Doing good for the young requires not only dedication but also huge material and financial resources. Don Bosco used to say “I trust in Divine Providence without limit, but Providence also wants to be helped by our own immense efforts”; said and done.

            Don Bosco gave 20 precious “Reminders” to his departing missionaries, on 11 November 1875. The first was: “Seek souls, but not money, nor honours nor dignity.”
            Don Bosco himself had to go in search of money all his life, but he wanted his sons not to toil in seeking money, not to worry when they lacked it, not to lose their heads when they found some, but to be ready for every humiliation and sacrifice in the search for what was needed, with full trust in Divine Providence who would never fail them. And he gave them the example.

“The Saint of millions!”
            Don Bosco handled large sums of money in his lifetime, collected at the price of enormous sacrifices, humiliating begging, lotteries that were hard to organise, endless wanderings. With this money he gave bread, clothing, lodging and work to many poor boys, bought houses, opened hospices and colleges, built churches, launched great printing and publishing initiatives, launched Salesian missions in America and, finally, already weakened by the aches and pains of old age, he erected the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Rome, in obedience to the Pope.
            Not everyone understood the spirit that animated him, not everyone appreciated his multifaceted activities and the anticlerical press indulged in ridiculous insinuations. On 4 April 1872 the Turin satirical periodical Il Fischietto said Don Bosco had “fabulous funds”, while at his death Luigi Pietracqua published a blasphemous sonnet in Il Birichin in which he called Don Bosco a cunning man “capable of drawing blood from a turnip” and described him as “the Saint of millions” because he would have counted millions by the handful without earning them through his own sweat.
            Those who know the style of poverty in which the Saint lived and died can easily understand how unfair Pietracqua’s satire was. Yes, Don Bosco was a skilful steward of the money that the charity of good people brought him, but he never kept anything for himself. The furniture in his little room at Valdocco consisted of an iron bed, a small table, a chair and, later, a sofa, with no curtains on the windows, no carpets, not even a bedside table. In his last illness, tormented by thirst, when they provided him with seltzer water to give him relief. He did not want to drink it, believing it to be an expensive drink. They needed to assure him that it only cost seven cents a bottle. A few days before he died, he ordered Fr Viglietti to look in the pockets of his clothes and give Fr Rua his purse, so that he could die without a penny in his pocket.

Philanthropic Aristocracy
            Don Bosco’s Biographical Memoirs and the Epistolario provide a wealth of documentation regarding his benefactors. There we find the names of almost 300 aristocratic families. It is impossible to list them all here.

            Certainly, we must not make the mistake of limiting Don Bosco’s benefactors to the aristocracy alone. He obtained help and disinterested collaboration from thousands of other people from the ecclesiastical and civil classes, the middle class and ordinary people, starting with the incomparable benefactor who was Mamma Margaret.
            But let us look at one aristocrat who distinguished himself in supporting Don Bosco’s work, pointing to the simple and delicate and at the same time, courageous and apostolic attitude that he knew how to keep in order to receive and do good.
            In 1866 Don Bosco addressed a letter to Countess Enrichetta Bosco di Ruffino, née Riccardi, who had been in contact with the Valdocco Oratory for years. She was one of the women who met weekly to repair the clothes of the young boarders. Here is the text:

“Worthy Countess,
            I cannot go and visit you as I would like to, but I am coming in the person of Jesus Christ hidden beneath these rags which I recommend to you, so that in your charity you may mend them. It is a poor thing in temporal terms, but I hope that it will be a treasure for eternity for you.
            God bless you, your labours and all your family, while I have the honour to be able to profess myself with full esteem
            Your most obliged servant”.
            Fr Bosco Gio. Turin, 16 May 1866

            In this letter Don Bosco apologises for not being able to go in person to visit the Countess. In return he sends her a bundle of rags from the Oratory boys to be patched up… roba grama (Piedmontese for rubbish) before human beings, but a precious treasure to those who clothe the naked for the love of Christ!
            Some have tried to interpret Don Bosco’s relations with the rich as ingratiating himself with the wealthy. But there is an authentic evangelical spirit here!

To get to know Don Bosco and his work, recourse to the sources is essential. The more we move chronologically away from the beginnings, the more important it is to go back to the origins. As in all other similar cases, consulting the primary sources – manuscripts and originals – is only possible for a few researchers who have the preparation and time to devote to this demanding task. For the vast majority of those who love Don Bosco and the Salesian charism, the sources are those produced by these primary researchers. We will spend time in this article presenting one of the most important of these sources, the Biographical Memoirs of St. John Bosco, leaving the other Salesian sources for later articles.

