Ephemera
Feast of San Giovanni Bosco
San Giovanni Melchior Bosco, by-name Don Bosco, (born August 16, 1815, Becchi, near Turin, Piedmont, kingdom of Sardinia —died January 31, 1888, Turin; canonized April 1, 1934; feast day January 31), Roman Catholic priest who was a pioneer in educating the poor. While working in Turin, where the population suffered many of the ill-effects of industrialization and urbanization, he dedicated his life to the betterment and education of street children, juvenile delinquents, and other disadvantaged youth. He developed teaching methods based on love rather than punishment, a method that became known as the Salesian Preventive System. He founded the Salesians of Don Bosco, based in Turin. The Salesians were one of the active and influential Catholic orders across the Levant.
Don Bosco’s disciple Don Michele Rua made to Izmir in 1908. Don Rua was the first successor to Don Bosco and was proclaimed Blessed, in 1972, by Pope Paul VI. Rua was a student under Don Bosco and was also the latter’s first collaborator in the order’s founding as well as one of his closest friends. He served as the first Rector Major of the Salesians following Bosco’s death in 1888. He was responsible for the expansion of the Salesians and the order had grown to a significant degree around the world at the time he died.
Smyrna Fanfare, Company of Saints. Luigi and the Dramatic Circle of the Festive Oratory of the Italian Colony at Punta, Smyrna. Source, the Salesian Bulletin (May 1908)
Don Michele Rua with members of the Punta Festive Oratory
Don Bosco
Don Michele Rua
Blessed Michele Rua (left) with Don Bosco during a visit to Barcelona in 1885.
