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srugi-leon



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Fr Alejandro José León Mendoza sdb
A READING
OF THE LIFE OF SIMON SRUGI
&
THE SALESIAN COMMUNITY
AT BEITGEMAL
(1891–1958)
IN THE LIGHT OF FAITH

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Alejandro José León Mendoza sdb
– A Reading of the Life of Simon Srugi and the Salesian Community at Beitgemal (1891–1958) in the Light of
Faith
Thesis presented for Masters degree
Pontifical Salesian University
Rome 2010–2011
Translation: Australia-Pacific (AUL) Salesian Province (2021)
Scripture quotations in English are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division
of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
All rights reserved.

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To Brother Angelo Bormida,
the first to keep the memory alive
of what took place at Beitgemal.
He became a true disciple of Jesus,
in the spirit that we can call “Beitgemelian”,
forgiving his persecutors while he lay dying.

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Table of Contents
Abbreviations and acronyms
ix
Presentation
xi
Introduction
xiii
Chapter One Epistemological Bases and Choices
1
1. Reading history in the light of faith
2
1.1. Christian spiritual experience in spiritual theology
3
1.2 Life speaks if there is a heart that will listen
4
1.3 Convergence and divergence between approaches… from
apparent contradiction to complementarity
5
1.4 Summing up
7
2. The Salesian Middle East Province (MOR)
7
2.1 Description of the Province
8
2.1.1 The wealth of the Province
8
2.1.2 Difficulties in the life of the Province
9
2.1.3 The most important challenges
10
2.2 Summing up
10
3. Called to live in community (1st choice)
11
4. The Beitgemal community (2nd choice)
12
5. The period from 1891–1958 (3rd choice)
13
Chapter Two The Beitgemal Community 1891–1958
15
1. A history of the community
16
1.1 Varaia Antonio (1892–1894)
19
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1.2 Ruggero Corradin (1894–1896)
20
1.3 Cartoni Ercoli Luigi (1895–1901)
20
1.4 Vercauteren Carlo (1902–1907)
21
1.5 Gianine Isacco (1908–1914)
21
1.6 Bianchi Eugenio (1914–1926)
23
1.7 Rosìn Mario (1926–1929)
29
1.8 Villa Giovanni (1929–1931)
29
1.9 Sacchetti Alfredo (1931–1937)
30
1.10 Rosìn Mario (1937–1938)
30
1.11 Candiani Antonio (1938–1940)
31
1.12 López Rafael Arturo (1940–1943)
33
1.13 Laiolo Luigi (1943–1946)
34
1.14 Ubezzi Bartolomeo (1946–1949)
34
1.15 Barbieri Giovanni (1950–1954)
36
1.16 Dal Maso Eligio (1956–1958)
37
1.17 From 1958–2011
37
2. Members of the community
38
2.1 Young confreres: aspirants, novices and clerics
41
2.1.1 The data
41
2.1.2 Apostolic life
42
2.1.3 Spiritual characteristics
43
2.2 Brothers
44
2.2.1 Data
44
2.2.2 Apostolic life
44
2.2.3 Spiritual characteristics
45
2.3 Priests
46
2.3.1 Data
46
2.3.2 Apostolic life
47
2.3.3 Spiritual characteristics
48
vi

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2.4 Elderly and sick confreres
49
3. The question of the Arab confreres
50
4. Salesian representatives
52
4.1 Fr Antonio Belloni
53
4.2 Angelo Bormida
54
4.3 Eugenio Bianchi
56
4.4 Mario Rosìn
58
Chapter Three Simon Srugi
61
1. Biography
61
1.1 Childhood and adolescence
61
1.2 At the Beitgemal orphanage: aspirantate and novitiate
63
1.3 An outline of his personality
63
1.4 Friend of the young
64
1.5 Worker and apostle
65
1.6 Final days
66
Spirituality
67
2.1 Life in the Spirit of Jesus
68
2.1.1 Faith
68
2.1.2 Hope
70
2.1.3 Charity
70
2.2 Moral life
71
2.2.1 Prudence
71
2.2.2 Justice
72
2.2.3 Fortitude
73
2.2.4 Temperance
73
2.3 Religious vows
74
2.3.1 Poverty
74
2.3.2 Chastity
74
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Simon Srugi and the Beitgemal Community
2.3.3 Obedience
75
2.4 Total gift of self and reputation for holiness
75
Chapter Four A Reading of the Life of Simon Srugi and the Beitgemal
Community In the Light of Faith
77
1. Disciples at Beitgemal
79
1.1 Disciples of Christ and his Gospel
81
1.2 Disciples in the Church
84
1.2.1 Relationship with the hierarchy
84
1.2.2 Communion with the clergy and other religious congregations
90
1.3 Salesian discipleship (a charism passed on from father to son)
91
1.4 Disciples of life
95
1.4.1 Daily life: simple and laborious
98
1.4.2 Life in a multi-ritual context
101
1.4.3 Life in a multi-religious context
103
1.4.4 Life in the context of war and persecution
106
2. Simon Srugi: The little way of humility
109
3. The tomb of St Stephen and the Work of Christian Forgiveness
111
Chapter Five Elements for a Salesian Spirituality in the the Middle East
117
1. Guided by the Spirit
119
2. Learning to learn from life
120
3. Family spirit
121
4. Listening and dialoguing
123
5. Christian forgiveness
124
6. Christian love and service, configuring oneself to the mind of the Son
126
7. To the spilling of blood
128
Conclusion
131
Bibliography
135
Appendices
141
viii

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Abbreviations and acronyms1
ACB
AGC
AG
AIMOR
ASC
C
CCC
FMA
GS
Informatio
Archivio Comunità Beitgemal (Community Archives, Beitgemal) Bet
Shemes, Israel.
Acts of the General Council (Chapter) of the Salesian Society.
VATICAN COUNCIL II, Council Decree Ad Gentes on the Church’s
pastoral activity, 7 December 1965 in Enchiridion vaticanum, 1. Official
Documents of the Holy See 1971. English translation taken from https:/
/www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents
/vat-ii_decree_19651207_ad-gentes_en.html
Archivio Ispettoriale Medio Oriente (Province Archives, Middle East).
Bethlehem, Palestine.
Archivio Salesiano Centrale (Salesian Central Archives) Rome, Italy.
Constitutions of the Society of St Francis de Sales, S.D.B., 1984.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, LEV, Vatican City, 1992.
(Institute of the) Daughters of Mary Help of Christians.
VATICAN COUNCIL II Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes on
the Church in the modern world, 7 December 1965, in Enchiridion
vaticanum, 1. Official Documents of the Holy See 1971. English
translation taken from https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii
_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_cons_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html
Informatio, in Positio super virtutibus. Beatificationis et Canonizaionis
Servi Dei Simoneis Srugi Laici Professi Societatis Salesianae, Rome, 1988,
1-233.
1 Biblical and patristic sources and documents of the magisterium are indicated by the acronyms and abbreviations
in use
ix

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Simon Srugi and the Beitgemal Community
LG
MOR
Positiones
SDB
Summ.
VATICAN COUNCIL II Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 21.
November 1964, in Enchiridion vaticanum, 1. Official Documents of the
Holy See 1971. English translation taken from https://www.vatican.va
/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const
_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html
Salesian Middle East Province: "Jesus the Adolescent".
Positiones seu articuli, in Positio super virtutibus. Beatificationis et seu
articuli Canonizaionis Servi Dei Simoneis Srugi Laici Professi Societatis
Salesianae, Rome, 1988, 1-50.
Salesians of Don Bosco.
Summarium, in Positio super virtutibus. Beatificationis et Canonizaionis
Servi Dei Simoneis Srugi Laici Professi Societatis Salesi Rome, 1988, 1-381.
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Presentation
From the outset, three criteria have guided me in the choice of this current work of
research, in expectation of the following results:
That the final contributions could be useful for myself and those close to me.
That I can bring the two components of my curriculum into dialogue with each other:
spiritual theology and the study of formation.
That there be a real effort at dialogue between faith, culture and life.
Usefulness: Areas of study develop thanks to creative or in-depth reinterpretations
of understandings that are held as common heritage. What is true for all of them is
true for the two that particularly concern me: theology and pedagogy. But honestly, I
am not interested in advancing knowledge for the sake of knowledge. My interest is in
strengthening the mental structures that I have built up over many years of study to the
point where they allow me to take an intelligent approach to the circumstances I will have
to face day after day. This research, then, is aimed especially at giving me the tools for this,
my life’s task; I then hope that it can be of some use for those in my land of mission: the
Salesians of the Middle East. If my thesis is also a contribution to knowledge or can be of
benefit to others: Deo Gratias! But of course that is just a plus.
Curricular dialogue: I belong to one of the very first generations to obtain a degree in
“Spiritual Theology / Formation of formators and those involved in vocational ministry”.
I am convinced that this academic path is the result of a very intelligent intuition which
deserves to be deepened and developed. Therefore it seems to me to be appropriate to
express the intention to carry out a serene and enriching dialogue2 between the two
approaches, seeking an integration, including a scientific integration, of the two areas:
spiritual theology and pedagogical method.
Dialogue between faith, culture and life: on behalf of the University I feel that I am an
ambassador of the real experience that the Salesians of the Middle East have to tackle (and
therefore it seems both correct and enriching to deal with the University from our point
2 I speak of the intention to dialogue not because it is a complete novelty but because theology and pedagogy
(in their development as areas of study) have rightly sought to defend their autonomy; and now this new
curriculum allows us to take a scientifically interdisciplinary approach. It is this opportunity I am thinking
to benefit from.
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Simon Srugi and the Beitgemal Community
of view as well); and at the same time, on behalf of my confreres in the Middle East, I am
an ambassador of the perspectives and deeper understandings offered by the University;
but this service of mediation is one I achieve with and through my life (it cannot be
otherwise). This mediation is being achieved by a young Latin American, a missionary,
newly-ordained priest with his own history, with certain well-hidden virtues and many
very clear defects, with dreams, fears, and an overwhelming desire to arrive in his field of
work. This is who I am: with all my very real artistic, pastoral, spiritual sensitivities that
a priori, almost without explicitly wanting to, choose what to communicate from one to
the other.
The above criteria have led me to my choice of topic: A reading of the life of Simon
Srugi and the Salesian community at Beitgemal (1891–1958) in the light of faith. Elements
for a Salesian spirituality in the Middle East. My reasons will be amply justified in the
introduction and first chapter.
Here, I would only like to emphasise the awareness, one I have always had, of having
chosen a somewhat wide-ranging topic. This choice has its merits and limitations At the
same time, I very soon came to the realisation that I was obliged to use more archival and
not so much bibliographical material as a main source.
Because of the wide-ranging nature of the work, I present many aspects without,
however, the opportunity to carry out major in-depth studies. I also confirmed that such
a work requires an historical, even literary basis, which I do not have.
However, the choices I made offered me the possibility of coming across some
wonderful surprises... and indeed these occurred. Read on. For my part, I feel satisfied
that I have been faithful to the three criteria explained earlier.
I would like to conclude by thanking God for all the formative opportunities he has
given me. I would also like to thank the two main characters in this work, Brothers
Angelo Bormida and Simon Srugi, for their testimony. For me they are the most effective
encouragement for being creatively faithful in my vocation as a Salesian in the Middle
East. I thank the Pontifical Salesian University for its precious service in my intellectual
formation: and I would especially like to thank the lecturers from the Institute of Spiritual
Theology in the person of its Director, Jesús Manuel Garcia. My thanks also to the
lecturers from the FSE, in the person of Giuseppe Roggia and outside lecturers such
as Amedeo Cencini... I thank my Provincial, Fr Maurizio Spreafico and the current
community at Beitgemal (Frs Antonio, Domenico, Attilio, Bro, Adelino, Frs Giuseppe,
Wieslaw, Violetta, Leila, Simonet) for their acceptance, witness and dedication to the
mission in this “Holy Land”. To all of you my heartfelt thanks.
Rome, 24 May 2011
Solemnity of Mary Help of Christians.
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Introduction
Human beings were born to remember, and memory is necessary in order to live fully.
Obviously, not memory as the simple ability to mentally preserve everything that has
happened, but an intelligent and attentive memory, one able to recall and coordinate,
grasp the deeper meaning of events and relive them...
The Salesian community at Beitgemal in Israel, with more than 120 years of history,
is heir to and custodian of so many riches and resources; of highly qualified experiences
of holiness, of expressions of faith that have been severely tested by the difficult political,
economic, social, religious and ecclesial situations that the Salesians have had to face in
the history of the community.
But this history runs the risk of being forgotten, and with that we would also lose
the spiritual wealth that God has raised up in that land: custodian not only of biblical
memories but also of Salesian holiness.
Therefore, we can consider a reading, an interpretation of the history of Beitgemal
in the light of faith to be both valuable and opportune as a re-appropriation of the past
(convinced that God has been active in it), so we can better understand for the present
what the identity of the Salesians in the Middle East really is, tackling the current situation
as a time of grace. And finally, opening up memory, reason and will to the action of the
Spirit who continues to guide the Salesians of the Middle east into the future.
My concern is not so much an historico-critical study of events in the Beitgemal
community, nor is it one of offering a plan for optimising pastoral activity in this
community. Rather is it one of offering an interpretation of the history of the community,
rereading it in faith, in order to help the confreres of the entire MOR Province to
take ownership of it, taking on board the brightest but also the darkest moments, the
experiences of holiness but also those of sin, convinced that God has been present
throughout this history and mysteriously guiding it at all times. It is God who is now
inviting us to integrate it all and allow it all to be redeemed in the mystery of his Pasch,
preserving these works of God in memory, seeking to grasp the theological and spiritual
elements that are identifiable for the formation of confreres who currently belong to the
MOR Provincial community, but also for the formation of the new generations. Hence,
the constant question that will accompany the research is the following: What has God
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Simon Srugi and the Beitgemal Community
inspired in the community of Beitgemal that will help the confreres of the Province today
to grow in their identity as Salesians in the Middle East?
Here is how the work develops:
Chapter One offers the epistemological foundations on which the work is based,
even though they state and justify the choices made, namely: why the interpretation
of the history of a community in the light of faith, why Beitgemal and, finally, why the
focus on the period from 1891 to 1958. Chapter Two presents the Salesian community
at Beitgemal: Initially, a chronology will be presented through the terms of office of
its many Rectors, followed by a summary of the life and presence of the confreres
in the community (clerics, brothers, priests, sick and elderly confreres) and finally a
biographical presentation of the most important figures. Chapter Three spends time with
the figure of Simon Srugi: a presentation of his life, his vocation and formation, and his
spirituality.
Chapter Four proposes a reading of Beitgemal’s experience in the light of faith, trying
to grasp the theological and spiritual elements that emerge from it.
Chapter Five identifies the spiritual and formative elements that can contribute to
the effort to renew the identity of the Salesians in the Middle East and their sense of
belonging to the Provincial community. Finally, the Conclusion identifies the strengths
and weaknesses of the work and possible further work.
The main sources are archival: made up of the house chronicles of the Beitgemal
community (32 notebooks of detailed news items and 4 summaries of certain periods),
mortuary letters of the confreres (88), biographies of the most significant confreres,
various letters, the Positio for Simon Srugi’s Process, and his writings (6 notebooks with
reminders, the collection of his retreat resolutions and various other material).
These sources are found in three archives: the Salesian Central Archives (ACS); the
Middle East Province Archives (AIMOR); the Archives of the Beitgemal Community
(ACB). The research began by going to AIMOR where I had the opportunity to investigate
for a period of three weeks. AIMOR is well organised; perhaps with many gaps or missing
information. There I managed to identify an early list of Salesians who had lived at
Beitgemal,3 find the mortuary letters, read various pieces of information on the nature
and shape of the community, the problem of ownership of lands and some notes that
referred me to the House Chronicle of the Bethlehem community where the details of
the events of “the question of the Arab confreres” are recounted, as well as the captivating
story of Bro. Angelo Bormida and truly precious information on the life of Fr Rosìn,
which is generally unknown. Finally, I found the original writings of Simon Srugi (which
3 But it wasn’t complete until all the information was found in the ACS.
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I was certain had never been transcribed nor published) so I undertook this task in order
to be able to use them in this research and disseminate their memory.
After this I spent another three weeks in the Beitgemal community where I found
archives mostly made up of sheets of paper, and this I have called the ACB. The
community chronicles and various documents are found there. In order to develop
chapter two, I set myself the task of reading all the chronicles4 and writing up a summary
of them.
Finally, in the ACS I found the missing information on lists of Salesians; the Positio
for Simon Srugi, and various other material: the most interesting were the exchanges of
letters found in the folders: ASC 31.22 MO, ASC 38 Betlemme, ASC 38 Beitgemal, ASC
275 Belloni.
From the sequence of chapters it is clear that the approach used will be specifically one
of spiritual theology, and then an historical and theological one in its two components:
initially taking into consideration the history of the Beitgemal community inasmuch as
this can be drawn from the sources, analysing it from an historical-critical point of view
and then interpreting it through theological criteria, seeking to determine the spiritual
constants that can contribute to outlining the identity of the Salesians in the Middle East.
4 With the difficulty of finding periods with plenty of information while others had very little.
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Chapter One
Epistemological Bases and Choices
“But take care and watch yourselves closely,
so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen,
nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life;
Make them known to your children and your children’s children” (Dt 4:9).
The human being is born to remember, and memory is necessary in order to live fully.
In fact, our way of looking at our past is one of the truest indicators of our maturity today
and even of the quality of our faith. We are children of our past, generated by it. So very
often do we return to it to discover our roots, to understand our life today, to weep over
it, to reconcile it with our own past, or to deny it and forget about it.
Authentic recall, meaning knowing how to interpret history in the light of faith,
is the only way for achieving the integration of our own identity. The individual, the
community, the charismatic group cannot fully embrace and express their identity in
a single moment. They need a series of experiences and different situations that enrich
and gradually unveil their identity.
An interpretation of our history in the light of faith is not a spontaneous nor even
automatic activity. It demands serious spiritual work to blend past history and the
complexity of present reality in a full and harmonious manner.
As a member of the Salesian Middle East Province, I feel in communion with so many
confreres who, in one way or another, express this desire to re-appropriate our history in
order to strengthen our faith, charism and identity.
Convinced that God has written our history over these 120 years of Salesian presence
in the Middle East, there is a profound desire to draw wisdom from this history so as to
face the challenges of the present with greater maturity of faith.
1

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Simon Srugi and the Beitgemal Community
In order to offer a significant contribution to this spiritual work of our Province, in
this thesis I propose an in-depth study of some elements for a Salesian spirituality in
the Middle East through an interpretation of the history of the Salesian community of
Beitgemal in the light of faith. Our discipleship of Christ, precisely in fidelity to him who
called us there – to the places that saw his human life and the unfolding of the early
Christian communities – and to the Spirit who enriched us with particular gifts, must be
marked by two adjectives: our discipleship must be Salesian and Middle Eastern.
A recapitulation of our history in the light of faith is an unavoidable task in order
to respond to the challenges of consolidating Salesian charismatic identity, of making a
serious effort at inculturation, of reinforcing in the confreres the sense of belonging to
the Provincial community and of planning serious ways of integration into the Province
by both local confreres and missionaries.
1. Reading history in the light of faith
Historia magistra vitae, says the famous line from Cicero.
In the fields of Spiritual Theology and Education, this Latin aphorism is currently
being refined and clarified in its various aspects, while at the same time gaining
unimaginable depth. To the point where in some ways it becomes a fundamental criterion
for the two approaches.
For theology, history is fundamental because the dialogue between man and God,
under the sign of the Spirit, is carried out within the framework of human experience.
God gave himself to us in history and as history, and by giving it back its original meaning
he made history become salvation history.
Spiritual theology revolves around the mystery of Christ as lived in faith by the people
of God at an experiential level. The process of this Christian experience is the encounter
between God who gives himself and the human being who believes, welcoming God
himself in faith and love. But the specific nature of spiritual theology is found in the fact
that it focuses its attention on the life and history communicated by the Father in Christ
through the Spirit, in order to grasp the theological dynamic of the Christian experience
in this, and to understand how to arrive at communion with God.5
For the area of study known as Educational Pedagogy, learning from history,
especially from one’s own history or from the common history which one must
appropriate, is a fundamental and irreplaceable task for any candidate to consecrated or
5 Cf. J.M. García, La teologia spirituale oggi. Verso una descrizione del suo statuto epistemologico, in La teologia
spirituale. Atti del Congresso Internazionale OCD (Rome 24-29 April 2000), Rome, OCD/Teresianum, 2001,
205-238.
2

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Epistemological Bases and Choices
priestly life. The formand will be truly such when his faith succeeds in interpreting history
and penetrating its deeper meaning, while his own history – passed and present – offers
constant new impetus and arguments, content and motivation and at times also questions
and challenges to faith. And so together, faith and history discover the original action of
God who saves, or what makes each person’s human existence a ‘story of salvation’ an
entirely personal story, invented by God and lived by human beings.6
Certainly, saying Historia magistra vitae could simply be a nice slogan. In order to
overcome this difficulty and make in-depth study a real instrument of help and reflection
in spiritual and formative accompaniment, the criteria offered by both the disciplines of
spiritual theology and formation are very valuable.
1.1. Christian spiritual experience in spiritual theology
When we speak of Christian spiritual experience we do not intend to point to something
solely subjective or experiential, but we refer to integral and authentic human experience
which constitutes genuine Christian knowledge and, therefore, is a theological category.
In this sense, it is possible to hypothesise a theological foundation of the Christian
experience in its originality; not going beyond faith, but leading it back to faith
precisely because... there is no faith that is not historical and no understanding of
faith that is not an understanding of history and that does not derive its questions
and the search for answers from history.7
Christian spiritual experience relies on many structures, first and foremost on the
faith as transmitted by the Church and received as an objective datum; and secondly on
the sacraments, through the divine life is communicated to us in the prolongation of
Christ’s paschal mystery.
Christian life, the specific object of the study of spiritual theology, is strictly Christian
because it is based on the objectivity of the Christ event. Therefore, it reflects on
the experience of a revealed divine Truth that has its own characteristics, including
a perpetuity that removes it from the constantly ‘becoming’ nature of human history.
Before being a “human stance” spirituality is presence, grace, a gift of the Spirit of God.
This is why spiritual theology, which upholds experience and history as a source of
wisdom, knows that it needs the support and verification of knowledge from systematic
theology.
6 Cf. A. Cencini, L’Albero della vita. Verso un modello di formazione iniziale e permanente, Milan, San Paolo,
2005, 229.
7 J.M. García, Teologia dell’esperienza, 119.
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Simon Srugi and the Beitgemal Community
For spiritual theology, history becomes magistra vitæ if one accepts the paradox of the
asymmetrically interdependent relationship of the objective and subjective components
of the Christian life as the believer’s participation in divine life.8 Therefore, if spiritual
theology emphasises lived experience as theological wisdom, it knows that the more
authentic it is, the more it is subjected in charity and in the freedom and creativity of
the children of God to the experience that already emerges in a normative way in Sacred
Scripture and that is crystallised in a privileged way in the experience of the saints,
throughout the rich path of ecclesial tradition.
1.2 Life speaks if there is a heart that will listen9
For their part, the formation sciences warn us of a twofold danger in the relationship
between life (history) and formation (wisdom).
It has often been a mistake to devalue the internalisation of experience as a legitimate
and theological approach to understanding reality. Rather, a very theoretical vision has
been promoted with the assumption that formation consists in learning about faith and
good morals, and the rest would develop automatically, because according to Plato’s
thinking, one cannot know good and not practise it. But history has amply demonstrated
the naivety, at least in part, of this notion.
Instead, there is a need to overcome the pattern that assumes knowing or memorising
all the truths of the faith, explaining them according to a proper systematic theology and
the moral behaviour derived from them as the main task of formation:
How poor our religious culture is [and by analogy our formation as consecrated
individuals] can become frighteningly clear to us if we reflect on how little we are
practised in understanding God from our own life, or this life from his guidance.
Christian existence should also mean that we are sustained not only by a theoretical
conviction, but by the living knowledge that He guides our lives. But then every event
would contain a self-manifestation of God and thus a knowledge of ourselves.10
A more modern and avant-garde experiential approach to reality is also wrong, but
similarly naive. This view of things assumes that the correct understanding of reality is
8 Faith is presented as a process in which there is a continuous interaction between the objective, which gives
form, and the subjective, which is founded and constituted by it. In fact one cannot enter into a relationship
with Jesus Christ except in faith, in the very act in which faith establishes this relationship, where the object
of faith is personalised. In other words, the Truth of God (fides quae) is not the product of human response
(fides qua), even if it is in the decision to believe that it can be perceived. Cf. A. Stagliano, La teologia «che
serve». Sul compito scientifico-ecclesiale del teologo per la nuova evangelizzazione, Turin, SEI, 1996, 92.
9 Cf. A. Manenti, Vivere gli ideali, II. Fra paura e desiderio, Bologna, EDB, 2001.
10 R. Guardini, Accettare se stessi, Brescia, Morcelliana, 1992, 32-33.
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something very simple, almost intuitive, something that can be calmly entrusted to every
individual, considered as being automatically able to read and interpret every aspect of
their life. And yet it is true that life speaks – historia magistra vitæ – but only if there is a
heart that will listen.
In reality, it often ends up, in our formation settings, that we do not systematically put
our hand to a formation plan that puts the individual in a position to listen to life in
its entirety, or to place his heart in a listening attitude to life and history, a heart that
is not only docile, but docibilis, capable of recognising God who reveals the singular
features of his face in the small and limited measure of the creature’s life, of listening
to the Word entrusted to it and to no one else, and in which is also hidden the mystery
of its own creaturely identity, its own self.11
If formation does not help one to practise this inescapable task of learning how to
learn about life and history, it will be a formation that only succeeds in offering a partial
ability to become great repeaters of learned notions or transmitters of the experiences of
others, and not witnesses of a wisdom matured in one’s own days and in one’s own flesh.
1.3 Convergence and divergence between approaches… from apparent contradiction to complementarit
The two perspectives, i.e., one of spiritual theology and the other of the pedagogy of
formation, with their own emphases and different interests, broadly coincide in this
sensitivity to valuing experience, life, and history as theological places and sources of
wisdom.
It is on the basis of the human being’s experience in Christ that the content of
spirituality as well as that of formation is gathered and thematised. The fulcrum of this
experience is its intrinsic link with salvation history, oriented towards its fullness in Christ
as lived in the Church.
But here, an apparent contradiction arises in the criterion of which experiences to
value most. For spiritual theology it is the saints – their experience, life and history – who
are the best witnesses of this Christological and ecclesial experience insofar as salvation
history reaches its climax in them. The saints can be considered to be the “laboratory” of
spiritual theology, the privileged field of research.
The history of Christian spirituality cannot do without the – spiritual references of –
models of holiness capable of interpreting an era and becoming a point of reference
for every period, indicating certain strengths (= constants) and offering a unified and
systematic understanding of the entire experience of faith. The experiences of holiness
11 A. Cencini, L’Albero della vita, 130.
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are, by their very nature, theologically eloquent, to the point of becoming theological
phenomena.12
While the formation sciences do not only refer mainly to the formand’s own
experience (his life and history) they do insist on transforming all these experiences (all
of life, all the history) into a theological place and source of wisdom, and not only those
regarded in Christians terms as the more excellent ones.
The principal function of formation is to shape a heart open to the Spirit, “…capable
of explicitly living faith as a source of meaning, as a criterion for interpreting experience
and what exists, of what one feels in one’s heart, what seduces and attracts one, frightens
and worries one, but also that part of human experience, past and present, proper to every
human being, which is more difficult to accept and which contrasts with the natural need
for happiness and human harmony, namely unease, aggression, emptiness, obscurity, self-
rejection, suffering, old age, failure, setbacks, change, crisis, death…”.13 Including evil and
sin; just like the other person and including what is common.
And here is the apparent contradiction: spiritual theology focuses on the experience
that is “excellent and guaranteed by the Church” while the formation sciences insist on
all experiences, and perhaps all the more so on those most disassociated with the vital
centre of the person, a centre which for a believer can only be the Paschal Mystery.
But, as the subtitle hints at, the contradiction is only apparent. The experience of the
saints is excellent because in one way or another they knew how to accept the action of
the Holy Spirit in their lives, recapitulating everything in the Son’s cross. It is the docibility
[the ability to be taught] of their heart that is the model for us, rather than the various
expressions or results of their spiritual journey.
