On November 25^th, 2024, Pope Francis authorised the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree regarding the miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Maria Troncatti, a professed Sister of the Congregation of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, born in Corteno Golgi (Italy) on February 16^th, 1883, and who died in Sucúa (Ecuador) on August 25^th, 1969. With this act of the Holy Father, the path to the canonisation of Blessed Maria Troncatti is opened.

Maria Troncatti was born in Corteno Golgi (Brescia) on February 16^th, 1883. Devoted to parish catechesis and the sacraments, the adolescent Maria developed a deep Christian sense that opened her to a religious vocation. The Salesian Bulletin arrived in Corteno, and Maria thought about her religious vocation. However, out of obedience to her father and the parish priest, she waited until she was of age before asking for admission to the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. She made her first profession in 1908 in Nizza Monferrato. During World War I (1915-1918), Sister Maria attended health assistance courses in Varazze and worked as a Red Cross nurse in the military hospital. During a flood in which she risked drowning, Maria promised the Madonna that if she saved her life, she would go to the missions.

In 1922, Mother General, Caterina Daghero assigned her to the missions in Ecuador. She spent three years in Chunchi. Accompanied by the missionary Bishop Mons. Comin and a small expedition, Sister Maria and two other sisters ventured into the Amazon rainforest. Their mission field was the land of the Shuar Indians, in the south-eastern part of Ecuador. They settled in Macas, a village of colonists surrounded by the collective homes of the Shuar. Together with her sisters, she carried out a difficult work of evangelization amidst various risks, including those posed by forest animals and the dangers of swirling rivers. Macas, Sevilla Don Bosco, and Sucúa are some of the “miracles” still flourishing out of Sister Maria Troncatti’s work: nurse, surgeon and orthopaedic doctor, dentist, and anaesthetist… But above all, she was a catechist and evangeliser, rich in wonderful resources of faith, patience, and fraternal love. Her work for the promotion of Shuar women flourished in hundreds of new Christian families, formed for the first time by the free personal choice of the young spouses. She was nicknamed “the doctor of the jungle”, fighting for human promotion, especially of women. She was the “little mother” (madrecita), always eager to reach out not only to the sick but to all those in need of help and hope. From a simple and poor clinic, she founded a real hospital and personally trained the nurses. With maternal patience, she listened, fostered communion among the people, and educated both natives and colonists in forgiveness. “A glance at the Crucifix gives me life and courage to work”, this is the certainty of faith that sustained her life. In every activity, sacrifice, or danger, she felt supported by the maternal presence of Mary Help of Christians.

On August 25^th, 1969, in Sucúa (Ecuador), the small plane carrying Sister Maria Troncatti to the city crashed a few minutes after take-off, on the edge of that jungle which had been for almost half a century her “heart’s homeland”, the space of her tireless donation among the “Shuar”. Sister Maria experienced her last take-off: the one that took her to Paradise! She was 86 years old, all spent as a gift of love. She had offered her life for reconciliation between the colonists and the Shuar. She wrote, “I am increasingly happy with my missionary religious vocation!”

She was declared Venerable on November 12^th, 2008, and beatified during the pontificate of Benedict XVI in Macas (Apostolic Vicariate of Méndez – Ecuador) on November 24^th, 2012. In the beatification homily, Cardinal Angelo Amato outlined her figure as a consecrated and missionary woman. In the ordinariness and simplicity of her maternal and merciful gestures, Card. Amato highlighted the extraordinary nature of the “example of dedication to Jesus and his Gospel of truth and life” for which, more than forty years after her death, she was remembered with gratitude. “Sister Maria, animated by grace, became an untiring messenger of the Gospel, expert in humanity and a profound knower of the human heart. She shared the joys and hopes, the difficulties and sorrows of her brothers and sisters, both great and small. She was able to transform prayer into apostolic zeal and concrete service to others”. Cardinal Amato concluded the homily by reassuring those present, including the Shuar, that “from heaven, Blessed Maria Troncatti continues to watch over your homeland and your families. Let us continue to ask for her intercession, to live in fraternity, concord, and peace. Let us turn to her with confidence, so that she may assist the sick, console the suffering, enlighten parents in the Christian education of their children, and bring harmony to families. Dear faithful, as she was on earth, so from heaven Blessed Maria Troncatti will continue to be our Good Mother”.

