individuals and responding to all their needs.
Chronologically, the first undertaking Don Bosco worked on was the Oratory, the Sunday location for “young people “abandoned” to their own devices: far away from their families or neglected by them; resident or immigrant workers without any fixed point of reference; young people just out of a correctional institution, apprentices looking for work; students who, because of the abrogation law issued by Charles Felix’s Regolamenti saw the so-called 'congregations' (Religious gatherings)552 as falling out of favour. In conn ection with the Oratory we should also remember the various kinds of
undertakings Don Bosco initiated: such as schools accessible to the general public, which gradually
took on a consistency of their own within the complex area of Don Bosco's undertakings: schools for music and singing, schools for basic literacy, schools for general culture, evening and Sunday schools,
which were only a prelude to the Day schools, hostels etc.
Don Bosco wrote later on in the Memoirs of the Oratory of singing and music: “Ever since then I came to realise that without the circulation of the song books, books to relax with, the weekend gatherings would have been like a body without the spirit.553 During the winter of l846-4 and 7, our schools gained excellent results: we had an average 300 students every evening. What gave life to our classes, besides science, was the plain-chant and our vocal music which were fostered among us at all times”.554
When, after 1848, Don Bosco saw that the “dangers to which the youngsters were exposed, as far as morality and religion were concerned, demanded greater efforts to defend them”, he thought it best “to add classes vocal music classes to those for piano and organ, with the instruments themselves, to the day and evening classes: a kind of nascent Philharmonic Society with Don Bosco himself as the Maestro, but always with the help of competent people.555He responded to similar urgent needs several decades later, in 1871-1872 to be exact, when he organised the first elementary day schoolsat Valdocco. “These schools were primarily for boys”, as he explained to the mayor of Turin when he appealed to him for financial aid, “who were roaming the streets all day long due to their parents neglect or because they were poorly dressed, or were just living inlaziness. They were a harm to themselves and a disturbance to the authorities in charge of public security”.556
The Associationsand sodalities of various types, set up according to age and according to the different types of youngsters and various objectives, hold a relevant place in Don Bosco's activity for youth. His natural genius created La Società dell’allegria (The Happy Company). Don Bosco's religious tradition created the Sodalities. The need to oppose modern forms of coming together inspired Don Bosco to create the Mutual Aid Society. He profited from similar tendencies to group together with what he thought would respond to the needs of the times, by encouragingthe Conferences of Saint Vincent De Paul, among the young.557
But the institution which is the other major work amongst Don Bosco’s best efforts along with the Oratory, is the Hospice, which later widened its horizons to becoming a boarding school for youngsters taking on advanced studies and professional formation.558 The Hospice would in time become a self- sufficient institution with its own workshops, schools; and a comprehensive centre providing material aid, religious and moral assistance, instruction, recreation, in short, a true centre for complete formation
552 Cf. Em I 96-97, 139-141, 172-173, 270-272; MO (1991) 122-123, 128, 132, 142-143, 148-149.
553 Ibid., 123.
554 Ibid., 176.
555 Ibid., 190-191.
556 Cf the letter to the mayor of Turin, 26 August 1872, E II 224-225.
557 Cf. F. Motto, Le conferenze “annesse” di S. Vincenzo de’ Paoli negli Oratori di Don Bosco. Ruolo storico di
un’esperienza educativa, in L’impegno dell’educare, ed. J. M. Prellezzo, (Rome: LAS, 1991) 467-492).
558 The process had begun in Valdocco: during the five year period 155-1859 a boading school was set up at Valdocco for
high school students, while the classic workshops (shoemaking, tailoring, carpentry, book-binfing, mechanics and
printing) came into being during the decade 1853-1862.