of the young. In certain areas the Hospice would become the most widely spread work of the Congregation founded by Don Bosco. The relationship between Hospice and Oratory would be reversed in a certain sense: initially, the Hospice was an annex to the Oratory; later the Oratory was to be an institution joined to the Hospice.559 Don Bosco identified the origins of the Hospice in these words:
While the means to provide the youngsters with religious and literary instruction were
easily organised, another much greater need appeared, needing an urgent response. Many
youngsters from the city of Turin and from outside the city had the best of intentions of
leading a good moral life and a life of work. But when they were asked to begin, they
usually said that they had neither bread nor clothes nor place to find shelter, at least for a
time... When I came to realise that any work on behalf of these youngsters would be useless
if they had not been provided with shelter, then I took pains to quickly rent more and more
rooms at high prices.560
Don Bosco gave a reason for the colleges or boarding scools which would be developed during the 1860s, connected with Valdocco:
The burning desire of many youngsters to have regular learning forced me to make some
exceptions as far as the acceptance procedures into the Hospice were concerned. We also
accepted young men who were not really abandoned or utterly poor but willing to study,
provided they showed good moral conduct and an aptitude for studies that would leaveno
doubt for well-founded hope of an honorable and Christian success in pursuing a scientific
career.561
Then beginning from the 1860s on, various colleges and boarding Institutions were accepted by Don Bosco following regular agreements with municipalities eager to offer secondary studies to young men, from local good families. These institutions began in the city of Turin and then rapidly spread throughout Italy and beyond, in Europe and overseas, in an unending, rapid and uninterrupted chain of events: Mirabello Monferrato, Lanzo Torinese, Borgo San Martino, Cherasco, Alassio, Varazze, Marassi, Sampierdarena, Turin-Valsalice;562 then from l875, Bordighera-Vallecrosia, Nizza Marittima, Almagro, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Marseille, Magliano Sabina, Albano Laziale, Ariccia, Lucca, San Benigno Canavese, Este, La Spezia, Cremona, Florence, Utrera in Spain, Paris, Rome, etc.
One of the initiatives perhaps less known and yet among Don Bosco’s most cherished and one which was to guarantee not only the continuity of his work but also the possibility of extending his Christian and educational efforts, was the promotion and formation of people ready to consecrate their lives to Christian and educational activity in the priesthood and religious life. This was Don Bosco's interest in ecclesiastical and religious vocations.
The occasion was provided by the particular circumstances of the seminary in Turin,563 but Don
559 Concerning the phenomenon of “collegialisation” in Don Bosco and amongst the Salesians and the Daughters of Mary
Help of Christians, cf. P. Stella,Don Bosco nella storia della religiosità cattolica, vol. 1 121-127.
560 MO (1991), 180 and 182. “The experience”, he wrote in 1877, in reference to the “Hospice for poor youngsdters” in
Buenos Aires, “has persuaded us that this is the only way to support civil society: take care of poor children…those
who would otherwise crowd the prisons, would always be the scourge of society, so they become good Christians,
honest citizens, the glory of the place they live in, the pride of the family they come from, earning their bread with
sweat and honest work”. (letter of 30th September to Dr. Carranza, president of the local Conference of St. Vincent de
Paul, E III 221.
561 Cenni Storici, in P. Braido, ed., Don Bosco nella Chiesa, 76-77.
562 Cf. P. Stella, Don Bosco nella storia economica e sociale (1815-1870), (Rome: LAS, 1980), 123-157, ch- 6 Collegi e
ospizi in Piemonte e in Liguria (1860-1870).
563 “This was a memorable year [1849]. Piedmont’s war against Austria which began the previous year, had shaken up all
of Italy. Public schools were shut down as were the seminaries, especially the seminary of Chieri and Turin; they were