The biography written by Sister Domenica Grassiano, “Jungle, Homeland of the Heart”, helped to make the testimony of this great missionary known and to spread her fame of holiness. This Daughter of Mary Help of Christians singularly embodied the pedagogy and spirituality of the preventive system, especially through that motherhood that marked her entire missionary witness throughout her life.

As a young Sister in the 1920s: while continuing as a nurse, she dedicated particular attention to the oratory girls, especially to a group of them who were rather neglected, noisy, and intolerant of any discipline. Sister Maria welcomed and treated them in such a way that “they had a veneration for her: they knelt before her, so great was their esteem. They felt in her a soul belonging entirely to God and entrusted themselves to her prayer”.

She also reserved special attention for the postulants, communicating trust and courage, “Be brave, do not let yourself be taken by regret for what you have left behind… Pray to the Lord, and He will help you realise your vocation”. The forty postulants of that year all reached to receiving the habit and making their profession, attributing this result to Sister Maria’s prayers, which instilled hope, especially when she saw difficulties in adapting to the new way of life or in accepting separation from one’s family.

As Mother of the poor and needy. With her example and message, she reminds us that “we do not only care for the body, but also for the needs of the human soul: for those who suffer from the violation of rights or from a broken love; for those who find themselves in darkness regarding the truth; who suffer from the absence of truth and love. We care for the salvation of people in body and soul”. How many souls she saved! How many children she saved from certain death! How many girls and women she defended in their dignity! How many families she formed and safeguarded in the truth of marital and family love! How many fires of hatred and revenge she extinguished with the strength of patience and the giving of one’s life! And she lived all this with great apostolic and missionary zeal.

The testimony of Father Giovanni Vigna, who worked for 23 years in the same mission, illustrates very well the heart of Sister Maria Troncatti, “Sister Maria stood out for her exquisite motherhood. She found a solution to every problem that proved always the best, in light of the facts. She was always willing to discover the positive side of people. I saw her treat human nature in all its aspects, even the most miserable: she treated them with that excellence and gentleness that were spontaneous and natural in her. She expressed motherhood as affection among the Sisters in the community: it was the vital secret that sustained them, the love that united them to one another; the full sharing of labours, pains, and joys. She exercised her motherhood especially towards the younger ones. Many Sisters experienced the sweetness and strength of her love. This was also true for the Salesians who frequently fell ill because they did not spare themselves in their work and effort. She cared for them, supported them morally, sensing crises, fatigue, and turmoil. Her transparent soul saw everything through the love of a Father who cares for us and saves us. She served as God’s instrument for wonderful works!”

Mother Rosetta Marchese, Daughter of Mary Help of Christians, was Superior General from 1981 to 1984. She received many graces from Providence that sustained her on her path of service to the Congregation and led her to make an offering of herself for the salvation of souls, an offering that God appreciated.

