For several years Father Joseph Cafasso had been Don Bosco’s
“guide in both spiritual and temporal m atters.” 1 On his advice, John turned down several offers he received in the fall 1841 (teacher in Genoa, chaplain in Morialdo) and willingly entered the Convitto Eccle- siastico in Turin, where Father Cafasso taught. He began his studies there on November 3, 1841.
The Convitto had been established in 1817 by Father Louis Guala who was still its rector. It aimed to complete the training o f young priests and to prepare them for their practical m inistry.2 Don Bosco praised it highly: “We learned how to be priests.” He thought the
16 DON BOSCO institute rendered a great service to the Church by “partly uprooting the Jansenism which still flourished among us.” Following the example o f Saint Alphonso de’ Liguori, the professors upheld the preeminence the youngsters in the capital o f Piedmont.
Priests o f the Convitto were not confined to study and meditation;
they were introduced to the pastoral ministry. Don Bosco devoted himself to preaching, hearing confessions, and teaching religion at various centers in Turin. At the same time, he felt instinctively drawn towards something rather different. Michael Rua tells us that “from the very first Sundays he made his way through the streets trying to obtain some knowledge o f the moral climate surrounding the young.”
His conclusions were mainly negative. Everywhere he saw “many young people o f all ages drifting through the streets and hanging around public places; especially in the suburbs, he found them loitering, getting into mischief, cursing and seriously misbehaving.” 3
It was not only their morals that were deplorable. Their way of life, their living quarters, their jobs were just as bad and often the root o f the trouble. Despite its imaginative style and overly pessimistic presen
tation, the description o f the situation given by Father Lemoyne in the Biographical Memoirs is fairly true.4 He attributes these condi
tions to the exodus of people from the country into the cities brought about by the beginning industrialization. Turin, a capital of 130,000 inhabitants, had several textile factories and commerce was predomi
nant. The city was growing fast, and vast building projects were in progress. Thousands of laborers, young and old, poured in from Biella and Lombardy. Most o f them found employment at the building sites as construction workers, plasterers, joiners, or painters. Father Le
moyne gives a moving and detailed description of the lot of these uprooted people, their quarrels, their promiscuity, their overcrowded living conditions on the outskirts of the city, far removed from contact
with the churches.
Guided and advised by Fathers Guala and Cafasso, Don Bosco saw this situation from close quarters and suffered accordingly. The plight o f the young people moved him most of all. Father Lemoyne speaks of the building sites crowded with “ children between eight and twelve years o f age, exposed to sun, wind, and rain, attem pting to help the workers by climbing up and down shaky scaffoldings or rickety ladders loaded with hods of mortar, bricks, or other burdens, and all of them w ithout any schooling whatsoever, save that jeers and blows taught them to avoid mistakes.” 5
Young children, urged on by their parents, roamed the streets begging for alms. Especially on Sundays, bands o f teenagers drifted through the suburbs, loitered along the banks o f the Po and in the open fields. But Don Bosco was perhaps struck m ost o f all by the conditions in the prisons he visited with Father Cafasso soon after his ordination. “I was horrified to see so many healthy, strong, and lively youths between twelve and eighteen years o f age w ithout occupation, crawling with lice, deprived o f both spiritual and material nourish
m ent.” 6 He was already telling himself: “What they need is a friend who cares and helps.” Don Bosco also visited hospitals, especially St. Joseph Cottolengo’s Little House of Divine Providence with
1,800 inmates, many o f whom were orphans and most o f them were very young.
These early experiences awakened his deep concern for the poor and abandoned young. He tried to find a way to help, and a happy coincidence put him on the right track.
Origin o f th e O r a to r y , 1 8 4 1 One day, as he was putting on his vestments in the sacristy o f the church o f St. Francis of Assisi to celebrate Mass, someone had quietly slipped in; it was a young lad, curious, no doubt, because the place seemed a bit out of the ordinary.7 As he was watching from a corner, the sacristan arrived and, mistaking him for the server, beckoned him to come over. No sooner had the sacristan realized that the boy did not know the Mass responses, than he threw him out unceremoniously,
18 DON BOSCO by the scruff o f the neck. “What are you doing? He is a friend of m ine,” the young priest protested, “bring him back at once, I want to talk to him .” The boy approached warily, and, made to feel at ease by Don Bosco, he agreed to wait for the end of Mass so as to “ talk about something nice.” After the priest’s thanksgiving was over, an intimate conversation took place. The lad’s name was Bartholomew Garelli. He was sixteen years old and had no father or mother. He also had no schooling and no religious training, but he was working. To quote Francis Veuillot: “Don Bosco heard the cry for help of the poor and homeless young.” 8 His talk that morning ended with the boy’s first lesson in catechism.
Don Bosco never forgot this incident. He marked the day: Decem
ber 8, 1841, Feast of the Immaculate Conception. This coincidence was n o t w ithout significance, for Don Bosco, always on the lookout for the “ designs o f Providence,” regarded the 8th of December as the birthday o f the Oratory.