his John: Don Bosco wrote. “I treasured my mother’s advice and tried to carry it out. I think from that day on there was some improvement in my life, especially in matters of obedience and submission to others. It was not easy for me to be submissive to others because I liked to do things my own way and follow my own childish whims rather than listen to those who gave me advice or told me what to do.” (ASC 132 / 60B5).
            The other can be found a little further on, where Don Bosco speaks of the difficulties he encountered with his half-brother Anthony in giving himself up to study. It is an amusing detail for us but one that betrays Anthony’s temper and John’s as well. So Anthony is said to have said to him one day, seeing him in the kitchen, sitting at the table, all intent on his books, “I’ve had my fill of this grammar business. I’ve grown big and strong without ever setting eyes on these books.” And Don Bosco said, “Carried away by blind rage I replied in a way I should not have. ‘Our donkey is bigger and stronger than you are and he never went to school either. Do you want to be like him?’ This so angered him that only speed saved me from a volley of blows and smacks.” (ASC 132 / 57B5).
            These details give us a better understanding of the dream’s warning and at the same time may explain the reason for the linguistic “clarification”mentioned above.
            In interpreting, therefore, Don Bosco’s manuscripts it will be useful not to forget the problem of language, because Don Bosco spoke and wrote correctly in Italian, but his mother tongue was the one in which he thought.
            In Rome on 8 May 1887, at a reception in his honour, when asked which language he liked best, he said, “The language I like best is the one my mother taught me, because it did not require any great effort to learn it, and I find it easier to express my ideas with it. Then too, I do not forget it as easily as I do other languages.” (BM XVIII, 275)