            The Servant of God Mother Rosetta Marchese was born in Aosta on 20 October 1922 to Giovanni and Giovanna Stuardi. She is the eldest of three daughters: she, Anna and Maria Luisa. She was born in a nice house in the suburbs. Rosetta attended nursery school and the first three primary classes at the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. From 1928 to 1938 (from the age of 6 to 16) she was a regular and active attendee at the Oratory and a member of Catholic Action. The Salesian environment was lively, serene and it was there that her vocation blossomed.
            At the age of almost 16, on 15 October 1938, Rosetta entered the Mother Mazzarello House in Turin as an aspirant. On 31 January 1939 she was admitted to the Postulancy. She was a simple, joyful young woman of prayer and sacrifice. On 6 August she entered the Novitiate. On her small table in the study it is written: ‘He who spares himself does not love, loves himself’. On 5 August 1941 she made her first profession. She applied to her superiors to leave as a missionary, but due to the raging war she did not receive a positive response. Immediately after her profession, Sr Rosetta was sent to Turin and Vercelli to prepare for her baccalaureate and to assist the schoolgirls.
            At the age of 21, from 1943 to 1947, she was a student at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan at Castel Fogliani (Piacenza). From 1947 – the year she made her perpetual profession – to 1957 she was destined for the Mother Mazzarello Missionary House in Turin as a teacher, assistant to the educande, in charge of the oratory and of the former pupils.
            In 1957 (at 37) she left Turin to go to Caltagirone in Sicily as headmistress and remained there until 1961. Her meeting with Bishop Monsignor Francesco Fasola, Servant of God, was fundamental and helped to bring out latent intuitions and graces from her soul. On the day he took possession of the diocese of Caltagirone (22 January 1961), she sensed the holiness of the Bishop who would guide her spiritually for 23 years, until his death. Her relationship with Bishop Fasola threw further light on the mystery of the priesthood, so much so that on 2 August 1961 Sr Rosetta offered herself for the holiness of the bishop and later for the Church, for the holiness of priests and for religious souls. In the meantime, she supported many sisters as a teacher of the interior life through spiritual accompaniment and correspondence. From 1961 to 1965 Sr Rosetta was superior at the Gesù Nazareno Institute in Via Dalmazia in Rome. Her service coincided with the celebration of the Second Vatican Council.
            From 1965 until 1971 Mother Angela Vespa, Superior General of the FMA, entrusted Sister Rosetta with the large Roman Province of St Cecilia. From 1971 to 1973 she was superior at Lecco Olate. Then she was entrusted with the government of another large Province, the Lombard Mary Immaculate Province. At General Chapter 16, on 17 October 1975, she was elected Visiting Councillor.
            From 1975 to 1981 she visited the Provinces of Belgium, Sicily, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo), France, Germany and Piedmont. In 1981, on the centenary of the death of Mother Mazzarello who offered her life for the Institute, from 7 to 10 October, Mother Rosetta had a mysterious experience in the founding house of the Institute in Mornese. A voice in the village parish and in the Cofounder’s room told her: “Accept, accept!” On 24 October 1981, at General Chapter 27, she was unanimously elected Mother General.
            In Turin, on 24 May 1982, a high fever was the first symptom of the illness that would consume her: severe leukaemia. In her notebooks and epistolary she notes that she offers her life for the holiness of the Institute, priests and young people. They all mobilised with unceasing prayer and also the willingness to give blood for transfusions. Sister Ancilla Modesto relates that the Sisters in Portugal ask Sister Lucy of Fatima if she can implore healing from Our Lady. Sister Lucy of Fatima had a Salesian nephew, Father Valihno, who, on 14 January 1983, went to visit the Mother at Gemelli, bringing the statue of Our Lady of Fatima and a message from Sister Lucy: “The offering was pleasing to God.” In her last days, she confided to her vicar, Mother Leton Maria Pilar, that in that little room in Mornese she had intuited her election as Mother General and her death for the holiness of the sisters and priests. In fact, Mother Rosetta was born to Heaven on 8 March 1984 at the age of 61.
            The figure that emerges by interweaving her personal notebooks (1962-1982), her epistolary (1961-1983) with Bishop Francesco Fasola (also a Servant of God), together with some other letters, is that of a profoundly mystical woman, an authentic Salesian educator, fully part of the socio-ecclesial context of Council and post-Council Italy.
            Aware of the complex reality of her time and open to the gift of grace, with her experience of God, she gives, in a certain way, “confirmation” of the great truths of the Catholic faith on the Eucharist, Our Lady and the Church, which were called into question in the widespread de-Christianisation typical of the Italian twenty-year period 1958-1978 and in particular in the 1968 crisis with its prolonged reverberations. Her life became a call to the essential and unchanging in the fluctuating and complex experiences of her time, in a special way for the Church, for priests, for her Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, and for the laity of the Salesian Family.
            Mother Rosetta has a specific mission: to draw a “reparative and affirmative” line with respect to the truths of faith impoverished by the de-Christianised culture and to re-present them with strength and beauty.

            Faced with materialism and the de-Christianisation of culture, Mother Rosetta had a strong and vivid experience of the Trinity. She perceived the first Trinitarian reminders from the earliest years of her religious life (1944 in Castelfogliani; 1951 in Turin at Mother Mazzarello House; 1959 in Caltagirone), as she herself recounts in detail:

