The Salesian Brotherhood and The Boys of Don Bosco

In 1825, when Saint John Bosco was just nine years old, he had a dream. 

In his dream, a man clothed in white and whose face was illuminated with blinding light told him to help the young with gentleness and love, and that this man's mother would guide the young Don Bosco in the work he was just given.

That 'work' has since spread all over the world and has touched millions of young lives. 

And some of those young lives molded by the teachings of Don Bosco are from an island in the Philippines, in a coastal town called Victorias, where a school bearing his name, was founded in 1951.

(Young Bosconians studying; the lad on the left with a book looks like the young Dr. Jay Eusebio)
(Photo credit: Victorias, A History in Pictures)

For almost 70 years, in the Don Bosco school in Victorias, the Salesian family has nurtured young minds following the congregation's motto "Da mihi animas, caetera tolle" (Give me souls, take away the rest), fostering a brotherhood that is strengthened both in faith and in virtue, taught by the saint and guided by Mary, the Help of Christians. 

(The altar at the Basilica of Mary, 

Help of Christians)

I belong to such brotherhood, a brotherhood that started in Turin, in an area now called Don Bosco Valdocco where I once roamed in a pilgrimage that led me to the room (read blog here) where Don Bosco spent his last days and ended up in a basilica he built in honor of the 'lady' (read blog here) who guided him in his 'work'.  And that 'work' is still being continued by the Salesians of Don Bosco in a congregation of 14,614 bishops, priests, brothers, novices, and seminarians in 133 countries and 1,915 Don Bosco houses, including the one in Victorias.

With millions of brothers as part of the Bosconian brotherhood all over the world, I have a few of mine. 

(They once marched together after finishing their studies at one of Don Bosco's schools in a continent far from Turin where it all started, but brought together by a saint whose dream was to give and shape a good future for boys like them.)

(Photo credit: Mr. Vic Alba, Jr.)

Because once upon a time, in our young lives, our paths crossed under the roof of Don Bosco's teachings and in the halls of learning where our minds were enriched, our characters molded, and our futures shaped by a saint and his work that all started with a dream.🙏

Saint John Bosco was born on August 16, 1815, and died on January 31, 1888, at 72.

(A Bosconian at Don Bosco Valdocco in Turin)

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