The Biographical Memoirs of St John Bosco were compiled from 1898 to 1939 by three authors: Fr John Baptist LEMOYNE (1839-1916), Vol. I-IX, Fr Angelo AMADEI (1868-1945), Vol. X, Fr Eugenio CERIA (1870-1957), Vol. XI-XIX. Two more volumes were added to these: an analytical index compiled by Fr Ernesto FOGLIO (1891-1947) and published in 1948, and an alphabetical index compiled by Fr Pietro CICCARELLI (1915-2001) and published in 1972.
These ‘Memoirs’ are the result of extensive research conducted over forty-two years, and have been presented chronologically, according to various periods in the life of St John Bosco, except for the last three volumes, as can be seen in the table below.

Much criticism has been levelled at these writings, but perhaps we must take into account the time and circumstances in which they were written, otherwise we run the risk of falling into a generic rejection of this source without even knowing what the reasons for certain criticisms are.

First of all, we must recognise that the criteria the authors followed in their research were those of their time, with the means then available, with their merits and flaws, different from the scientific ones of today.

We must take into consideration the circumstances in which these volumes were written: just two years after Don Bosco’s death, on 03.06.1890, the cause for canonisation had already been opened. The decree super virtutibus was promulgated on 20.02.1927, the beatification took place on 02.06.1929 and the canonisation on 01.04.1934. This is roughly the same period in which the ‘Biographical Memoirs’ were written. The authors’ concern not to hinder the canonisation process clearly shows through.

We can also say that the Salesian Congregation was in its infancy and the first Salesians needed encouragement, which also explains a certain triumphalism in their writings.

Moreover, all three authors had known Don Bosco and, like so many others, had a real affection for their father, an affection that clearly influenced their writings, but this did not lead them to write lies or mislead their readers.

The life and works of a saint, in themselves, are very difficult to write about. And then, if it is a saint as enterprising as Don Bosco, it is even more complex. Because saints, by definition I would say, are those whose will is united with God, and understanding saints means in a certain way understanding God’s plans. Telling the life of a saint without any reference to the divine enlightenment he receives and the real miracles he performs is almost impossible. And the supernatural events recounted in the ‘Biographical Memoirs’ are only a fraction of those that took place, because the saints themselves do everything possible to conceal them. Just remember the episode of Don Bosco’s bread rolls.

But all these influences, circumstances and difficulties do not detract from the value of this monumental work of forty-two years that has borne fruit seen in entire generations of Salesians and people who have adopted Salesian spirituality.

However, not everyone has had the opportunity to have these writings at their fingertips. But today’s technologies allow us to disseminate these sources with an ease never imagined before. We would like to present these resources, but since there are so many versions of the ‘Biographical Memoirs’ available on the Internet, a clarification is needed, as well as indications as to where they can be read, consulted or downloaded from the Internet in various languages.

The first digitised version (1.1) of the ‘Biographical Memoirs’ in Italian was produced by the Salesian Communications Department in the year 2000 and was presented on a CD that contained proprietary software that could be installed. It was the scanned paper text, of which an automatic though not terribly accurate character recognition had been done with the means available at that time. With the arrival of the Windows Vista operating system in 2006, it became unusable due to incompatibility.

A second version (1.2) was made in 2005 from the scan made in 2000. This improved version was uploaded the same year on the sdb.org website, where it can still be found in MsWord and PDF format. You can find it HERE. Almost all other Italian versions published on other sites or delivered from hand to hand have this version as their source.

A third version (1.3), even more improved, was finished in 2009. Concordances of all twenty volumes were made on this version, published HERE.

A fourth and final version (1.4) was completed in 2013. This latest version has been published on the donboscosanto.eu website in PDF format. Being the latest, it is the most accurate and error-free version.

There is another Italian version (2), which has a new scan made in 2018 as its source, with automatic character recognition, which can be found HERE.

This year, 2023, a new version (1.5) of the ‘Biographical Memoirs’ was completed, starting from the second version, the 2005 one, which can be found at sdb.org. It was improved by Fr Roberto DOMINICI, sdb, and the Sicilian Province after a long period of work. Unlike the previous versions, it has the particularity that:
– all the volumes are presented in a single file, to facilitate the search (even if the file size is large); the search for groups of words is no longer hindered by the indications on the paper pages and within the square brackets as in the four previous versions;
– the search is very fast, immediate, with Adobe Reader XI (though not with earlier versions), and also fast with PDF-XChangeViewer;
– the A4 pages of the PDF file are separated according to the paper volumes; this way they can be used for bibliographic indication;
– there is a general table of contents, an index and also a repertory, all interactive.
We thank Fr Roberto because he has made it available both in PDF format (you can download it from HERE) and in EPUB format (you can download it from HERE).

