Meeting Vera Grita of Jesus, Servant of God
Prof. Lodovica Maria ZANET Vera Grita, together with Alexandrina Maria da Costa (from Balazar), both Salesian Cooperators, were two...
Salesian charism
The growing seed of the Salesian charism in the Bangladesh mission
BSOL Editor We met Fr Joseph Cosma Dang, a Vietnamese Salesian serving in Bangladesh, who told us...
Dream of the Ten Diamonds
St John Bosco One of Don Bosco’s most famous dreams was the one called the “Dream of the...
Mother Rosetta Marchese: deeply Salesian educator because rooted in Christ
Mother Rosetta Marchese, Daughter of Mary Help of Christians, was Superior General from 1981 to...
The Venerable Simon Srugi, salesian lay brother
Simon Srugi was born on 15 April 1877 and grew up in a Greek-Melkite family...
St Francis de Sales as a young student in Paris
P. Wirth MORAND In 1578 Francis de Sales was 11 years old. His father, wishing to make...
Canillitas. Child labour in the Dominican Republic (video)
Child labour is not a reality of the past, unfortunately. There are still around 160...
1954-2024: 70 years since the canonisation of Dominic Savio
The canonisation of Dominic Savio took place under the symbol of the Immaculate Conception. It...
Mary Help of Christians, from here to the world
Ángel Card. FERNÁNDEZ ARTIME Friends, readers of the Salesian Bulletin, my affectionate and warm greeting at this Easter...
St Joseph – a Father’s Heart (video)
St Joseph, the foster-father of Jesus, is a not a well known saint, Little has...
Wonders of the Mother of God invoked under the title of Mary Help of Christians (5/13)
(continuation from previous article) Chapter 7. Mary favours those who work for the faith; while...
Don Bosco, politics and the social question
P. Natale CERRATO Did Don Bosco do politics? Yes, but not in the immediate sense of the word....
Patagonia, in the letters of the first missionaries
Arrival in Patagones and start of the work The first Salesians finally established their mission...
What are the requirements for entering the Salesian Society
In various parts of the world the time is approaching when some young people, attracted...
The childhood of a future saint: Saint Francis de Sales
Francis was born on 21 August 1567 at the Château de Sales, in Thorens,...
Preparations for the 150th Anniversary of the First Salesian Missionary Expedition (1875-2025)
P. Alfred MARAVILLA Next year, 2025, is the 150th anniversary of the departure of the first Salesian missionary...
1924-2024. 100 years supporting the Salesian Missions. Salesian Missions Institute
The Salesian Missions Institute was erected by decree through an initiative of the Rector Major,...
I am a Salesian and I am a Bororo
Diary of a happy and blessed missionary day Dear friends of the Salesian Bulletin,...
Fr José Luis Carreño Etxeandía. A salesian with the Heart of Jesus
Fr Jose Luis Carreño has been described by the historian, Joseph Thekkedath, as “the...
Wonders of the Mother of God invoked under the title of Mary Help of Christians (4/13)
(continuation from previous article) Chapter V. Devotion of the early Christians to the Blessed Virgin...
Missionary in Patagonia
Patagonia, the southern region of South America, divided between Argentina and Chile, is a territory...
Salesians in Tarnowskie Góry
There is a perhaps unique place in Poland where Salesians care for young people from...
International Congress of Mary Help of Christians
It has been a tradition since the centenary of Don Bosco’s death in 1988, that...
Don Bosco’s dream is more alive than ever
Faced with everything that I am seeing in the Salesian world, I feel I can...
The pleasure of loving God like St Francis de Sales
In his famous Treatise on the Love of God, St Francis de Sales wanted...
Wonders of the Mother of God invoked under the title of Mary Help of Christians (3/13)
(continuation from previous article) Chapter III. Mary manifests her zeal and power with her son...
Salesian Protomartyrs: Aloysius (Louis) Versiglia and Callistus Caravario
Louis and Callistus: the same missionary vocation for the salvation of souls, but a different...
Being lovable like Don Bosco (2/2)
Fr Bruno FERRERO (continuation from previous article) 5) Being authenticIn the digital age, authentic people are very important....
“I want to be useful to my people”. Lessons of life in missionary Africa
In 1995, 28 years ago, I left my beloved Argentina for missionary Africa with the...
Being lovable like Don Bosco (1/2)
Being lovable is a human quality that is cultivated, accepting the effort that it so...
Message at the end of the 42nd Salesian Spirituality Days
To my dearest Family My dearest sons and daughters, The dream that makes you dream....
The “misunderstood” God of St Francis de Sales
A curious episode In the life of Francis de Sales, a young student in Paris,...
