Don Bosco House Museum Opens

Don Bosco House Museum Opens 

“a precious pearl that will testify to Don Bosco’s greatness”

(ANS – Turin – October 5, 2020) – The 27th General Chapter asked the Rector Major and his council to take over the most sacred Salesian sites and make them something special for the Salesian world. That consignment gave rise to a new reality: the Don Bosco House Museum, which was solemnly inaugurated in Valdocco (Turin) with three days of events on October 2-4.

Instead of the Camerette (Don Bosco’s rooms), where one could see Don Bosco’s presence in Valdocco, today visitors can now get to know the Pinardi house, the first settlement of Don Bosco’s Oratory, in detail. “Here, in these corridors, 11 people lived whom today the Church recognizes as venerable, blessed, or saint: this means that Valdocco was a school of humanity and holiness, and we want to transmit this heritage to the world,” said the Rector Major at the October 2 press conference to present the new museum.

Fr. Angel Fernandez also announced that, to enhance Valdocco as the custodian of Salesian historical memory, the most important documents of the origins of the Congregation will be transferred from the Central Archives in Rome to the Don Bosco House Museum.

Also at the press conference, art critic Vittorio Sgarbi, a past pupil of the Salesian school in Este, spoke. “There are various types of saints. In many the human dimension is sublimated by canonization, while Don Bosco remains human. It is difficult to call him St. John Bosco....” As for the new exhibition “with effective solutions,” he observed, “there are no Tiepolo, Picasso, or Giotto, but a story: the story of life, education, books read, holy cards, worship, etc.”

The second day, Saturday, October 3, was dedicated to institutional personages. In addition to the Rector Major, Anna Laura Orrico and those responsible for the architectural works and the museographic and museological projects also took part. The rich assemblage of prominent figures saw the presence of the ambassadors of several Latin American countries strongly marked by the Salesian presence, such as Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia, Guatemala, Brazil, Mexico, and El Salvador.

On the 4th, after the solemn Mass presided over by the Rector Major in the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians, the Don Bosco House Museum was opened to the public.

“We have tried to represent this long journey of youthful holiness, starting from 1846, inside the Don Bosco House Museum.... The Salesian community of Valdocco is pleased to make this precious pearl available to all of you, and the world will testify to the greatness of Don Bosco,” said Fr. Cristian Besso, head of the museum project, together with the director of the museum, Stefania De Vita.

Notes from the 1854 meeting at which Don Bosco and a few of his young men committed themselves
to works of charity after the example of St. Francis de Sales

The Rector Major then carried out the symbolic cutting of the ribbon, flanked by Mother General Yvonne Reungoat of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and by his predecessor at the head of the Congregation, Fr. Pascual Chavez. (Behind them at the far left, we see Canadian Fr. Mike Pace, a member of the New Rochelle Province, taking a photo; he’s part of the staff that will assist pilgrims to these Salesian holy places.)

Photos and videos of the events are available on ANSFlickr and ANSChannel.