It must be said that none of these Italian digital versions conform to the original, but are partial manual corrections of scanned texts that are automatically recognised by OCR software. This is important to know because the textual search may not produce absolutely all results.

The Biographical Memoirs of Saint John Boscoin English were translated by Fr Felix Joseph PENNA, sdb (1904-1962), with Vols. I-XVI under the direction of Fr Diego BORGATELLO, sdb (1911-1994) and Vols. XVII-XIX under the direction of Fr Vincent Vinicio ZULIANI (1927-2011). They were published by Salesiana Publishers, INC., New Rochelle, USA, in 1964-2003, in 18 volumes.
A first scanned and searchable version of the “Biographical Memoirs” in English was started by Fr Paul LEUNG, sdb, Hong Kong in 2015. This version can be found HERE or HERE. It has to be said, however, that these scanned versions are faulty in significant ways, including omitting any number of pages.
A second searchable scanned version was produced in 2023 and can be found HERE.

The Spanish language Memorias Biográficas de san Juan Bosco were translated by Fr José FERNÁNDEZ ALONSO, sdb (1885-1975) and Fr Basilio BUSTILLO CATALINA, sdb (1907-1998). They were published by Ediciones Don Bosco, Madrid, Spain, in 1981-1998, in 19 volumes. A CD containing all the texts of the twenty volumes, in digitised format, was also delivered with volume XX. The version you can find HERE is an extract taken in 2015 from this CD.
A second searchable scanned version was produced in 2018 and can be found HERE.

The French language Memoires Biographiques de Jean Bosco have been translated by various authors. In detail, Vol. II – translator unknown, Vol. IV – M. Yves LE COZ, sdb, Salesian Brother (1916-2015), vol. V – Fr Marceau PROU, sdb (1921-2016), Vol. XII – soeur Joséphine Depraz, fma and Vol. XX, the analytical index – Fr Philippe Frémin, sdb. They were published by Editrice SDB, in the years 1997-2017, in 5 volumes. There is the intention to continue the translation of the remaining volumes.
The scanned volumes can be downloaded from HERE and HERE.

The Polish-language Pamiętników Biograficznych Memoirs were translated by Fr Czesław PIECZEŃCZYK, SDB (1912-1993), between 1958 and 1972. Older versions of Polish translations date mainly from the Second World War, when Professor Fr Wincenty Fęcki corrected the work of a group of students. They were published in Pogrzebień, Poland, in 18 volumes.
The digital version edited by Fr Stanislaw Lobodźc and Fr Stanislaw Gorczakowski was opened on 19 June 2010. The entire 18-volume collection can be found HERE and also HERE.

The Portuguese language Memórias Biográficas de São João Bosco have been translated by various translators since 2018. To date (February 2023), the first twelve volumes have been translated and printed and the remainder are expected to be printed until 2025. The publisher is Editora Edebê, Brasilia, Brazil. For now, they can only be obtained by purchasing them from HERE or from HERE.

The Biographical Memoirs in the Slovenian language Biografskispominisv Janeza Boska were translated by Fr Valter Bruno DERMOTA, sdb, Salesian from Slovenia (1915-1994) and printed between 2012 and 2022. The publisher is Publisher Salve d.o.o. Ljubljana, Ljubljana, and the digital collection of the 17 volumes can be found online HERE and HERE.

The Czech language Biographical Memoirs Memorie-ekniha were translated into a selection made by Fr Oldrich Josef MED (1914-1991), sdb, a Salesian from Bohemia, Czech Rep. in the 1980s. Volumes I- XIV are presented in a single digital file together with the Memoirs of the Oratory of St John Bosco and are available online HERE and HERE.

The Dutch language Biographische Gedenkschriften van de H. Johannes Bosco were translated under the initial care of Fr Marcel BAERT, sdb (1918-2006) in the Don Boscokring (Don Bosco Circle), of the theology department of Oud-Heverlee (Belgium). The translators, Fr Hubert ABRAMS, sdb (1913-1987), Fr Gerard GRIJSPEER, sdb (1896-1982), Fr Corneel NYSEN, sdb (1901-1985), J.H.P. Jacobs and Dr J. Muys worked from 1961 until 1979, when they finished; in 1991 the alphabetical repertory was also published. 20 volumes have been translated and published and the digital version was finalised in 2013. The entire 20-volume collection can be found HERE.

The “Biographical Memoirs” in the Vietnamese language Hồi Ký Tiểu Sử Thánh Gioan Bosco have been translated under the care of Fr Thinh Phuoc Joseph NGUYEN, sdb, in accordance with the Italian and English versions. There are 10 translated volumes, from which four have been published; the translation project continues. They can be found HERE.

The Chinese-language ‘Biographical Memoirs’ have been translated into 5 volumes. There is no information regarding digitisation.