            “I have in front of me the stages of this path traced out by Him: the Exercises for triennial vows, when reading and meditating on the Gospel of St. John, I was all caught up in the sentiments of Jesus towards the Heavenly Father and it was the beginning of my slow work of removing myself from myself to throw myself into the Heart of Jesus, seen in this way. Then around the age of ten years of profession, Jesus’ words to Philip: ‘he who sees me, sees the Father’, opened me up to the Mystery of the Trinity and Jesus led me into the joy of Their presence in me, but very imperfectly experienced and understood by me. Then six years ago, Our Lady opened me wide to the Holy Spirit and then the Mystery of the Trinity became more and more familiar to me. On 24 July ’65, while saying the Gloria during Holy Mass at the expression ‘Son of the Father’, I felt how all the Father’s tenderness poured out on my soul and from that moment on Jesus gave me a more intimate participation in his feelings for the Heavenly Father. Since then, every day my invocation to the Holy Spirit has always been this and I think I can say that I have always lived with this unique passion to identify myself with Jesus in his love for the Heavenly Father!” (Marquis Rosetta, Typewritten text).

            Faced with the crisis among priests and the faithful over faith in the Eucharist, Mother Rosetta lived an intense Eucharistic life from which she drew strength and light for even complex daily living.

            “Now, we say many things, but I am convinced that only one would turn the Congregation upside down: to be able to nail the sisters ten minutes every day before the Tabernacle in silent prayer of contemplation and union with His Will. All problems would be solved there. Let us begin by being faithful so that they may all get there” (Mother Rosetta Marchese, Letter to Sister Elvira Casapollo, Mornese 19 August 1978).

            From 1979 until her death she experienced the mystical phenomenon of the Eucharistic indwelling, or the Real Presence of Jesus, as a permanent and continuous Presence within herself after Communion. Mother Rosetta carried within herself a burning Eucharistic furnace into which she immersed her sisters, young people and lay people:

            “It seems to me now that my task is to continuously take all souls and immerse them in the fire of love that is the Heart of Jesus which I carry within me. I would like to be able to repeat it to him a thousand times a day, always… and then I let myself get caught up in the work and the difficulties it entails; but this continual testing of my weakness does me good and increases my confidence; the smaller and more miserable I am, the easier it is to lose myself in the Heart of Jesus” (Mother Rosetta Marchese, Letter to Bishop Fasola Francesco, Feast of the Archangels 1980).

            Faced with the crisis of a Mariology threatened by secularism and unattractive to the people of God, Jesus gave Mother Rosetta a lively filial relationship with the Virgin Mary, woman of the Fiat and the Magnificat, and gave her a living experience of Our Lady’s gaze. With this intensity she proposed to the young people and lay people of the Salesian Family her love for Mary Help of Christians. In fact, she writes:

            “At the beginning of the spiritual exercises, almost suddenly, I felt as if penetrated by an interior gaze of Our Lady and as if subjugated and taken by this gaze […] I glimpsed how my presence in Mary, remaining in Her, abandoned to her, like Jesus after the Incarnation, would be the surest way to let the Spirit in Jesus act freely (I don’t know if I am expressing myself well)” (Mother Rosetta Marchese, Letter to Fr Giuseppe Groppo, Rome 4 May 1963).

            As the crisis of the institutions (church and society) worsened, Mother Rosetta experienced the whole Council and post-Council experience cum Ecclesiae and invoked the constant presence of the Spirit upon it. On the day the Council opened, following the event on television, she wrote to Bishop Fasola describing it as a new Pentecost:

            “I felt the greatness and holiness of the Church of God, so alive and palpitating; it seemed to me that I was almost sensitively experiencing the presence of Mary and the Holy Spirit in that immense holy cenacle”(Mother Rosetta, Letter to Bishop Francesco Fasola, Rome, 13 October 1962).

            Faced with an activism that renders the apostolate among youth sterile, she pointed to the secret of the grace of unity: living the duty of the present moment in union with God, rooted in a relationship with Christ her spouse.

            “Behold, dear Sister, in this way you begin contemplation and action: when your action is done only for him, seeking his glory, doing the best you can with the children to find a good moment to talk about him; when you approach the parents with the sole thought of saying a word to help them better educate their children; when, after school, you assist these children with the intention of making them feel the goodness, the affection, the care of the Lord who sends you to replacetheir parents who cannot follow them; when you try to be good and patient with your sisters despite work and tiredness; all this is seeking God and union with Him! You can then say that truly the Lord reigns in your life, and there is unity between action and contemplation.” (Letter from Sister Marchese Rosetta to Sister Boni Maria Rosa, Rome, 21 January 1980).
            “The Holy Trinity in me, me in the heart of the Blessed Trinity, through all the love of the Holy Spirit; possessed by Jesus as a bride; lost in him in praise of the Father.” (Mother Rosetta Marchese, Notebook, 10 November 1967).