We consider that the two viewpoints are somewhat complementary. Formation
sciences emphasise attention to the past and present of the individual so that everything
can benefit from the grace of redemption. While spiritual theology emphasises attention
to the present and future of the individual by offering pathways and goals that the saints
have already experienced throughout the history of the Church.
The problem is posed precisely in the attempt to understand experience as a whole
or as a systemic unit. Human thinking and science can only fragment what is not
itself fragmented in reality. In fact, in reality, first there is systemic unity, then
comes the understanding of it. In the effort to understand experience as a whole,
the development of human thinking throughout history has led human beings to
specialisation in the study of reality with the aim of achieving a more controlled
12 J.M. García, Teologia dell’esperienza cristiana – giustificazione epistemologica e interdisciplinarietà, Rome,
2009, 122.
13 A. Cencini, L’Albero della vita, 130-131.
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understanding of the data studied. But scientific specialisation does not respond
to the reality (which is not broken up into specialised sectors), but responds to a
certain condition of limited human intelligence. These are limits that drive us to
make scientific choices. The scientists, then, chooses a study sector and a particular
perspective according to his scientific purpose, and as a consequence excludes the
rest. The advantage, as has already been said, is to have a more in-depth knowledge,
but the disadvantage is that it is not possible to scientifically grasp complex realities
which have elements that have been excluded from the chosen field from the outset,
and which cannot be understood from the chosen perspective.
At this point, interdisciplinarity becomes a very important tool because it allows us
to grasp several dimensions of the same reality, bringing us closer to understanding
it as it is.14
1.4 Summing up
History is one of the most important teachers of life because the world, humankind, the
Church and every individual, and their own histories in relation to this, were created
in Christ and in view of him, therefore each of these histories, each at its own level, is
originally destined in Christ to become salvation history.
We are not saying that every history is a history of salvation; we are saying that every
history is originally called to become a history of salvation through the action of the Spirit
in revelation and its acceptance on the part of human beings, in faith. By creating a very
special bond between revelation-faith and history, of asymmetrical reciprocity, history is
filled with meaning, becoming magistra vitæ in its deepest sense.
2. The Salesian Middle East Province (MOR)
Our study is intended to be an exercise in interpreting, in faith, the common history
of Salesians in the Middle East, with the hope of helping to deepen our identity and
stimulating a similar exercise in the personal history of the Salesians who are members
of this Province.
With this re-reading from a faith perspective, we seek to offer a concrete contribution
to the inescapable need for the confreres of MOR (present and future generations) to grow
in their Provincial identity and to make a courageous effort in the task of inculturation
of the charism:
I insist on this last point: you are not asked to carry out a generic pastoral work, but
to embody the Salesian charism in this (Middle) Eastern land. You therefore need to
14 J.M. García, Teologia dell’esperienza, 119.
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compare yourselves with the sources, set in motion systematic paths of formation for
all the confreres in the light of what the Congregation has said and is saying today.15
2.1 Description of the Province
The Salesian Middle East Province, among all the provinces in the Salesian world, is
certainly the one that has the greatest variety of peoples, languages and religions, spread
as it is across three continents (Europe, Asia, Africa) and seven countries: Egypt, Israel,
Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and Iran. It is not far from the truth that this is currently
the most complex province in the Congregation of the sons of Don Bosco.
The total number of confreres is 107,16 of whom: 86 are priest confreres with perpetual
vows, 9 nine are brothers with perpetual vows and 12 are confreres in initial formation.
There are 34 local confreres and 73 missionaries. The confreres belong to 22 different
nationalities, of which the largest groups are from: Italy (46), Syria (14), Egypt (13),
Poland (6), India and Lebanon (4).
2.1.1 The wealth of the Province
The Middle East Province represents the Salesian Congregation in the places that
witnessed the human story of the Son of God, the first spread of evangelical preaching,
the birth and spread of the first Christian communities, the flourishing of the Church
according to the different rites.
The Province has almost 120 years of history (1891–2011) which has seen so many
Salesians clearly placed on the frontier of the young and in particular the poorest.
Certainly the greatest wealth to rely on has been and continues to be the confreres.
Many of them are missionaries who have demonstrated the inner attitude of those
who are ready to “leave” their lives behind (coetera tolle) to give it to those to whom God
sends them (da mihi animas).
Others are local confreres who have been seduced by God and Don Bosco’s charism,
and have enriched it with personal gifts and the cultural and religious background of the
East, their Churches, theologies and spiritualities.
15 P. Chavez, Rector Major’s letter at the conclusion of the Extraordinary Visitation, 29.06.2004, 3.
16 Of these, 93 are incardinated in MOR while a further 14 are temporarily in the Province. There are 4 confreres
in a particular situation and 7 temporarily inscribed in other Provinces.
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Thanks to the generous gift the confreres have made of themselves, the works are
very much appreciated by civil and ecclesiastical authorities,17 as well as the thousands of
people who are the beneficiaries of the services provided.
The history of this land is a history of holiness. In the Salesian Family, too, there
have been abundant fruits of holiness, among whom the Venerable Simon Srugi (Salesian
Brother from Nazareth) and the Servant of God Mathilde Salem (Salesian Cooperator
from Aleppo) stand out. Alongside them were many other confreres, particularly
brothers, who in humility and total dedication lived their religious consecration in the
service of young people.
2.1.2 Difficulties in the life of the Province
There is no lack of political difficulties in the Middle East18 as well as economic ones.19
We do not know how long individual situations will last, but it is clear that the effects will
last for many years and some will not be reversible, such as the Islamisation of Lebanon
and Palestine due to the flight of Catholics.
At the level of management of the Province’s personnel, the political mosaic of which
it is composed causes a series of difficulties for the exchange of confreres (including them
knowing one another) as well as the problems of sending the most suitable personnel to
the different locations. Added to this is the challenge of learning the different languages
(or translating the charismatically fundamental texts into them), but also of adapting to
the diversity of cultures (or situations) while maintaining charismatic fidelity.
In circumstances like these, not only pastoral coordination or common planning
become very difficult but especially creating a sense of belonging and Provincial identity.
It is difficult to create an identity in a context that tends to be dispersed, marked by great
geographical, political, cultural and ecclesial distances.
17 It is appropriate to note that the Province has to main relationships with 6 Patriarchs, and the same number
of Nuncios or Apostolic Delegates, and with 18 bishops.
18 One thinks of the harsh conflict between the State of Israel and the situation of Palestinians; the serious
tensions between Israel and the various Arab countries; the recent war against Iraq, which has exacerbated
relations with the Western world; the exasperation of radical Islam (Al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood);
the conflicts in Lebanon; the tough stance of confrontation on the part of Iran; the failure to resolve certain
problems related to ethnic minorities.
19 The situation of political instability and the constant threat of war do not allow for a secure development of
local economies. The great source of wealth from oil is controlled by the rulers, but they fail to channel it
into significant measures to improve social and economic conditions. Conditions of poverty are especially
marked within the Arab peoples. Young people are often discouraged by the lack of any real future prospects.
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2.1.3 The most important challenges
Among the priority challenges, we can see one basic one: The Lord calls us to consolidate
our charismatic identity, making a serious effort at inculturation, strengthening the sense
of belonging to the Provincial community.
This demands:
On the one hand, the constant care of one’s own Salesian identity, through prayer,
love for Don Bosco, a sense of belonging to the Congregation, study and reflection on
today’s Salesian “magisterium” (Constitutions, Acts of the General Chapters, Letters of
the Rector Major, Guidelines of the Congregation’s Sectors/Departments).
On the other hand, a great love for the people entrusted by God to us as beneficiaries,
striving to know more and more about their history, their language, their culture, their
faith (one cannot continue to remain a “foreigner” because of the lifestyle or language
habitually used in community or in prayer).
There is also need for a great love for the Provincial community, knowing that we are
not free agents but members of a community where we can express fraternal and apostolic
communion. If distances are an objective obstacle to growing in this sensitivity, it only
means that we must make a greater effort to open our minds and hearts to communion,
which will save the individual confreres from emotional solitude and from those forms
of a gradual “fading” of our identity as consecrated individuals which are, especially in
the Eastern context, a clear form of counter-witness which does not attract, but repels
potential vocations.
2.2 Summing up
After 120 years of history, the Salesian Middle East Province is the heir and custodian
of many riches and resources; but it is also very much tried by the difficult political,
economic, social, religious and ecclesial situations of the countries in which it lives and
works.
Today it feels particularly called to face the challenge of consolidating its Salesian
charismatic identity, making a serious effort at inculturation, strengthening in the
confreres the sense of belonging to the Provincial community.
From what has been said above, we can consider an effort to have an interpretation of
our history in the light of faith as a precious and timely gift, in order to re-appropriate the
past (convinced that God has acted in it), to understand ourselves better in the present
by facing the current situation as a time of grace, and finally to open our memory, reason
and will to the action of the Spirit that will continue to guide the province in the future.
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3. Called to live in community (1st choice)
It would be an interesting and a very valuable endeavour to carry out this spiritual
interpretation of the entire history of the Province; it would offer us a true and complete
common heritage, as well as a vision (including theological) of the whole course of
events. But of course, the broader and more complex the scope for analysis the more
it presumes a serious study of the various components or stages, if one does not want
to make a superficial interpretation that generates conclusions that have little to do with
historical reality. In our concrete case, there are no conditions for embarking on such an
undertaking.
Another option would be to concentrate on the biographical or hagiographical
side; to focus on the life of an exemplary or important confrere in the history of the
province, and this would be all the more theologically significant if this confrere’s cause
of beatification is underway. In itself this would be a good contribution. The danger that
could arise is to remain within a perspective that is too particular and linked to the
personality and gifts of nature and grace of a single person. Our proposal, which lies
halfway between the two possibilities mentioned, is to concentrate on the history of a
community. Of course, this choice does not automatically overcome any of the dangers:
it can continue to be a very abundant field of investigation with the danger of making
a superficial interpretation, and at the same time a very partial view of things, all the
more so if we consider the distances (geographical, political, social, economic, historical,
ecclesial, pastoral, vocational) that separate one community from another in the Province
of the Middle East.
There are various reasons which urge me to make a choice like this:
A charismatic reason: if living and working together is a fundamental and secure need
for the Salesians to realise their vocation,20 then a meditation on their history that wishes
to deepen their vocational identity should see them as follows: in community.
A reason of coherence: because what is desired is precisely to recover the value of the
“whole” of community life. In fact, because of the sense of Provincial belonging which we
want to help strengthen, the historical and spiritual heritage of a community is everyone’s
heritage.
A reason of planning: if we want to arrive at redeeming the historical and spiritual
heritage of an entire Province in memory, the study of one community is not an
insignificant contribution (it would be the history of one out of thirteen communities
currently erected).
20 Cf. C 49.
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And now the spontaneous question: which community should we carry out the study
on?
4. The Beitgemal community (2nd choice)
While it is true that each of the Salesian presences in the Province, even those that have
been closed or suspended, are a heritage worthy of historical and spiritual study, there
are several reasons that lead me to choose the community at Beitgemal:
The Church and the members of the Province recognise in the Salesian Brother, Simon
Srugi, the confrere who, by allowing himself to be guided by the action of the Spirit, has
responded most generously, faithfully and perseveringly to the call to be permanently
configured to the mind of Christ. This confrere, a most precious gift of God to MOR and
to the entire Salesian family, lived the entirety of his consecrated life, almost 50 years, in
Beitgemal. This is the fundamental reason that prompted me to choose this community.
Beitgemal is one of the works founded by Canon Antonio Belloni before the actual
arrival of the Salesians. Hence, Beitgemal is one of the three communities, together with
Bethlehem and Cremisan, that have existed since the beginning of the Province’s history;
hence it is part of the 120 years of Salesian presence.
Beitgemal is the only Salesian community that enjoys the good fortune of being
custodian of a “holy place” or one otherwise related to New Testament characters. This
gift demands considerable responsibility, but perhaps the main one should be spiritual
growth in line with the memory that we are called to safeguard and bear witness to.
It is well known that the history of Beitgemal is not only linked to the founder of
the Province, Fr Bellone, and the figure of Simon Srugi, but also includes the presence of
exemplary Salesians like Fr Eugenio Bianchi (a great formator and “holy” confrere) and
Fr Mario Rosìn (killed in circumstances very much akin to martyrdom).
An ecclesiastical arbitration is currently underway to define the ownership of the
material assets that once belonged to Fr Antonio Belloni, then Canon of the Latin
Patriarchate of Jerusalem, who became a Salesian and passed on the administration of
all his possessions to the Congregation of the Sons of Don Bosco. This arbitration is
peculiar to the community of Beitgemal. The point is that whatever the outcome, the
work will have to suffer a turning point. So it seems, whatever the outcome, that it is the
most opportune moment to gather in memory all that God has raised up on this land
which was the property of Gamaliel, the site of the tomb of St Stephen the Martyr, and to
which Blessed Michael Rua gave the nickname “house of charity”.
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5. The period from 1891–1958 (3rd choice)
Although we will be offering a summary of the chronicles of the community over its 120
years, as well as statistical data on the Salesians who lived there throughout this period,
it seems more appropriate to restrict the study to the first half of the community’s life.
This first segment can be demarcated from the foundation of the work until the first
closure of the orphanage in 1958 as a consequence of the drastic decrease in pupils and
the prevailing insecurity after the 1948 war.
The period chosen largely coincides with that of the life and work of Simon Srugi,
who lived in Beitgemal first as an aspirant, a novice and then as a Salesian from 1892
until his death in 1943. But it continues until the two events that greatly influenced his
memory: in 1948 when the Muslim population, to whom he dedicated his service as a
nurse and miller, were driven out of their lands and had to flee; and then in 1958 when
the orphanage to which he dedicated his life was closed.
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Chapter Two
The Beitgemal Community 1891–1958
“We have heard with our ears,
O our ancestors have told us what deeds
your performed in their days,
in the days of old:
You with your hands, drove out the nations,
but them you planted;
your afflicted the peoples, but them you set free;
for not by their own sword did they win the land,
nor did their own arm give them victory,
but your right hand, and your arm,
and the light of your countenance,
for you delighted in them”
(Ps 43[44]).
The Salesian community at Beitgemal, in a pleasant location situated on the top of a
hill thirty kilometres west of Jerusalem,21 stands in the middle of am extensive parcel of
land of about 400 hectares.
As far as we know, Beitgemal can be identified with the ancient Christian village of
Kfargamla,22 a village that arose in direct connection with Gamalel’s country estate. He
was the great doctor of the law mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles.23
21 Lat. N. 31°43‘28‘‘ – Log. E. Greenwich 34°58‘49‘‘; alt. 320 m.
22 “Beit” meaning house in Hebrew and Arabic, and “kfar” meaning “village, settlement”.
23 Acts 5:34-42
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In order to get closer to the life of the community at Beitgemal, we will begin with
an historical timeline involving the terms of its Rectors, followed by a summary of the
life and presence of the confreres in the community (clerics, brothers, priests, sick and
elderly confreres). We will then look at one of the most important community problems
which has gone down in history as “the takeover of the Arab confreres”, and finally a
biographical presentation of the most important figures among the confreres who lived
in the community.
1. A history of the community24
The foundation of the Beitgemal house dates back to 1879, when the venerable Canon
Antonio Belloni, after opening a Catholic orphanage in Bethlehem, decided to buy this
vast agricultural property25 that he intended to be a branch of Bethlehem.
In founding Beitgemal, Fr Belloni had a precise and determined aim: to start an
agricultural school in order to extend his charitable work to a larger number of orphans.
He was encouraged to do this by Beitgemal’s great benefactor, the newly converted
English Catholic Marquis Lord Bute, who, in handing him a large sum of money, told
him: “Buy more land with this money and build your agricultural school. Your project
is very good, try to realise it as soon as possible; Palestine is essentially an agricultural
country and needs intelligent and capable farmers.”26
Fr Belloni relied on the production of vines, olives and cereals to maintain and
develop not only the agricultural school but also the orphanage opened in Bethlehem.
A third aim of Fr Belloni’s in buying Beitgemal was to return the place to Christian
worship, as even then a widespread tradition identified Beitgemal with the ancient
Kafargamala where the tomb of St Stephen was supposedly located.
In fact Beitgemal was successively, as far as we know:27
a. Kfargamla: the villa of Gamaliel, the great doctor of law, teacher of Saul (St Paul)
and Stephen (St Stephen the Martyr).
b. Kafargamala: Christian parish where the fabulous discovery of the sepulchre of St
Stephen the Martyr, Gamaliel, Nicodemus and Abibos took place in the 5th century.
24 The data for this number comes from archival sources (Beitgemal Community Archive: ACB), specifically
from the chronicles which consist of: 32 notebooks of detailed chronicles and 4 of summaries of certain
periods.
25 The vast tracts of land that made up the Beitgemal estate were acquired over the course of ten years (1869–1879),
little by little, and as donations from benefactors flowed in. In the end, he succeeded in appropriating land
of about 600 hectares.
26 Cronaca 1869, in ACB, 1869.
27 Cf. Lucian’s Letter. Appendix No. 1.
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It is known that in 415 A.D. a certain priest named Lucianos, the Greek “parish priest”
of a village in Palestine called Kafargamala, sent a letter to the Eastern and Western
Churches in which he joyfully announced the discovery of the tomb of the protomartyr
Stephen, together with that of Nicodemus,28 Rabbi Gamaliel, influential member of the
Sanhedrin and uncle of Nicodemus,29 and the tomb of one of his sons, Abibos.
In 614 Persians from Cosroe destroyed all the churches in Palestine, from the largest
to the smallest, except for the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The church at
Kafargamala too was destroyed, and like so many other historical or biblical sites from
the Old and New Testament, their memory was lost.30
c. Beitgemal: a Muslim village.
In 1869 when Fr Belloni made the first purchases in Beitgemal, the village, decimated
over time by malaria, was reduced to a few habitations and even fewer inhabitants. These
few survivors of the miserable village had the desire to get rid of the place, even at a low
price.
Fr Belloni immediately and tirelessly took care of the reorganisation, enhancement
and administration of the farm, which was in a very poor state.31 In those early years,
a new farming establishment was formed, consisting of a small Christian population of
half a dozen orphans, a few people working in the countryside and building the structure,
and some foreigners. Fr Belloni provided for their spiritual needs.32
The agricultural school officially opened on 10 December 1878, with few resources,
as is usually the case with God’s works. Fr Belloni himself wrote to his benefactors:
After a thousand efforts I finally opened this much desired school on “10 December
1878”. It began modestly: three Daughters of Mary to govern the house, laundry,
infirmary; fifteen pupils and some subordinate employees. Our house was only 14
metres wide and18 metres long. Unexpected help allowed me to continue the work,
so that now we have a house 30 metres long by 14 metres wide, consisting of two
floors. When the work is finished, we will be able to accommodate 30 children as well
as the administrative staff.33
28 Cf. Jn 3.
29 Acts 5:34-39.
30 Bearing in mind that the Persian then Muslim invasions go back to the 7th century, It is not possible to
know with certainty how long the village remained Christian. There are hypotheses that the expulsion of the
Christians took place at the end of the 18th century.
31 Using the services of a man he trusted, called Giuseppe Rabaioli.
32 He established Beitgemal as the residence of a Maronite priest, John Tarad. However, the desired agricultural
school was not established. Rather than in the fields and agricultural subjects, the few young men who were
housed there spent their time learning how to make mother-of-pearl rosary beads. At that time, the industry
of making rosary beads and other objects of piety was beginning in Palestine.
33 A. Belloni, Relazione annuale ai benefattori 1880, in AIMOR, 1880.
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The institute was called St Joseph’s and a statue of him was purchased for the chapel
from 1873.
As early as July 1878, Fr Guglielmo Barberis, an Italian priest belonging to the
Patriarchate of Jerusalem, had taken over the running of the house and the whole
business, under the direction of Fr Belloni, who ordinarily lived at the orphanage in
Bethlehem. Fr Barberis was a capable, active man and an architect. He held his office
for about 4 years.34
Other than the three Daughters of Mary,35 Fr Belloni was assisted by two Maronite
priests, one other priest, and from 1881 two school teachers.
During these years, many construction and renovation works were carried out.36
Ceremonies in the chapel were brightened up with a harmonium, and to encourage them
to work well, a large picture of St Isidore the Farmer, was placed where the young student
farmers in school could see it.
Some of these pupils were also employed as bricklayers’ assistants and given a small
stipend. Already in 1881 there were 26 young people and they spent the September,
October and November holidays in Bethlehem around Canon Belloni. In 1885, however,
when there were 48 boys, they continued to go to Bethlehem for their August and
September holidays, swapping places with orphans from Bethlehem.
After a brief period during which Fr Belloni was forced to personally take up
the administration, Fr Antonio Scanzio, a native of Biella, arrived. It was with great
satisfaction that he managed the school for about 9 years, until May 1891.
During those years many construction works were begun,37 thanks always to the help
of generous benefactors. In addition to the Sisters and some lay staff, two Lay Brothers
from the Holy Family Work, founded by Fr Belloni, worked closely with Fr Antonio
Scanzio.
From the financial records of the time, it can be seen that the pupils of the school
were given a modest payment for their work, so that they would find it easier to meet the
initial needs of the new life they were about to embark on. In those years the number of
34 At the end of March 1881 the Fr Barberis’s term of office ended and he returned to the clergy of the Patriarchate
of Jerusalem. We do not know the reasons for his withdrawal from Canon Belloni’s work. Under the Patriarch,
Archbishop Piavi, he became Chancellor of the Curia. He died in 1905 at the age of 52.
35 An Italian institute founded by a Fr Giacinto.
36 Completion of the main building, erection of the entrance gate, foundations of the stable, the well at Wadi
Bulos, installation of the oven, construction of a new house at the Fatir garden.
37 The henhouse, the pigsty, the dovecote, the laundry, the cobblestone stable, the cemetery, dwellings for the
settlers, a house in Wadi Bulos, roads in the countryside, a small bridge, the courtyard, the Daughters’ house,
a large cistern, the sacristy, etc.
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pupils reached fifty, all of whom were received into the school free of charge, educated,
instructed, fed and clothed.
Beitgemal also functioned as a parish of the Latin Patriarchate for Catholics scattered
around the countryside.38
In June 1891 Fr Scanzio passed on the leadership to Fr Raffaele Pinperni.39 His term
of office was short-lived.
From there one, with the opening of the Salesian community at Beitgemal, we
continue this history with reference to the terms of office of the various Salesian Rectors.
1.1 Varaia Antonio (1892–1894)
(9 sdb, 5 fma, 4 “famigli” or domestics,40 33 pupils)
At the beginning of January 1892 Fr Varaia arrived as the first Salesian Rector of
Beitgemal, helped by 2 clerics and 6 brothers.
Fr Varaia was a man of piety and constant vigilance. He took great care to see to
frequent reception of the sacraments and the decorum of worship. In the village of Rafat,
about 6 kilometres away, there were some twenty or so Catholics who took advantage
of Beitgemal for their religious practices and a Salesian often went to the village to meet
their spiritual needs.
Fr Varaia was not able to do as much as he wished in the development of the farm
and the business, but he always kept to the guidelines that Fr Belloni had laid down,
preserving the various sections as best he could.
An illustrious visit in that first period was the arrival of Msgr Apodia, Vicar of the
Patriarch. On that occasion there was a good number of confirmations of children and
adults.
38 Over that time 17 baptisms were administered, while 7 people were laid to rest in the cemetery.
39 Fr Rafael Pinperni, with commendations from the Patriarch, Propaganda and the Holy See, had been an
apostolic missionary for about 10 years, especially in the diocese of Mexico, collecting abundant spiritual
fruits from souls, as well as abundant alms for Fr Belloni’s work, for which he was the most valid financial
support. But once he had handed it over to the Salesians in January 1892, he went to Italy, and having become
a Salesian, was sent back to America by his superiors, first to Mexico and then to San Francisco in California
as parish priest of the Italian church there.
40 Famigli: a term used by the Salesians in the early days to refer to the lay people (workers or collaborators)
who lived in the community structure and were practically part of it). “Domestics” might be the best English
equivalent, even though sometimes there were both “famigli” and domestics, one group, the former, living
in.
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1.2 Ruggero Corradin (1894–1896)
(9 sdb, 5 fma, 4 domestics, 35 pupils)
Fr Ruggero immediately showed that he was someone very active. He continued to
develop the business side of things on all fronts (with financial aid from Fr Rua, Fr Belloni,
etc). A number of legal issues with immediate neighbours began.
A good speaker with a Roman accent, his preaching and language were found to be
very pleasing.
One important event was the visit by Fr Rua accompanied by Fr Albera and the
Marquis of Villeneuve in 1895. Fr Rua left many written prescriptions for the good
management of the farm, and the Marquis donated a press and an oil mill.
We also find that in this period some 26500 square metres of vineyard were planted.
The erection of the Lourdes grotto in the courtyard of the house, which was blessed by
Fr Rua himself, is worth remembering.
The superiors called Fr Corradin to Turin in October 1896.
1.3 Cartoni Ercoli Luigi (1895–1901)
(11 sdb, 5 fma, 5 domestics, 35 pupils)
Fr Cartoni inherited a small community where, at the beginning, he was the only
priest. There was plenty of work, hands were few and the financial situation not good.41
Given the impossibility of managing the lands, in primis he began to lease it out to others.
He gave thought to divine worship: he decorated the shabby chapel, made a new altar,
confessional and choir stalls; he bought three statues: Mary Help of Christians, St Joseph
and St Aloysius and provided abundant sacred furnishings.
Fr Cantoni was able to bring the “cuscian” affair to a conclusion, or in other words
the property titles divided into pieces as there were former owners, which was a long and
costly affair due to the necessary gratuities or formalities.
In 1899 he returned from Turin with confrere Scavini bringing 19 musical
instruments to set up a band. Meanwhile, 7,500 feet of French vines and several hundred
almond and carob trees were planted in the countryside. In his chronicle notes Fr Cartoni
recorded: 25 conversions (abjurations) of young Greeks who became Catholics, two
young men sent to the novitiate in Cremisan42 and the perpetual profession of Simon
Srugi.
41 43,000 franks in debt.
42 John Morosini and Rumman Spiridione.
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At the end of his term of office in 1901, he was replaced for a few months by Vincenzo
Ponzo.
1.4 Vercauteren Carlo (1902–1907)
(10 sdb, 5 fma, 7 domestics, 33 pupils)
It seems that Fr Vercauteren found Beitgemal in a rather critical situation due to the
lack of agricultural income because of the general lease of land to John Bader for the
insignificant sum of one thousand lire per year.
We have no information about this period. The few records are on the improvement
of the business side of things. There is a list of 15 project works that he carried out. Here
too, it seems, he left the school in a better state than he found it.
In April 1908 there was a second visit by Fr Rua accompanied by the Provincial, Fr
Cardano. On this occasion also, several instructions were issued to the Rector and the
Provincial.
1.5 Gianine Isacco (1908–1914)
(14 sdb, 7 fma, 1 domestic, 30 pupils)
From the few interrupted chronicle notes written at that time, it is clear that during
his six year term, Fr Isaac Gianine was committed to cultivating the spirit of piety,
with frequent confession and Communion, triduums, novenas, etc., as well as zeal and
decorum on feast days and solemnities.
The community provided an almost regular service to Rafat, going there for Mass and
confessions.
The school was given attention and weekly and monthly marks assigned.43 There
was no lack of academies, theatre etc… But the importance given to study was to the
detriment of work and the farm business which was increasingly dilapidated.
In fact, the boys had no more than two and a half hours of work a day, including
the round trip, and many were exempt for one reason or another. Ownership problems
resumed, this time (1908–1912) the quarrel was with the Scerif and the Italian embassy
had to intervene. In 1912, the tensions of the Italo-Turkish war were beginning to be felt,
but apparently there were no major problems.
43 You can still see the excellently kept records. Cf. Registri scolastici 1908-1914, in ACB.
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It needs to be noted that during1913 and 1914, Fr Eugenio Bianchi and Fr Alfredo
Sacchetti, invited by the Superior Chapter with wide powers, introduced various reforms
(the first being the school timetable) and carried out a lot of work. In April 1913 they sent
a report to the Superior Chapter, here is the general judgement:
The Beitgemal Farm has been in a period of increasing decay for several years. (...)
This is not a criticism either of the present staff or of past administrations; it is simply a
statement of fact. Certainly, no Rector has ever lacked the will to do good; indeed, we
must acknowledge the fine initiatives of some and the administrative skills of others.
