activity such as priestly ministry among prisoners and Lenten catechism classes with particular concern for the young who had migrated from the countryside into Turin. 494 Don Bosco, in later years, would often go to Fr Cafasso, his benefactor and confessor, both for advice and help. 495
At the school of Fr Cafasso, Don Bosco strengthened and refined his spirituality: Christian hope; preference given to trusting God rather than to the fear of God; the sense of duty as a coherent Christian lifestyle; the fundamental importance to be given to the practice of the sacraments, an effective pastoral ministry; loyalty towards the Church and the Pope; the apostolic orientation towards abandoned youth; the meditation on the' last things' and the exercise for a happy death.496
As far as moral direction was concerned, which would have such a great role to play in Don Bosco's educative and pastoral practice, the Convitto was the ideal preparation. It was the Convitto which passed on to Don Bosco the essential aspects of St Alphonsus Liguori’s theological and spiritual vision of both of whom Frs. Guala and Cafasso considered to be the ideal authors capable of mediating between the rigidity of a radical Jansenism and a superficial, easygoing reaction to it.497 Don Bosco would later have recourse to St Alphonsus Liguori, when as a founder he would have to come to terms with the basic tenets of religious life: vocation, vows, community life, observance and fidelity.
5. Congenial saints
The priests at the Oratory kept the spiritual tradition of St Philip Neri alive, both in Turin and in Piedmont. He was widely known through a biography written during the 17th Century by one of his confreres, Pier Giacomo Bacci (1575 circa-1856): The life of St Philip Neri, the apostle of Rome and the founder of the Congregation of the Oratory498 and by a collection of Thoughts for Youth. In the seminary in Chieri, the feast of St Philip Neri was one of three great feasts of the year: The Immaculate Conception, which the Rules considered to be the greatest of all solemnities of the seminary,499 the feast days of Saint Francis de Sales and St Aloysius Gonzaga. The seminary chapel was dedicated to the Immaculate Conception; two chapels in the Public Church nearby were dedicated to Saint Francis de Sales and to St Philip Neri. May 26, the feast of St Phillip, was celebrated solemnly with a Mass, sermon and, in the evening, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.500
Don Bosco, the student-seminarian, became familiar with the Founder of the Oratory and his special pastoral ministry involving cheerful piety, serene chastity and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, all to be shared with young people. Don Bosco made it so clearly evident in a well-known sermon, delivered at Alba on May 26, 1868501 and in the pages on the Preventive System in 1877. In a pamphlet written
494 Commitments were offered to all the residents who were licensed for specific pastoral activity: catechesis, preaching,
adminstering the sacrament of penance: cf. L. Nicolis di Robilant, Vita del Ven. Giuseppe Caffasso, confondatore del
Convitto ecclesiastico di Torino, (Turin: Scuola Tipografica Salesiana, 1912), 2 vols; especially vol 2, 1-16 and 208-
230.
495 Lemoyne writes of thefrequent visits of Don Bosco to the Convitto where a room remained available to him, where he
could go to prepare his publications: cf. MB 2, 257-258; L. Nicolis di Robilant, Vita del Ven. Giuseppe Caffasso, vol 2,
222-223; the author devotes the entire chapter 7 of volume 2 to the theme of relationships between Don Bosco and
Caffasso (208-230).
496 For a more detailed reference to emerging features of Caffsso’s spirituality there is a useful summary by F. Accornero,
L dottrina spirituale di San Giuseppe Caffasso, (Turin: LDC, 1958): especially characteristic are the sanctification of
duty (39-61), confidence (107-130) and the exercise for a Happy Death (217-219).
497 Cf. P. Stella, Don Bosco nella storia della religiosità cattolica, vol. 1 85-95; E. Valentini, Don Bosco e S. Alfonso,
(Pagani (Salerno): Casa Editrice Sant’Alfonso, 1972), 83. 85 pages.
498 Rome 1622, with other Roman editions from 1745 and 1837.
499 A. Giraudo, Clero, seminario e società, 264.
500 Ibid., 444-445.
501 The manuscript signed by Don Bosco is preserved and a copy by Don Berto with author’s corrections. The text is
reproduced with variations in MB IX 214-221. Di Filippo had already drawn up a short profile inStoria ecclesiastica
of 1845 and 1848 (315-316, OE I 315-316) (added to in the third edition 1870 highlighting the coincidences between
the two systems of education).