Immaculate Conception and Don Bosco's Mission

The Feast That Gave Birth to the Oratory and the Salesian Mission

(ANS – Rome – December 8, 2025) – The solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is like a “birthday” in Salesian history: it marks the beginning of Don Bosco’s Oratory, the foundation of the Congregation, and a permanent Marian key for Salesian spirituality and mission. All the successors of Don Bosco have repeatedly returned to December 8 to rediscover in it the style, hope, and maternal presence of our Immaculate mother that continues renewing the Salesian Family today.

December 8 in the life of Don Bosco

On December 8, 1841, while vesting for Mass in the church of St. Francis of Assisi, Don Bosco met young Bartholomew Garelli and began to catechize him, starting with just a “Hail Mary” prayed together. Don Bosco always pointed to this humble moment as the “beginning of the Oratory,” a beginning he explicitly linked to Mary Immaculate.

Salesian tradition recalls that Don Bosco saw in that “Hail Mary” the seed from which the entire Salesian work would grow. Later in life, he affirmed that December 8 was the day on which “all our greatest things began,” showing how the Immaculate Conception became an interpretive key for his vocation and mission among the young.

December 8 in the Life of the Oratory

The date December 8, 1841 is remembered as the birth of Don Bosco’s Oratory for poor and abandoned youth, the starting point from which all his works would unfold. For this reason, Salesian tradition calls December 8 “the birthday of the Salesian mission,” expressing both historical origin and spiritual identity.

From the earliest years, Don Bosco rooted this Marian origin in daily life at Valdocco. By 1842 he was already preaching an annual conference on December 8, invoking Mary Immaculate’s protection on the Oratory. He encouraged specific practices—such as the Month of May in honor of Mary Immaculate (published in 1858)—to cultivate in the boys a concrete devotion that would shape their moral life and apostolic responsibility.

December 8 in the Growth of Salesian Spirituality

Don Bosco interpreted the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception (1854) as a confirmation of what he had already lived at the Oratory. One of its clearest fruits was the Immaculate Conception Sodality, founded by Dominic Savio shortly before the dogma was defined. This group became a “seedbed” for apostolic zeal and eventually for the first Salesian vocations.
In his Month of May and his preaching, Don Bosco presented Mary Immaculate as a “lens” for understanding his entire educational project. Her purity and total openness to God served as a model for the boys and as a spiritual force against the “powers of evil” in society—not thru politics, but thru education and catechesis. This Marian outlook is inseparable from the Preventive System, which Don Bosco understood as the expression of God’s provident love: a love that anticipates, welcomes, and accompanies, reflected in Mary’s immaculate availability.

December 8 and the Foundation of the Congregation

On December 8, 1859, the feast of Mary Immaculate was celebrated with great solemnity at Valdocco. That evening, Don Bosco gathered a small group of his most committed collaborators to give life to what would become the Society of St. Francis de Sales. This date, intentionally chosen, is officially remembered as the foundation of the Salesian Congregation, placed under Mary Immaculate’s mantle to ensure her motherly guidance over the new society.

Later ecclesial events reinforced this Marian seal. The development of devotion to the Immaculate, the dogmatic proclamation, and Don Bosco’s subsequent spread of devotion to Mary Help of Christians were all understood by him as a unified thread of Marian protection. Historians note that Don Bosco often applied to Mary Help of Christians expressions originally linked to the Immaculate Conception, seeing in both titles one maternal presence accompanying the path of the Congregation.

December 8 in the Voices of the Rectors Major

Rectors Major have often returned to December 8 to call the Salesian Family back to its Marian roots. Fr. Pascual Chavez emphasized that the link between Don Bosco and the Immaculate Conception is not only historical or doctrinal but also touches a central aspect of the Preventive System: a God who lovingly anticipates and accompanies, reflected perfectly in Mary’s openness to grace. He also recalled that Fr. Egidio Viganò chose Mary Immaculate as the theme of his first circular, titled “Mary Is Renewing the Salesian Family of Don Bosco,” highlighting that authentic renewal always passes thru renewed Marian consecration.

The birth of the Congregation on the feast of the Immaculate was not accidental but programmatic. Don Bosco wanted his sons and daughters to live the Salesian charism under Mary’s gaze and guidance in service of the young.

For every Salesian, December 8 remains a day of gratitude and vocational memory—an annual return to that first Hail Mary with Bartholomew Garelli—so that “all our greatest things” may continue to spring from Mary’s intercession for the young. Thus, the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary continues to stand at the heart of Salesian identity and mission.