What Beitgemal lacked was an initial technical directive and a work plan to be
followed by all the administrations. Beitgemal has been a real field of experience
in which the skills and personal initiative of many have been unleashed, leading to
heavy expenditure, which is not always remunerative and in many cases unnecessary;
and each change of personnel, which is unfortunately very frequent, has seen the
introduction of radical reforms and the adoption of diametrically opposed systems to
those previously used. And so we see how some productive activities were abandoned
(...); some cultivated Beitgemal under the farm system, and some under the lease
system; some adopted a mixed system, and others eliminated the farmers. There were
those who planted (...); but there were those who not only abandoned plantations, but
also destroyed them; those in favour of of arboriculture were succeeded by those who
thought differently and destroyed the trees, and if some thought of reforming the
forests and increasing the olive groves with nurseries and new plantations, there were
those who devastated everything, allowing hundreds and hundreds of goats to graze
freely...
It is therefore not surprising that Beitgemal’s income has always been very limited,
minimal compared to the capital invested, and that the farm is in an increasingly
dilapidated state.44
It continues, with a report on the “current state of the various income-providing
activities”, subdivided into three parts: “I. Buildings and construction”,45 “II. Agricultural
capital”46 and “III. Cultivation and lands”.47 They then offered 5 guidelines for a plan to
be carried out over time.
The plan was approved by the Superior Chapter.48 The then Rector Major, Fr Albera,
communicated to the Provincial that the plan presented could not be modified either by
future Rectors or Provincials without special permission from the Superior Chapter.
44 Lettera sullo stato della Colonia Agricola di Beitgemal inviata da don Eugenio Bianchi e Alfredo Sacchetti al
Capitolo Superiore dei Salesiani, in ACB, April 1913.
45 House, stables, wine cellar, mill, thyme distillery, oil mill, granaries and storerooms.
46 Livestock, equipment.
47 Olive grove, vineyard, valleys.
48 This included the sale of the Deiraban land for the sum of F. 27,000, which would serve as capital for the costs
of the reform. Here the land was reduced for the first time, from almost 600 hectares to 500.
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Fr Isaac Gianine finished his term of office in September 1914. At this point the
Chronicle suggests:
General overview of the arrival of the Salesians 1892–1914.49
Rectors 5,
Professed confreres50 varying from 6 to 14 Sisters M.A. from 5 to 7
Domestics living in the house from 4 to 8
Boys taken in, maintained and educated, around 400
Abjurations of young Greeks 70
Vocations 7 (Fr. Auad, Fr. Sciunnar, Fr. Salman, Fr. Spiridion, Hauile, Morosini, Srugi)
Baptisms 23
Confirmations 28
Easter communions. 80
Sunday communions 45
Daily communions from 25 to 35
Weddings 6
Burials 17
1.6 Bianchi Eugenio (1914–1926)
(12 sdb, from 6 to 0 then again 5 fma, 14 domestics including those living in, 40 pupils)
Fr Bianchi began as Rector in September 1914. It was a difficult time. World War I
broke out in August. It was necessary to suspend all non-agricultural work and just solve
the problem of existence.
Until Italy entered the war, there were no major difficulties or harassment. Therefore
it was decided to start school in mid-October 1914 with 38 pupils. The school was
reorganised as an agricultural school of the first grade and five hours of work were
introduced in two parts, morning and evening, for all young people without exception.
Early in 1915 circumstances meant the FMA left for Italy and Alexandria.51 Towards
early August the Rector Major, Fr Albera, ordered Italian Salesians to leave Palestine for
Alexandria, but the Turkish government, having given them all their passports and when
they were already in Jaffa, refused to allow them to embark.52
From this month of August 1915 until 17 November 1917, the day on which the
Turkish troops abandoned Beitgemal, it was an interminable series of events, of
difficulties, of struggles to save the people and the structure from Turkish rapacity.
We succeeded to a great extent, and the help of God and Mary Help of Christians was
50 The number of confreres, sisters and domestics is for each year. The rest make up the sum total.
51 The Italian Consul foresaw that Italy too would soon enter the war and hastily ordered their departure.
52 Italy had already declared war on Austria and on 23 August went to war with the Turks.
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visible. During this period, in spite of many requisitions, thefts and arbitrary taxes,
Beitgemal was able to support not only its own staff and pupils, but also those of other
houses in Palestine, including the young people from the Bethlehem Orphanage who
took refuge here in 1916.53
On 23 August 1915, while the Italian Salesians were in Jaffa and prevented from
leaving for Alexandria, the Turkish army invaded Beitgemal, and under armed escort
all the local staff and young people set off for Ramleh and remained prisoners for several
days. In the meantime, a real plundering took place, and when the Salesians returned
by order of the Jerusalem authorities, they found money, furniture, cereals, animals, etc.
missing.
Despite frequent abuses of authority by the Turkish government and military, the
school year began regularly in October 1915. That year, the young people impressed by
the events behaved very well.
In January 1916, Fr Sacchetti, fed up with the constant violence, managed, with
perseverance and much effort, to obtain a charter from the military governor stating that
no one had the right to commit abuses and arbitrariness in a charitable institution such as
Beitgemal. This written charter was very useful in silencing and even encouraging some
ill-intentioned people to leave.
In June 1916, the orphanage in Bethlehem having been occupied by Turkish troops,
Beitgemal welcomed 10 confreres and 20 pupils. The refectories were converted into
dormitories and the sisters’ premises were used for the rest. In all there were 59 young
people and 34 Salesians and domestics.
But the abuses gradually started up once again, the most serious being the cutting
down of the small forest to provide wood for the railways. And the worst came on 27
August when the police took all the pupils away to the Turkish orphanage in Jerusalem,
and with them came school furniture, beds, machines, tools, school supplies, livestock,
cereals, food, etc. A good handful of pupils managed to escape during the move. A small
group of pupils managed to escape on the journey.
And amidst many calamities a ray of sunshine. In September 1915, a segment
of mosaic was found while the boys’ courtyard was being extended. This is how the
Dominican Maurice Gisler came to be called. Here is how the chronicle describes it:
24 September 1915. Fr Maurizio Gisler arrives with Fr Eigman. He wanted to see
the mosaic found in the boys’ courtyard. Excavations began with much enthusiasm,
and having discovered the mosaic in one of the places already known, namely to the
left of the latrines, it is a true masterpiece of art. They proceeded further and found
53 Riassunto Cronaca Beitgemal 1915-1917, in ACB, 1915-1917.
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the bases of several columns which gave the dimension of a side aisle. The Diaconicon
and signs of a central nave and apse were later found. The wonder, not to say emotion,
reached its peak when under the mosaic a beautiful tomb with a staircase cut into the
rock was discovered. The priest made a survey of everything and then covered up the
excavations so as not to attract attention. He promised to make a conscientious study,
expressing the conviction that we were in the presence of the primitive sepulchre of
St Stephen the Protomartyr.54
New orphans arrived, along with those who fled from the Turks and some who
continued to flee.55 But Turkish arbitrariness was never lacking either. To give just one
example: in 1916, the Turkish government harvested the olives and took all the produce,
but the best part came in February 1917 when they wanted to force people to pay a tithe,
as a tax to the state, of that harvest...
In the meantime, the Patriarch and Rector Major intervened on the issues of rites, the
Arabic catechism and freedom of confession.56
In May, 12 confreres from Cremisan were transferred to Beitgemal. We read in a note
following this:
The year is not good for agriculture, We have no threshing machine or livestock, the
mill works very little because there is no money. Our situation is rather critical due
to the increase in personnel, but there is no shortage of necessities and the help of
Providence is tangible.57
In July, confrere Bormida was put in charge of reproducing the mosaic that was
discovered and did so with love and skill. While doing this work he discovered the
mutilated inscription corresponding to the centre of the church. Two weeks later, Fr
Gisler wrote to the Rector congratulating him for Bormida’s work and declaring that the
issue of Capergamala could be resolved in favour of Beitgemal.
But on 3 September Bormida was arrested by the police and taken to Bethlehem.
The houses of Bethlehem, Cremisan and Beitgemal were isolated and, in the meantime,
meticulous searches were carried out. They wanted at all costs to find traces of a wireless
telegraph of which Bormida was the chief operator. Bormida was taken to the prison in
Jerusalem and then condemned to exile because he had confessed that before the war he
had been conducting simple school experiments in wireless telegraphy.
54 Cronaca 1915, in ACB, 24 September 1915.
55 Cf.Cronaca 1916,in ACB, 19 December 1916: The Provincial arrived with young Farid Asaf who broke his
leg while escaping from a window of the Turkish orphanage in Jerusalem.
56 They asked that the Holy See’s decree of 5 March 1913, which clarified all the difficulties in the matter, be
followed.
57 Cronaca 1917, in ACB, 7 June 1917
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The most distressing case was that this situation was provoked by a series of
accusations against the Italian confreres made by the Arab confreres in Bethlehem before
the Turkish authorities.
On 21 September the Governor of Jerusalem called on the Salesians superiors to give
account as to: 1. Why Arab Salesians were not allowed to use their mother tongue, 2. Why
school was being conducted at Beitgemal without Government permission.
In response, two days later a letter was sent to the Governor, signed by all the
Beitgemal staff, Arab and German, proving that the accusations made against the Italian
superiors were unfounded.
On 20 October, the Spanish Consul announced that the Governor was not interested
in the accusations made against the Italian Salesians, saying that these were internal
matters, but the Consul could not save Bormida from being a victim of his own naive
sincerity.
On 10 November, the German-Turkish army was seriously defeated, and on 12, 13, 14
and 15 November, the soldiers who had previously come to taunt the community, were
now hungry and wounded, begging for help, although there were also those who came
with threats. They were all offered bread, olives and plenty of vegetables to eat, and they
left more peacefully.
On 16 November a battalion arrived. On the 17th came a visit from about twenty
senior Turkish and German officers, They left and several cavalry units arrived. They
confronted the British army, but the latter’s artillery gave them an advantage over the
Turks, who were forced to retreat.
Towards evening, the Rector was told that the troops had withdrawn during the night.
The officers, but especially the Commander,58 greeted the Salesian community warmly.
One of the officers confessed that some hours earlier, the Governor of Jerusalem had
telephoned and ordered that the Italian Salesians at Beitgemal be arrested, but that the
Commander did not want to do so, saying: “these are people working for humanity. Let’s
leave them in peace.”59
But things did not go so well for the other communities. In fact, on 26 November,
news arrived that Frs Rosìn (Bethlehem Community) and Zanchetta (Cremisan
Community) had come to Beitgemal in search of flour (only a critical situation could
drive them to such a reckless act in those days) and had been arrested by retreating
Turkish soldiers and taken into exile, accused of espionage, for having been found in a
58 To whom he had given food and linen.
59 Cronaca 1917, in ACB, 17 November 1917.
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war zone. The other confreres at Cremisan and Bethlehem were arrested on 6 December
and deported on the 7th (one day before the British entered Jerusalem).
The news of the confreres’ journey into exile was discouraging, and even worse was
the confirmation of Bro. Bormida’s death in Nablus.
From the beginning of January 1918, work began to reorganise the school, receiving
35 boys, including those who had returned from the Turkish Orphanage.60 With much
effort, normality was resumed; although now it was the German confreres who were
threatened with exile, but the superiors manage to avoid it.
The war left great wounds on the economic level in the Salesian communities of the
Holy Land, but the most painful was the division among the confreres. Even if Beitgemal
was not the focus of the “question of the Arab confreres”, there were repercussions of it
there.
1918. The year has been extremely difficult not only for financial reasons but
especially for reasons of internal order. The Provincial Fr Sutera and the Rector Fr
Bianchi have gone through terrible times. But it is all over. Deo Gratias!61
At the beginning of 1919 there was an extraordinary visitation with full powers by
Fr Peter Ricaldone, to deal with “the question of the Arab confreres” and economic
problems. For the latter Fr Ricaldone left a precise set of instructions to be followed.
Fr Eugenio Bianchi’s second term was marked by a slow economic recovery, by
the organised work carried out and also because it enjoyed the goodwill of the British
government and some aid from the Italian government.
Much more lively was the resumption of educative and pastoral activities. The school
revived very well under Fr Eugenio’s leadership. During the six-year period several
agricultural competitions were held, obtaining numerous prizes and diplomas. The
number of pupils was around 48, each year 7 or 8 received a diploma, and in the last
year (1926) certificates were given for specialised courses in grafting and motoculture.
But the brightest aspect was the amazement caused by the re-discovery of the
“sepulchre”62 of St Stephen. Specialists (Dominicans and Jesuits) had had lively debates on
60 A few days after the expulsion of the Turks they went to Latrun with the hope of recovering what had been
seized. But the Turk responsible had sent everything away days before and what he could not take away was
destroyed.
61 Riassunto Cronaca Beitgemal 1918, in ACB, 1919.
62 Today it is known that the crypt thought to be the tomb of St Stephen was in fact no more than a part of
Gamaliel’s Villa; the real tomb, however, according to archaeological studies by Fr Andrea Strus, is in the
grounds of Beitgemal a few metres away. In the autumn of 1999, Fr Andrea Strus, a Polish Salesian and
professor at the Salesian Pontifical University (UPS) in Rome, who died prematurely in June 2005, began
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the issue, but each time the other hypotheses became more obscure, and the identification
of Beitgemal with the Kafargamala of Lucian’s letter became more convincing.
And so it was that Fr Bianchi, in 1923, proposed founding the “Pious Work of Stephen
for spreading Christian forgiveness”. Here are the statutes:
Statutes of the Pious Work of St Stephen Protomartyr
At the Sepulchre of St Stephen and Saints Gamaliel, Nicodemus and Abibon, recently
discovered in the Catholic Orphanage of Beitgemal (Palestine), the Pious Work of St
Stephen is founded in honour of the glorious Protomartyr who heroically imitated
the Divine Master in the practice of charity, forgiving his own killers.
Purpose: The aim of the Pious Work is to implore from Saint Stephen, and to spread
among the Christian people, the full practice of charity, even towards enemies,
to extinguish the flame of hatred still alive in poor humanity, both Christian and
unbelievers, becoming a centre of prayers and good works at the very tomb of the
Protomartyr. Prayers are said daily by Catholic and schismatic orphans educated in
piety and work by the Sons of the venerable D. Bosco; good works benefit them and
other Muslim orphans gathered and educated in the same institute.63
Fr Bianchi sent a letter to the Pope dated 20 May, and this was handed over by Fr
Sacchetti in a private audience on 2 June. On 9 the Pope, through his Secretary of State,
expressed how pleased he was with this initiative, approved and blessed the Work and
enriched it with indulgences requested on behalf of members.
On 3 August the Patriarch of Jerusalem also blessed the Association. And from that
day on, there was an annual commemoration of the “Work of St Stephen” that took place
on 3 August.64
Also in 1923, a concrete statue of Mary Help of Christians was donated and placed
on top of the tower.
archaeological excavations at a location called Jiljil, also on the Beitgemal estate, about 300 metres from our
house.
The remains of a round structure were found, which was ultimately used as a wine press. From the beginning,
however, it should not have been so, because the structure was very well executed and with precise Byzantine
measurements.
Indeed, Fr Strus believed he had found in this round structure (because Stephen in Greek means crown) the
monument that John Bishop of Jerusalem, had had built at Kfargamla to preserve the relics of St Stephen
when his body was brought to Jerusalem. Cf. A. Strus, Bet gemal: dalle “prime dimore” in Terra Santa agli
onori dell’altare nel duomo di Pisa, Pisa, Pisa, 2004.
63 Libro di registro della «Pia Opera di Stefano per la diffusione del perdono cristiano», in ACB, 1923, 1-2.
64 From 1924 to 1954 there were 26,424 enrolments.
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1.7 Rosìn Mario (1926–1929)
(11 sdb, 5 fma, 4 domestics and teachers, 45 pupils)
In 1926 the Rector Major Fr Philip Rinaldi, having become aware of the initiative of
the Work of St Stephen and the desire to rebuild the ‘martyrium’, published the following
message:
I praise the proposal… we too must have our Shrine of Saint Stephen in Palestine.
It will be dedicated in a special way to Christian Forgiveness. It is my hope that all
confreres will contribute to the building of the Martyrium by promoting the idea and
gathering offerings.65
These words contributed greatly to the flow of donations for this purpose. The work
proceeded at a good pace. And on 3 August 1928 the crypt was blessed.
For its part, the school received a new impetus with the arrival of Fr Giovanni
Fergnani as Prefect of Studies, who promoted school competitions, academies and
dramatic performances.
The service offered by the mill, as well as the infirmary, was administered by Bro.
Simon Srugi and was appreciated also by the school and nearby communities.
In February 1929, a small printing press arrived. Almost all of the writings on the
Stephenine question were published there.
1.8 Villa Giovanni (1929–1931)
(11 sdb, 7 fma, 6 lay people, 41 pupils)
In October 1929 Fr Bianchi underwent a painful operation; it was six months before
he could return to the house. In November, the contractor Gaspere Maltese, who was in
charge of building the Martyrium, left suddenly, leaving the work incomplete and with
some debts that were paid by the community pro bono pacis.
In January the foundation stone was laid for a clinic and a school for young Muslims
of poor families living in Beitgemal. The solemn blessing of the Martyrium took place on
3 August 1930 given by Archbishop Barlassina in the presence of representatives from
almost all the religious orders.
In December 1930 the St Joseph’s Sodality was established with eleven members
chosen by the Rector; the President was Brother Srugi. In the last days of December the
65 F. Rinaldi, Le prove indirette a favore del sepolcro di santo Stefano, in “Bolletino Salesiano”, 54 (1930), 6.
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community was busy following the illness of Fr Eugenio Bianchi, which resulted in his
death on 11th January 1931.
1.9 Sacchetti Alfredo (1931–1937)
(13 sdb, 6 fma, from 8 to 1 lay person, 44 pupils)
Fr Sacchetti began his term of office on 26 August 1931; together with him the
community struggled to consolidate a climate of concord and understanding, but this
was not always possible.
Fr Sacchetti was famous for his administrative ability, and there were many problems
he resolved in a masterful way. Despite this, the house ended up in the red every year as
usual.
In the meantime, the school continued its ordinary life: a good educational service,
difficulties in agricultural management, progress in the reconstruction of the Martyrium
of St Stephen, participation in the sacraments was promoted and abjurations were
recorded, the house was visited by many people who congratulated it on the beauty of
nature and on the charitable service provided there; malaria attacked the Salesians, pupils
and peasants.
Gradually, the environment of political tension was worsening, insecurity was
growing, economic difficulties were increasing and, unfortunately, so was tension in the
community.
1.10 Rosìn Mario (1937–1938)
(12 sdb, 6 fma, 2 lay people, 40 pupils, 20 workers)
The financial situation of the work was difficult, in fact the year 1937 ended in a big
deficit. The political situation was very delicate: the Arabs demanded independence but
the British could grant it to satisfy the Jews.
Even within the community at Beitgemal the political conditions had damaged
fraternal relations; if not openly, beneath the ashes, two parties were latent among the
confreres.
The apostolic and educational activities were going well (school, catechism, triduums,
walks, theatre, work), in spite of the problems that occurring one after the other this year.
Beitgemal was visited many times by thieves (11 times), but also by armed bandits
who demanded money and clothes (5 times), by those who out of malice cut down trees in
the woods (1 time) and, as if that were not enough, even police patrols visited Beitgemal,
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stopping for lunch at the convent’s expense (4 times). Then there were the problems of
ownership (because of the continuous disputes, including legal ones, with neighbours)
and in addition, the presence of Bedouins, not always welcome, on the estate.
The British government, interested in the meteorological study carried out in
Beitgemal, installed a direct line telephone to the weather station in Artuf at the end
of December 1937.
On 8 May, the brigand Albattat, terror of the districts of Ramleh and Hebron that
were not far from Beitgemal, was killed.
On 17 June 4 armed brigands broke into the house: they wanted the Rector. They
demanded 100 Palestinian lire; when they didn’t get it they slapped Fr Rosìn in the face
(much to the fright of the young people and the whole house). Taken to the prefect’s office,
they managed to take whatever was in the drawers: 40 piastres.
On 23 June, the Rector, who was returning from hearing the confessions of young
people and the Sisters at Rafat was stoned to death. A great sorrow for all. Circumstances
demanded silence on the fact.
1.11 Candiani Antonio (1938–1940)
(13 sdb, 6 fma, 2 lay people, 40 pupils)
Fr Candiani began his term of office by noting the sad state the house had been left
in materially, financially and morally.
His account was not consoling: malaria had attacked boys, the sisters, confreres.
HEALTH SITUATION – The whole region of Beitgemal was, is and unfortunately will
be a hundred percent infected by malaria! The improvements made by reforestation,
and the channelling of water, the cleaning of canals and the preventive treatment of
quinine are nothing compared to what is needed to reduce the terrible plague that
affects the natives and foreigners living in this area! This year all our young people,
all the Confreres and all the Sisters paid their tribute to malaria, reducing their bodies
to skeletons and my purse to nothing to pay for doctors and medicines.66
66 Riassunto Cronaca Beitgemal 1939, in ACB, 30 September 1939. Even if, in principle, what Fr Candiani says
is true - there are other documents that confirm what he writes – to honour the truth, two facts must be
taken into account. The first is that it was certainly a special year: the area had certainly been malarial for a
long time, which is why Fr Belloni managed to buy up the whole of the old Muslim village, and it is certain
that the health work had been going on for more than 50 years. They were not “doing things in vain” (as Fr
Candiani said). The fact is that that year was exceptional because of the excessive rainfall (with an annual
average of 350 mm that year, it reached 673 mm) and the temperature, with very low minimums and very
high maximums. The second fact is that Fr Candiani’s editorial style is very close to the style of the prophet
Jeremiah, and there is no doubt that he had plenty of reasons to complain, but it is also evident - as can be
seen in several documents - that he was not ready to manage such a badly affected work.
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In November, aircraft strafed the vicinity of the house. Rebel Arabs continued to visit
the community from time to time, provoking gunfire with the British. The British made
thorough searches of the entire house. The community was often visited by the British
during the day, and by Arab rebels at night, and one had to put on a good face for all of
them.
The political circumstances were still uncertain, dangerous and very damaging to
trade, food transport and the safety of travellers. The economic crisis continued, and
heavy rain flooded the fields: in March 1939 there was no flour or wheat to make bread.
The leguminous crops were also totally lost due to the excessive rainfall, and then the
subsequent drought and squalls. The community got by thanks to wheat and olives, which
gave a sufficiently abundant harvest.
Despite all that, the educative and pastoral mission went ahead. The house chronicle
records all the typical activities of Salesian education. But apparently the results were not
very satisfactory:
SCHOLASTIC SITUATION – Also disastrous. With forty orphans aged 10 to 15 with
both obvious and hidden physical and moral defects, some as ignorant of their own
language as they are of their own relatives, they cannot render even the minimum
required to give them any diploma that would declare them fit for any office. There is
too little time to study the three languages of Arabic, English and Italian, and along
with at least a smattering of agriculture. Any curriculum, no matter how reduced,
would be too difficult for them, given the little or complete lack of basic information
needed to enter the Institute.67
In fact, Fr Rosìn had expressed his concern about the poor result in the catechism
exam. A year later, assessing the results of the same exam, Fr Candiani used the
expression: “less than mediocre”.
The community division was perhaps the most delicate. It was demarcated by two
groups, one the local confreres (at least the majority) and the other the missionaries, or
perhaps in this case it would be more correct to say “the foreigners”:
MORAL SITUATION – Unfortunately, I was unable to neutralise the malign
influence of the two parties in the House, which is why we suffer greatly from the
misunderstandings that are inevitable in a large House like Beitgemal.68
In November 1940 Fr Frey (German) was taken away by British police. The Rector
managed to get him back a short time later. But again in May 1941 Fr Frey was taken to
the Austrian hospice. And between 11th and 12th June all the Italian confreres and sisters
67 Riassunto Cronaca Beitgemal 1939, in ACB, 30 September 1939.
68 Riassunto Cronaca Beitgemal 1939, in ACB, 30 September 1939.
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were arrested and taken to Bethlehem, leaving two confreres in the house to stay with the
young people.69
At this point the chronicle says:
“NB: From 13 June to 31 October 1940 no chronicle can be found in the house because
of the war and internment of the confreres. (During Fr Calis’s term of office).”
1.12 López Rafael Arturo (1940–1943)
(5 sdb, 0 fma, 30 pupils)
Fr López arrived in November 1940. During this three-year period the number of
confreres was somewhat variable, Salesians coming and going; one can see that the
Provincial did all he could to respond to the different needs of the communities, with the
few confreres free. In fact they tried to offer a home and school to the group of orphans
entrusted to them by the Lord despite malaria and the war. During these years, in addition
to the visits of British police and soldiers, there were frequent visits from Polish soldiers
and occasionally from Swiss soldiers.
In April 1941, police investigated Bro. George Haruni and some workers for weapons.
They found old weapons and ammunition at Bro. Haruni’s place. In August, after the court
verdict, a large sum had to be paid to have him freed.
In June 1942 Polish soldiers insisted on turning Beitgemal into a school for
themselves. In the end,they carried out a lot of military manoeuvres on the estate, but
they did not manage to take over the school building, as was feared. The drawback was
that they often invited themselves to lunch or dinner.
In February 1943 they some of the Italians were released and Fr Candiani returned
to the community. After a few months, June 1943, a short respite: Fr Botto, Fr Frey, Bro.
Milani and Bro. Fusi were released... but taken back in August.
In the meantime, a lot of energy had to be invested in trying to resolve the legal
problems of ownership: neighbours in the village of Zachariah claimed that the area was
theirs, but in fact the community had entrusted them with this farmland for them to use.
In July 1943 the Rector was brought to Bethlehem due to illness, and would die there
on 8 October.
69 The reference is to George Haruni (Lebanese), Roumman Spiridione (Lebanese), because Bro. Milani (Syrian)
and Bro. Simon Srugi (Palestinian) were arrested just the same. Srugi was set free just a fortnight later when
the Turks were convinced that he was a Palestinian.
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1.13 Laiolo Luigi (1943–1946)
(There is no data on the members of the community during this troubled period.)
Once the sisters and some of the confreres had been released, the work could resume
its normal rhythm. That is, with the normality that wartime permits. In fact, the military
manoeuvres around the house continued.
On 27 November 1943 Bro. Srugi died. The Muslim workers from the house and the
surrounding area attended the funeral, and there were many eulogies in the crypt. It was
a great loss for the community, in truth he was a saintly confrere.
In May 1944 all the confreres were finally released, and so the community was fully
re-established after three years of doubt and confusion.
Meanwhile, the phenomenon of visits to the community became disproportionate.
Many visits, really very many, and many of them inappropriate (soldiers and British
and Arab political representatives arriving just at lunchtime or dinnertime, and often
they were forced to offer them accommodation). This phenomenon of visits was so
accentuated that it further impoverished the economy of the house and became one of
the main points to be dealt with in the Provincial visitations.
It was almost inevitable that this set of circumstances would have an influence on
the running of the school. Although there were only a few cases, the fact is that some
boys tried to escape from the school and some actually succeeded. It is reported in the
chronicle that in October 1945 there was discontent among the boys because of much
work and little study. In the face of all this, the confreres in charge did all they could to
maintain the spirit of Valdocco in the circumstances in which they were forced to live.
1.14 Ubezzi Bartolomeo (1946–1949)
(15 sdb, 6 fma, 40 pupils)
Nothing much new appeared to happen in 1946 and 1947. everything continued more
or less along the same lines, both the good and the bad (thefts, undesired visits, property
issues, difficulties in the countryside and hence financial difficulties, etc.).
But perhaps it is appropriate to focus for a moment on the educational work that
was carried out in those years; to focus on what helped the children entrusted by Divine
Providence to grow up as good Christians and upright citizens:
The rhythm of time was marked by two types of events: the first was the needs
of agricultural work and the second was the calendar of religious festivities. Here is a
summary of the latter:
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October: Triduum for the beginning of the year.
November: All Saints and commemoration of the Faithful Departed.
December: Novena and feast of the Immaculate Conception, Christmas, St Stephen.
January: Epiphany, St Francis de Sales, Don Bosco.
February: Adoration (as well as games for Carnival)
March: St Joseph.
April: Retreat for the boys, Easter.
May: St Joseph the Worker, Bl. Mother Mazzarello, Novena and feast of Mary Help of
Christians, Pentecost.