There are unconfirmed reports of translations into other languages as well; as soon as we verify the reliability of the information, we will share it.

All these works of translation and dissemination of the ‘Biographical Memoirs’ indicate to us that they are and will remain a main reference for the Salesian charism. This impressive work prompts us to be grateful to those who over the years have committed themselves to writing, translating, publishing, digitising and sharing downloadable or consultable versions on the Internet. We wish good work to those who are still engaged in this fine service to Don Bosco and the charism, offering a little prayer for them when we remember that we have received graces through these writings.

The Italian Lira, with its subdivisions into 100 centimes, was the official currency of Italy from 1861 to 2002 when it was ultimately replaced by the European currency, the Euro. It was the currency in Don Bosco’s time and in the early history of the Salesian Congregation.

The Italian Lira (abbreviated as £ or Lit.) was first minted by the Republic of Venice in 1472. In 1806, it was adopted by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, also known as Regno Italico, founded in 1805 by Napoleon Bonaparte, when he had himself crowned as ruler of the northern and central-eastern part of what is now Italy. Ten years later, in 1814, following the dissolution of the Napoleonic state, the currency of the Kingdom was maintained only in the Duchy of Parma and the Kingdom of Sardinia. After another two years, in 1816, King Victor Emmanuel I of Savoy introduced the Savoy lira, which remained in circulation until the birth of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, when it became the Italian lira. This currency remained in circulation until 2002, when it was replaced by the Euro.

When we follow the history of Don Bosco and the Salesian Congregation, we always comes across the difficulty of correctly quantifying the financial efforts that were made to support and educate thousands, indeed tens of thousands of boys, as the Italian currency has undergone great variations over the years. The difficulty increased even more with the adoption of the European currency, when in 2002 the exchange rate was set at 1936.27 Italian lira for one Euro. And there have been further significant variations due to inflation.
We propose below a calculation table of the revaluation of the Lira from 1861 to 2002 with the possibility of an update to 2022.

The calculations were made on the basis of the revaluation coefficients provided by the Central Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) and were determined according to the trend of the cost-of-living indices, which since 1968 have taken the name of consumer price indices for blue- and white-collar households. For the period after the year 2002, the inflation index was added, which comes to 38.70% in 2022 compared to the time of the launch of the single currency (Euro), based on data provided by ISTAT itself (1 Euro in 2002 = 1.39 Euro in 2022).

Don Bosco’s life had much suffering but he bore it all with heroic humility and patience. Instead, we would like to talk here about daily crosses, more the passing kind but no less heavy. These are thorns he encountered along the way at every turn, actually thorns that stung his upright conscience and sensitive heart, which could have discouraged anyone less patient than him. We will give just a few examples of annoyances of a mainly financial nature that he had to endure through the fault of others.
Writing a letter from Rome to Fr Michael Rua on 25 April 1876, he said among other things: “How many things, how many carrozzini completed and still under way. They seem like fairy tales!” The term “carrozzini” is a Piedmontese term Don Bosco employed to indicate the problems caused by others that brought him serious and unexpected burdens, of which he was not the cause but the victim.

Three significant cases
The owner of a steam pasta factory, a certain Luigi Succi from Turin, a man well known for his charitable works, one day asked Don Bosco to lend him his signature in a bank transaction to withdraw 40,000 lira. Since he was a rich man from whom he had received many benefits, Don Bosco gave in. But three days later Succi died, the promissory note expired and Don Bosco sent word to his heirs of their deceased’s commitment.
Card. G. Cagliero: “We were at dinner when Fr Rua came in and told Don Bosco that the heirs neither knew nor wanted to know about promissory notes. I was sitting at Don Bosco’s side. He was eating his soup and I saw that between one spoonful and another (note that it was the month of January and the refectory had no heating), drops of sweat were falling from his forehead onto his plate, but he showed no concern and did not interrupt his modest meal.
There was no way of making the heirs see reason, and Don Bosco had to pay for it. It was only after about ten years that he got almost the entire sum secured by his signature back.

Another work of charity also cost him dearly for the harassment it caused him. A certain Giuseppe Rua, from Turin, had invented a device with which to raise the monstrance above the tabernacle in church and then lower it back down onto the altar table, at the same time lowering and then raising the cross. This would have avoided the risks the priest ran when climbing up the ladder to carry out this function. That really seemed a simpler and safer means of exposing the Blessed Sacrament. To encourage him Don Bosco sent the designs to the Sacred Congregation of Rites, recommending the initiative. But the Congregation did not approve the invention and did not even want to return the drawings, on the grounds that such was the practice in such cases. Finally, an exception was made for him to free him from more serious harassment. But Mr Rua, seeing the not inconsiderable loss of his industry, blamed Don Bosco for it, took him to court and demanded that the court oblige him to pay a large indemnity. Fortunately, the magistrate later turned out to be of a very different opinion. But in the meantime, during the long course of the litigation, Don Bosco’s suffering was no small matter.