Giuseppe Buzzetti, from migrant to first Salesian brother
Teresio BOSCO He was one of the many young migrants in 19th century Turin. He had the...
And the star stopped over a wheelchair
Encounters on Epiphany with wonderful people with a good heart and a radiant faith Dear...
Don Bosco’s last will and testament
With a will, as we know, someone disposes of their belongings for the time...
The dream at 9 years of age. Genesis of a vocation
The 9-year-old’s dream presented in ten points, the genesis of a heavenly vocation, confirmed by...
Don Bosco’s nine-year dream. Theological – spiritual nuclei
A commentary on the theological-spiritual themes present in the nine-year dream could have such...
Wonders of the Mother of God invoked under the title of Mary Help of Christians (2/13)
(continuation from previous article) Chapter II. Mary shown to be the help of Christians by...
Laura Vicuña: a daughter who “begets” her mother
Stories of wounded families We are used to imagining the family as a harmonious reality,...
Strenna 2024. “The dream that makes you dream”
A heart that transforms “wolves” into “lambs” During my service as Rector Major I have...
The Don Bosco of Naples. The oratory of a thousand trades
The origin of the Salesian presence in Naples goes back to Don Bosco himself;...
Blessed Titus Zeman, martyr for vocations
Fr Pierluigi CAMERONI A man destined for elimination Titus Zeman was born in Vajnory, near Bratislava (in Slovakia),...
A year of dreams from above
Dear friends: we are on the threshold of a new year, 2024, a very special...
Wonders of the Mother of God invoked under the title of Mary Help of Christians (1/13)
In 1868 St John Bosco printed a publication entitled ‘Wonders of the Mother of God...
“It was like heaven”. The first Christmas Mass at Valdocco
The first Christmas Mass celebrated by Don Bosco at Valdocco was in 1846. After obtaining...
Missionary generosity in Southern Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is a multicultural country, one of the...
Missionary Appeal 2024
Dear confreres,Fraternal greetings from our Mother House in Valdocco. As has been the tradition for...
Zatti the good Samaritan for the sick, doctors and nurses (video)
“Zatti – hospital”Zatti and the hospital were an inseparable pair. Fr Entraigas remembers that when...
The great gift of holiness of Artemides Zatti, Salesian brother (video)
The chronicle of the Salesian college in Viedma recalls that, according to custom, on...
Salesians in Azerbaijan, sowers of hope
The story of a young man expressing gratitude for the work of the only Salesian...
Blessed Michael Rua, an outstanding bloom from the garden of the Immaculate Conception Sodality
Dominic Savio arrived at the Valdocco Oratory in the autumn of 1854, at the...
The Exercise for a Happy Death in Don Bosco’s educational experience (1/5)
P. Aldo GIRAUDO The annual All Souls Day commemoration presents us with reality that no one can deny:...
Memoirs of the future
We have a dream. And it is our greatest wealth Two hundred years ago, a...
Don Bosco’s wandering books
Fr Francesco MOTTO In a circular letter Don Bosco wrote in July 1885: “The good book even enters...
Don Bosco and the marenghi
In 1849, the printer G. B. Paravia published Il sistema metrico decimale ridotto a...
Venerable Constatine Vendrame: apostle of Christ
The cause for the canonisation of the servant of God, Constantine Vendrame, is advancing. On...
Souls and horsepower
Don Bosco wrote at night by candlelight, after a day spent in prayer, talks, meetings,...
The Giving of the Salesian Missionary Cross
On 24 September the Rector Major presided at the giving of the missionary cross to...
Missionary experience in Peru
Interview with José Gallego Vázquez, Salesian Brother, who after many years of service in his...
Venerable Archbishop Antônio de Almeida Lustosa “father and friend of the poor”
On 22 June 2023, the Holy Father Francis received Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the...
South Asia. Don Bosco among the young
Living today don Bosco’s mission to the young especially those who are resource-poor in South...
Venerable Dorotea Chopitea
Who was Dorotea de Chopitea? She was a Salesian cooperator, a true mother of the...
Don Bosco. A Hail Mary at the end of Holy Mass
St John Bosco’s devotion to Our Lady is well known. The graces received from Mary...
Second Congress of Coadjutors of Africa
The Second Regional Congress of Salesian Coadjutors of the Africa-Madagascar Region was held from 24...
St Francis de Sales. Mary’s presence (8/8)
Fr Gianni GHIGLIONE (continuation from previous article) THE PRESENCE OF MARY IN SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES (8/8) The...
This is love…
his is the simple and silent good that Don Bosco did. This is the good...