June: Corpus Christi, Sacred Heart (sometimes celebrated together), St Aloysius
(often postponed to the end of the school year), Sts Peter and Paul.
July: Feast of gratitude (always coinciding with the end of the school year, and at time
with the external feast of St Aloysius)
August: Feast of the Work of St Stephen, the Assumption, Mary Queen of Palestine
(in August there were very few children left, usually those who were totally orphaned)
To these celebrations should be added the Rector’s name day and any special
occasions such as the first mass of new priests, anniversaries of priesthood and religious
profession. These were valuable occasions for devoutly approaching the sacraments,
having fun, playing some sport, having cinema and maybe even eating snacks. The
festivities usually ended with academies; one only has to look at the programmes of these
evenings to understand their educational quality.
Other pastoral activities were the celebrations of the sacraments of Christian
initiation: baptism, confirmation and communion.
Thus, the Chronicle also records the triduums or novenas that the pupils made
praying for the gift of rain, and often the prayers were answered in a few days.
Another activity that became more and more frequent (almost fortnightly) was the
prize outing for good behaviour and performance. With time, an outing for the winners
of the catechetical competition was also instituted, which – it seems – was carried out
more seriously every year.
With the arrival of 1948 this semi-normal rhythm was severely disrupted. In January,
a confrere miraculously escaped a bomb explosion, shootings were heard in the vicinity
of Beitgemal leaving dead and wounded, thefts increased, and the Arabs became more
overbearing and threatening.
In May, the British mandate ended and war broke out around Beitgemal. In June,
Egyptian troops encircled the school. But in July the Jews regained control of the
neighbouring areas. Egyptians and Palestinians settled in the Beitgemal grounds and each
time there were more and more demands on services (water, bread, kitchen, stable, rooms,
terrace). Once a confrere refused to fix rifles and a fine was imposed on him.
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In August, the grape harvest could not be carried out. The boys were forced to suspend
their holidays and stay in internment. On 21 September artillery shells were fired at the
house in Beitgemal, and on 15 October more shells were fire (about twenty over the
house), and a pupil was wounded in the arm. On the 17th five more shells were fired
around the church.
On 18 October, the young people were unable to go outside due to the constant
shelling. One of the shells fell on the roof of the sisters’ church. Around ten o’clock the
Arabs began to retreat. The officers who were in the community decided to withdraw and
left around midnight with the families of the Arab farmers living in Beitgemal. Around
two o’clock in the morning, the Jews arrived and, fearing that there were Arab soldiers in
the compound, they made all the staff go out in front of the house with their hands raised.
There was also a shoot-out at the sisters’ convent as they opened the door. Everyone
was rounded up in their workshop. The rooms were all opened, registered and robbed
of valuables. There were 79 people in the sisters’ convent and they remained prisoners
there for a fortnight. The Jews took away the two cars and a thousand litres of wine from
the cellar. The church, however, which was the most exposed, remained unharmed and
closed, and they did not even try to enter.
All the Arabs from neighbouring towns had fled. Israeli troops settled in some parts of
the community creating the usual problems. They gave orders not to communicate with
wandering Arabs, not to leave the property boundaries and young people at work must
always be accompanied by an Italian. The soldiers left in March 1949, in the meantime
they offered minimal compensation (4,899 pounds sterling).
And so, with the creation of the State of Israel, a new phase had begun, one that in
many respects was more difficult.
But in this time of need, the old friendship with the convent at Rafat became more
intense. The Vincentians and the Minister for Forestry were very kind to the work at
Beitgemal.
1.15 Barbieri Giovanni (1950–1954)
(11 sdb, 5 fma, 3 lay people, pupils from 32 to 13)
Fr Barbieri was appointed the Rector of Beitgemal in the summer of 1949, but he had
to wait some months before he could cross the frontiers to get there and take up his new
role; he would only manage to arrive there on 5 January.
Beitgemal, located fully in the State of Israel, was faced with new and unexpected
difficulties. Salesian activity in its various forms that were tried and had gone ahead with
so much effort, ended up being reduced to a minimum. The confreres, led by the Rector,
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adapted themselves to heavy agricultural work to make up for the lack of labour, in an
attempt to save what could be saved.
The families of the Muslim farmers who lived and worked in Beitgemal had fled in
1948, and the work had to cope with the demands of cultivation on its own, and the Rafat
monastery was in the same situation, which explains the frequent exchanges of aid.
Not only the workers but also the number of pupils began to diminish. In fact, among
the first of the laborious tasks Fr Barberi had to tackle was the paperwork for getting 5
of the boys out of Israel.70 Then they saw more such paperwork. For a while new boys
continued to arrive but fewer each year. In just four years the number was reduced from
32 to 13 pupils.
All in all, educational activities seemed to be carried out quite well. Grades
for conduct and application tended to be good. The Salesians also felt proud of
the catechetical competition. The fact remains, however, that study time was short,
objectively speaking. While Salesian agricultural schools provided 16 hours of work in
the countryside, in Beitgemal they did 26; then at the most critical times for night-time
surveillance the youngsters had to help the Salesians keep guard. The Salesians thought
up different strategies to relieve the young people’s fatigue, but in times of crisis…
1.16 Dal Maso Eligio (1956–1958)
(10 sdb, 5 fma, 1 lay person, from 13 to 0 pupils)
Under the new government, almost all the Arabs had fled, and the number of pupils
steadily decreased until 1957 when the school was practically closed. Neither the war nor
its consequences were over.
In 1957, the Provincial and his Council took the decision to temporarily close the
boarding school due to the conditions to which Beitgemal was subjected, especially the
constant obstacles posed by the Israeli authorities. But the main reason for this decision
was that the pupils were too exposed to military fire since they were constantly holding
manoeuvres on the property where they were working.
1.17 From 1958–2011
The historical outline stops here at the first closure of the orphanage, as part of our
analysis. But in the appendices71 of this work it continues from 1958 until today to
70 One can guess that it was to reunite them with families who had fled to Syria or Lebanon.
71 Cf. Historical survey of Beitgemal 1958–2011. Appendix No. 3.
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indicate that this reading of history in the light of faith is not only about a “glorious”
past but can and must continue, convinced that God unceasingly reveals and educates in
the story of every day.
2. Members of the community
Now that we have described the sequence of what happened, let us focus on individuals.
It is appropriate to begin by getting an idea of the numerical data on the members
of the community, so that these will help to size up what is described later. Then we will
move on to a more detailed analysis of the different existential circumstances of those
who made up the Beitgemal community.
The numerical data72 are offered in relation to three concentric periods that can be
useful for better contextualising the reflection. These are:
During the life of Salesian Simon Srugi: 1894–1943.
During the first half of the community history explored in this paper: 1891–1958.
During the 120-year history of the community: 1891–2011.
72 The data is substantially based on what is found in the different yearly editions of the “Elenco dei Salesiani di
Don Bosco”. Cf. SALESIAN HEADQUARTERS, Annuario. Salesiani di don Bosco, Direzione generale Opere
Don Bosco, Rome, S.D.B., 1890>2011.
But, this source offers us a twofold difficulty: The first is that not all the information found there is 100%
correct and the second is a special disorder in the years 1941-1945 (due to the Second World War) so much
so that for 1944-1945 the lists were not even published.
In the case of any errors scattered here and there, we have taken the liberty of correcting those that we
were completely certain from other sources in the Elenco. But in cases where we could not clarify doubts we
have reported the Information as it is written in the Elenco. This opens up a small margin of error for us in
providing for these doubtful cases.
With respect to the gaps left by the confusion of information caused by the war between 1941 and 1945, we
can say that we have tried to fill them with what we have from other sources. But for the sake of historical
honesty, it must be said that even here there remains a certain margin of error; especially considering that,
preoccupied with surviving the war, the registers are not well kept; these years coincide with the arrest of the
Italian Salesians in the house at Bethlehem and consequently with the mobility to which the Provincial had
to subject the few free Salesians in order to respond to the emerging needs of the various works.
Despite this, the data give us a context very close to what happened historically.
For more detailed information than is claimed Cf. List of confreres living at Beitgemal (1892–2011) in chronological
order according to the first year of their stay in the community (Appendix No. 5); Cf. List of confreres living at
Beitgemal (1892–2011) in alphabetical order (Appendix No. 6); Cf. List of confreres living at Beitgemal who
then left the Congregation (Appendix No. 7); Cf. List of confreres living at Beitgemal who then changed Province
(Appendix No. 8); Cf.List of confreres living at Beitgemal who died in MOR (Appendix No. 9).
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Simon Srugi
1894–1943
Period chosen
1891–1958
Entire history
1891–2011
No. of
113
Salesians
Provenance Local confreres 28
Missionaries 85
Time spent 1 year 31
in the
2 years 22
community 3 years 12
4-6 years 16
7-10 years 16
11-20 years 8
21-30 years 4
31-54 years 4
Mode of
presence
Novices and clerics 20
Clerics-priests 14
Brothers 45
Priests 34 (+14)
Conclusion Non-Salesians 26
To other Province 37
Died in MOR 50
141
Local confreres 30
Missionaries 111
1 year 37
2 years 24
3 years 17
4-6 years 20
7-10 years 18
11-20 years 12
21-30 years 7
31-54 years 6
Novices and clerics 23
Clerics-priests 17
Brothers 54
Priests 47 (+17)
Non-Salesians 31
To other Province 46
Died in MOR 64
166
Local confreres 31
Missionaries 135
1 year 42
2 years 28
3 years 20
4-6 years 23
7-10 years 21
11-20 years 16
21-30 years 8
31-54 years 8
Novices and clerics 27
Clerics-priests 18
Brothers 60
Priests 61 (+18)
Non-Salesians 32
To other Province 52
Died in MOR 72
Belonging to MOR 10
The following are some considerations that emerge from these figures, which can help
us to better understand the reality of the community:
The confreres in the period studied (1881–1958) were in greater numbers and more
mobilised than the subsequent periods (1958–2011). It is enough to think that in 52 years
of difference only 25 more confreres lived in Beitgemal, while in a similar period those
who lived with Simon Srugi were 113.
The ratio of local confreres to missionaries during Simon Srugi’s lifetime was 1 to 3
(25%). Then the flow of Palestinian vocations and of those local confreres who could live
and work in the new state of Israel was drastically halted. In fact, after the death of Simon
Srugi only three local confreres worked in Beitgemal and for a relatively short period of
time.
The confreres who remained in the community for less than three years were always
around 60% or 50%. These numbers were swelled by the formation system in Fr Rua’s
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early period, in which the apostolic communities welcomed aspirants, novices and clerics
into their midst, and not into special communities as was gradually decided.
After 1958 there was a proportional increase in the number of confreres who lived in
the community for medium and long periods.
As a whole, the community was made up of 17% novices and clerics, 36% brothers and
47% priest confreres. But the relationship between priests and brothers/clerics has been
reversed throughout history. It is enough to think that the first community was made up
of one priest and the rest of the clerics and brothers (and this is how it continued for a
long time) until today, when there are no young formandi and the community is made
up of one brother and five priests.
The number of members who left the congregation, which in the whole of the history
amounts to 20%, is highly influenced by the presence of the formandi in the community,
the majority at the beginning and almost none in the later period.
Those transferred to other provinces are 32% of the total, more or less distributed
throughout the history of the community. The reasons for the transfers are different: first
of all one has to consider that, especially at the beginning, the obediences were very free
and mostly centralised in Turin. It was therefore almost normal practice to pass with a
certain ease from one province to another according to the new needs (and in this sense
one finds many Salesians who, with an authentic spirit of generosity and obedience, did
not question the orders given by their superiors); another group are those who asked
to return home after a period of living together and working under very demanding
conditions; others were forced to return for health reasons; finally a certain number were
changed in order to resolve difficult situations.
We find throughout the history, in a more or less stable form, the 45% who have spent
their entire lives in the Province.
141 confreres have lived in the Beitgemal community from 1891 to 1958, in very
different existential situations, although they have built up the history of the one
community.
But the unity of the community does not aim at uniformity or, even worse, anonymity,
but tends to express together the multiplicity of gifts that the Spirit bestows on each
member of the community.
To use an image from the musical world, one could say that the community is like
a large orchestra: while the individual instruments play accurately their own part,
the orchestra as a whole reproduces a symphonic masterpiece; or more exactly it
reproduces the masterpiece composed by God from all eternity for that particular
community. And while he continues to call other musicians to play in this living
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orchestra, the Lord renews their repertory of musical compositions, adapting them
from time to time to the possibilities and characteristics of the conductors.73
It is this multiplicity of gifts offered by the Spirit we want to view more closely.
2.1 Young confreres: aspirants, novices and clerics
Initial formation is undoubtedly a period of preparation, a journey of maturity, a process
of discernment and of increasing assumption of responsibility to reach the Salesian
spiritual maturity required for perpetual profession. It is a dialogue between the confrere
and the Congregation which aims to ascertain his suitability and maturity in view of his
definitive incorporation.
Other articles of the Constitutions make this clear: “For the Salesian the time of initial
formation is not so much a period of marking time as already one of work and holiness. It
is a time of dialogue between God, whose initiative calls him and leads him forward and
his own freedom as he gradually assumes responsibility for his own formation.”74 Now
let us see how all this plays out in the Beitgemal community.
2.1.1 The data
Simon Srugi
1894–1943
N° of
Total 34
Salesians Clerics only 20
Novices and Clerics-priests 14
clerics
Provenance Local confreres 9
Missionaries 25
Time spent
in the
community
1-3 years 20
4-6 years 7
7-10 years 3
11-30 years 3
31-54 years 1
Period chosen
1891–1958
Total 40
Clerics only 23
Clerics-priests 17
Local confreres 9
Missionaries 31
1-3 years 24
4-6 years 7
7-10 years 3
11-30 years 4
31-54 years 2
Entire history
1891–2011
Total 45
Clerics only 27
Clerics-priests18
Local confreres 10
Missionaries 35
1-3 years 29
4-6 years 7
7-10 years 3
11-30 years 4
31-54 years 2
73 Project of Life of the Salesians of Don Bosco, a guide to reading the Salesian Constitutions, Rome, S.D.B., 1986,
336.
74 C 105
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Simon Srugi
1894–1943
Period chosen
1891–1958
Entire history
1891–2011
Conclusion Non-Salesians 10
To other Province 14
Died in MOR 10
Non-Salesians 10
To other Province 17
Died in MOR 11
Belong to MOR 2
Non-Salesians 12
To other Province 18
Died in MOR 11
Belong to MOR 4
2.1.2 Apostolic life
“The family spirit and the dynamic drive which is characteristic of our mission among
young people make particularly important the contribution of young Salesians in the
apostolate.”75 So valid that in the first two decades the community was basically made up
of young clerics and brothers.
The community chronicles tell of the abundant activity that these clerics proposed
to reproduce the spirit of Valdocco (prayers, songs, theatres, walks, sports, feast days),
along with commitments undertaken with true generosity and responsibility. The
climate generated was so proactive that at that time 7 of the young people responded
enthusiastically to the Salesian vocation. Twelve-year-old John Morosin spent time at
Beitgemal; in this connection he recounts: “on 27 February 1897, I got on so well and
became so attached to the Salesian environment that I decided to stay with Don Bosco
forever.”76
Clerics from the later period who lived in Beitgemal as practical trainees also left their
mark:
“The three Cl. worked hard, despite the difficulty of the language; they were given
special Arabic lessons. Their presence is very positive”,77 and again “The cl. left the
House for good to begin his theological studies. During the many years he spent in
Beitgemal he always showed great commitment in his office of assistant and teacher,
as well as a great love for work, including material work. All the confreres view his
departure with regret and pray for his success. In his place will come another.”78
75 C 46.
76 Lettera mortuaria di D.Giovanni Morosin, in AIMOR, June 1963.
77 Cronaca 1938, in ACB, 31 August 1938.
78 Cronaca 1953, in ACB, 7 October 1953
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2.1.3 Spiritual characteristics79
As the Chronicle shows, the environment (economic, political, apostolic, community) in
Beitgemal was never easy. It is true that some young confreres left the Congregation or
changed Provinces as a natural development of their own discernment processes; but it
is also undeniable that the various difficult situations sometimes served as a catalyst for
these cases, at the same time demonstrating the virtue and readiness for formation of
those who persevered:
Beitgemal, particularly in those days, was a very poor house and knew much
deprivation, to the point that the practical trainee clerics sent there fled. In the opinion
of the Province itself, the less intelligent and qualified were sent there.80
From the histories of the 10 clerics who later became priests and then died while
belonging to the Province, there are judgements of a repetitive nature such as: “he gave
himself with zeal to correspond to the divine call”, “he shows progress in the life of
perfection”, “piety, simplicity, candour of spirit”, “he gave shining examples of work”,
“spirit of sacrifice”, “charity towards his neighbour”.
Cleric Thomas Farah deserves particular mention.81 He came from Galilee and
excelled among his companions for his consistent study, sincere piety and amiable
dealings. A beautiful soul. While his superiors were beginning to entertain the fondest
hopes for him because of the truly admirable gifts of his mind and heart, he was assailed
by a terrible disease which, after two years of unheard-of suffering, brought him to the
grave. During the two years of forced inaction he sought to copy the example of Fr Andrea
Beltrami, of whose biography he was a passionate reader. These were difficult times for
the communities in Palestine.82 The war had also entered the Salesian communities, and
a painful separation existed between the confreres. Thomas offered himself as a victim to
the Lord so that agreement and peace might shine forth again.83
79 Cf. Lettere mortuarie di: Almagian Giovanni, Byrne Kevin, Sarchis Pietro, Cantoni Ercole Luigi, Orio Moreno
Luis, Tahat Fathallah, Frey Rodolfo, Morosini Giovanni, Galizzi Pietro, Katan (Catan) Pietro, Dal Maso Eligio,
Botto Alessandro, in ACB.
80 Summ., in Positio super virtutibus. Beatificationis et Canonizaionis Servi Dei Simoneis Srugi Laici Professi
Societatis Salesianae, Rome, 1988, 289.
81 To tell the truth, the story of the cleric Thomas Farah is more connected to Cremisan than to Beitgemal. But
here is his testimony, which is nonetheless very significant and also in danger of being forgotten.
82 Cf. The following point “the question of the Arab confreres”, p. 61.
83 Cf. Lettera mortuaria di Ch. Farah Tommaso, in AIMOR, April 1919.
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2.2 Brothers
Salesian Brothers are the lay members of the Congregation. Their lay qualification gives
a concrete and complementary aspect to their vocation: “The Salesian brother brings to
every field of education and pastoral activity the specific qualities of his lay status which
make him in a particular way a witness to God’s Kingdom in the world, close as he is to
the young and to the working realities of life.”84
The Middle East Province has an abundance of splendid brothers in its history.85 Let
us now focus on those who lived at Beitgemal.
2.2.1 Data
Simon Srugi
1894–1943
Period chosen
1891–1958
Entire history
1891–2011
No. of
45
Brothers
Novices and
clerics
Provenance Local confreres 12
Missionaries 33
Time spent
in the
community
1-3 years 24
4-6 years 3
7-10 years 8
11-30 years 7
31-54 years 3
Conclusion Non-Salesians 14
To other Province 13
Died in MOR 18
54
Local confreres 13
Missionaries 41
1-3 years 29
4-6 years 4
7-10 years 9
11-30 years 9
31-54 years 3
Non-Salesians 17
To other Province 13
Died in MOR 24
60
Local confreres 13
Missionaries 47
1-3 years 31
4-6 years 4
7-10 years 10
11-30 years 10
31-54 years 4
Non-Salesians 17
To other Province 15
Died in MOR 27
Belong to MOR 1
2.2.2 Apostolic life
Many apostolic activities carried out by the brothers are common to the Salesian
tradition: teaching catechism, assisting children, teaching cultural subjects (such as
languages) or technical subjects (such as agriculture).
84 C 45.
85 Cf. E. Forti, Fedeli a Don Bosco in Terra Santa, Leuman, Elle Di Ci, 1988.
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But almost always these activities were carried out together with particular jobs,
in which they ended up specialising: for many brothers the countryside was their field
of work and sanctification, but also the care of animals, the infirmary, the mill, the
bakery, construction, help in the kitchen, the wardrobe, reception, the sacristy, supplies,
accounting, economics...
Most important of all is to recognise the way in which these activities were carried
out and the spirit in which they were done. The brothers often had roles that were not so
visible, but they always carried them out with precision and fidelity, attracting not only
the admiration and respect of the students and workers, most of whom were Muslims,
but also establishing relations of sincere cordiality with them, because of the gentleness
and goodness with which they knew how to treat everyone, without distinction of age or
religion. Some even held special posts: mayor-peace mediator in Muslim villages (George
Haruni). There are a number of young people, Jewish and Muslim, who decided to be
baptised because of their friendship with Salesian brothers.
2.2.3 Spiritual characteristics86
The community has truly beautiful testimonies. Among the most common elements are
a passion for work, austerity, sacrifice (serene in adapting to uncomfortable schedules),
obedience and humility. The brothers in Beitgemal were scrupulous in carrying out their
duties and being accountable for them; they had a deep sense of responsibility combined
with a spirit of sacrifice to the fullest extent.
As genuine sons of Don Bosco they knew how to combine work with prayer. Their
faith was simple and strong; renewed through meditation, spiritual reading and pious
practices. Very regular in community life, they drew the strength to nourish their many
activities from the sacraments, even at the cost of serious sacrifices.
They were cordial and pleasant in human relationships. They were distinguished
by their simplicity, attentive to their confreres. They were elements of unity in the
community: combining astuteness, friendliness and affectionate respect...
They had the gift of making friends with those they met, not through erudition but
by the witness of their lives. Because of their various roles they were also well known in
non-Christian circles, where they were not ashamed to profess their faith with simplicity,
86 Cf. Lettere mortuarie di: Deferraris Giovanni, Tesio Marco, Pogliotti Luigi, Zanchetta Giacomo, Bonamino
Giovanni Battista, Flesia Giovanni, Liverani Giuseppe, Baccaro Antonio, Hauila Giuseppe, Haruni Giorgio,
Biagi Nicola, Kren Giuseppe, Ghezzi Luigi, Aloi Giuseppe, Zodo Fulvio, Prometti Giovanni, Fusi Giuseppe,
Chiaudano Nicola, Combaz Naim, Castelli Giovanni, in AIMOR.
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arousing acceptance and sympathy everywhere. They were held in the highest esteem by
Muslim peasants.
2.3 Priests
“The Salesian priest or deacon brings to the common work of promoting human
development and of educating in the faith the specific quality of his ministry, which
makes him a sign of Christ the Good Shepherd, especially by preaching the Gospel and
administering the sacraments.”87 The tasks carried out by the Salesian priests in Beitgemal
are many, but there is a common denominator: carrying out their tasks with a priestly
heart, being heralds of the Word, sanctifiers and animators of the community.
2.3.1 Data
Simon Srugi
1894–1943
Period chosen
1891–1958
Entire history
1891–2011
No. of
Salesians
clerics and
priests
Provenance
Time spent
in the
community
Conclusion
Total 48
Clerics-priests 14
Priests 34
Local confreres 11
Missionaries 37
1-3 years 21
4-6 years 11
7-10 years 8
11-30 years 6
31-54 years 2
Non-Salesians 3
To other Province 16
Died in MOR 29
Total 64
Clerics-priests 17
Priests 47
Local confreres 12
Missionaries 52
1-3 years 29
4-6 years 13
7-10 years 9
11-30 years 10
31-54 years 3
Non-Salesians 3
To other Province 20
Died in MOR 39
Belong to MOR 2
Total 79
Clerics-priests 18
Priests 61
Local confreres 12
Missionaries 67
1-3 years 34
4-6 years 17
7-10 years 10
11-30 years 14
31-54 years 3
Non-Salesians 3
To other Province 26
Died in MOR 42
Belong to MOR 7
87 C 45.
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2.3.2 Apostolic life
The priests in Beitgemal served as rectors, prefects, economers (bursars), teachers
(especially in languages and music), assistants, group leaders and farm managers.
Prominent among them were great scholars, confessors and preachers. The priests at
Beitgemal exercised their pastoral ministry with the Christian communities of the
surrounding area and especially with the religious communities of Rafat; as well as with
the confreres and sisters, the young people and the workers of the house.
Many of them are remembered as true apostles who gave generously to do good
works, with humility and simplicity, with a big heart and a lot of kindness.
Their strong faith and ardent charity made them generous men, ready to serve their
neighbour, to the point of total self-denial. They gave themselves completely to their
educational mission: sincerely loving the young and doing their best especially for the
poorest.
This spirit of hard work was nourished by a deep piety, which sometimes had
expressions of evangelical simplicity, and was associated with a great love of poverty.
Many of them showed themselves to be self-sacrificing workers (especially on the farm)
in the hard and trying times of their work.
Periods of transition, especially when they were prolonged, always brought unforeseen
difficulties and problems and tested the faith, ability and patience of those with the
greatest responsibility. Throughout the different periods and trials, there was no lack of
temptation to abandon all this.
The Rector Major, Fr Ricaldone, replied in 1939 to a letter venting his feelings at a
moment of discouragement: “If I didn’t know you, I would almost be tempted to pull
your ears, but since I know that you are a very good son, I will limit myself to saying
to you: my dear friend, stay put where the Lord wants you, and carry your cross with
generosity. If you have debts you can say the Our Father with greater fervour, repeating
with faith: Dimitte nobis debita nostra!”88
And many of them remained to carry the cross as far as their physical and spiritual
strength would allow them... and some, with the Lord’s help, wore themselves out to the
end for the young people and the poor of Beitgemal.
88 Lettera di D. Ricaldone a D. Antonio Candiani, in ACB, 12 September 1939.
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2.3.3 Spiritual characteristics89
We have insisted enough on the difficult situations experienced in Beitgemal; in fact, as
the data show, three of them left the priesthood, several asked for a change of community
and even of province, and others moved for various needs, obedience or health reasons.
A not inconsiderable group of priests remained faithful in the fulfilment of their
mission. They had to embody the typical features of priestly ministry in the conditions
imposed by the particular Salesian apostolate in Beitgemal.
Among them we find great scholars and other rather simple confreres, energetic and
strong men and others not so robust, some very active and enterprising and others with a
rather calmer approach. But in the midst of these and other legitimate differences, some
common traits can be identified:
Sensitivity for the poor, especially orphans, with a generous hard-working approach
to evangelise, educate and serve them. An unquenchable zeal to do good to souls
through the exercise of the priestly ministry in community animation, preaching and
sanctification (through the sacraments) of the portion of God’s people entrusted to them.
As good Salesians they were aware that the da mihi animas cannot be disconnected
from the cetera tolle; from what is frequently found to be heroic sacrifice, an attitude of
obedience, regularity in the performance of one’s duty, love of work, patience and austere
mortification.
Among the most edifying examples offered by these men was their ability to allow
themselves to be challenged in their spiritual formation by the different circumstances
they faced.
They demonstrated a sense of what was real and the ability to grasp the essential in
everything and in every circumstance. Hence their willingness to do good was faithfully
upheld in God’s name, paying personally for their witness to the values of the kingdom;
learning, from what affected them directly, that good is not obtained without sacrifice.
In Beitgemal we find Salesians with a lively piety, faithful to community practices
and regular in their personal conversations with Jesus, full of affectionate, profound and
sometimes mystical expressions.
Their very keen devotion to Mary experienced in Beitgemal was manifested in daily
life and also in the great feasts. Thus, devotion to St Joseph was also very much heartfelt.
89 Cf. Lettere mortuarie di: Varaia Antonio, Testori Luigi, Latour Giacomo, Fergnani Giovanni, Nahas Giovanni,
Pasquali Eugenio, Ponzo Vincenzo, Vercauteren Carlo, Lopez Rafael Arturo, Gosslar Karl, Sacchetti Alfredo,
Bonatti Costantino, Marsegaglia Pietro, Calis Joseph, Luserna Sebastiano, Villa Giovanni, Laiolo Luigi, Auad
Atalla, Candiani Antonio, Galliani Giuseppe, Barbieri Giovanni, Spiridione Roumman, Reggio Antonio, Ubezzi
Bartolomeo, Ponzetti Giulio, Sciueri Khalil, Morra Michelangelo, in AIMOR.
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Contact with diversity (ritual, religious, cultural) led many of them to develop the
typically Salesian attitudes of openness and cordiality. In fact, many of them showed
that they had received the gift of sympathy from the Holy Spirit and had committed
themselves to modelling their relational skills on the gentleness of Christ’s heart.