A third harassment originated from Don Bosco’s charity. He had devised a special collection of funds in the winter of 1872-1873. That winter was particularly hard given the already serious public financial difficulties. In order to procure means of subsistence for his work in Valdocco, which at the time had about 800 young boarders, Don Bosco wrote a circular letter sent in a sealed envelope to potential contributors, inviting them to buy tickets of ten liras each as alms and raffling off a valuable reproduction of Raphael’s Madonna di Foligno.

The public authorities saw a violation of the law in this initiative. The law prohibited public lotteries so Don Bosco was sued. When questioned, he protested that the lottery was not gambling but consisted of a simple appeal to civic charity, accompanied by a small token of appreciation. The case dragged on for a long time and only ended in 1875 with the sentence of the Court of Appeal condemning “the priest Sir Don Giovanni Bosco” to a heavy fine for contravening the lottery law. Although there was no doubt that the end, he had set himself was praiseworthy, his good faith could not exempt him from the penalty, the material fact being sufficient to establish the contravention also because “it could have gone well beyond the end he intended”!
This warning drove Don Bosco to a final attempt. He appealed to King Victor Emmanuel II, begging by virtue of a sovereign pardon in favour of his young men on whom the consequences of the sentence would fall. And the Sovereign graciously accepted, granting the pardon. The granting of the pardon fell at a time when Don Bosco was, among other things, fully immersed in expenses for his first expedition of Salesian missionaries to America. But in the meantime, how much trepidation!
Although Don Bosco, for the sake of peace, always tried to avoid litigation in court, he still had to endure it, only sometimes obtaining complete absolution. “Summum jus summa iniuria”, said Cicero, meaning that too much rigour in judging is often a great injustice.

The Saint’s advice
Don Bosco was so adverse to litigation and quarrels that he wrote in his Spiritual Testament:
“With outsiders it is necessary to tolerate a great deal, and even endure harm rather than come to arguments.
With the civil and ecclesiastical authorities put up with as much as you can honestly, but never end up in the secular court. Since in spite of sacrifices and all good will one must sometimes have to endure legal suits and disputes, I advise and recommend that the dispute be referred to one or two arbitrators with full powers, and that the dispute be referred to any opinion of theirs.
In this way consciences are saved and affairs which are ordinarily very long and costly and in which it is difficult to maintain peace and Christian charity are brought to an end.”

In the month that recalls the apparitions at Lourdes for us, we take the opportunity to point out the error into which, some time ago, the author of a negative life-story of Don Bosco the Saint fell in his attempt to ridicule the devotion to Mary Help of Christians.
The essayist wrote:
“In such a saturation of Marian cult, history pretty much sub specie Mariae, it is surprising not to find traces in Don Bosco’s life of such important events as the apparitions of La Salette (1846) and Lourdes (1858); and yet everything that happened in France was resented in Turin, far more than what was unfolding in Italy. I do not understand this absence. Was it the mantle of Mary Help of Christians and the Consolata that formed a jealous barrier against other protections and appearances of the same figure?”

What is truly astonishing here is the surprise of a writer not unaware of Salesian sources, because Don Bosco spoke and wrote repeatedly about the apparitions of La Salette and Lourdes. In 1871, i.e. a good three years after the consecration of the Church of Mary Help of Christians and Don Bosco’s commitment to spread the devotion, he himself compiled and published as the May issue of his “Catholic Readings”, the booklet entitled: Apparition of the Blessed Virgin on mount La Salette. In this little volume of 92 pages, which had a third edition in 1877, Don Bosco described the Apparition in all its details, then moved on to other prodigious events attributed to the Virgin.
Two years later, in 1873, he published, as the December issue of the same “Catholic Readings”, the booklet entitled: The Wonders of Our Lady of Lourdes. The issue came out anonymously but was preceded by an announcement “To our benefactors, correspondents and readers” signed by Don Bosco.

In the Biographical Memoirs
And that is not all. In the Biographical Memoirs, describing the first feast of the Immaculate Conception celebrated at Pinardi House in Valdocco on 8 December 1846, the biographer, Fr G.B. Lemoyne, asserts that the feast was “made more cheerful by information regarding an apparition of Our Lady in France at La Salette”; and he continues: “This was Don Bosco’s favourite subject, repeated by him a hundred times.”

