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Don Bosco con Dio ((Don Bosco with God);

I doni dello Spirito Santo nell' anima del B. Giov. Bosco ((The gifts of the Holy Spirit in the soul of Bl John Bosco);

Un gigante della carità (A giant of charity);

Don Bosco che ride (Simling Don Bosco);

Il Santo dei ragazzi. Don Bosco, amico dei ragazzi (The boys' Saint. Don Bosco the friend of youth)

Il re dei ragazzi (King of the Kids)

L'apostolo dei giovani ((The apostle of youth )

Il Santo dei birichini (The urchins' Saint)

Il capo dei birichini (The urchins' leader);

Il Santo dei fanciulli (The children's Saint);

Il santo dei ragazzi allegri (The Saint of cheerful boys);

Don Bosco conquistatore delle anime (Don Bosco conqueror of souls);

Un gran pescatore di anime (A great fisher of souls);

Il Salvatore di anime (The saviour of souls);

Il Santo del secolo (The saint of the century);

La piu'grande meraviglia del secolo XIX (The greatest wonder of the 19th century); Un santo per il nostro tempo (A Saint for our times);

Don Bosco, l'uomo per gli altri (Don Bosco, man for others);

Profondamente uomo,profondamente santo (Profoundly human, profoundly holy); Uomo e Santo (Man and Saint).

But Don Bosco himself is the one who brought all these aspects together in his pithy sayings, and those to whom they were addressed would have discerned a clear hierarchy of values in them.

The first of these is a chapter heading in the life of Francis Besucco: Cheerfulness, Study, Piety.834 Then comes: good health, wisdom and holiness (SSS: Sanità, Sapienza e Santità in Italian).835 Two more mysterious SSs sometimes joined the three SSSs to make five!. Don Bosco sent the following message to the pupils of the Turin-Valsalice College through their director: “I assure you that I recommend you to God every day in my holy Mass, and that I beg from everyone of you the three usual SSSs, which our smart pupils immediately know how to interpret: Soundness (good health), Savvy (wisdom) and Sanctity (holiness).836

He conveyed the same wishes to the son of Countess Callori, telling her that he had asked for the Pope's special blessing on the three SSS, “for Mr. Emanuel namely, that he be sound, savvy and saintly”. 837A similar as signment was entrusted to the pupils at Varazze's boarding school, through Fr.

Francesia: “good health, progress in studies and holy fear of God which is the real value to have”.838 In wider contexts work, religion and virtue are presented as the means of salvation for so many young people at risk,839 as part of a broad plan to bring about social renewal based on “Work, instruction, humanity”.840Evidently this program' calls for a regimen of Christian living according to which religion is the foundation of morality and both, religion and morality, guarantee the social order.

834G. Bosco, Il pastorello delle Alpi..., p. 90. OE XV 332; the title of Chap. XVIII is Allegria followed by XVIII Studio e

diligenza, pp. 90-93, 94-99, OE XV 332-335, 336-341.

835Letter to Countess Gabriella Corsi, 12 August 1871, E II 172: «Per la damigella Maria... dimanderò al Signore tre grossi

S, cioè che sia sana, sapiente e santa».

836Letter to Fr Francesco Dalmazzo, 8 March 1875 E 465.

837Letter 8 March 1874, E II 362. 23 year old Emmanuel was inthe Cavalry.

838Letter 10 January 1876 E III 6.

839Cf. the already quoted conference to Salesian Cooperators, Rome, 29 January 1878 in BS 4 (1880) no. 7 July, p. 12. 840Conference to Salesian Cooperators, S. Benigno Canavese, 4 June 1880 BS 4 (1880) no. 7 July, p. 12.