Finally, the priesthood of many of the confreres at Beitgemal was marked by their
closeness to the memory of Saint Stephen and their work of extending Christian
forgiveness, honouring this memory (in addition to devotional dissemination) with their
testimonies of Christian indulgence in the daily routine of life, but also through heroic
gestures.
2.4 Elderly and sick confreres
“For a Salesian accustomed to exuberant activity, serious illness and the infirmities of old
age are particularly painful trials which form an appeal to a more living faith and a new
kind of fidelity, and they call for a deepening of vocation itself.”90
At Beitgemal, in addition to the natural cycle of life and the physical weakening
produced by hardships and difficult situations, the confreres often had to contend with
malaria, which in several cases led to their death, or otherwise left serious repercussions
on their health.
In the mortuary letter accounts, one can identify several perspectives that challenge
us:
From the confreres’ own experience, these hard times were their own Kairos (time
of grace) in spiritual formation and growth. By daily renewing the offering of their lives
marked by pain, they united themselves to the redemptive passion of the Lord. Certainly,
for many, it was a call to relaunch their Salesian soul.
From the intimate attitude of offering oneself in Christ to the Father for the salvation
of the world, explicit prayers spontaneously sprang up, occupying a privileged place in
the long hours of patience of the suffering Salesians, in union with their confreres and on
behalf of the young people. During these periods of illness, the confreres gave witness to
their spiritual formation, their love for God and for the Congregation.
Many times they did not want to disturb anyone and looked after themselves, without
expressing any complaint or recrimination against one or other problem, accepting their
situation from the hands of God.
The testimonies of their efforts to continue, even in reduced activity, to contribute to
the apostolic work of the Congregation are beautiful:
90 Cf. Project of Life of the Salesians, 341
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He had the hard-working temperament of the kind forged through contact with the
first generation of Salesians. He could never stand still. When he was induced to take
a rest, his parting words were always the same: “if you need me, call me!”91
Always alert, always at his post, despite his age and ailments, with an admirable spirit
of sacrifice he spent his last energies unsparingly.92
But the Kairos was also for the younger confreres who had an opportunity to express
their love and gratitude for their predecessors, so many times fathers and teachers in the
faith, and to surround them with care and affection:
His Via Crucis was to see himself the recipient of special care and attention when
his desire was to take some of the burden off the community. But the confreres were
certain that the sufferings he endured and offered to God ensured the effectiveness of
the common mission.93
3. The question of the Arab confreres
During the First World War a problem of relationships that had existed from the
beginning in the Middle East Province became far more prominent. The epicentre of the
problem was experienced in Bethlehem, but was not without its repercussions in the rest
of the communities, especially in Beitgemal. It was a question of overcoming feelings of
nationalism between foreign missionaries and local vocations, the tension of planting the
original charism and a serious effort of inculturation... Problems and difficulties that can
be exacerbated by occasional circumstances. The world conflagration ended up fuelling
pre-existing tensions, even without intending to do so, within the communities in which
Italian, French, Belgian, German, Spanish and, of course, Arab confreres lived...
Archival sources clearly reveal this moment of conflict.
The conflict gradually began to be expressed more openly after the works in Palestine
were placed under the Italian Protectorate in 1904. What aroused the reaction of the
Arab confreres, apart from the easily understandable general reasons, was the fact
that in the Orphanages Italian had come to prevail over Arabic in all expressions of
life, even in religious and liturgical matters.
Then when Italy went to war against the Central Empires in 1915, all the Italians,
many of whom were Rectors of Salesian houses or held positions of responsibility
there, had to leave their posts and houses and were gathered together in Jaffa. All
the positions were then taken over by the Arab confreres, who joyfully welcomed the
hour of their own affirmation in the houses, where until now they had been somewhat
91 Lettera mortuaria di Fergnani Giovanni, in AIMOR, December 1932.
92 Lettera mortuaria di Laiolo Luigi, in AIMOR, December 1959.
93 Lettera mortuaria di Casagrande Ferdinando, in AIMOR, August 1977.
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subordinate. However, against all expectations, at the last moment the Ottoman
government prevented the Italian confreres from leaving and going to Egypt. Indeed,
they were sent back to the Salesian houses, where they resumed the positions and
responsibilities they had had before.
It was the occasion that set off a strong stance against the Italians and, by reflex, against
their superiors.94
The clearest forms in which it manifested itself were: restrictions on the use of Arabic
in favour of Italian and French; accusations of discrimination between Europeans and
Arabs in the distribution of posts and offices; persistent dualism, in some communities,
between native and European personnel; suspicion of betrayal by some Arab Salesians as
the cause of the imprisonment of Italian Salesians; open disobedience to Italian superiors,
and voluntary imprisonment of the main ones responsible in the Bethlehem orphanage.
Due to the imprudence of some the conflict became public, with the intervention of
ecclesiastical and even civil authorities, and invitations (amid reticence and resistance)
from the superiors to come to Turin to clarify matters. The matter seemed so difficult that
the Provincial Council, in its meeting of 2 May 1918, suggested to the Superior Chapter, as
the only possible solution, “dismissal from the Congregation of six from Bethlehem [...].
If this punishment is not to be extended to all, at least it should be applied to the leaders
[...]. The others are to be sent out of the Middle East Province and separated from each
other.”95 And all this after the war had just ended, while the houses were half functioning
and the Salesians were struggling to heal their wounds. An extraordinary visitation from
Turin was indispensable. Here is the report drawn up by Fr Ceria, the Congregation’s
historian:
Once the war was over, an internal disturbance persisted in the Salesian houses in
Palestine, which had distant origins and did not cease to cause serious disturbances.
Nationalism, ignited after the expulsion of the Sultan by the Young Turks and fed by
them incessantly, inflamed the Arabs, even those who had become Salesians when
Fr Belloni had incorporated his Palestinian work into Don Bosco’s Congregation.
Nothing foments dissension, rivalry and parties worse than political passion. In our
case, the new Turkish government’s antipathy towards Europeans served to stoke the
fire continuously, especially against Italians. The result was an unbearable state of
affairs, which was now known outside and scandalised the population. As soon as it
was possible to travel, Fr Albera, desirous of restoring peace, sent Fr Peter Ricaldone
94 Informatio, in Positio super virtutibus. Beatificationis et Canonizaionis Servi Dei Simoneis Srugi Laici Professi
Societatis Salesianae, Rome, 1988, 120-121.
95 Most important archival sources on the subject: Corrisp. con D. Albera, D. Ricaldone e D. Gusmano di D. Sutera
(some of these letters form a Memoriale) in ASC 31.22 MO, from Sept. 1912 to Dec. 1919; Memorandum di D.
E. Bianchi a D. Ricaldone, in ASC 31.22 MO, 22.10.1918. And scattered: Corrisp. Con D. Albera a D. Ricaldone
di D. Arena, Simonetti, Vercauteren, Villa G., in ASC 31.22 MO, 1918.
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Simon Srugi and the Beitgemal Community
the Professional Schools Councillor on the Superior Chapter, to Palestine with full
powers. Peter Ricaldone, who landed in Asia on 17 December 1918, stayed for more
than two months in the land of Jesus until, with his tact marked by charity and
prudence, he seemed to have brought things back to normal. This was not, however,
achieved all at once, nor as soon as it had seemed it would need to happen; but once
it was achieved once it was never again disturbed.96
If only Fr Ceria’s rather wishful judgement had been true when he stated that
normality “once it was achieved was never again disturbed”. Certainly things did not
reach such a scandalous point again; but history shows that the wound had not healed (it
is enough to remember what was said about the community problems in 1939).
At this point it seems appropriate to emphasise some questions that remain open:
had the problem really been solved? To what extent had a sound response been given to
the causes of the problem, rather than resolving only the consequences? Was the method
of resolution the right one? What consequences did it bring? (In other words: was peace
really achieved? And at what price?). Do these facts come to mind in the living memory
of the Province or have they been forgotten? (Keep in mind the adage: those who do not
know history are forced to repeat it). Are we remembering what happened with Christian
maturity, or at most are we passing on urban legends that feed the reasons for continuing
to divide us and offend one another? How much has been learned from the experience?
Is there the readiness to reinterpret the events in the light of faith, and to come out
of that memory more grown up? This is precisely the formative-spiritual work that an
interpretation in the light of faith must help to tackle.
In 1918, the affair ended with several local Salesians requesting and being accepted
by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem to join the diocesan clergy;97 the others, spread across
various houses, some in Italian provinces, were reintegrated into Salesian life.
4. Salesian representatives
It is well known that the history of Beitgemal is closely related to the experiences of
great Salesians who have lived in this work and have admirably manifested their radical
following of Christ while there.
Notwithstanding the above description, it is now worth highlighting the profile of
those figures who have shaped the face of the Beitgemal community. These are Fr Antonio
Belloni, Bro. Angelo Bormida, Fr Eugenio Bianchi and Fr Mario Rosìn. Obviously the
96 E. Ceria, Annali IV, Turin, Edizione Internazionale, 1951, 68-69.
97 Corrisp. Con D. Albera, lett. di D. Sutera, in ASC 31.22 MO, 9.10.1919; Corrisp. Con Capitoli., lett. di D. Sutera
a D. Gusmano, in ASC 31.22 MO, 19.01.1919.
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lives of these great Salesians are also accompanied by that of Simon Srugi, but he will be
presented in detail in chapter three.
4.1 Fr Antonio Belloni98
Canon Antonio Belloni, known asAbuliatama (Father of the Orphans of Palestine), was
born in Borgo Sant’Agata (Italy) on 20th August 1831 to Giuseppe Belloni and Paola
Armelio. After his studies in the diocesan seminary of Albenga, feeling called by the Lord
to the missions, he entered Brignole Sale College in Genoa in 1855. He was ordained a
priest there on 19 December 1857. From the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide he
was destined for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and filled with holy enthusiasm he
left on 22 April 1859.
Sent to the seminary at Betgiala by Patriarch Valerga, while he zealously attended
to the education and instruction of clerics, seeing the painful difficulties in which many
Christian and non-Christian boys found themselves and moved by the living Spirit of the
Lord, he opened a school in a small house near the seminary and shortly afterwards, on
20 May 1863, a small orphanage with the son of a poor blind man entrusted to him by
Providence.
As the little house in Betgiala was no longer sufficient, on 1 July 1864, the orphanage
was moved to Bethlehem, where, thanks to the zeal of Fr Belloni and the help of illustrious
benefactors, it developed into one of the most distinguished charitable institutions in
Palestine.
The great desire to collect as many abandoned young people as possible moved him
to open a large school in Beitgemal in 1878, another in Cremisan in 1886, and to prepare
the school in Nazareth which was then inaugurated in 1896. Only the Lord knows how
much effort and pain all these works cost him, for whose glory alone Fr Belloni worked.
Fr Belloni sought above all to give his children a religious education. He insisted a
great deal on catechism: to this end he set up competitions, awarded prizes to the
winners.
Daily Mass, the recitation of morning and evening prayers and of the Holy Rosary,
visits to the Blessed Sacrament, Confession and Communion done well were the
basis of his educational system. Nothing concerned him more than making these
young people good children of God, instilling in them a delicate sense of Christian
morality.99
98 Cf.Lettera mortuaria di D. Antonio Belloni, in AIMOR, August 1903; G. Shalhub, Abuliatama, il “Padre
degli orfani” nel paese di Gesù, il can. A. Belloni, Torino, SEI, 1955; J. Borrego, I salesiani nel Medio Oriente
(pro-manuscripto), Bethlehem, in AIMOR, 1983.
99 G. Shalhub, Abuliatama, 38.
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As well as providing material aid, Providence also sent him excellent co-workers.
In order to provide the necessary personnel for the orphanages, the Lord inspired him
to found the work of the Brothers of the Holy Family, which began on the Feast of the
Patronage of St Joseph 1874.
Fr Belloni was a great admirer of Don Bosco, whose initiatives he mirrored, and on
9 November 1890, with the full consent of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide,
he entrusted all his work to the Salesian Congregation; and he himself became a Salesian,
making his profession on 7 July 1893.
This merger, which had so consoled the good Canon’s heart because it ensured the
perpetuity of his work, was opposed by the local ecclesiastical authorities. Fr Belloni
remained, with all his conviction, close to the Salesians. And when the Salesians, unable
to accept the conditions that Patriarch Piavi wanted to impose, declared themselves ready
to leave, Fr Belloni showed himself ready to leave with them. His title as Canon was
withdrawn, and the good priest saw in that act only a more perfect adhesion to the
religious life he had generously embraced. But this conviction of Fr Belloni’s led the
Patriarch to accept the presence of the Salesians.
This was not the first opposition that Fr Belloni had to endure. Since 1863 he had had
to fight against adversaries of all kinds: ecclesiastical, religious, civil; with people from
Bethlehem themselves in whose midst he found himself, as they could not bear the fact
that orphans should be taught the work of making pious items. He had struggled with
poverty and had also patiently endured the abandonment of some of his co-workers and
the ingratitude of some of his benefactors. Trusting in God, he had always continued
to spread good by the handful. He was always generous with everyone, and the same
hand that protected the orphan was able to lift up many other unfortunates too. Charity,
according to him, had to have no boundaries or barriers.
After becoming a Salesian, he continued to direct the Bethlehem Orphanage, but he
was always concerned about the needs of the other houses in Palestine.
Afflicted by a long illness, diabetes, which he endured with Christian resignation, he
was surrounded by his confreres and orphans, to whom he addressed the most tender
words and left the most affectionate memories, and from his dear Bethlehem Orphanage
he flew to Heaven on the evening of 9 August 1903.
4.2 Angelo Bormida100
Son of Giacomo Bormida and Anna Biglia, Angelo was born in Turin on 14 January 1870.
He entered the Oratory on 10 November 1881 and from there, moved by generosity, he
100 Cf. Lettera mortuaria di Angelo Bormida, in AIMOR December 1917; E. Forti, Fedeli a don Bosco in Terra
Santa, 21-40.
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went to San Benigno Canavese where he began his novitiate on 20 November 1888 and
then made his religious profession on 18 November 1890. A man of strong intentions,
he immediately made his perpetual profession and asked to go on mission, where he
showed his attachment to the Congregation for which he lavished all the fine qualities of
his commitment.
He was a very skilled master carpenter and bandmaster, a man of versatile genius
and always successful in whatever task was entrusted to him by his superiors. After his
religious profession he was sent for some time to Sarrià (Spain) and when he felt the need
for a skilled carpenter for the Technical School in Bethlehem, he was ready to leave for
Palestine.
He arrived in Bethlehem on 8 October 1891 and remained there for 25 years, starting
his usual occupations with the same commitment every year. He was never able to
return home and did not leave Bethlehem until the beginning of 1916 during the First
World War. Together with the other Italian confreres, he had to go to Beitgemal, as the
Orphanage in Bethlehem had been occupied by Turkish soldiers. He stayed in Beitgemal
for about two years and, with his enterprising spirit, tried in every way to overcome the
boredom of forced residence. This is how he became a credit to the Congregation and
the Church because, under the direction of the illustrious Benedictine, Father Maurice
Gisler, he undertook the excavations that led to the discovery of the primitive sepulchre
of the protomartyr Saint Stephen in Beitgemal (Kafargamala).
He was the first sad victim of the war. Already targeted by the Turkish authorities in
Bethlehem due to ill-intentioned insinuations by his Salesian confreres of Arab origin,
he was also persecuted in the Beitgemal place of retreat, where he was arrested on 4
September 1917 on the charge of having a wireless telegraphy device that did not exist.
Taken to the prisons in Bethlehem and Jerusalem, he was supposed to be deported
to Damascus, but he fell ill with typhus and, unable to withstand the mistreatment and
fatigue of the journey, was left dying in Nablus prison. He was transferred to the Turkish
military hospital.
Recognised as a Christian and religious by the Sisters of St Joseph, he had time
to receive the sacraments, to recount the events of his imprisonment and to show his
gratitude to the good sisters. He died forgiving his persecutors on 11 December 1917.
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4.3 Eugenio Bianchi101
The son of Natale and Rosa Bizzocchi, Eugenio was born in Coriano (Rimini) on 26
March 1853. He studied at the Seminary in Rimini and was ordained a priest on 17 March
1877.
He was chaplain in a church in Rimini when, in 1880, he decided on a trip to the main
cities in Italy and bought a round trip train ticket for the purpose. Turin was to be the
first stop, because he wanted to see Don Bosco, whom he already knew by reputation.
What the saint said to him is not known; the fact is that Fr Bianchi abandoned the idea
of travelling and went to Lanzo to make the retreat, at the end of which he had irrevocably
decided to remain with Don Bosco.
He returned home for a few days, and on 4 October 1880 he presented himself at the
Oratory, and on the 13th of the same month he began his Novitiate at San Benigno. He
made his perpetual vows on 4 October 1881 and remained in that house for five years,
where he did a bit of everything, as he said, but in reality we know that he effectively
assisted and even replaced Fr Giulio Barberis in his care and formation of the young
novices.
In fact, when the novitiate house for clerics opened in Foglizzo, Don Bosco himself
sent Fr Eugenio as the Rector. He remained there until 1897, lavishing the most assiduous
care on more than a thousand young men, and all of them kept alive in their hearts
the memory of his fatherly kindness, which in many cases was also as tender as a
mother. He sympathised with youth and demanded only the little that each one was
capable of. Fr Eugenio Bianchi formed a legion of talented Salesians in Foglizzo who then
spread all over the world. Among the novices he initiated into Salesian life were: Blessed
Louis Variara, Blessed Augustus Czartoryski, Venerable Andrea Beltrami and Venerable
Vincent Cimati.
On the evening of Wednesday of Holy Week 1896, a massive rush of blood cut off
his speech: his condition immediately became serious and his life was feared for; but he
revived and was sent to a health resort. He never returned to Foglizzo.
In November 1897 he was Rector in Ivrea. In Ivrea his field of work was even wider,
but Fr Bianchi showed himself equal to the task entrusted to him. Th house had the Sons
of Mary, novice clerics or clerical students of philosophy: there were from many countries
around Europe and the majority were not young. Foreigners were unanimous in stating
that Fr Bianchi had unforgettable consideration and refinement in their regard. In Ivrea,
as in Foglizzo, his leadership was strong, as befits a true father. More than once he was
heard to express his fear that the sense of fatherliness, as he felt it, would diminish among
101 Lettera Mortuaria di D. Eugenio Bianchi, in AIMOR, January 1931.
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the Salesians. His openness to understanding and his constant optimism sustained many
souls in their sad hours of discouragement and saved many vocations from foundering.
He remained there until the first months of 1911, when he fell ill again and his superiors
sent him to Bordighera to recover.
In 1912 he was entrusted with the mission of starting a visitation of some Salesian
agricultural schools. To this end he embarked for Palestine on 9 November. The Rector
Major sent him there for a few months... he remained for more than 18 years until his
death.
Beitgemal became his home. He was its Rector from 1914 to 1926: he devoted his
activities to it with enthusiasm and, with great tact, he knew how to keep his confreres
close to him. This was the secret of the happy results of the Beitgemal School, at that time
recognised as a model agricultural school in Palestine.
During World War I he was the loving father of all the Salesians in Palestine who took
refuge in Beitgemal, the only house that was allowed to remain open, in the company of
200 Turkish soldiers. He had to witness kidnappings, confiscations and depredations that
he endured with great resignation, while comforting those who desperately struggled to
minimise the consequences of these disasters. Once the storm of the war had passed, Fr
Bianchi set to work with renewed ardour, and had the consolation of seeing his beloved
agricultural school flourish once more.
Providence had something in store for him at Beitgemal – the joy of seeing the fruit
of the work of those who, through their studies, research and excavations, identified
the ancient Kafargamala in Beitgemal and discovered the tomb of St Stephen crowned
with happy success. And after this happy event, he worked with untiring zeal to organise
the Pious Work of Christian Forgiveness in honour of St Stephen, and to build a decent
church at the Saint’s tomb. He saw a part of it built, the Martyrium, in which he invested
his entire family inheritance.
Fr Bianchi was able to temper the strength of his Romagnolo character with the
gentleness of a Salesian, and worked with zeal for God and souls. He was sustained by
a deep piety: he was very devoted to the Sacred Heart and to the Blessed Virgin Mary. He
celebrated Mass with diligent precision and edifying devotion. After his love for God and
the Blessed Virgin, another love towered in his generous soul: love for Don Bosco and the
Congregation. He had the consolation of seeing Italy again in 1929 for the beatification
of Don Bosco, but in October of that year he had to undergo a very painful operation.
Unable to bear a second one, he returned to Beitgemal to prepare for death. He received
the last sacraments on time and at dawn on 11 January 1931 he passed away peacefully.
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4.4 Mario Rosìn102
Mario Rosìn was born in Trieste on 8 November 1875. Sent to Palestine immediately after
his novitiate in 1891 with a host of clerics and brothers, he was the first vigorous addition
to the Salesian Congregation in Fr Belloni’s Family. But while his companions in the
mission, after working in the Middle East for many years, were then sent by the obedience
to other destinations, he alone remained in the field of work, untiring, exhausting all his
energies, to give so many generations of poor orphans food, clothing and work.
Having arrived in Jesus’ own land, he remained there until his tragic death and spent
47 years working and sacrificing himself for the good of the young people in the houses
in Bethlehem, Cremisan, Nazareth and Beitgemal.
He was truly an exemplary religious, even if his inner virtue was sometimes concealed
by a somewhat rough exterior. Among the virtues that stood out most in him was
a constant sincerity which he candidly and courageously displayed even in the most
difficult moments.
His faith, nourished by the exact observance of pious practices, made his trust in God
strong and unlimited, both in the face of the material hardships of his orphanage and in
accepting what obedience disposed, putting up with all the contrariness and trials of life.
He was always animated by the purest religious spirit of poverty and obedience,
scrupulous to the point of the most difficult sacrifices: the means that Providence sent
him did not remain in his hands, but immediately took the shortest route of his numerous
creditors: he seemed to have a repugnance for money. As Rector he never used a bed: in
Bethlehem he slept on a chair, on the landing of a staircase leading to the terrace, and in
summer on the hard floor, resting his head on a small wooden box. In his room there was
an instrument of discipline which he had to use secretly. In the morning, at 4 o’clock, he
was always up for Mass and confessions.
One of the most painful episodes in Fr Rosìn’s life was during the First World War.
Declared a prisoner shortly before the British entered Jerusalem, he was sent with other
confreres to be interned in the heart of Turkey. Two of them lost their lives on the journey
due to hardship and illness. Fr Rosìn had to go to prison in Damascus and was thrown
into a hall where criminals of all kinds were gathered. The hall resounded with curses,
filthy language and brawls. He said that living with such criminals was the most painful
punishment of his life.
In Angora he was taken to hospital, sick with typhus. After leaving the hospital he
spent a year of hardship and privation with other deportees in Keskin. Once the storm had
102 Lettera Mortuaria di D. Mario Rosìn, in AIMOR, July 1938; O. Pedrazzi, Una croce in terra santa. In memoria
di don Mario Rosìn, Rome, Scuola Salesiana del Libro, 1938.
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passed, he returned with full confidence to his place of peaceful struggle. He continued
his charitable work for another 20 years, doing good to all and evil to none.
In 1937, for a second time, despite his resistance, he accepted the role of Rector of the
Beitgemal House.
In the same year, the British authorities, in order to have easier access to weather data
from the local observatory in Beitgemal, connected the house with the police station in
Artuf railway station by telephone line. And given the Palestinian Arab uprisings against
the British who they suspected of protecting the Israelis, the Arabs thought the phone was
for spying on them, especially since one of the leaders had been captured and killed by
the police shortly after the phone was installed. Therefore, the Arab rebels swore revenge
against the Rector of the Salesian House.
Father Rosìn was asked by the Patriarch to see to confessions at the two communities
in nearby Rafat, where the new shrine to Our Lady Queen of Palestine had been erected,
and he went there punctually every week. It was by fulfilling this delicate duty as a priest
that the Lord considered him ripe for heaven.
On 23 June, on his way back from Rafat to the community, a big man with a veiled face
crossed the road, grabbed the reins of his horse and forced Fr Rosìn to dismount. Then he
blew a whistle and 14 other men emerged from nearby hiding places, then declared: “You
have had a telephone planted between your house and Artuf; you have had Issa Battat [the
rebel leader mentioned] arrested and killed. Now we have orders to kill you too.”
Fr Rosìn, suddenly and rudely faced with certain death, began sobbing and replied:
“But no, I am a poor priest who has never harmed anyone.” His words were drowned out
by the thud of stones hitting him. At the thought of the sacrifice of his life, which he had
foreseen and announced in intimate moments to his confreres, and perhaps invoked, the
victim regained control of his faculties, and no further moan nor groan escaped his lips
until he drew his last breath.
Up to this point this has been the story of the experience of the Beitgemal community,
which we have tried to approach from different perspectives in order to have as complete
an overview as possible. Facts, dates, numbers, stories, faces have told us about a relational
experience rich in humanity and charism. Humanity that is both wounded by sin
and redeemed by the love of Jesus. The Salesian charism that provides evidence of its
universal validity, which does not, however, conceal the difficulties of achieving healthy
inculturation.
In full continuity with this chapter, we will dwell on the figure of Bro. Srugi in the
following chapter. He is the most precious gift of God to flourish in the MOR Province.
These two chapters illuminate each other and together form the historical and critical
basis of our research.
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Chapter Three
Simon Srugi
“O Father, in the Church of the Easy
you raised up Simon Srugi,
humble apostle of unity and loving witness
of your Son Jesus
in a world that still odes not know you,
through the mission of the
Good Samaritan of souls and bodies.
we ask you to make us
courageous imitators of his virtues
so that, in the Spirit,
your plan of love may be fulfilled.”
(proposed Collect prayer)
Beitgemal was the field of life and action of the greatest of Don Bosco’s sons in
the Holy Land. This is the intimate relationship between the previous chapter two and
the present chapter three. One cannot understand the history of Beitgemal without
highlighting the life of Simon Srugi; but neither can one understand the greatness of the
Good Samaritan of Nazareth if one eradicates its vital context, that is, the work and the
community at Beitgemal.
1. Biography
1.1 Childhood and adolescence
Simon Srugi, the last of 10 children of Azar and Dalleh Ibraim Khawali, was born in
Nazareth on 27th April 1877. About 15 days after his birth, with the solemnity that is
customary in Eastern countries, the infant was baptised and with baptism also received
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the sacrament of confirmation, as is customary in the Eastern Church. Baptism was
conferred in the Greek Catholic parish of Nazareth.
Simon, whose father was a Melkite Greek Catholic, had to follow the religious practice
of this rite during his childhood and assimilated its spirituality within the limits of his
child-like soul.
A painful event, which must have influenced the events, and probably also Simon’s
character, was the loss of his parents. It is not certain when he became an orphan, because
there are different versions,103 but certainly very soon. Orphaned, Simon, the last of the
brothers, was taken in by his paternal grandmother.
During his childhood years, Simon is remembered as a good-natured, calm, very
pious boy, as thin as a blade of grass, rather shy and sad as a natural consequence of
being an orphan.
During his childhood he was shy and easily cried over little things, because he felt
he was an orphan. He was calm and obedient to his grandmother, but like all boys
he would sometimes play deaf when called upon. He was an ordinary boy like many
others.104
Around the age of 11, in 1888, he entered the Bethlehem Orphanage, founded by
Fr Antonio Belloni. Here he probably made his First Communion, improved on his
previous fragmentary education and was introduced to the tailor’s trade due to his
weak constitution. For future occupations he had a more than decent general education,
learning Italian and French among other things.
Simon entered the Bethlehem Orphanage at a time when the work was at the height
of its flourishing and when the fatherly presence of Fr Belloni was making everyone feel
the effectiveness of his spiritual charm.105
Here he remained for four years. Several elements suggest that, although educated in
the Latin rite, he continued to have some external contact with his own rite and that this
favoured the continuation of the spirit of his native rite.106
Meanwhile, in 1891, Fr Belloni’s institution passed to the Salesian Congregation,
which continued its charitable mission.
103 Informatio, 37.
104 Summ., 164.
105 The atmosphere was poor, but joyful. Theatres, academies and awards ceremonies, walks, vocal and instrumental
music were means of recreation and education together and made the Orphanage a pleasant centre of life,
highly esteemed by Catholics and also by Orthodox and Muslims. Cf.G. Shalhub 164ff.