To anyone who is supercritical, the expression “a hundred times” will seem exaggerated, but those who know our language know that for us it simply means “many times” (“I have told you a hundred times”). And “many times” does not mean “a few”, much less so “never”.
We find in the same Memoirs on 8 December 1858:
“Don Bosco was delighted with such encouragement as he celebrated the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. All the more so since in this year a portentous event had made the glory and goodness of the heavenly Mother resound throughout the world and Don Bosco had narrated it several times to his youngsters and later gave a report of it to the press.” Clearly this was about Lourdes.
There is more. A chronicle from 1865 reports the “Good Night”, or evening sermon to the young people given by Don Bosco on 11 January that year:
“I would like to tell you magnificent things tonight. Our Lady deigned to appear many times over a few years to her devotees. She appeared in France in 1846 to two shepherd children, where, among other things, she foretold the blight affecting potatoes and grapes, which did happen; and she was sorrowed by blasphemy, people working on Sundays, acting like dogs in church, that had kindled the wrath of her Divine Son. She appeared in 1858 to little Bernadette near Lourdes, recommending that she pray for poor sinners…”
Note that in work had begun that year on the construction of the Church of Mary Help of Christians; yet Don Bosco did not forget the Marian apparitions in France.
Then it is enough to look in the Salesian Bulletin to find many references to Lourdes and Salette.
How can it be insinuated, then, that “the mantle of Mary Help of Christians” formed “a jealous barrier against other protections and appearances of the same figure”? How can it be said that traces of such important events as the Apparitions at La Salette (1846) and Lourdes (1858) are missing in Don Bosco’s life?
Since we are always on the lookout for “curiosities”, we also wanted to record this one, which reveals how certain non-fiction has very little to do with authentic and serious historical knowledge.

It is certainly no mystery for those who know the “living reality” of Valdocco, so well and not only the “ideal” or “virtual” one, that daily life in a decidedly restricted structure accommodating several hundred youngsters of different ages, origins, dialects, interests 24/7 and for many months a year, posed quite some educational and disciplinary problems for Don Bosco and his young educators. We report two significant episodes in this regard, mostly unknown.

The violent scuffle
In the autumn of 1861, the widow of painter Agostino Cottolengo, brother of the famous (Saint) Benedetto Cottolengo, needing to place her two sons, Giuseppe and Matteo Luigi, in the capital of the newly-born Kingdom of Italy for study, asked her brother-in-law, Can. Luigi Cottolengo of Chieri, to find a suitable boarding school. The latter suggested Don Bosco’s oratory and so on 23 October the two brothers, accompanied by another uncle, Ignazio Cottolengo, a Dominican friar, entered Valdocco at a fee of 50 lire a month. Before Christmas, however, the 14-year-old Matteo Luigi had already returned home for health reasons, while his older brother Giuseppe, who had returned to Valdocco after the Christmas holidays, was sent away a month later for reasons of force majeure. What had happened?
It had happened that on 10 February 1862, 16-year-old Giuseppe had come to blows with a certain Giuseppe Chicco, aged nine, nephew of Can. Simone Chicco from Carmagnola, who was probably paying his fees.
In the scuffle, with lots of beating, the child obviously got the worst of it, and was seriously injured. Don Bosco saw that he was taken in by the trustworthy Masera family, to avoid the news of the unpleasant episode spreading inside and beyond the house. The child was examined by a doctor, who drew up a rather detailed report, useful “for those who had a right to know”.

The bully’s temporary removal
So as not to run any risks and for obvious disciplinary reasons, Don Bosco on 15 February was forced to remove the young Cottolengo for a while, having him accompanied not to Bra at his mother’s house (she would have suffered too much) but to Chieri, to his uncle the Canon. The latter, two weeks later, asked Don Bosco about Chicco’s state of health and the medical expenses incurred so that he could pay for them out of his own pocket. He also asked him if he was willing to accept his nephew back to Valdocco. Don Bosco replied that the wounded boy was now almost completely healed and that there was no need to worry about medical expenses because “we are dealing with upright people.” As for accepting his nephew back, “imagine if I were to refuse” he wrote. But on two conditions: that the boy recognise his wrongdoing and that Can. Cottolengo write to Can. Chicco to apologise on behalf of his nephew and to beg him to “say a simple word” to Don Bosco for him to accept the young man back at Valdocco. Don Bosco assured him that Can. Chicco would not only accept the apology – he had already written to him about it – but had already arranged for the nephew to be admitted “to a relative’s house to prevent any publicity.” In mid-March both Cottolengo brothers were welcomed back to Valdocco “in a kindly way.” However, Matteo Luigi remained there only until Easter because of the usual health problems, while Giuseppe remained until the end of his studies.