            Faced with an often formal and detached style of government, typical of the pre-conciliar period, she chose the ‘mysticism of governing’:

            “To serve souls, I must move in the Peace of God; in Jesus to intuit them, love them, discover the Father’s will for them, in the Holy Spirit. Remain immersed in Jesus, to breathe in the Holy Spirit and stay with peace and love beside each soul: everything else is immensely secondary.” (Mother Rosetta Marchese, Notebook, 1 December 1971).

            Her testimony and Salesian spirituality, so fascinating and prophetic, sheds light on our life of faith, our relationship with the Lord Jesus, and reinvigorates our apostolate among the youth with a new beauty and depth. She encourages the sisters:

“Do everything to save souls and let no effort seem too great when you think that it serves to save souls, especially youthful souls.” (Report of the extraordinary visitation of Mother Rosetta Marchese, Munich, 20-24 November 1978, 3/3).

            Truly Mother Rosetta Marchese is a complete Salesian in whom the “Da mihi animas cetera tolle” of Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello among youth, especially girls, is rooted in a deep inner fire, in a profound union with God.

Sr. Francesca Caggiano
Vice-postulator

Readers of the Salesian Bulletin already know about the intercontinental journey that Don Bosco’s Casket went on a few years ago. The mortal remains of our saint reached dozens and dozens of countries around the world and lingered in a thousand cities and towns, welcomed everywhere with admiration and sympathy. I do not know which saint’s body has travelled so far and which Italian corpse has been received so enthusiastically beyond the borders of its own country. Perhaps none.

While this ‘journey’ is already known history, the intercontinental of the ACSSA (Association of Salesian History Scholars) from November 2018 to March 2019 is certainly not. It was to coordinate a series of four Study Seminars promoted by the same Association in Bratislava (Slovakia), Bangkok (Thailand), Nairobi (Kenya), Buenos Aires (Argentina). The fifth was held in Hyderabad (India) in June 2018.

Well: on these trips I did not see the Salesian houses, colleges, schools, parishes, missions as I have done on other occasions and as anyone who travels a bit anywhere from the north to the south, from the east to the west of the world can do; instead I encountered a story of Don Bosco, all yet to be written.

The other Don Boscos

The theme of the Study Seminars was in fact to present figures of deceased Salesians and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians who, over a short or long period of their lives, had stood out as particularly significant and relevant, and above all had left their mark after their death. Some of them, then, were authentic “innovators” of the Salesian charism, capable of inculturating it in the most varied ways, obviously in absolute fidelity to Don Bosco and his spirit.

The result was a gallery of a hundred or so men and women of the 20th century, all different from each other, who knew how to make themselves “other Don Boscos”: that is, to open their eyes to their land of birth or mission, to become aware of the material, cultural and spiritual needs of the young people living there, especially the poorest, and to “invent” the best way of satisfying them.

Bishops, priests, nuns, lay Salesians, members of the Salesian Family: all figures, men and women, who without being saints – in our research we excluded saints and those already on their way to the altars – have fully realised Don Bosco’s educational mission in different spheres and roles: as educators and priests, as professors and teachers, animators of oratories and youth centres, founders and directors of educational works, formators of vocations and new religious institutes, as writers and musicians, architects and builders of churches and colleges, artists of wood and painting, missionaries ad gentes, witnesses of the faith in prison, simple Salesians and simple Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. Among them, not a few have often lived a life of hard sacrifices, overcoming obstacles of all kinds, learning very difficult languages, often risking death for lack of acceptable sanitary conditions, impossible climatic conditions, hostile and persecutory political regimes, even actual attacks. The latest of these happened just as I was leaving for Nairobi: Spanish Salesian, Fr Cesare Fernández, murdered in cold blood on 15 February 2018 at the border between Togo and Burkina Faso. One of the most recent Salesians ‘martyrs’, we could call him, knowing the individual as I did.

