treatise on friendship.1102TheLives of Dominic Savio and Michael Magone
1103
openly and profoundly describe features of friendship but from a more formal pedagogical point of view.
The Life of Dominic Savio had two chapters dedicated to it:1104 chapter 17 dea ls with his special
friendships and his relationship with young Camillo Gavio; chapter 18 deals with Dominic Savio's
relationship with young John Massaglia.
1105
These friendships are clearly based on orientation towards God, spiritual improvement and holiness. From his first encounter with Camillo Gavio, Dominic Savio had a precise idea of the kind of holiness Don Bosco preached: “You should know that here, holiness consists in cheerfulness”.1106Evidently, this cheerfulness is joy linked with the state of grace,virtue, the exact 'performance of one's duties'.
Dominic Savio began a more intimate spiritual friendship with John Massaglia because they both came from districts close to each other and shared the same spiritual aspirations and ideas about vocation. “They both came to the Oratory at the same time; they were from neighbouring towns; they both had the same intention of embracing the ecclesiastical state and had a real desire to become saints”. After the retreats held at Easter time their friendship became more intense, as Don Bosco explained it:
After the retreat, Dominic Savio told to his companion: “I want us to be true friends; true
friends for what concerns our souls. Therefore from now on I would like us to monitor each
other in whatever may contribute to our spiritual welfare.” From that moment on, Savio and
Massaglia became true friends and their friendship lasted, because it was founded on virtue.
Both vied with each other by giving each other good example and sharing mutual advice
which might help them avoid evil and do good.1107
Later on, Don Bosco commented: "If I'd want to write about the good and virtuous traits of John Massaglia, I'd have to repeat whatever I have said about Savio, whose faithful follower he was for as long as he lived.
1108
3. Family structure: the Rector and his co-helpers
From the viewpoint of method, family style becomes a structure, namely, a well-established set of relationships amongst the people concerned: the relationship of the Rector with his co-helpers and pupils; therelationship of pupils with their superiors, who from are expected to be fathers, brothers and friends from the point of view of education.
3.1 The Rector
Historically, Don Bosco's educative family cannot be equated with an assemblage of people and not even with a 'boys town’ community, independently of its eventual evolution and reinterpretation. The educative family paradigm is created by a style of living together which, as far as the relationship between authority and affection is concerned, takes insp iration from the analogous relationship found
1102 Cf. [G. Bosco], Cenni storici sulla vita del chierico [called 'giovane' in the second edition, 1854] Luigi Comollo...,
pp. 13-72, OE I 13-72.
1103 In the Cenno biografico on Magone he speaks of 'companions' but there is a closer spiritual relationship, a more
personal one, with some which is closer to 'amicizia', friendship. cf. G. Bosco Cenno biografico sul giovanetto Magone
Michele..., pp. 43-53, OE XIII 197-207.
1104 On friendship in Don Bosco's writings, from the collection of letters to the various 'Lives', J. Canals Pujol,
Salesian, has carried out extensive research. Part of this is published in an essay La amistad en las diversas redacciones
de la vida de Comollo escrita por San Juan Bosco, RSS 5 (1968) 221-262.
1105 G. Bosco, Vita del giovanetto Savio Domenico..., pp. 83-88, 88-93, OE XI 233-238, 238-243.
1106 G. Bosco, Vita del giovanetto Savio Domenico...,p. 86, OE XI 236.
1107 G. Bosco, Vita del giovanetto Savio Domenico..., pp. 88-89, OE XI 238-240.
1108 G. Bosco, Vita del giovanetto Savio Domenico..., p. 91, OE XI 241.