More than a decade ago, I was kneeling in front of the altar of the Basilica di Santa Maria Ausiliatrice in the Don Bosco Valdocco district of Turin, mesmerized by the huge painting made by Tommáso Lorenzone where one could see at the center the Virgin holding a scepter with her right hand while carrying the Child Jesus on her left and surrounded by Apostles, Evangelists and angels. This has become the most familiar image to all Bosconians in the world, a painting that was created based on Don Bosco's detailed instructions. Today, inside the church named after her in the northern part of the Negros Island in the Philippines, separated by 11,000 kilometers of land and sea from Turin, I am again mesmerized, not by a painting but by another art form, and not of the Virgin but of her saint, Don Bosco.
At the wall of the eastern transept of the Mary Help of Christians Church inside the Canetown Subdivision of Victorias City, is a huge stained glass window that presents Saint John Bosco and Saint Dominic Savio in a familiar garb with a familiar background.
Saint John Bosco is wearing a barong tagalog, a Filipino shirt worn during formal occasions, in light gray and pants in tones of brown. Wearing a crucifix around his neck, Don Bosco is holding Saint Dominic Savio, his student who died at the age of 14 and was later canonized a saint. With both hands clasped together, Dominic Savio is also wearing a barong with blue and white geometric designs in front and light blue pants.
Their background shows the northern Negros landscapes: mountains that can be seen when looking towards the east, and blue skies as well as a bright red-orange glow of a sunrise when God bestows upon the island a gift of anther day.
Both saints are standing on the fertile Negrense soil surrounded by sugarcane plantations depicted by a rich growth of green sugarcane leaves with rows of canes symbolizing the main produce of the island and the working sugar factory of Victorias Milling Company (VMC) with four of its six chimneys blowing out smoke. At the lowest part of the artwork is a small part of the railroad tracks supported by sturdy railroad ties made of wood. VMC used to have a railroad network of about 400 kilometers that meandered around haciendas and sugarcane plantations in northern Negros where its locomotive trains hauled sugarcane to the mill.
The halos of the two saints are drawn around their faces by lead rods formed in a circle, while the wrinkles on the forehead of Don Bosco, symbolizing his wisdom, are formed across his forehead. Impressive! Creating such beautiful stained glass windows require artistry, creativity and skill. I was told that a Mr. Boy Verdeflor made some of the stained glass artworks inside the Church.
The Don Bosco Technical Institute was established in 1952 inside the compound of the Victorias Milling Company after the Salesian Order in Hong Kong accepted the offer of VMC founder, Don Miguel Jose Ossorio, to open a school in VMC; that was 72 years ago. The Salesians of Don Bosco itself, founded by the Saint himself in December 1859, has 14,486 bishops, priests and novices in 133 countries around the world today. That was 164 years ago, and they continue to mold the minds and the character of the young with the teachings of the Saint.
The Salesians of Don Bosco are "open to the cultural values of the countries in which they work and try to understand them and welcome their values, to embody the message of the gospel." Seeing Don Bosco and Saint Dominic Savio in Filipino barong makes me believe that the saints are one with us Negrenses and Filipinos.
Stained glass windows require daylight to reveal its beauty. I would want to visit the Mary Help of Christians Church again one sunny morning.😊
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