106 Cf. Informatio, 51.
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1.2 At the Beitgemal orphanage: aspirantate and novitiate
Having discovered the signs of a religious vocation in the young Srugi, the Salesian
superiors transferred him to the nearby Beitgemal Orphanage in 1892, which was also
an aspirantate and novitiate house.
At school, Simon was serious, committed and an example to his classmates: from
then on he was “perfect and exemplary in everything”.107 The superiors chose him
to lead prayer in church, for spiritual reading and as a helper in caring for the little
ones, distinguishing himself in this with delicacy of touch and charity. He was called
the Dominic Savio of Beitgemal. He was an active member of the Associations at the
orphanage and thus learned to relate to his companions with the tact and spirit of
apostolate which were then characteristic of his whole life.
Admitted to the novitiate at just over 15 years of age, he immediately manifested a
concern to sanctify his work with ardent acts of love for God. Pumping water from the
well into the basins, he made this resolution: “At each turn, an act of love for God, for the
conversion of sinners.”108
He made his first profession in the Salesian House in Cremisan on 31 October 1896
and his perpetual profession in Bethlehem on 20 September 1900.
1.3 An outline of his personality
At Beitgemal, Simon was sacristan, teacher and assistant to the boys at the orphanage,
miller, nurse, tailor, worker in a small food shop. He was the kind of coadiutore Don
Bosco wanted, the “factotum”, always ready and willing, capable of doing many things,
self-sacrificing, with a goodness that fascinates, a lover of silence and recollection, all
work and piety, at the service of the community. He was open and known by all for his
great apostolic zeal.109
He was a frail person, of medium height, with a thin, moderate voice. His dress was
modest and poor, but clean and tidy. He had made a sort of uniform out of his suit, with
his jacket fastened at the collar and the inevitable crucifix hanging from his neck. He had
a deep gaze, lively black eyes, dominated by a continuous self-control. His smile and eyes
won people over, a true expression of a soul that belonged completely to God.
He was habitually recollected and a lover of silence: when he answered he spoke
calmly and serenely, after having reflected well. He was not physically strong, but his
whole figure was a reflection of his intense inner life and the presence of God in him.
107 Summ., 274.
108 Cf. Informatio, 73.
109 Cf. Informatio, 73.
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Simon Srugi’s day unfolded between his practices of piety and his many occupations,
switching from one to the other with ease: from his presence among the children to
the clinic and the mill. He also found time to nourish himself spiritually by reading
periodicals, books on asceticism and the lives of the saints.110
He loved community life very much and took care to be present at the various
community moments of prayer, recreation, meals and all other activities. He was as
punctual and exact as clockwork, as if at every moment he were obeying a call from God.
In the midst of the dramatic situations he experienced in Beitgemal, Simon always
remained calm in the whirlwind of those events, encouraging others with his trust in
the Lord and working to alleviate the hardships of the serious situation. The enormous
prestige he enjoyed among the people made his interventions effective.
In the “question of the Arab confreres”, which arose for reasons of nationalism, Simon
Srugi also sought to be involved because of the great prestige he enjoyed in the province.
He remained absolutely above all divisions, was always very attached to his superiors and
to the Congregation and used his influence to promote peace among the confreres.
1.4 Friend of the young
Simon Srugi, despite his many occupations, regularly and willingly engaged with the
young people of the orphanage. He loved them with great affection, especially because
they were orphans; as if to make up for the fact that they were missing their parents. He
always treated them with great kindness, but, as an educator, he did not lack a friendly
firmness in correcting their faults.111
He helped them with all their material needs and provided assistance: his presence
always guaranteed order and joy in the environment. Naturally, his first concern was for
souls.112 His aspiration was that they live in God’s grace and far from sin: this is why he
was happy to prepare the little ones for First Communion, took part with the boys in all
the religious ceremonies, edifying them by his example. He helped them to make visits,
say the rosary, join in the Eucharistic Crusade.113 He was a true spiritual animator of the
young.
His presence in the courtyard was particularly effective, always with an educational
purpose. Because of his humility and simplicity, the young people approached him with
great confidence. He rendered them many small services, such as sharpening pencils,
110 Cf. E. Forti, Un buon samaritano concittadino di Gesù, Leumann, Elle Di Ci, 1967, 94.
111 Cf. Informatio, 78.
112
113 ucharistic Crusade: a kind of youth group taken over from a non-Salesian group.
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guiding the inexperienced to do some drawing, mending an item of clothing, preparing
play equipment: and in the meantime he never missed an opportunity to say a good word,
which had an infallible effect on the souls of the children. One of his pupils, who saw
himself as being rather cheeky, said:
When Bro. Srugi was assisting, his scolding was fatherly advice, and his anger was
just a friendly smile, and I went along with this kind and affectionate way he had. His
goodness was such that one had to listen to him and love him. With his love for us
young people he won our esteem, our souls and won over our our families.114
His presence alone ensured that unseemly and offensive words were avoided, but he
did not fail to call out those who failed in this regard. He felt a great responsibility to
help prevent evil and to lead the young people to do good. In his final years he would let
himself be led to a chair at the edge of the courtyard to see the young people again, to be
among them and to assist them.
For many years, he exercised the office of master of ceremonies, taking great joy
in promoting the worship of the Lord. He called the boys in good time, instructed
them carefully in the ceremonies, edified them by his recollected demeanour and his
exhortations to piety.
The services, impeccably and fervently performed by Simon Srugi, were true schools
of devotion and vocations.
1.5 Worker and apostle
He was a tireless worker and faithfully fulfilled his various occupations until he had to
take to his bed, awaiting the rest he would have in Paradise.
He was calm and recollected, but always on the move, never wasting a minute, and
the time when he was moving from one occupation to another was his only rest.115
Srugi’s main occupation for many years was running the clinic, a providential work
due to the shortage of health care in the region. He became a nurse out of a natural
disposition to do good to bodies and souls. He learned by himself, studying diligently,
but also through the help of an FMA sister who had a diploma in nursing and a doctor
who came by from time to time to check on him in the clinic.
On fixed days he was at the clinic from 8am to 2pm. In the not infrequent cases of
malaria and flu epidemics, the days were very tiring. There were many sick people, almost
114 Summ., 205.
115
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all Muslims, who came to him from far and wide. There was unlimited trust in him, even
more than in doctors, so much so that the Muslims called him the “master”, the “doctor”.
The clinic was a daily testimony to his goodness, patient charity towards his
neighbour, but especially towards the poor Muslims, towards the poor sick. He never
showed annoyance, irritation to anyone or showed that he was upset: his touch was
kindly, gentle, almost silent. He won people’s hearts with his true goodness of spirit,
with the charity of Christ. He was truly like the Good Samaritan towards all the poor
and the sick. His charity knew no pause or limit and he lavished it to the last ounce
of his strength.116
It was a difficult job because of the number of people, the coarseness of the people, and
because they often brought him desperate cases. He welcomed everyone, treated everyone
with extreme kindness and patience, and sent everyone back happy: he was truly the
“Good Samaritan” of the Gospel117 and he cured the sick by seeing Jesus himself in them.
Another job he had was the mill. People came to the Salesian mill, abandoning their
primitive means of grinding. The machines had to be attended to and the people lined
up, order had to be maintained, what they had entrusted to them for grinding had to
be returned, and queries had to be settled. One could lose patience at any time with
these people who were so prone to quarrelling. Srugi welcomed everyone with a smile,
exquisite tact and charity: he was considered the father of all and the mill became a place
of edification and catechesis.
Srugi sanctified his work with constant and fervent acts of prayer raised to God:
“Jesus, Jesus!” he would say while preparing the needle for injections. “Jesus!” while
treating a wound - “Praised be Jesus Christ”, “Long live Paradise!” were his usual
expressions. On meeting someone his greeting was: “Long live Jesus, long live Mary!”
And he wished to be greeted or answered in the same way. The Muslims had also learnt
this greeting and addressed it to Srugi with veneration and religious feeling.
1.6 Final days
Bro. Srugi died at the age of 65, on 27 November 1943. Throughout his life he had ailments
and serious illnesses: in the end he was consumed by fatigue and malaria. Already in 1941
he was in decline, but to those who advised him to rest, he replied: “Oh yes, I will rest in
Paradise; just a little more... soon... I feel that I am at the end, but I will rest in Paradise.”118
116 Summ., 169.
117 This is the title established in the biography of the Servant of God by Ernesto Forti.
118 Summ., 46.
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He was very faithful to the end to the resolution he had written in 1934: “Never
complain about anything that may happen to me, but suffer everything in silence out
of love for Jesus my spouse.”119
His strength exhausted, as long as he could he would drag himself along to church
and spend hours and hours in front of the Blessed Sacrament, or he would be taken out
into the courtyard on a chair and enjoy watching the boys play. “Long live Jesus!” was his
greeting to those who came to see him.
On 19 October 1943, at his own request, he received Holy Viaticum and on 24
October he was administered the Sacrament of the Sick; smiling, he responded with
clarity and piety to the sacrament and all those who observed and accompanied him
were edified. At the end of the service he said: “Now I can die in peace”.
He did not complain; he accepted with gratitude whatever was done for him. He
suffered a lot, but with a smile on his lips he used to say: “The Lord Jesus suffered more”.
One day, in a moment of crisis, he let slip: “It’s terrible when you can’t breathe”, but he
immediately corrected himself: “No! No! The Lord wants it: it’s fine”.120
On one of his last days, because he was so thirsty, he wished to have some ice to refresh
himself. But shortly afterwards, he sent for the Rector and told him: “Don’t send anyone
else for ice: Jesus suffered thirst on the Cross: I want to imitate him!”121
Death took him during the night of 27 November, without any agonising last
moments, with no one at his side because he had sent back the nurse. He was in a serene
attitude of prayer. He left this earth without disturbing anyone, as silent and humble as
he had lived, for that “beautiful Paradise” to which he had aspired all his life.
Spirituality
Simon Srugi led a modest life, without great external events, all piety and work. He
experienced everything alone and always for God, with a joyful spirit, without fatigue or
failure, in circumstances that were always difficult and often dramatic. He never sought
anything for himself, but devoted himself totally to the good of his neighbour.
His extraordinary holiness consisted in following the “little way” of love. He realised
the heroism of sanctified daily life, and imitated, as a fellow citizen of Jesus, the heroic
virtues of the life of the Holy Family. All his commitments were carried out as a Christian
and religious with great fervour; with a visible and intense spiritual joy.
119 S. Srugi, Propositi ritiro spirituale 25 agosto 1927, in AIMOR, 1927. [Cf. Appendix 2, thought 441, 497].
120 Summ., 258.
121 Summ., 253.
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Every action in his life was animated by a supernatural intention; his union with God
was uninterrupted; his Eucharistic and Marian fervour was very intense; his serenity of
spirit was unalterable, even in difficult circumstances; he had perfect control over his
passions. He abandoned himself to Providence with filial trust; he was totally available to
others in whom he always saw Jesus; he was tireless in his efforts to do good; he showed
patience that was greater than any opposition. His smile flourished perpetually on his
lips and the behaviour of his humble person was composed and willing.122
2.1 Life in the Spirit of Jesus
We share in divine life in the way we are children in the Son. Faith, hope and charity refer
to the person of Jesus, to his eternal relationship with the Father. Therefore the profound
experience of these three gifts of God (the theological virtues) are the best expression of
the spiritual tension with which Srugi lived his constant conformity to the Son.
2.1.1 Faith
Simon Srugi had a living, deep and unalterable faith. It can be said that, like a righteous
man, he lived by faith and expressed it in all the manifestations of his life: in piety, in his
work, in his relations with others. It was said of him in Arabic: “Srugi is a man of God;
God leads his hand; he is a prophet...”123
Simon Srugi’s faith was manifested first of all in his union with God: this was his
constant, profound and filial disposition. He prayed continually and prayed well, turning
to God, the Virgin and St Joseph. His conversations, whoever he approached, were always
on spiritual subjects or ended with at least one thought. He could always be heard praying,
even loudly, with ardent invocations, in his room, around the courtyard, at the mill or at
the clinic. His life was an affectionate contemplation of God and full adherence to his
Will.124
Many times during the day he would go to the chapel to pray, especially before and
after work.
Until the last days of his illness he was very faithful to the common practices: he
did not omit any, for any reason. For a long time he read out the meditation in the
community, calm, devout, completely absorbed in the truth he was meditating on. He
122 Cf. Positiones seu articuli, in Positio super virtutibus. Beatificationis et Canonizaionis Servi Dei Simoneis Srugi
Laici Professi Societatis Salesianae, Rome, 1988, 13-15.
123 Summ., 23.
124 Cf. Summ., 22.
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received communion daily and went to confession every Saturday. He gladly served the
Eucharist with an edifying demeanour.
The Word of God was the object of special and devoted attention. He listened to it
with keen interest in the chapel, remembered the smallest details, and talked about it
during the week in conversations to edify those around him. If he did not understand
something in the homily he would humbly ask the preacher for an explanation.125
His zeal made Srugi a tireless apostle for the good of souls. He carried out the
apostolate of witness first and foremost, and did not approach anyone without concern
for bringing them to God. He made everyone feel a call to heavenly things, without
ostentation, but also without fear. He addressed his invitations to the children at the
orphanage, to the confreres, to those who came to the mill or to the clinic. To all he
spoke of Jesus and Mary. The clinic and the mill were enveloped in the supernatural by
his presence.
He also worked in the very difficult Muslim environment. He was respected by them
not only for his goodness and skill as a nurse, but even more for the presence of God that
they felt through him: and this unconsciously brought them closer to Christianity.
He felt an extraordinary joy every time he baptised a child, foreseeing, with great
intuition, the death of the child. “I have saved a soul,” he would exclaim, “I have sent a
soul to Paradise”.126 Records show that there were certainly more than 360 baptisms of
Muslim children.
It is thought that Srugi’s spiritual action is also responsible for the many conversions
and abjurations that the Salesians of Beitgemal have brought about through their
apostolic presence.
His faith was manifested in a special way in the sanctification of the little things of
daily life, in doing everything for God. His intentions, which were then faithfully
practised, expressed the will not to commit the smallest venial sin, not to displease
his superiors, not to complain about anything, to observe the Rule exactly... He was
careful not to disturb his confreres, thoughtful in greeting and thanking them for
every little thing, very kind in every contact, ready to do small favours, willing to
accept remarks without reacting, absolutely silent about anything that could be to his
own praise or merit. These were gestures of charity that flowed from a soul rich in the
spirit of faith and the thought of God.127
125 Cf. Positiones seu articuli, 19.
126 Positiones seu articuli, 20-21.
127 Positiones seu articuli, 21.
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2.1.2 Hope
Hope in Simon Srugi shone through his unshakeable aspiration for heavenly goods
and detachment from earthly things, his full abandonment to Divine Providence, his
confidence in saving himself and saving souls by divine mercy.
Srugi walked this earth with his gaze and soul always turned towards Heaven: one
would say he enjoyed its happiness in advance.128
He was also an apostle of hope with his words and his whole spiritual attitude. The
sick and the disheartened with life, whether Christian or Muslim, came to him, even if
they were not cured, with the certainty that God, like a good Father, would not abandon
them; in fact, they regained the strength and courage to face the difficulties of life and felt
the joy of existence again. Those who approached him shared in his trust in the goodness
of the Lord: to the dying above all he knew how to instil this serene abandonment in God.
I have never known anyone who was so familiar with Heaven as he was. It was the
thought of Paradise that accompanied and guided him in all the circumstances of life,
both in good and bad times. And he tactfully instilled this almost natural thought in
all those who approached him, be they confreres, young people, the sick, workers or
even Muslims, as many testimonies attest. How many times have we heard from him
the phrase: “Paradise, Paradise!”129
Christian hope made him always face the reality of death with serenity, in the absolute
certainty of God’s mercy and in the expectation of Paradise towards which he was striving
with all the strength of his spirit.
2.1.3 Charity
The greatest proof of God’s love is to do his will: Srugi had no other intention than this.
He was most exact in his loving observance of the laws of God and the Church, and would
not dispense with them for any reason. He was amiable, but adamant in this obedience.130
He took the same care in observing the Rule of the Congregation, in which he saw the
expression of God’s will. His conformity to the Will of God was absolute, but spontaneous
and joyful.
His love for God was revealed with a clarity that enchanted. He prayed at all times,
went about his work, dealt with his neighbour: from all his behaviour, which was that of
128 Cf. Summ., 8.
129 Summ., 8.
130 Cf. Summ., 79-80.
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a son towards his heavenly Father, it was clear that he loved God with all his heart, all his
mind and all his soul.131
From love of God, charity towards one’s neighbour flowed naturally for Simon.
Throughout his life he never thought of himself, but did everything and always what was
good for others, out of love for God.
His charity, in the modesty of his person and his occupations, was made up of
understanding and kindness, infinite patience, complete self availability, spontaneous
sacrifice, the unexpected refinement of a good heart, untiring service...
His charity was spiritual and material, towards Christians and non-Christians,
towards those who loved him or those who insulted him. The law of charity was consistent
with the law of forgiveness. There was no lack of those who insulted and beat him. “Jesus
suffered more” was his usual phrase in these circumstances.132
2.2 Moral life
Virtues are firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual perfections of the intelligence and
will that regulate our actions, order our passions and guide our conduct according to
reason and faith. They provide ease, self-mastery and joy in leading a morally good life.133
Srugi emerges as a virtuous man, moved by the desire to follow Christ radically, practising
good freely as an expression of his docility to the Spirit, who animates him and drives him
to a total gift of himself.
2.2.1 Prudence
Srugi showed supernatural prudence, knowing how to assess every situation well, even
in the simplicity of his spirit, and for himself, he always knew how to choose God, the
soul, Paradise, the concern to avoid sin, love of neighbour. He had a rich divine wisdom
that guided him to see only and always people and events in the light of God.
131 Cf.Informatio, 173-175.
132 At Nazareth while going for a walk with a confrere he was mistaken for a Jew and became a victim of violence.
He restricted himself to calming down the confrere who wanted to react and said: “Let’s go. You can see that
no one is liked in their own town. Jesus too was treated like this.” Summ., 128.
In 1938, when Fr Mario Rosìn was killed, Srugi, in very dangerous guerilla circumstances, medicated the
perpetrator of the crime and replied to those who marvelled at his gesture: “And must we not also love our
enemies?” Summ., 183. One day a Bedouin, whom he had not been able to satisfy, shouted at him: ’You are
small: if I catch you I will kill you’. When he returned later to be treated, Srugi murmured: “You must be
patient” and treated him.
133 Cf. CCC, 1804.
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His ardent missionary spirit drove him to work for the conversion of Muslims. The
undertaking, arduous in itself, never discouraged him. In this, however, the Servant
of God proceeded with great prudence, knowing well the environment in which he
worked. One Muslim said: “He invited me to become a Christian, but without putting
any pressure on me.”134
2.2.2 Justice
The servant of God was first and foremost just to God, to whom he paid everything and
always what was due to him with a filial spirit. Everything was for God: prayer, work, his
relations with others. He thanked him continually with the aspirations of his heart and
the correspondence of his deeds.
“Jesus loved me so much that he suffered, died and gave himself up completely for
me. I also want to suffer everything for his love, to love him and die for him.”
His justice towards his neighbour was no less. He always knew how to find the good
side in his confreres, in young people and in outsiders; he respected their good name
and made it respected with friendly reminders. He often recalled the words of the Rector
Major: “Let us think well of all, do good to all.” He was never seen to do wrong, and if he
happened to displease someone, he would humbly try to restore good relations.
He had a culture of gratitude and was grateful for every little favour done to him.135
He was respected for his love of justice and for his righteousness. The peasants,
Christians and Muslims, who came to the clinic or to the mill trusted the answers he
gave. He was the “taman” man (righteous, perfect) and there was full confidence in his
word and deed.136
The confidence people had in his equanimity meant that he was often chosen as an
arbitrator between disputants. He knew how to say the appropriate words that would
encourage the cessation of violence, and more often than not the prestige of his presence
was enough to make the disputants ready to agree.
The bloody quarrels in the villages brought him wounds to treat, and he treated the
body then tried to bring peace to hearts. Frequent quarrels and thefts also took place at
the clinic and the mill among coarse and not always good people. He would intervene to
judge and everyone would defer: "Mu-allem Srugi has spoken" and that was enough: his
sentence was final.
134 Positiones seu articuli, 31.
135 Cf. Informatio, 183-184.
136 E. Forti, Un buon samaritano concittadino di Gesù, 39.
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2.2.3 Fortitude
Simon Srugi demonstrated heroism in the practice of fortitude first and foremost through
the control he exercised over his character. He was always mild and gentle, direct in his
actions, balanced and serene in spirit in all his judgements and decisions. He had much
to work with and to suffer, his day was long and self-sacrificing and gave him occasion for
endless bitterness: despite this, his smile never failed, he never ceased to speak of Heaven,
conformity to God’s will, trust in his goodness. Those who were close to him and his co-
workers realised that this attitude cost him great effort and sacrifice, even though his
character was naturally good...
Illnesses did not spare him. He suffered severe malarial fever, suffered a lot from
toothache and had various other ailments. He endured it all without complaint, caring
for himself as long as he could, and showing the joy of offering his sufferings to the Lord:
“When I think of the sufferings of the souls in Purgatory, everything seems easy and
sweet to me. And we must also suffer something in expiation of our sins”137 “Lord, You
those who do You some service with some troubles. Oh, what an inestimable price this is
for those who truly love you.”138
Even on the most difficult and worrying occasions, Simon Srugi was never seen to
make a gesture of spite, become angry, speak ill of anyone, use sarcasm or personal spite.
Sometimes scolded by a confrere, he kept silent and waited for the storm to pass.
Similarly, in the difficult moments recounted in the history of Beitgemal, in the
midst of so much harassment, persecution and blackmail, Simon Srugi never lost his
temper, managed to confront and curb the intemperance of the bandits and comforted
his confreres.
2.2.4 Temperance
Srugi was extraordinarily temperate. It was said that he ate like a sparrow and there was
no telling how he could sustain himself with all the work he did: he was constantly fasting.
He readily and resolutely eschewed all comforts, personal taste, refinement, and
satisfactions that he could do without. His clothing was very modest, his room had the
essentials for resting, he deprived himself of his fruit to give it to the sick, and he sacrificed
sleep to assist those in need or to do some necessary work...139
137 Summ., 82-83.
138 Positiones seu articuli, 34.
139 Cf. Positiones seu articuli, 36.
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2.3 Religious vows
Simon Srugi was recognised as a perfect religious. His exemplary character is clear from
the exact observance of his vows.
2.3.1 Poverty
Srugi was not only poor, he loved poverty and practised it in an exemplary manner.
“When I possess God and his grace I am rich enough.”140
He sought nothing for himself. With absolute detachment, he used only what was
strictly necessary. He went as far as the nuances of poverty: “I will try to purify my soul
by detaching myself from all earthly and material things to imitate Our Lord Jesus Christ
who was very poor.”141
His trust was completely in Providence. “Providence, Providence, how good is
Providence!”
Being in charge of the mill and the adjacent public shop, Srugi had to handle money
out of necessity. For this reason he kept the registers in order, with crisp and clear
handwriting. In the evening, he handed over all the proceeds to his superior, punctually
and accurately. He knew how to demand the right price from those he had to pay, but he
used all his skills to meet the needs of those who had special requirements.142
2.3.2 Chastity
His behaviour was modest and reserved, he never uttered a word that was less than
correct, and there was not a gesture of levity or excessive freedom that could tarnish his
purity.
He was open and friendly in his dealings with young people and knew how to show
them his interest and affection.
To preserve chastity he used the classical means of Christian asceticism: prayer,
thinking of God’s presence, religious observance, vigilance and penance, avoidance of
idleness.143
140 Summ., 224.
141 S. Srugi, Propositi ritiro spirituale 25 agosto 1927, in AIMOR, 1927. [Cf. Appendix no. 2, thought 434].
142 Cf. Positiones seu articuli, 38-39.
143 Cf. Informatio, 191.
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2.3.3 Obedience
He had a very high concept of obedience, in which he saw the will of God and the means
of his own sanctification.
Everything we do out of obedience becomes gold. What the superiors command is
the will of God. We have to be very shrewd, so that we don’t let a chance pass without
making merit for Paradise through obedience."144 “One becomes a saint through
obedience.”145
The superiors and the Rule were for him a living and concrete expression of God’s will.
His practical obedience to the dispositions of his superiors was filial, cheerful, indifferent
to whatever occupation or order was given to him. When he saw a need, he would humbly
present his opinion, but was then very ready to do what the superior told him.
The religious observance of the Rule was at the forefront of his thoughts. He was not
scrupulous and formalistic, but exact down to the last detail, without ever dispensing
with it, except when some greater force intervened. He considered the Rule, even in its
smallest provisions, as the will of God and therefore as a means of perfection: he read
it and meditated on it continuously, formulated his intentions on the Rule, renewed his
religious profession every day...146
He was as faithful and simple as a child in the practice of making his rendiconto to
his superior. He followed the house timetable with the punctuality of a watch. “I shall
be judged according to the observance of the holy Rule and the holy vows: therefore
scrupulous observance.”147
2.4 Total gift of self and reputation for holiness
Srugi carried out his consecrated life and apostolic activity in Beitgemal for almost 50
years, simple, humble, tireless, without any pretension or complaint, completely focused
on God and completely dedicated to doing good to others, sanctifying himself in the
fulfilment of his humble daily duties.
"By becoming a religious, I gave myself entirely to my God, body and soul, and he
willingly accepted me for his own. I will do everything for His greater glory.”148 His
144 S. Srugi, Massime per i confratelli 3, in AIMOR. [Cf. Appendix no. 2, thought 407].
145 Summ., 155.
146 Cf. Informatio, 192-193.
147 S. Srugi, Propositi ritiro spirituale 17 agosto 1931, in AIMOR, 1931. [Cf. Appendix no. 2, thought 472].
148 S. Srugi, Propositi ritiro spirituale 21 agosto 1938, in AIMOR, 1938. [Cf. Appendix no. 2, thought 532].
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whole life was perfectly consistent with this purpose of generous self-giving that he had
formulated in his youth.
Srugi enjoyed a reputation for holiness in life and after death. This is not a matter of
general admiration, but of a true reputation for holiness, as confirmed by his Superiors,
confreres, the sisters and former students. Blessed Fr Rua, who had met Simon on a visit
to Beitgemal, told the confreres: “Follow up Brother Srugi, record his words and deeds,
because he is a saint.”149
This was the general belief, even among Muslims who had the good fortune to meet
him.
They unanimously affirmed that Srugi was a saint; they came to him not only because
they trusted his profession as a nurse, but because he was respected as a “man of
God”. “Why do you come here from such a distance?” the sick were asked, “Are there
not doctors and nurses at your place?” “Yes,” they replied, “but they do not have the
blessed hands of Bro. Srugi; he is a saint. In his hands is the perfection of God.”150
149 Positiones seu articuli, 49.
150 Positiones seu articuli, 49.
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Chapter Four
A Reading of the Life of Simon Srugi and the
Beitgemal Community In the Light of Faith
“The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher,151
that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens –
wakens my ear to listen
as those who are taught.
The Lord God has opened my ear
and I was not rebellious”
(Is 50:4-5)
Memory needs to become biblical and spiritual. Biblical memory is the memory of
the believer, those who read their own history and that of the world in the light of God’s
interventions, in the style and manner described in the sacred books.
151 The term דוםלcan be translated as pupil, disciple, initiates, learners; these although synonymous, each
one emphasises a different nuance. Pupil indicates someone who learns something from another; disciple
adds vital value to this learning; initiates already indicates a first accomplished path in the existential
understanding of the mystery (or Mystery), the most literal translation, accepting the neologism, would
be “learners”. This emphasises (without losing the semantic richness of the other terms) the most intimate
readiness to allow oneself to be guided. Note, the NRSV adds a note to ‘teacher’, saying that the Hebrew
connotation is “those who are taught”. So I will use this (learner, one who is taught) ads a synonym for
disciple so as to give rise to the biblical resonance so as to underline this profound willingness to listen
to the Mystery.
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It becomes above all the memory of God, rather than simply the memory of human
beings, as history written by Him and which the creature, or the believing community,
knows, interprets or highlights. For authentic believers it is the Spirit who educates and
animates this memory “[He] will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have
said to you.”152 “He will guide you into all the truth.”153 He is the vital synthesis capable
of producing spiritual memory because he is able to grasp the radical meaning of reality,
filling all the paradoxical tensions of life with meaning. This is the way to become spiritual
people, members of a community of intense spiritual life.