A stronger friendship and a small gain
Not yet content that the affair had ended to the mutual satisfaction of both parties, the following year Can. Cottolengo again insisted with Don Bosco to pay for the wounded child’s doctor and medicines. Can. Chicco, when questioned by Don Bosco, replied that the total expense had been 100 lire, but that he and the child’s family were not asking for anything; but if Cottolengo insisted on paying the bill, he would redirect this sum “in favour of the Oratory of St Francis de Sales.” And so it happened.
The culprit had repented, the “victim” had been well cared for, the uncles had come together for the good of their nephews, the mothers had not suffered, Don Bosco and the Valdocco work, after having taken some risks, had gained in friendships, sympathy… and, something always appreciated in that boarding school for poor boys, a small financial contribution. Bringing good from evil is not for everyone but Don Bosco succeeded. There is much to learn.

A very interesting letter that opens a glimpse into the Valdocco world
But let’s present an even more serious case, which again can be instructive for today’s parents and educators grappling with difficult and rebellious boys.
Here are the facts. In 1865 a certain Carlo Boglietti, slapped for serious insubordination by the assistant in the bookbinding workshop, cleric Giuseppe Mazzarello, denounced the fact to the Borgo Dora urban magistrate’s court which opened an enquiry, summoning the accused, the accuser and three boys as witnesses. Wishing to settle the matter with less disturbance from the authorities, Don Bosco thought it best to address the magistrate himself directly and in advance by letter. As the director of a house of education he believed he could and should do so “in the name of all […] ready to give the greatest satisfaction to whoever required it.”

Two important legal premises
In his letter he first of all defended his right and responsibility as father-educator of the children entrusted to him: he immediately pointed out that Article 650 of the Penal Code, called into question by the summons, “seems entirely extraneous to the matter at hand, for if it were interpreted in the sense demanded by the urban court, it would be introduced into the domestic regime of families, and parents and their guardians would no longer be able to correct their children or prevent insolence and insubordination, [things] that would be seriously detrimental to public and private morality.”
Secondly, he reiterated that the faculty “to use all the means that were judged opportune […] to keep certain youngsters in check” had been granted to him by the government authority that sent him the children; only in desperate cases – indeed “several times” – had he had to call in “the arm of public safety.”

The episode, its precedents and the educational consequences
As for the young Charles in question, Don Bosco wrote that, faced with continual gestures and attitudes of rebellion, “he was paternally and warned but without effect several times; that he proved not only incorrigible, but insulted, threatened and swore at Cl. Mazzarello before his class mates”, to the point that “the assistant, of a very mild and meek disposition, was so frightened by this that from then on he was sick, unable to resume his duties, and continues to be ill.”
The boy had then escaped from the school and through his sister had informed his superiors of his escape only “when he knew that the news could no longer be kept from the police”, which he had not done before “to preserve his honour.” Unfortunately, his class mates had continued in their violent protest, so much so that – Don Bosco wrote again – “it was necessary to expel some of them from the establishment, and, sorrowfully, to hand them over to the public security authorities who took them to prison.”

Don Bosco’s requests
Faced with a young man who was “disorderly, who insulted and threatened his superiors” and who then had “the audacity to report those who for his own good […] consecrated their lives and their money, to the authorities” Don Bosco generally maintained that “public authority should always come to the aid of private authority and not the other way around.” In this specific case, then, he did not oppose criminal proceedings, but on two precise conditions: that the boy first present an adult to pay “the expenses that may be necessary and that he take responsibility for the serious consequences that could possibly occur.”
To avert a possible trial which would undoubtedly be exploited by the gutter press, Don Bosco played his hand: he asked in advance that “the damage that the assistant had suffered in his honour and person be compensated for at least until he could resume his ordinary occupations”, “that the costs of this case be borne by him” and that neither the boy nor “his relative or counsellor” Mr Stephen Caneparo should come to Valdocco “to renew the acts of insubordination and scandals already caused.”

Conclusion
How the sad affair came to an end is not known; in all likelihood it came to a prior conciliation between the parties. However, the fact remains that it is good to know that the boys at Valdocco were not all Dominic Savios, Francis Besuccos or even Michael Magones. There were also young “jailbirds” who gave Don Bosco and his young educators a hard time. The education of the young has always been a demanding art not without its risks; yesterday as today, there is a need for close cooperation between parents, teachers, educators, guardians all interested in the exclusive good of the young.

In a chapter of the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation promulgated by the Second Vatican Council, which deals with ‘Sacred Scripture in the Life of the Church’, all the Christian faithful are urged to read the Holy Book frequently.

It is a fact that in Don Bosco’s time in Piedmont, in parish and school catechesis, personal reading of the biblical text was not yet sufficiently practised. Rather than having direct recourse to it they used to do catechesis on Catholic doctrine with examples taken from Compendiums of Bible History.

