offered by St. Alphonsus Liguori, and with youth spirituality, developed particularly by the reborn Society of Jesus.10

3. Change in the socio-economic area

During this period of time, the Italian economic and social situation looked like a multi-coloured map scaled according to the various regions and political setups. The Italian population at the beginning of the century was 18 million; by 1850, it was 24 million; by the end of the century, it was 34 million. The country was based on agriculture and small business (local crafts). It would keep this structure, to a great extent, even after the first period of industrialisation at the end of the century.11 The differences between one region and another and especially the difference between north and south, were markedly evident. This situation was responsible for aggravating the ‘southern question’ which was to follow. Poverty, in different degrees, was everywhere but more so in the country and mountains than in the cities, where the poor had migrated and together with them the inevitable accompaniment of diseases, physical and mental, and of starving or under-nourished people.12

Partial signs of a recovery process emerged around 1850. One of the centres where these signs were more evident was precisely the region of Piedmont and, more particularly, the city of Turin. During the th

19 Century, Turin, the capital of Savoy, recorded a remarkable expansion in population, economy and building programs. This city's population grew five-fold from 65,000 in 1802, to 320,000 in 1891. The rhythm of growth was particularly rapid during a thirty year period, 1835-1864:(the population grew from 117,000 to 218,000, and especially during the period between 1848 -1864 (from 137,000 to 218,000.13

During the most active period of the beginnings of the Oratory, Turin's population increased by 80,000 and between 1858-1862 by 25,000. The reasons for this increase were not only social and political but economic: famine in the countryside and the mountains, the increased number of factories in the city: textile factories; arsenals; mills; food factories; arms factories; the coach business; tobacco

manufacturing; increased bureaucratic procedures, especially for employment; expansion in the construction area (making a lot of work available); improved communications systems: in 1858, Piedmont owned 936 kilometres of railways, while the Kingdom of Naples had only 100 kilometres and the Papal State but 17; extraordinary legislative provisions; initiatives created by the civic administration to prevent the possible crises connected with the transfer of the Capital from Rome to Florence (1865).14

All of the above explains the typical phenomenon of migration within that region which became,

10 Cf. P. Stella, Don Bosco nella storia della religiosità cattolica, 2, (Rome: LAS 1979/1981); and, Don Bosco nella

storia economica e sociale (1815-1870), (Rome: LAS 1980). The following brief note is a guide: “We should not be

surprised if both at the Shrine at Lanzo and at the Convitto Ecclesiastico the Jesuit spirit prevailed and its characteristics

marked those spiritual gatherings directed by Guala: Ignatian asceticism, a decisive struggle against Jansenism and

Regalism, a sincere and tender devotion to the Sacred Heart, to the Madonna, to the Pope, frequency with the

sacraments, moral theology according to the spirit of Saint Alphonsus”: F. Bauducco, SJ, “San Giuseppe Cafasso e la

Compagnia di Gesù”, in La Scuola Cattolica 88 (1960): 289.

11 Cf. the fundamental work in collaboration, ed. G. Mori, L’industrializzazione in Italia (1861-1900), ( Bologna: Il

Mulino 1981), II, ed., 509.

12 Cf. F. della Peruta, “Aspetti della società italiana nell’Italia della restaurazione”, in Studi storici 17 (1976) n.2, 27-68;

Timore e carità. I poveri nell’Italia moderna. Acts of the Convention on Pauperismo e assistenza negli antichi stati

italiani, Cremona, 28-30 March 1980, ed. G. P:oliti, M. Rosa and F. della Peruta, (Cremona: Ediz. del Convegno 1982),

ch 14, 500; A Monticone (Ed.), Poveri in cammino. Mobilità e assistenza tra Umbria e Roma in età moderna, (Milan:

F. Angeli 1993), Chap. 14, 417; F. della Peruta (ed.), Malattia e medicina, 7 of the Annals of Storia d’Italia, (Turin:.

Einaudi 1984, Chap. 20, 1293.

13 In the work by Fr Pietro Barico, for some years deputy mayor of the city, we find a precise picture of Turin:Torino

descritta (Turin: G.B.Paravia and Co. 1869), 972.

14 G.M. Bravo, Torino operaia: mondo del lavoro e idee sociali nell’età di Carlo Alberto, (Turin: Fondazione Luigi

Einaudi 1968), 300.