A story to learn about

What can we say then? That this too is the unknown history of Don Bosco, or, if you like, of the Sons and Daughters of the saint? If the saint’s casket has been received, as we were saying, with so much respect and esteem by public authorities and the simple population even in non-Christian countries, it means that his Sons and Daughters have not only sung his praises – this too has certainly been done, since Don Bosco’s image can be found just about everywhere – but have also realised his dreams: to make God’s love for young people known, to bring the good news of the Gospel everywhere, to the end of the world (in Tierra del Fuego!).

Those who, like me and my colleagues from ACSSA, were able in February and March 2018 to listen to experiences of Salesian life lived in the 20th century in some fifty countries on four continents, can only affirm, as Don Bosco often did when looking at the impressive development of the congregation before his eyes: ‘Here is the finger of God’.  If the finger of God has been in Salesian works and foundations, it has also been in the men and women who have consecrated their entire lives to the evangelical ideal realised in the manner of Don Bosco.

Are these presented to us as “next door saints”? Some certainly, even considering their personal limitations, their characters, their whims, and, why not, their sins (which only God knows). All, however, were endowed with immense faith, great hope, strong charity and generosity, much love for Don Bosco and souls. Some of them – think of the pioneer missionaries in Patagonia – one might be tempted to call real “madmen”, madmen for God and for souls of course.

The concrete results of this story are there for all to see, but the names of many have remained almost ‘invisible’ until now. We can get to know them by reading “Volti di uno stesso carisma: Salesiani e Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice nel XX secolo” (Faces of the same charism: Salesians and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in the 20th century), a multilingual book, published by Editrice LAS, in the”Associazione Cultori Storia Salesiana – Studi” series (not yet available in English).

If evil leaves its mark, so does good. ‘Bonum est diffusivum sui‘ wrote St Thomas Aquinas centuries ago. The Salesians and Salesian women presented at our seminars are proof of this; alongside them or following them, others have done the same, until today.

Let us briefly introduce these new faces of Don Bosco.