And this was also the case in Valdocco.

This is not to say that Don Bosco did not personally read and meditate on the Bible. Already in the Seminary at Chieri he had Martini’s Bible at his disposal, as well as well-known commentaries such as those by Calmet. But it is a fact that when he was in the Seminary, it was treatises of a doctrinal nature that were mainly developed rather than biblical studies proper, even if the dogmatic treatises evidently included biblical quotations. As a cleric, Bosco was not content with this and became self-taught in the matter.

In the summer of 1836, Fr Cafasso, who had been asked to find someone, proposed that his student Bosco teach Greek to the boarders at the Collegio del Carmine in Turin. They had been evacuated to Montaldo because of the threat of cholera. This prompted him to take Greek seriously so he was suitable for teaching it.

With the help of a Jesuit priest who had a profound knowledge of Greek, cleric Bosco made great progress. In only four months the learned Jesuit had him translate almost the whole New Testament, and then, for a further four years, every week he checked some Greek composition or version that Bosco sent him and which he punctually revised with appropriate observations. “In this way,” says Don Bosco, “I was able to translate Greek almost as well as one would do Latin.”

His first biographer assures us that on 10 February 1886, by then elderly and unwell, Don Bosco was still reciting a few chapters of St Paul’s Epistles in Greek and Latin in the presence of his disciples.

From the same Biographical Memoirs we learn that the cleric John Bosco, in the summer, at Sussambrino, where he lived with his brother Joseph, used to go up to the top of the vineyard belonging to Turco and there he devoted himself to studies he had not been able to attend to during the school year, especially the study of Calmet’s History of the Old and New Testaments, the geography of the Holy Places, and the principles of Hebrew, acquiring sufficient knowledge of these.

In 1884, he still remembered the study he had made of Hebrew and in Rome was heard engaging with a professor of Hebrew on the explanation of certain original phrases of the prophets, making comparisons with parallel texts from various books of the Bible. He was also working on a translation of the New Testament from Greek.

Don Bosco, therefore, as self-taught, was an attentive scholar of the Bible’s writings.

One day, while still a student of theology, he wanted to visit his old teacher and friend Fr Giuseppe Lacqua who lived in Ponzano. The latter, having been informed of the proposed visit, wrote him a letter in which he told him, among other things, ‘come the time to visit me, remember to bring me the three small volumes of the Holy Bible’.

This is clear proof that the cleric Bosco was studying them.

As a young priest, he was talking with his parish priest, Fr Cinzano, about Christian mortification. Don Bosco then quoted him the words of the Gospel: ‘Si quis vult post me venire, abneget semetipsum, et tollat crucem suam quotidie et sequatur me. If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me’). Fr Cinzano interrupted him saying:

“You are adding a word, that quotidie (= every day) which is not there in the gospel.”

And Don Bosco replied:

“This word is not found in three evangelists, but it is in the gospel of St Luke. Consult the ninth chapter, verse 23, and you will see that I am not adding anything.”

The good parish priest, who was skilled in ecclesiastical disciplines, had not noticed the verse from St Luke, whereas Don Bosco had paid attention to it. Several times Fr Cinzano recounted this incident with gusto.

Don Bosco’s commitment in Valdocco

Don Bosco then demonstrated this deep interest and study of Sacred Scripture in many other ways, and he did much at Valdocco to make its contents known to his children.

One thinks of his edition of Bible History, first published in 1847 and then reprinted in 14 editions and dozens and dozens of reprints until 1964.

One thinks of all his other writings related to biblical history, such as An easy for for learning Bible History, first published in 1850; the Life of St Peter, which came out in January 1857 as a booklet of the Catholic Readings; the Life of St Paul, which came out in April of the same year as a booklet of the Catholic Readings; the Life of St Joseph, which came out in the March 1867 booklet of the Catholic Readings; etc.

Don Bosco then kept maxims from Sacred Scripture in his Breviary, such as the following: ‘Bonus Dominus et confortans in die tribulationis’.

He had sentences from Holy Scripture painted on the walls of the Valdocco portico, such as the following: ‘Omnis enim, qui petit accipit, et qui quaerit invenit, et pulsanti aperietur’.

As early as 1853 he wanted his clerical students of philosophy and theology to study ten verses of the New Testament every week and recite them word for word on Thursday mornings.

When this began, all the clerics were holding the volume of the Latin Vulgate Bible and had opened it at the first lines of St Matthew’s Gospel. But after saying the prayer, Don Bosco began reciting verse 18 of chapter 16 of Matthew in Latin: “Et ego dico tibi quia tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam, et portae inferi non praevalebunt adversus eam”: “And I say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” He really wanted his sons to always keep this evangelical truth in their minds and hearts.