Resilience as a Basis for the Birth of the First Past Pupils’ Movement of Catholic Schools

Abstract

Despite being the largest group in the Salesian Family, with 100,000 affiliated members worldwide, the Past Pupils of Don Bosco Movement has to date lacked a biography of their charismatic founder, the Turin-born Carlo Gastini (1833–1902), the 120th anniversary of whose death was commemorated in 2022. A family man, bookbinder and teacher, as well as occasional poet and actor, he was the first boarder at the Oratory of Saint Francis de Sales. Little was known about him, beyond three specific anecdotes. However, from 1847 to 1902, he was linked to Valdocco as a pupil (first as a day pupil and then as a boarder), seminarian, parishioner, worker and entertainer. His life was parallel to that of Don Bosco himself, who was a second father to him, and to the development of his own congregation, the Salesian Family and even Italy as a nation. The culmination of his gratitude since 1849 was the charismatic foundation, in 1870, of the Past Pupils of Don Bosco Movement, which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2020. Its basis was simple: create an instrument of mutual help among his former colleagues, just as Don Bosco had taught them to do when they were students at the Oratory. Creating a cohesive group centred on values ​​is a proposal for facing difficulties together. In Spain, the Movement found one of its deepest-rooted abodes.

Keywords

• Don Bosco
• the Past Pupils of Don Bosco Movement
• Oratory
• Carlo Gastini
• Salesians in Spain
• resilience