We could say that spiritual people are those who manage to grasp the radical meaning
of reality, that which does not appear at first sight, but which animates reality and
constitutes its soul, perceptible beyond the apparently different aspects of reality itself.
The spiritual man is free, he is not bound to the immediate and to the material; he can
wander into other universes of meaning, he can open up to the transcendent and to
mystery, he can give full breath and response to that irrepressible need for meaning
and truth of the human mind, he can be continually present to his life, to the present
as well as to the past...154
The spiritual, in particular, should not be understood as that which is opposed to
the material, but as a symbol of the relational: if spiritual, in fact, derives from Spirit,
the Spirit in the Trinity is above all relation, communication, listening and dialogue,
love, living with differences, common ground of encounter between different polarities...
for this reason a spiritual community is a relational community, a community that can
enter into deep contact with reality, especially of the interpersonal kind, respects the
peculiarity and difference of the other and takes up its call, allows itself to be provoked
by the relationships that establish its own history.
It is the same Spirit that accompanies us in accepting the richness and poverty of
our own unique and unrepeatable history, provoking first of all the healing of memory
and initiating reconciliation with our own past in an integration of it, without cutting
anything out or victimisation, gathering all the precious contributions of experience.155
152 Jn 14:26.
153 Jn 16:13.
154 A. Cencini, L’albero della vita, 208.
155 The members of a spiritual community are responsible for their lives, for others, for themselves, for the gifts
they have received from God, for his presence manifested in the days of their lives, but above all they are
responsible to God for the history that God has "written" in their past and that continues in the present.
A spiritual community knows... how to read and write, it is not illiterate, is able to recognise the mysterious
writing of God manifested in its own history. It deciphers it continuously, scrutinises its profound meaning,
grasps it in the past, "already written", but constantly interprets it in the present, like a voice whose echo
it hears in a continuous synthesis that has the dense flavour of prayer and contemplation, as the place and
manner of this believing exercise. Cf. A. Cencini, L’albero della vita 208-209.
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A Reading of the Life of Simon Srugi and the Beitgemal Community In the Light of Faith
It is the acceptance of the Spirit that enables us to become spiritual beings with a paschal
conscience, free to grasp ever more fully and deeply the meaning of our own experiences,
but also to modify, at least to a certain extent, our responses to the events of life and death;
to give a paschal dimension to the experience of evil suffered, to soften the impact and
violence of any suffering or failure, to discover the positive in the negative.
Being truly spiritual and paschal people enables us to reinterpret our history in the
light of faith and thus to be present in our life at every moment of it, not because we
are outside of time, but precisely because we are responsible for our history. This is the
exercise that we now propose to complete in the story of Beitgemal recounted in the
previous chapters.
1. Disciples at Beitgemal
Salesians are called by vocation to live as disciples of the Lord.156 It is thanks to the gift
of the Father’s call, to follow Jesus Christ more closely, that, with the gift of his Spirit, the
sons of Don Bosco are sent to be apostles of the young, educators in the faith.
This logic of “first disciples then apostles”, or even better “apostles because disciples”,
is established by God at the beginning of the history of salvation and more clearly since
the beginning of the Church.
Even the Twelve, before being chosen as apostles, were disciples, that is, they followed
Jesus and learned from him. In reality, they would not have been able to carry out their
missionary function and activity if they had not been authentic followers of Christ, if in
him they too had not become children of the Father, in an ongoing and never-ending
journey of configuring their own feelings to those of the Son.
Discipleship in fact consists of a tenacious commitment to follow the Master every
day of one’s life. The apostles were able to make disciples of the nations because they
were first authentic disciples of Jesus, especially after the descent of the Holy Spirit.157
In a careful interpretation of the history of Beitgemal we can glimpse this logic of
discipleship, that is, "teachers in the faith because disciples in the faith", but not only that,
it also allows us to perceive some identifying elements of being disciples of the Lord as
Salesians in the Middle East.
a. Discipleship: because the Salesians in Beitgemal are first and foremost baptised. In
fact, it is in the journey of becoming true disciples that the essence and deepest identity of
156 C. 3
157 S. Panimolle, Inviati nel mondo ad annunziare l’amore salvifico di Dio per rendere discepoli a tutta la genti,
in ID. (eds, Apostolo discepolo missione 4. Dizionario di spiritualità bibblico-patristica, Rome, Borla, 1993, 11
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Christians is at stake. “The absolute of man is the Kingdom; and the disciple is the one for
whom this is the dominant affirmation, like the horizon in which life is placed, developed
and questioned.”158 And all this while being aware that the Kingdom is concretely given
and present in Jesus Christ. Then the disciple essentially knows that the centre is not
himself, but that the person is realised, indeed exists, only in Christ.
This is radical obedience, the obedience of faith. When we say that the disciple is the
one who obeys Jesus Christ, radical obedience is this.
I do not give myself the boundaries I want, because these are not the boundaries of
truth, they are not the boundaries of justice, of goodness. I must take the boundaries,
I must take the shape from Jesus Christ.
This at times appears to us as foolishness. But wisdom is taking the boundaries of
Jesus Christ, even though it may be a great crucifixion for us, because the boundaries
we ourselves have are not those of Jesus Christ, but of Adam.
The Christian’s truest cross consists in being a disciple. It consists in this obedience,
whereby we learn to say: “I am not the truth and neither is being human.” We accept
that the being human is the truth, the good; but the wisdom of faith tells us that the
being human is not the truth, the good. The truth, the good is a concrete human being:
it is the concrete humanity of Jesus Christ.159
b. Discipleship: because the Salesians at Beitgemal are indeed Salesians. Don Bosco
also warned that the main aim of becoming a Salesian should be the salvation of one’s soul;
clearly the Salesian charism proposes this through service to the smallest and poorest. If
we put Don Bosco’s ecclesial theological mentality into practice this “salvation of one’s
soul” means nothing other than welcoming the Father’s call, in the Spirit, to follow Jesus in
order to become, throughout one’s history, sons in the Son. Salesians are called to become
educators in the faith, precisely because their deepest identity is to be “learners” in the
faith.
c. Discipleship: because the Salesians at Beitgemal live and work in the context of the
Middle East. The high esteem that the mentality of Middle Eastern societies has for “men
of God” gives rise to a great spiritual and formation challenge. Starting with the local
confreres who have had to learn to manage this social growth as a means of placing
themselves at the service of God and his Kingdom and not for personal benefit or whims.
Maintaining the consciousness of being first and foremost a disciple becomes difficult
where the mentality considers you superior: master. But this vital attitude of “learning” is
the strongest message that the Arab confreres have been able to proclaim with their lives.
158 G. Moioli, Il discepolo, Milan, Glossa, 2000, 12.
159 G. Moioli, Il discepolo, 13.
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d. Discipleship: because the missionary confreres also faced a similar challenge as they
were called to bring the Good News and had to immerse themselves in the logic of the
Incarnation (to be representatives of God’s love and not of their countries, cultures, or of
themselves).160 Living according to the criteria of the Incarnation requires a continuous
kenosis that can only find its source, its sustenance and its destination in Christ.
e. Discipleship: because this is the strongest testimony offered by Simon Srugi. Prayer
in him was the fruit of an awareness of God’s greatness that he realised in his smallness.
Among his abundant virtues, what stood out in Srugi was humility; in fact, we could see
his desire to work in silence, hidden, all under exemplary obedience. In character and
physique he appeared as one of low rank, one made not to command or teach but, on
the contrary, to obey and learn. And here is the paradox: he, who identified himself as a
permanent “learner” (disciple) was recognised, and is remembered also by Muslims, with
the title of “muaallem Srugi” that is, “master/teacher Srugi”. This is the emphasis Simon
Srugi offers to the Salesian spiritual heritage: one can only become a teacher of the young
in the faith if one lives deeply as a disciple in the faith.
We would now like to highlight some fundamental elements of this discipleship
experience lived in Beitgemal. A discipleship centred in Jesus and his Gospel, a
discipleship lived in the Church, a discipleship with a spiritual imprint and method
proper to the Salesian charism and, finally, a discipleship that illuminates daily life and is
measured against and enriched by it.
1.1 Disciples of Christ and his Gospel
“To be a true disciple of Jesus”161 is what Simon Srugi proposed in his spiritual
programmes. This purpose resonates with the deep conviction of the major players in
the Beitgemal story. It seems obvious to say, but it is really Jesus, and the following that
he inspires, that we find at the basis of all the expressions of generous charity and spirit
of sacrifice of Fr Belloni, Bro. Angelo Bormida, Fr Eugenio Bianchi, Fr Mario Rosìn and
Bro. Simon Srugi.
Jesus is the beginning162 of existence, of the Church, of consecrated life,163 of the
160 In fact, it is also true that the missionary confrere brings with him, in addition to his personal gifts, a cultural,
pastoral, charismatic wealth taken from the culture and province of origin that he is called to share. Therefore,
not infrequently, the missionary is convinced that he arrives in the province to “bring”, to “give”, to “work”, to
“educate and evangelise”, to “save” with the danger of forgetting that his first mission is to grow in the Lord,
and do this in the culture and history of the society and the province where he arrives, God is already present,
therefore they are “holy ground” where one must enter with the greatest respect, “taking off one’s shoes”. To
tell the truth, in following the Lord it is much more what the missionary is called to learn than what he is
called to teach (apart from language and the rest of the cultural components).
161 S. Srugi, Propositi ritiro spirituale 25 agosto 1927, in AIMOR, 1927. [Cf. Appendix no. 2, thought 428].
162 Cf. Jn 1:1.
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Salesian charism.164
Our Salesians did not follow a virtue (obedience, poverty, chastity) or an activity (the
education of orphans, the mission among the Muslims, etc.), but followed a Person whom
they wanted to imitate in his fullness and a Gospel which they wanted to live in its totality.
Imitating Christ means looking to him as a model, it means remembering that
the path to sanctification to which one is called as a Salesian165 is a journey of
“Christification”166 To the point of being united with Him as St Paul says: “It is no longer
I who live but it is Christ who lives in me.”167 This is the deep meaning of Simon Srugi’s
resolutions: “I want to deny myself, my vanities, my pride, my whims and my comforts,
and carry my daily cross to be a true disciple of Jesus.”168
This configuration to Christ is expressed in day-to-day experience, but it can open
the heart to the point of total self-surrender in merciful love; this was the experience of
Bro. Angelo Bormida who felt he was a disciple of the Lord even in his death throes: “It
163 In the beginning there is Jesus, with his attraction, preaching the Kingdom of God and inviting people to
conversion (Mk 1:15): Then immediately after there is Jesus who calls some – the Twelve (Mk 1:16-20) – to
follow him, to “stay with him” to learn how he lives. He invites them to leave everything: trade, tradition,
goods, family, a planned future. “And they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and
followed him” (Mk 1:20).
Two kinds of discipleship formed around Jesus, two ways of following him:
- Most lived their conversion to the Kingdom in their family and professional life;
- Instead a small group was called by the Lord to stay with him, leaving family and profession: “He called to
him those whom he wanted and they came to him” (Mk 3, 13-14). This is the group of those who could say
with Peter: “Look, we have left everything and followed you” (Mt 19:27).
The group of those who leave everything receive the following two tasks:
The first task: “stay with Jesus in a particular relationship with him. Jesus wants a group of Israelites at his
side, so that they can participate in his way of life, in his way of being, which says total dedication to the
Father and to their brothers and sisters. It is a question – according to a felicitous expression of Vatican II,
later taken up by the following documents – of “following Christ more closely”;
The second task: proclaiming the Good News and spreading the kingdom of God. He called them – Mark
says – “to proclaim the message and to have authority to cast out demons” (Mk 3:15).
After announcing the Kingdom to all, calling them to follow him in his conversion, Jesus chooses the Twelve
first of all so that they may learn to live with him and like him, and then so that they may act like him and in
his name.
164 The spirit of Don Bosco “not without a special disposition from God, draws its original nature and strength
from the Gospel” Cf. Paul VI, Motu proprio Magistraioon vitae 24 May 1973 with which he raised the Salesian
Atheneum to the status of a University, in AGC 54 (1973) 272, 77.
In order to understand the Salesian spirit in its central element, we need to go beyond the person of Don
Bosco. We need to go to the Source from which he drew: the very person of Christ, his "Heart", that is to say
Christ insofar as he is the full revelation of divine Charity.
165 Cf. C 25.
166 Eph 4:19.
167 Gal 2:20.
168 S. Srugi, Propositi ritiro spirituale 25 agosto 1927, in AIMOR, 1927. [Cf. Appendix no. 2, thought 28].
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is nothing; our Lord was also scourged and abused. The only grace I ask of him is that of
helping me to bear everything with patience, until the end.”169
But to achieve this identification with the Master, we need a life of familiarity with
Him. This is the testimony of Fr Eugenio Bianchi’s life, for whom Jesus had become an
ever-present friend; indeed the Friend with whom he had a very tender, confidential
conversation throughout his tiring day. Fr Eugenio expressed this profound relationship
with a very tender devotion to the Name of Jesus and the fragrance spread everywhere;
but his favourite disciple, Simon Srugi, surpassed his master, so as to become truly the
“Jesus’ Cantor”.170
“Long live Jesus in our hearts, in our souls, in our works, in our life and in our
death.”171 This is what Simon Srugi used to say to etch into the tender minds of the
orphans of Beitgemal the memory of the divine Master and his secret divinising action
in their souls.
Disciples, always disciples. This awareness opened our Salesians to true humility and
sincere recognition of the greatness of Jesus Christ, the only Master. In this sense, what
happened with Fr Belloni and the origin of the procession of the Blessed Sacrament in
Bethlehem is emblematic; highly significant for its spiritual depth but also for its apostolic
fruitfulness:
Everyone had sung the praises of Fr Belloni, but the holy man, in his closing speech
at the academy, felt the need to correct many words on the subject.
“I am a poor man,” concluded the good Father with great humility; “it is the Lord Jesus
Christ who has done it. To him alone, therefore, honour and glory. We must thank
him. Indeed, I want us to do so publicly and solemnly. For the feast of the Sacred
Heart we will hold a procession with the Blessed Sacrament through the streets of the
city.”
When Fr Belloni wanted something, not even the Turkish government could win.
In fact, the procession marched composedly and devoutly through the streets of
Bethlehem, which followed the triumph of the Saviour in the monstrance with great
joy.
From that day onwards (...) the beautiful ceremony never ceased. On the contrary, the
circuit was enlarged and, year after year, the participation of the faithful and the clergy
169 E. Forti, Fedeli a don Bosco in Terra Santa, Leumann, Elle Di Ci, 1988, 38.
170 “Srugi’s greeting was ‘Long live Jesus’ and he said it smiling as if he had honey in his mouth. (...) He pronounced
it with pleasure, with love, with devotion, respectfully removing his cap. (...) He repeated: Long live Jesus!
Long live Mary! up to three times in succession, and he would say it with such devotion that it seemed as
if he had been taken over by a great joy. His face, when he said that greeting, seemed to me to be almost
transfigured and his soul all in Heaven". E. Forti, Il buon samaritano concittadino di Gesù, 154.
171 E. Forti, Il buon samaritano concittadino di Gesù, 155.
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became more numerous, so as to make it the most solemn Eucharistic procession in
all Palestine.172
1.2 Disciples in the Church
“Our love for Christ necessarily gives rise to our love for his Church, the People of God,
the centre of unity and communion of all the forces working for the Kingdom.”.173
In the mystery of the Church the same mystery of God the Father who loves all, of
the Son who redeems, of the Spirit who sanctifies, is present and at work. From the heart
of the Church comes a pastoral energy that makes her a sacrament of unity:
“it pleased God to call men to share His life, not just singly, apart from any mutual
bond, but rather to mould them into a people in which His sons, once scattered abroad
might be gathered together.”174 It also makes it “a universal sacrament of salvation,
simultaneously manifesting and exercising the mystery of God’s love”.175
One of the characteristics of the Salesian spirit is precisely that of “ecclesiality”:
This is true without any doubt of the universal Church, both in respect of its
sacramental nature, as a sign and efficacious means of salvation, as also of its ministry
of communion between the various vocations, charismata and ministries, and as
regards the mission it carries out in the world; but it is true as well of the particular
Churches, i.e. the local Churches in which we find ourselves inserted in practice.176
The history of Beitgemal illustrates two very particular aspects of this following of
Christ in the Church; they are the relationship with the hierarchy and the communion
with the clergy and other religious orders.
1.2.1 Relationship with the hierarchy
As our historical survey shows, there has always been a good relationship between
the Salesian community of Beitgemal and the pastors of the Church, especially the
Latin Patriarchate to which the community belongs. Patriarchs and Bishops visited
the orphanage in Beitgemal many times, and these visits were a real pleasure for the
distinguished guests and all the members of the work. For quite a while the visits became
172 E. Forti, Fedeli a don Bosco in Terra Santa, 27.
173 C 13.
174 AG 3.
175 GS 45; Cf. LG 48.
176 Project of life of the Salesians, 130.
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regular, prompting a traditional programme of affectionate interchange between the
Patriarch, the community and the orphans.
In their relationships with the ecclesiastical authorities – Patriarchs, Apostolic
Delegates, Bishops, etc. – who often had to juggle with Rome and the civil authorities,
the Salesians tried to practise the wise advice given by Don Bosco to the first
missionaries, and which Fr Rua formulated for the Middle East in the person of
its first Provincial: “Do what you can to get into the good graces of the Patriarch
and the clergy of the Patriarchate.[...] With the Patriarch it is better to proceed quite
broadmindedly.” And Fr Nai was able to practise this advice so well that, two years
later, he could confide to Fr Barberis: "The Patriarch loves me like a brother...".”177.2178
The Patriarchs showed confidence in the Salesians in Beitgemal by entrusting them
with the pastoral care of the Christians living in the surrounding area,179 also the pastoral
care of the religious communities in Rafat, and other required services (such as caring
for the children of Jewish-Christian families who arrived from Poland after the war). The
Salesians showed themselves to be responsible and generous with these commitments,
even though they had to invest a great deal of money, time, effort and even their lives in
fulfilling them.
On the other hand, the Salesians also turned to their pastors with confidence, when
they thought that the latter could help them in their various needs. And many times they
were welcomed and their needs granted.
Two issues gave rise to tensions between the hierarchy and the Salesians: the
ownership of the works that belonged to Fr Belloni and the management of the Salesians’
pastoral and vocational activities in relation to the Apostolic Letter Orientalium Dignitas.
1.2.1.1 The Bellonian Work’s properties
With respect to property, one has to go back to the beginning, when the union between
Fr Belloni’s religious family and the Salesians had just come fully into force in legal terms:
Fr Rua called the change in the Patriarch’s attitude after he returned from Rome a
“painful surprise”180 and attributed it “probably” to certain people “who had urged
the archbishop that property belonging to the Bellonian Work remained with the
Patriarchate.”181
177 Lettere di don Rua a don Nai, in ASC 9.131 Rua M., 12.10.1902 and 28.11.1902. Lettera di don Nai a don
Barberis G., in ASC 275 Nai L., 10.1.1904.
178 J. Borrego, I salesiani in Medio Oriente, 26.
179 In fact, Beitgemal was the only parish that the Salesians took over in the first 50 years of the province’s history.
180 Lettera (draft) senza data (undated) di D. Rua a Propaganda, in ASC 38 Betlemme, Conv. B-R.
181 G. Shalhub, Abuliatama, 132; J. Polacek., I salesiani di don Bosco e le figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice nella
Palestina, specialmente tra il 1891 e il 1910, Rome, Archivio PIO, 1976, 83.
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The Patriarch, considering the assets of the Holy Family Work to be property of
common ecclesiastical law, and therefore of the diocese of Jerusalem, and as such not
convertible into private property, imposed clauses for their administrative protection.
Fr Belloni, both verbally and in writing, demonstrated to him his independence
from the Patriarchate, declared “formally” by Bishop Valerga; he sent him a copy of the
Agreement with the Salesians, letting him know that he had already taken his vows in
their Congregation, and that, with much regret, neither he nor the representative of the
Salesians could accept the conditions he had set.182
In response, Archbishop Piavi suspended all subsidies to the Orphanage from the
beginning of 1891, and decided to deprive Fr Belloni of the title of canon. Belloni
confessed that in his heart he took a certain pleasure in this.183
The matter needed to be passed on to Propaganda Fide.184 This body imposed
heavy conditions on the Salesian superiors.185 Fr Rua’s reply was clear: having carefully
examined the matter, despite his full willingness to comply with the Patriarch’s wishes in
everything, he could not accept these conditions, and the Salesians were “obliged, albeit
very reluctantly, to abandon the position they had taken [i.e. to withdraw from Fr Belloni’s
works]”.186
The Prefecture of Propaganda Fide responded with some serious accusations against
the Congregation; Fr Rua took the opportunity, in a retrospective view of the whole affair,
to reaffirm that “the Pious Society has no other aim than to do good, and this always in
full agreement with the Apostolic See, as our unforgettable founder and father Don Bosco
taught us”; and he advanced the well-founded suspicion “that some misunderstanding
has occurred in this affair”.187
182 Lettera di Mons. Piavi a D. Belloni, in ASC 38 Betlemme, Conv. B-R, 5.7.1892; Lettere di D. Belloni a mons.
Piavi, in ASC 38 Betlemme, Conv. B-R, 3 and 9.7.1891
183 Cf. Lettere di D. Belloni a D. Barberis, in ASC 275 Belloni, 2-9-1981, 23.12.1891, 2.2.1892.
184 The latter asked Fr Belloni to draw up, together with the Patriarch, a new Agreement concerning the aggregation
of his Work to the Salesians, with the definitive approval of Rome. Fr Belloni, fearing that unacceptable
conditions would be imposed on the Salesians, persuaded Cardinal Simeoni that “several ill-informed persons
were trying to force the Salesians to withdraw”, which would lead to the ruin of his Work.
185 The Prefect of Propaganda replied with a letter to Fr Rua in which he specified the tough conditions of the
aggregation: the property of the Bellonian Work always belonged to the diocese of Jerusalem; the main aim
had to be the education of the poor youth of Palestine, with preference for those of the patriarchal diocese;
the collections in favour of the orphanage were to be made with the previous permission of Propaganda,
to whom the amount collected had to be accounted for annually; and finally the Work remained under the
protection of the French government.
186 Lettera del card. Simeoni a D. Rua, in ASC 38 Betlemme, Conv. B-R , 23.9.1891. There are two letters of reply,
one of five, the other of fifteen pages, undated. The first is undoubtedly the final text, carefully elaborated,
while the second is the draft. The latter is signed by the "Rector Major of the Salesians, Fr Michael Rua".
187 Lettere di D. Rua al card. Ledochowski, in ASC 38 Betlemme, Conv. B-R , 31.3 and 6.4.1892.
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The Superior Chapter decided to withdraw the Salesians from Palestine, on the advice
of the Holy Father. Fr Durando communicated this to Fr Belloni. Belloni, in holy despair,
wrote a strong letter to Propaganda Fide on 20 November 1892, in which, after clarifying
what could be done, he begged them to reach an agreement with the Salesians as soon
as possible that would allow them to continue working “for the spiritual and temporal
good of the orphans of Palestine”, otherwise he would be obliged to abandon the Work
altogether.
Fr Belloni also had personal correspondence with the Patriarch, who finally changed
his attitude. He showed himself so well disposed towards the sons of Don Bosco – even
if at a high price – that at the end of 1892 he wrote to Propaganda in their favour. In
conclusion, the Prefect of Propaganda, seeing that things were not “as he believed” – as
he wrote – “withdrew the recent dispositions [...] and referred everything to the prudence
of the Patriarch”, who assured Fr Belloni that he felt very happy to authorise the Salesians
to remain in Bethlehem, Cremisan and Beitgemal.
Throughout this whole affair, it was certainly Fr Belloni’s decisive approach that upset
the Patriarch and pushed him to find a more benevolent agreement.
1.2.1.2 Apostolic Letter Orientalium Dignitas
This is a fundamental document for apostolic missionary activity in the Middle East, and
therefore also for the work carried out by the Salesians in Beitgemal. The Latin institutions
that worked among the Orientals felt they were being reminded of something by Rome
in some of its paragraphs. The document had its origins in the Eucharistic Congress of
Jerusalem, celebrated the very year of the arrival of the Salesians. The Bollettino Salesiano
spoke widely of it.188 In this article we find for the first time the word “brothers” applied
to the Orthodox: the Salesians gradually attuned themselves, not without uncertainty, to
the new orientation of the Catholic Church, of which the Eucharistic Congress was a clear
expression.
The concrete and immediate result was the patriarchal conferences held in the
Vatican in October 1894, which led to Leo XIII’s Apostolic Letter Orientalium dignitas
188 “Since the Crusades, Jerusalem has never seen such a great display of faith. It was the two Churches, that of
the East and that of the West, which, with the multiplicity of rites they manifest, joined strongly together to
give a sublime testimony of faith and love to the Holy Eucharist, under the guidance of the Representative
of the Pope, Vicar of Jesus Christ, their Founder and Head. [...] And to make this demonstration [...] not
only the various rites of united Christendom contributed, but also our schismatic brothers [...]. The Greek
Patriarch, the Armenian Bishop and the Coptic dissidents, receiving the invitation of the President of the
Congress, gave him a warm welcome. [...] May God be adored in this Sacrament of love to really open the
eyes of these brothers of ours, draw them out of their prejudices and guide them into union with the Roman
Church". Il Congresso Eucaristico di Gerusalemme, in Bollettino Salesiano 17 (1893) 1255.
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Ecclessiarum of 30 November, which is considered “the Magna Carta of relations between
East and West, and the best that the most demanding champions of Eastern autonomy
could wish for”.189
Salesian activity was immediately interested in the articles:
1- threatening suspension a divinis and exclusion from office of the Latin missionary
who “educates some Oriental people to change to the Latin rite”;
3- that in the Latin schools of the East pupils of the Eastern rite should have a priest
of the same rite for Mass and catechesis in their own language, for the explanation
of their own rite, and all this at least on Sundays and holy days, ensuring that day
students participate in their own rite;
10- prohibiting the reception of Orientals of both sexes into a Latin Order or Institute
without the testimonial letters of their Ordinary.
But in the face of the reality of the work in Beitgemal – with pupils of different rites –
despite the desire for prompt obedience to the Pope, it was not known what to do, because
the decree ordered that for every 25 individuals resident in an Institute, there should be
a priest of their rite, but the Salesian Society did not have any, there was no money to
pay them, and experiments to bring them in as outside teachers teachers had not been
successful.
Then how could we have had Salesians of oriental rites, to educate the students in
their own rite, if there were so many difficulties in accepting young people of oriental
rites into the Congregation?
The Salesians therefore wondered whether, in this case, it would not be licit to more
easily accept, first as novices and then to admit to perpetual profession, young men of the
Eastern rite in order to have priests of that rite.
In fact – according to the chronicle – seven Salesian vocations of Eastern rite came
from the house at Beitgemal. But it was not easy to manage all the arrangements (to tell
the truth, also because it required a mentality of ritual ecumenism to which many were
not accustomed).
We can see how the chronicles of the time report the concrete difficulties of
implementing all the rules despite the good will to follow the spirit in which they were
enacted:
Among the teachers of Arabic we have here a young man of about 25 who was already
a pupil of Fr Belloni’s, a Maronite Catholic, and whom I would accept as an aspirant.
Now, while he is at school, he would like to study to embrace the ecclesiastical life and
189 ASS XXVII (1894-95) 257-264.
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later become a Salesian. But since he is a Maronite, I would like you [Fr Durando] to
tell me if he can learn Latin, do his philosophical and theological studies in Latin and
become a Salesian by changing from the Maronite rite to the Latin rite, or is it necessary
that he remain in his rite, studying philosophy and theology in Arabic. If the latter is
the case, please tell me how we should proceed.190
In fact, from 1901 onwards there had been a succession of requests from Salesians
of the Eastern rite to change to the Latin rite, but not before the novitiate, but after
temporary or perpetual profession. Propaganda intervened on 23 December 1903
disapproving of this custom and inviting Fr Rua to recommend to Salesian missionaries
the exact observance of the Apostolic Constitutions.191 Fr Albera would give Fr Gatti
precise rules:
For Orientals, in addition to the papers required to be admitted to the novitiate, a
dispensation to change to the Latin rite is also required; when they are postulants,
therefore, and it is hoped that they will apply for the novitiate, they should begin to
do the paperwork.192
In the Central Archives of the Congregation there is a brief correspondence with
Propaganda Fide (1904–05) aimed at remedying the irregularities committed in the
matters of the passage to the Latin rite. From the document itself it can be seen that the
majority of the native Salesians came from the various Eastern rites and that the sanatio
through correspondence was not an easy matter and took its time, because Propaganda
studied each case carefully.