1	Antonio COJAZZI, Fr.	1880-1953	brilliant educator	Educators in the field	EU
2	Domenico MORETTI, Fr.	1900-1989	experience in Salesian oratories with the poorest young people	Educators in the field	EU
3	Samuele VOSTI, Fr.	1874-1939	creator and promoter of a renewed festive oratory in Valdocco	Educators in the field	EU
4	Karl ZIEGLER, Fr.	1914-1990	nature lover and scout	Educators in the field	EU
5	Alfonsina FINCO, Sr.	1869-1934	dedication to abandoned children	Educators in the field	EU
6	Margherita MARIANI, Sr.	1858-1939	Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in Rome	Educators in the field	EU
7	Sisto COLOMBO, Fr.	1878-1938	man of culture and mystical soul	Educators in the field	EU
8	Franc WALLAND, Fr.	1887-1975	theologian and provincial	Educators in the field	EU
9	Maria ZUCCHI, Sr.	1875-1949	made Salesian mark on the Don Bosco Institute in Messina	Educators in the field	EU
10	Clotilde MORANO, Sr.	1885-1963	the teaching of women’s physical education	Educators in the field	EU
11	Annetta URI, Sr.	1903-1989	from the desk to building sites: the courage to build the future of the school	Educators in the field	EU
12	Frances PEDRICK, Sr.	1887-1981	the first Daughter of Mary Help of Christians to graduate from Oxford University	Educators in the field	EU
13	Giuseppe CACCIA, Bro.	1881-1963	a life dedicated to Salesian publishing	Educators in the field	EU
14	Rufillo UGUCCIONI, Fr.	1891-1966	writer for children, evangeliser and disseminator of Salesian values	Educators in the field	EU
15	Flora FORNARA, Sr.	1902-1971	a life for educational theatre	Educators in the field	EU
16	Gaspar MESTRE, Bro.	1888-1962	the Salesian school of carving, sculpture and decoration in Sarriá (Barcelona)	Educators in the field	EU
17	Wictor GRABELSKI, Fr.	1857-1902	a forerunner of Salesian work in Poland	Educators in the field	EU
18	Antoni HLOND, Fr.	1884-1963	musician, composer, founder of a school for organists	Initiators	EU
19	Carlo TORELLO, Fr.	1886-1967	popular devotion and civic memory in Latina	Initiators	EU
20	Jan KAJZER Bro.	1892-1976	engineer co-author of the Polish “art deco” style and moderniser of the Salesian vocational school in Oświęcim	Initiators	EU
21	Antonio CAVOLI, Fr.	1888-1972	founder of religious congregation in Japan inspired by the Salesian charism	Initiators	EU
22	Iside MALGRATI, Sr.	1904-1992	innovative Salesian in printing, school and vocational training	Initiators	EU
23	Anna JUZEK, Sr.	1879-1957	contribution to the establishment of the works of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in Poland	Initiators	EU
24	Mária ČERNÁ, Sr.	1928-2011	basis for the rebirth of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in Slovakia	Initiators	EU
25	Antonio SALA, Fr.	1836-1895	economer at Valdocco and earliest Economer General	Salesians of Don Bosco and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in leadership roles	EU
26	Francesco SCALONI, Fr.	1861-1926	an extraordinary figure of a Salesian superior	Salesians of Don Bosco and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in leadership roles	EU
27	Luigi TERRONE, Fr.	1875-1968	novice master and rector	Salesians of Don Bosco and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in leadership roles	EU
28	Marcelino OLAECHEA, Bishop	1889-1972	promoter of housing for workers	Salesians of Don Bosco and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in leadership roles	EU
29	Stefano TROCHTA, Cardinal	1905-1974	martyr under Nazis and Communists	Salesians of Don Bosco and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in leadership roles	EU
30	Alba DEAMBROSIS, Sr.	1887-1964	builder of female Salesian work in the German-speaking area	Salesians of Don Bosco and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in leadership roles	EU
31	Virginia FERRARO ORTÍ, Sr.	1894-1963	from trade unionist to Salesian superior	Salesians of Don Bosco and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in leadership roles	EU
32	Raffaele PIPERNI, Fr.	1842-1930	parish priest, ‘mediator’ in the integration of Italian immigrants into the San Francisco mainstream	Pioneers in mission	AM, AS, AF
33	Remigio RIZZARDI, Fr.	1863-1912	the father of beekeeping in Colombia	Pioneers in mission	AM, AS, AF
34	Carlos PANE, Fr.	1856-1923	pioneer of the Salesian presence in Spain and Peru	Pioneers in mission	AM, AS, AF
35	Florencio José MARTÍNEZ EMBODAS, Fr.	1894-1971	a Salesian way of building	Pioneers in mission	AM, AS, AF
36	Martina PETRINI PRADO, Sr.	1874-1965	Daughters of Mary Help of Christians; origins in fast-developing Uruguay	Pioneers in mission	AM, AS, AF
37	Anna María COPPA, Sr.	1891-1973	foundress and face of the first Catholic school in Ecuador	Pioneers in mission	AM, AS, AF
38	Rose MOORE, Sr.	1911-1996	pioneer in the rehabilitation of blind Thai youth	Pioneers in mission	AM, AS, AF
39	Mirta MONDIN, Sr.	1922-1977	the origins of the first Catholic girls’ school in Gwangju (Korea)	Pioneers in mission	AM, AS, AF
40	Terezija MEDVEŠEK, Sr.	1906-2001	valiant missionary in North-East India	Pioneers in mission	AM, AS, AF
41	Nancy PEREIRA, Sr.	1923-2010	tireless dedication to the poor	Pioneers in mission	AM, AS, AF
42	Jeanne VINCENT, Sr.	1915-1997	one of the first missionaries in Port-Gentil, Gabon	Pioneers in mission	AM, AS, AF
43	Maria Gertrudes DA ROCHA, Sr.	1933-2017	missionary and economer in Mozambique	Pioneers in mission	AM, AS, AF
44	Pietro GIACOMINI, Bishop	1904-1982	obedience blossoms	Salesians of Don Bosco and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in leadership roles	AM, AS, AF
45	José Luis CARREÑO ECHANDIA, Fr.	1905-1986	a multifaceted missionary with a preferential option for the poor	Salesians of Don Bosco and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in leadership roles	AM, AS, AF
46	Catherine MANIA, Sr.	1903-1983	first provincial in North-East India	Salesians of Don Bosco and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in leadership roles	AM, AS, AF
47	William Richard AINSWORTH, Fr.	1908-2005	an essay on modern Salesian leadership	Salesians of Don Bosco and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in leadership roles	AM, AS, AF
48	Blandine ROCHE, Sr.	1906-1999	the Salesian presence in the difficult years of post-independence Tunisia	Salesians of Don Bosco and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in leadership roles	AM, AS, AF