Towards a renewed missionary outlook
Salesian missions abroad, one of the characteristics of the Congregation founded by St John Bosco,...
The Charism of Presence and Hope. A year travelling with Fr Angel
The slowdown in the pandemic has allowed the Rector Major to resume his travels to...
Fr Giulio Barberis and his “Cronichetta”: day by day at Valdocco with Don Bosco
On 21 February 1875 some Salesians decided to set up an “historical commission” to “collect...
A protection centre for street children: in Lagos, Nigeria
In Lagos, Nigeria, in an overpopulated and growing city where more than 40 per cent...
The charge of 101. Salesian House Monterosa
“How exciting… a year ago Fr Angel was with us!”This is how we began our...
Don Bosco in Albania. A father for so many young people
The Salesian charism has put down roots in Albania, a country where the Salesian work...
Fifty years of service. Father Rolando Fernandez
Fr Rolando Fernandez, a Salesian missionary from the Philippines, currently in the community of Dili...
St Francis de Sales. Gentleness (7/8)
(continuation from previous article) GENTLENESS IN SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES (7/8) Some episodes from Francis’s...
The Heart of Gold of Education
Why devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is part of the DNA of the...
The story of the construction of the Church of Mary Help of Christians (3/3)
(continuation from previous article) Always in actionBut Providence must also be “sought”. And in August...
The story of the construction of the Church of Mary Help of Christians (2/3)
(continuation from previous article) The LotteryThe authorisation was granted very quickly, so the complex machine...
The story of the construction of the Church of Mary Help of Christians (1/3)
“Our Lady did it all”, we are used to reading in Salesian spiritual literature, to...
Father Carlo Crespi “apóstol de los pobres”
On 23 March 2023, the Church – after the examination of the theological virtues of...
Don Bosco in Cambodia
Cooperation between lay people and religious for the education of the youth of Cambodia. Cambodia...
St Francis de Sales. The Eucharist (6/8)
(continuation from previous article) THE EUCHARIST IN SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES (6/8) Francis received his...
Biographical Memoirs of St John Bosco
To get to know Don Bosco and his work, recourse to the sources is essential....
Mary Help of Christians in the city of eternal heat
“Once again I was able to see for myself, travelling in the Salesian world, that...
God gave Don Bosco a big heart …
…without boundaries, like the shores of the sea. I feel that heart beating every day...
Don Bosco in Uruguay. The missionary dream has become a reality
The Salesian mission in Uruguay, as shared by a Vietnamese priest, Father Domenico Tran Duc...
St Francis de Sales. Following and seeking God’s will (5/8)
(continuation from previous article) FOLLOWING AND SEEKING GOD’S WILL, IN SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES (5/8)...
Vera Grita, Mystic of the Eucharist
On the centenary of the birth of the Servant of God Vera Grita, a...
St Francis de Sales. Trust in God Providence (4/8)
(continuation from previous article) TRUST IN GOD PROVIDENCE, IN SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES (4/8) Let...
ADMA – A way to holiness and apostolate according to Don Bosco’s charism
The Association of Mary Help of Christians (ADMA) was founded on 18 April 1869 by...
Salesians in Tijuana. A house on the border
Just 30 metres from the border with the United States, a Salesian house in Mexico...
Francis de Sales. The Da mihi animas (3/8)
(continuation from previous article) THE “DA MIHI ANIMAS” OF SAN FRANCESCO DI SALES (3/8) First...
Discovering the missionary vocation
The experience of Rodgers Chabala, a young Zambian missionary in Nigeria, starting from the rediscovery...
St. Francis de Sales. Friendship (2/8)
(continuation from previous article) ST. FRANCIS DE SALES AND FRIENDSHIP (2/8) Having met Francis de...
Don Bosco and the Bible
In a chapter of the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation promulgated by the Second Vatican...
Artemides ZATTI – Saint
VITA E OPERE San Artemide Zatti nacque a Boretto (Reggio Emilia)...
International volunteer work in Benediktbeuern
Don Bosco Volunteers: the commitment of young people for a better future For more than...
Rector Major’s Message. That young man said to me: “My passion is Christ”
It had been many years since I had last heard that expression from a young...
St Francis de Sales. Life (1/8)
1. The early yearsFrancis was born in the family castle at Thorens (about 20 km...
Missionary in Amazonia
To be a missionary in Amazonia is to allow oneself to be evangelised by the...
New missionaries
La prima spedizione missionaria fu benedetta dalle lacrime di don Bosco che disse: «Noi diamo principio ad una grand’opera. Chi…