One after the other, all the postulants of the Eastern rite asked to change to the Latin
rite, so that in 1915 the Provincial Fr Sutera announced to Fr Gusmano: “We only have
the Latin rite in the Congregation”.193
Only this way did they end up fulfilling all the precise rules, but moving away from
the original spirit of Orientalium Dignitas; because committed to resolving processes that
expressed respect for the Eastern Churches, the “Latin” identity was sidelined and the
desire for inculturation in the environment of Eastern rites was watered down.
190 Lettera di D. Cardano a D. Durando, in ASC 38 Beitgemal, 5.11.1901.
191 Lettera del Segretario di Prop. Fide per gli Affari dei Riti Orientali, mons. Savelli-Spinola, a D. Rua, in ASC
31.42. MO Relaz. Aut. Eccl., 21.12.1902.
192 Lettera di D. Albera a D. Gatti, ASC 38 Betlemme, undated.
193 Lettera di D. Sutera a D. Gusmano, in ASC 31.22 Corrisp. Coi Capit., 4.6.1915. People kept asking for permission
to change to the Latin rite, and on one occasion Fr Sutera came out with that revealing expression.
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1.2.1.3 Summary
To be a disciple of Jesus in the Church demands that we take on the effort to grow by
constantly addressing the tensions between charism and institution, love and justice,
prophecy and tradition, truth and dialogue. History shows that this is not easy. It often
seems that the human dimension pollutes the divine institution too much. But Christ
took on human nature, and from it and with it he wants to redeem us. If the incarnation
was a continuous Kenosis for Christ, then it will certainly be no different for the disciples.
Certainly the desire to live in communion with the Pastors of the Church has helped
us to deal with the misunderstandings that have arisen in a mature Christian way. But
even in this case Don Bosco’s exhortation remains fully valid: “Any effort is little when it
comes to the Church and the Papacy.”194
1.2.2 Communion with the clergy and other religious congregations
“Love, fear, respect other religious orders and always speak well of them. This is the way
to make everyone respect you and to promote the good of the Congregation.” This was
the tenth piece of advice given by Don Bosco to the first Salesian missionaries.
The Salesians have received a particular sensitivity from Don Bosco for that aspect
of the Church which is its capacity to build “unity and communion among all the forces
working for the Kingdom”. In the Salesian view the Church is seen as the People of God,
a mystery of “communion” of all its members, an active communion, a dynamic centre
placed at the service of unity among all the forces (people of good will) that silently work
in the world for the good of their brothers and sisters.
This attitude was fully in line with Fr Belloni’s ecclesial sensitivity. Belloni was
nicknamed “the friend of all religious”,195 as he was repeatedly able to demonstrate:
When the De La Salle Brothers arrived in Palestine, Fr Belloni hastened to welcome
them and, beaming with joy, offered his services, thanked the Lord for having sent
them to do good in those lands, gave them useful information on the environment
and encouraged them to set to work immediately.
These sentiments and broadmindedness, which are the flower of charity, could not
leave indifferent those who were its immediate object. ...[Their superior] Brother
Evagre remained a faithful friend, the enthusiastic admirer throughout Father
Belloni’s life; he visited him often and there was no feast where he did not attend.196
194 G.B. Lemoyne, Memorie Biografiche di don Giovani Bosco V, S. Benigno Canavese-Torino, SEI, 1904, 577.
195 G. Shalhub, Abuliatama, 57-60.
196 G. Shalhub, Abuliatama, 58.
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The Assumptionists and the Lazarists [Vincentians] were edified and won over by the
affectionate care that the good Father had for them in the first months of their arrival
and remained very attached to his work.197 Abuliatama was especially deferential to
the Franciscan Fathers, the intrepid guardians of the holy places, and had respect and
veneration for them.198
Fr Antonio Varaia, the first Salesian Rector of Beitgemal, was also famous for his
selfless service in the spiritual direction of religious communities in Palestine. In fact this
is the interpretation given to a dream of Don Bosco’s in which he saw the priest Varaia
occupied in a great work outside the circle of the Congregation.199
The relationship of friendship established between Brother Angelo Bormida and the
Sisters of Saint Joseph during the last month of his approaching death was most consoling.
In this relationship, short in time but of a depth that only souls guided by the Spirit can
reach, it is shown how true friendship satisfies one of the deepest needs of the human
being: to love and be loved. True friendship in religious life attracts people to holiness:
this is the purpose of authentic friendship between Christians, and this was the edifying
testimony of the relationship between Bormida and the dear sisters.
Fr Eugenio Bianchi is also recognised for his real leaning towards communion with
the clergy and religious. In him we see that friendship among religious is a precious
opportunity to grow, to share the joy of discernment and vocation together. Ecclesial
communion among religious is a measure of human maturity, of Christian and religious
fulfilment, a measure of objectivity.
Among the abundant relationships that Fr Eugene established during his life in
Beitgemal, the friendship with the Dominican Fr Maurice Gisler, with whom he shared
common ideals, is outstanding: love for Jesus and the Holy Scripture, passion aroused by
the discovery of St Stephen’s tomb and the desire to build a large pilgrimage shrine that
would be a source of spreading Christian forgiveness.
Finally, it is sufficient to recall that Fr Rosìn’s martyrdom was perpetrated thanks to
his faithful commitment to the spiritual accompaniment of the religious communities at
Rafat.
1.3 Salesian discipleship (a charism passed on from father to son)
Educating and forming has never been an easy task; even less so if what is sought is
the configuration of the heart to the sentiments of Christ. Don Bosco succeeded in this
197 G. Shalhub, Abuliatama, 59.
198 G. Shalhub, Abuliatama, 60.
199 AIMOR, Lettera mortuaria di don Varaia Antonio, October 1913.
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arduous task, despite the anticlerical environment that reigned in Turin in the years
before the Congregation was founded,200 thanks to the affection he was surrounded with,
as well as the admiration and devotion of the young people for their father and friend,
whom they persuaded was a man of God. “All this often attracted unlimited trust in him
and encouraged the young people to stay with him.”201
In fact the case of the Salesian Congregation, founded with a small group of young
people trained in the spiritual and pastoral school of a single formator, is a unique event
in the Church. But this has left a very special mark on spirituality that is expressed not
only in the strong attachment to the figure of Don Bosco “father, teacher and friend” but
also in a characteristic style of transmission of the charism, marked by a vigorous family
style.
One of the finest fruits of the family spirit is vocations. The history of the
Congregation amply demonstrates the truth of this in the case of both Don Bosco
and the first Salesians. Inserted as they were in the heart of a Salesian community
made warm by family affection, many boys learned to model their own lives on those
of their educators; they became progressively aware of the germ of a Salesian vocation
that God had placed in their heart, and the family atmosphere led them little by little
to identify with ideals and the style of life of their teachers; slowly their sense of
belonging to the Congregation matured together with the desire to take part in its
pastoral activity.
This is the dynamic growth process which is characteristic of the Salesian way of
life; the atmosphere is one in which vocations naturally appear and grow; they then
mature in the family spirit and a gradual insertion into apostolic work follows almost
automatically.202
Fr Belloni also tried a similar path, and managed to achieve some good results, but
circumstances, which were much more constraining, did not allow him to develop as
200 "The undertaking was arduous, but by 1852 it had already been sketched out. Don Bosco began to turn to
the young pupils who inspired him: Rua, Francesia, Cagliero, Angelo Savio, Rocchietti, Turchi and others.
Evidently his prudence was great. Congregations and friars were not really in fashion at that time. We are
told that the boys were inclined to laugh at everything they knew about friars and convents... His tactics were
in tune with the mentality of the milieu". Wirth M, Da don Bosco ai nostri giorni. Tra storia e nuove sfide,
Rome, LAS, 2000, 124.
201 "The undertaking was arduous, but by 1852 it had already been sketched out. Don Bosco began to turn to
the young pupils who inspired him: Rua, Francesia, Cagliero, Angelo Savio, Rocchietti, Turchi and others.
Evidently his prudence was great. Congregations and friars were not really in fashion at that time. We are
told that the boys were inclined to laugh at everything they knew about friars and convents... His tactics were
in tune with the mentality of the milieu". Wirth M, Da don Bosco ai nostri giorni. Tra storia e nuove sfide,
125.
202 Project of Life of the Salesians of Don Bosco, 148.
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he wished. Instead, it allowed him to be fully in tune with the spiritual and pedagogical
method of the Salesians when they arrived in the land of Jesus.
The same can be said of Simon Srugi as of Dominic Savio: he was very good by nature
but it was spiritual work and the guidance of courageous teachers in the faith that urged
him to take the high road of the Christian life. The gusto with which, as a Salesian, the
names of Jesus, Mary and Joseph would continually blossom on his lips, could only come
from the experience he had lived with innocent intensity in the years of his adolescence
under the guidance of Fr Belloni.
Simon’s sensitivity as an educator in Beitgemal towards young people, even when
his occupations seemed to lead him towards other interests, was certainly formed in the
school of Bethlehem and with the example of the father of the orphans.
Srugi also owed his ecumenical spirit to Abuliatama:
The charity he showed throughout his life, and without distinction, for Orthodox
and Muslims as a nurse and miller, was inspired by what he had seen in Bethlehem.
In those days it was not easy, even among Catholics, to find serenity in relations
with Muslims and Orthodox: indeed, a strong detachment, not to say adversity, was
normal. In the House at Bethlehem, Srugi saw the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Elleno
and the Turkish Pasha, Mr Bsciara Effendi Habib, who were kindly received by his
benefactor.203
It is interesting to highlight the figure of Fr Varaia204 and the spirit he brought to
Beitgemal, because he was Srugi’s first Salesian teacher and therefore had to pass on to
him, in their two-year contact, something of his spiritual wealth.
It was Fr Antonio’s tact and prudence that created an environment of familiarity,
understanding and respect in Beitgemal during the early years of the merger between
the Salesians and the Brothers of the Holy Family:205
Fr Varaia, with his modesty and gentleness, has already earned the affection and
esteem of everyone; the other Salesians are also very happy ...; peace reigns,
contentment, harmony.206
It is in this healthy and proactive environment that Srugi’s vocation would be
expressed; and a worthy disciple of his first Salesian Rector, he would always show himself
to be prudent and delicate in all that could influence community relationships.
203 Informatio, 49.
204 “Adamantine, energetic character; heroic sacrifice; firm piety; unconditional and scrupulous obedience to
superiors whom he revered indiscriminately as God’s representatives; unquenchable zeal, the most austere
mortification.” AIMOR, Lettera mortuaria di don Varaia Antonio, October 1913.
205 In Bethlehem and Cremisan the merger was more conflictual.
206 Lettera di don Belloni a don G. Barberis, in ASC 275 Beitgemal, Fasc. 4/B, 11.1.1892.
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Together with Fr Varaia, Simon developed the ability to sense God’s presence in
his life and to perceive the continuous guidance of Providence. The environment in
Beitgemal had a good religious outlook, and Fr Varaia raised the tone further by making
piety, observance, attendance at the sacraments and divine worship flourish there.
With Fr Ruggero Corradini, the second Rector and Novicemaster, Srugi learned
regular work, an active apostolate among the boys, a deep life of piety and strict religious
observance. “Fr Varaia and Fr Corradini, who had grown up in Don Bosco’s own school,
had to communicate the Salesian spirit almost by direct contact.”207
But he established a true relationship of spiritual sonship with Fr Eugenio Bianchi. As
we have seen, Fr Eugenio was a great Salesian educator (causes for beatification have been
introduced for five of his novices), and remembered for his typically Salesian fatherliness:
demanding yet benevolent. Without doubt, his gospel radicalism and Salesianity were a
great incentive for Srugi, who loved and venerated him as a true father. Simon, together
with Fr Bianchi, strengthened his desire for generosity and radical approach, learned to
be exquisite in his commitment to grow in virtue, and developed devotion to the name
of Jesus!
Srugi would remain grateful to Fr Eugenio for the rest of his life. In 1920 Simon gave
up a trip to Italy to take care of Fr Bianchi who had fallen from his horse. After 1931 he
often repeated when speaking of Heaven: “We will see God, Mary Most Holy, the Angels
and Saints up there, we will find our superiors, Don Bosco, we will see Fr Bianchi and
our confreres. Oh, what joy! What a feast that will be!”208
In turn, Srugi became a father and spiritual model for many who had the joy of being
at his side.
There are abundant references in the mortuary letters to the significance of the figure
of great Salesians who, through a total and pure gift of themselves, had passed on, along
with particular sensitivities and skills, the desire to be generous and authentic disciples
of Christ in the Church with the style proper to the Salesian charism.
It must be acknowledged that in this period some very capable confreres were formed
who were the support of the future Province of the Middle East [...] because in the
humble spiritual centre of the Orphanage of Beitgemal the values of religious life were
lived with intensity.209
The examples given are just a sample, certainly not exhaustive, of what is being said:
207 Informatio, 67.
208 Summ., 8-9.
209 Informatio, 60.
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Giovanni Morosìn’s passion for Latin was inherited from his revered teacher Fr
Mario Rosìn, to whom he was bound by the deepest esteem and admiration, by filial
confidence and intimate friendship.210
Living and working with an authentic Salesian (authentic father, authentic teacher
and authentic friend) leads to an understanding of his fundamental values, to wanting to
be like him, to stay with him, to communicate what one has perceived from him; it leads
to wanting to draw from the same source: from Christ Jesus.
1.4 Disciples of life
Openness to history and dialogue with reality is an essential element in the discipleship
of Christ who became incarnate for our salvation.
Just as God’s revelation takes the form of the incarnate Logos, so human faith must
be "itself fully incarnate: embracing body, soul and spirit”211.212
The mature Christian is called to have an availability to the action of the Spirit working
in their own history and reality; an intelligent and attentive availability, enterprising and
ductile, which allows them to live every day of life and every relationship, every age and
season, every place and every circumstance, even those that are new or seem adverse,
as a time and opportunity for formation, as a time and opportunity to be configured to
Christ.
Without such an openness one would never understand Don Bosco’s life, spirituality
and work:
Open to the action of the Spirit, Don Bosco knew how to interpret the signs of the
times and respond in an enlightened, creative and concrete way to the needs as they
emerged.213 The relationship with reality became part of the fabric of his vocation. He
experienced at first hand the history of the Church and the history of his country.
He was able to grasp its complexity and enter into it as a protagonist. The historical
context became for him a challenge and a pressing invitation to discernment and
210 Lettera Mortuaria di D. Giovanni Morosin, in AIMOR, April 1963.
211 H.U. Von Balthasar, Gloria 1, 125 mentioned by R. Carelli, L’uomo e la donna nella teologia di H. U. Von
Balthasar, Lugano, EUPRESS FTL, 2007, 359.
212 R. Carelli, L’uomo e la donna nella teologia di H. U. Von Balthasar, 359.
213 Cf. John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata, 25 March 1996, in Enchiridion vaticanum, 15.
Official Documents of the Holy See 1996.
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action. “I have always gone forward [...] as the Lord inspired me and circumstances
demanded”214.215
In fidelity to Christ, who called the confreres of Beitgemal to be Salesians in the
Middle East, life has invited them to courageously re-propose the resourcefulness,
inventiveness and holiness of Don Bosco as a response to the signs of the times emerging
in Palestine in the first half of the twentieth century.
This invitation was first and foremost a call to perseverance on the path to holiness
through the material and spiritual difficulties that marked daily and extraordinary events.
But it was also a call to seek competence in one’s own work and to cultivate a dynamic
fidelity to one’s own mission, adapting its forms to new situations and different needs,
in complete docility to divine inspiration and to ecclesial, congregational, provincial and
finally community discernment.
The greatness of Fr Belloni, Fr Varaia, Fr Corradini, Bro. Bormida, Fr Bianchi, Fr
Rosìn, Bro. Srugi and the other Beitgemal confreres was precisely this ability (openness
to the action of the Spirit in one’s own life) to let themselves be formed by history, to enter
into a spiritual dialogue, a paschal and relational dialogue, with reality.
This has not always been the case. In fact, the history of the community of Beitgemal
(and more broadly that of the MOR Province) is full of mistakes, fears, challenges not
always well met, lack of impetus and creative fidelity.
Today we can find a thousand reasons to judge and condemn them, and a thousand
more to understand and absolve them. What we want to highlight now is the objective
difficulty of dealing with new, unprecedented and often adverse situations.
How could we ask European Salesians who had learned all their lives that extra ecclesia
[of course Catholic] nulla salus to enter the ecumenical climate that the Eastern mission
was beginning to demand? How could we ask them to launch into inculturation when
at the time it was more important to remain completely faithful to Don Bosco who
had just died? How to establish a healthy and mature dialogue with “the Old Testament
confreres”?216 when there was suspicion in the Church of the weakness of the identity of
the Salesian charism, which drove the Salesians to keep everything as Don Bosco had
left it? How can we be prepared to live in a land of continuous wars and political and
social injustices and not be upset by the hatred that reigns everywhere? How can we live
214 Cf. G.B. Lemoyne, Memorie Biografiche del venerabile servo di Dio don Giovani Bosco VI, S. Benigno Canavese-
Torino, SEI, 1907, 381
215 The Formation of the Salesians of Don Bosco. Principles and Norms. Ratio fundamentalis et studiorum, S.D.B,
Rome, 2000, 37.
216 This was the playful nickname the Salesians had for the Brothers of the Holy Family who had become
Salesians. Fr Belloni himself and the Arab confreres identified themselves by this nickname.
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in peace with the torment of being robbed and mistreated unjustly while spending our
lives doing good to all?
The circumstances were really difficult, the spiritual and apostolic challenges often
exceeded the imaginable. No specific preparation could have foreseen such challenges.
No course could have trained Fr Belloni to leave his post as seminary professor to become
the father of the orphans of Palestine, or prepared Bro. Bormida to be betrayed by his own
confreres and then dies as a result, or Fr Bianchi to face external and communal warfare,
or Fr Rosìn for such humiliating exile and then martyrdom.
The history of Beitgemal is full of light and shadows. Difficult situations that brought
out the worst in some of the confreres. Very difficult situations: conditioning but not
decisive; in fact for other confreres, the same circumstances were experienced as an
opportunity to show themselves truly docile to the action of the Spirit.
What we want to emphasise now is that the darkness or weakness that exists in history
should not primarily be a cause for scandal but an indication of the reality of the harshness
of the trials and pressures endured.
It was impossible to be prepared for such tough challenges, and yet, in Beitgemal,
magnificent confreres shone out; not because they were prepared for ecumenism, for
dialogue with Muslims, to suffer the consequences of war, betrayal and martyrdom,
but they shone out as confreres because they were willing in mind and heart to allow
themselves to be configured to Christ, the way, the truth and the life, during their
lifetime,217 to let themselves be formed by life, because with the eyes of faith they
discovered, beyond the often deceptive appearance, that life is mother and teacher, a true
educational mediation, in the hands of the Father.
Truly it is God the Father and Teacher but it is throughout life and through it (as it
is) where the redemptive action of our configuration with his Son unfolds.
Certainly life is a teacher, but it needs active and current human collaboration, which
makes us intelligently shrewd and industrious, spiritually available. This availability
cannot be improvised or born out of nothing. Such availability is born of the long and
hard work of faith and prayer, of honest and authentic relationship first with God and
then with one’s neighbour. This availability is the result of a learning process through
which the believer perceives in his own history the formative action of God, some times
evident and at other times hidden, but nevertheless present in every event and entrusted
to human acceptance in freedom and responsibility.
It was the presence or lack of this availability that was the difference in how confreres
reacted when faced with the events and challenges they had to tackle at Beitgemal.
217 Cf. The concept of docibilitas in A. Cencini, L’albero della vita, 125-134.
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Life in its various areas challenged and formed the Beitgemal confreres. Here are some
of the most significant: daily life, simple and laborious; life in a multi-ritual context; life
in a multi-religious context; life in the context of war and persecution.
1.4.1 Daily life: simple and laborious
While reading the history of Beitgemal one might certainly be impressed by the constant
circumstances of war that they underwent with truly heroic Christian patience. Or the
discover of the tomb of St Stephen and what that did for the community might take up
all our attention. But it would be a great injustice not to realise that the real greatness
to be found in the history of Beitgemal was the daily life of the confreres; humble, often
hidden218 and very demanding life.
In the following of Christ, the confreres in Beitgemal faced a life where joys and
sorrows alternated. A life where the most sensational success was the silent sowing of
the Presence and Love of God.
To be honest, Beitgemal had felicitous and recognised success for the spiritual and
material assistance given to so many orphans who were readied to take up good positions
in life because of the education they had received. The chronicles bears precise testimony
to this in the whole of their narrative.
Thus the social activity carried out largely on behalf of the poor population
surrounding them was largely positive and even if mostly Muslim the people found in Fr
Belloni’s and the Salesians’ work a provident centre of material aid and a valid testimony
of Christian charity. The Salesians at Beitgemal were silent, hard-working heroes through
their charity among the Christian and Muslim world.
In other respects the Agricultural School was less fortunate. The prime negative fact,
the presence of malaria which was deadly especially in certain years and which led to a
continuous rotation of staff who were not resistant to the climate.
Even improvements on the land did not meet expectations, due to its largely stony
nature, drought, poorly favourable weather conditions, livestock epidemics and the
difficulties created by the village staff who worked on the farm. All this can be quickly
listed, but only God knows how much effort it entailed for the confreres to offer their
educative and pastoral service with constant fidelity, facing the emerging difficulties day
after day.
218 It is enough to consider Simon Srugi; his presence and activity is only outlined three times [The opening
of the clinic (Cronaca 1923), Foundation of St Joseph’s Sodality (Cronaca 1929), Bro, Srugi’s death (Cronaca
1943)] while in the absence of extraordinary events worthy of being reported in the chronicle, God gave
MOR Province the greatest confrere to be found in its history.
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In fact, it was not possible to cover the expenses for maintaining the orphans free of
charge, and the chronicle, as well as the correspondence preserved in the archives, reveals
an insistent request for financial aid to superiors to pay the debts.219
The Orphanage might have been located in a most scenic setting, but it was far from
urban centres, completely isolated and therefore in difficulties regarding the relationships
a school needs to maintain with the civil world. People around took advantage of this
through theft and disturbances where the priests lived;220 there were also the ongoing
struggles between Turks, Arabs and Jews that made life dangerous.
In the testimonies of the Beitgemal confreres we sometimes read somewhat idyllic
expressions, which speak of tranquillity, silence, the bliss of the countryside. Fr Varaia
wrote to the superiors in Turin: “You can call it the mountain of peace here, the house of
tranquillity”:221 but these sere isolated voices and moments.
In general we can speak of good results in educational terms, but without hiding the
far from happy situations the confreres had to live in. Here is a realistic judgement that
the Provincial, Fr Francesco Laconi, expresses in Simon Srugi’s regard, but which at the
same time reveals the harsh reality that the community had to face every day:
Beitgemal – a poor house, very out of the way, completely surrounded by Muslim
villages, by people often less than kind – was never a house where the confreres longed
to go. And our Srugi spent his entire life there, without ever changing, without asking
for a break elsewhere.
To have a somewhat adequate idea of the continuous heroism of the Servant of God’s
charity, it would be necessary to have an accurate collection and description of the
troubled years of the House, of the misery around it, the hunger and thirst, the
plagues and diseases they were inflicted by from the day that Simon Srugi set foot
in Beitgemal.
It is a pity that the house chronicles were so poor in terms of news and details. Caught
up in work and obstacles, especially during the toughest periods (war 1914–1918) at
times the confreres spent more effort surviving than writing. And that was natural.
Sometimes sad and painful events like the murder of their Rector, harassment by
bandits who came to the house demanding they give them clothing, sums of money
on the spot… yet never did the Servant of God get riled or upset, even if having
to suffer from real oppression, blackmail, persecution. He endured everything with
indescribable fortitude always trying to relieve and comfort the other confreres.
Another less virtuous individual would have asked for a change of house a thousand
times. And in fact more than one did.
219 Cf. J. Borrego, I salesiani nel Medio Oriente,108-109.
220 The Convent, using Franciscan terminology.
221 Informatio, 56.
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Beitgemal: it was a very poor house and knew many hardships, to the point that the
clerics sent there for practical training got away from it. In the opinion of the Province
itself, the least intelligent and qualified were sent there.222
This was the mountain “of peace and house of tranquillity”. Forgive my sarcasm.
But at the same time this experience was the real field of sanctification for our dear
confreres. The fundamental challenge for a believer and for a community is to transform
the experience of life, by virtue of faith, into a gospel experience. This is what Fr Eugenio
Bianchi did; but no less so also Bro. Bormida and Fr Rosìn.
It is easy to proclaim that we are Christians, consecrated individuals, generically
Salesians. It is difficult to live as disciples of the Lord, undoing the knots that make life
problematic and opening up to the practical needs of the Beatitudes.223
In the Salesian experience this is both a joyful and fundamental intuition: there is
no need to detach oneself from ordinary life to have a profound experience of encounter
with the Lord, of configuration to him.
As insisted in the previous paragraph, the basis of the positive evaluation of daily life
is the continuous discovery of the incarnation event.
The human condition of Jesus reveals the fact that God is present in life, and that
God affirms life’s transcendence. Jesus as Man is the sacrament of the Father, the great
and definitive mediation that makes God present and close to us. He teaches us that
the place to meet God is in human reality: our own and that of others, daily and
throughout history. "As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it
to me" (Mt 25:40). It is human life that inserts us in the event of the Incarnation.
Life therefore is primarily a “gift” offered to all – a “mysterious” gift because of
the expectations to which it gives rise. It is like a jewel-case containing unforeseen
meanings and horizons.224
222 Summ., 61.
223 Perhaps the idea is a bit forced but I don’t believe it is far from reality if, in the lives of the confreres at
Beitgemal, we see a concretisation of the Sermon on the Mount:
Blessed are you, Fr Belloni, poor in spirit, because the kingdom of heaven is for those like you.
Blessed are you, confreres of Beitgemal, afflicted, because those like you will be consoled.
Blessed are you, Fr Bianchi, meek, because those like you will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, because they will have their fill.
Blessed are you, Bro. Bormida, merciful, because those like you will find mercy.
Blessed are you, Bro. Srugi, pure of heart, because those like you will see God.
Blessed are you, Fr Varaia, worker for peace, because those like you will be called children of God.
Blessed are you, Fr Rosìn, persecuted for the cause of justice, because the kingdom of heaven is for those like you.
Blessed are you when they insult you, persecute you, and lying, will speak all kinds of evil against you because
of me. Rejoice and exult, because great is your reward in heaven.
224 23RD GENERAL CHAPTER-SALESIANS OF DON BOSCO, Educating the young in the faith, Chapter Documents,
Rome, S.D.B., 1990, no 163.
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Here is the daily spirituality lived by the confreres in Beitgemal, especially by Simon
Srugi; true spirituality, because thanks to the action of the Spirit and his acceptance of
it, Srugi consistently assumed the ordinary side of life; he accepted the challenges, the
questions, the tensions of growth and other factors in the ups and downs his concrete
mission required, there as they appeared, wherever, whenever and how God had called
him to spend his life on behalf of the most needy.
All this required a considerable spiritual tension, because the same challenges can
lead to a profound spirituality of everyday life or to a monotonous and empty routine,
closer to death than to life.
Spending one’s whole life in the same environment, with the same occupations and
in a location far from the big centres, is often, for mediocre spirits, a cause of inner
impoverishment and a narrow mindset.
In fact, living in a state of isolation, if the supernatural trust given by the Communion
of Saints, which has become a daily reality, is missing, can also harm religious souls
who risk growing up in an environment made artificial not by the structure or the
requirements of a Rule, but by the selfishness of those who, although called to give
of themselves more, close themselves off in the narrow panorama of their own small
world.
This could also have happen to the Servant of God had he not lived his inner life
with all the intensity of someone who loves, and had he not looked at the living
circumstances that surrounded him with the eye of faith.
The “rust of awful everyday” that so easily levels even the best spirits, did not
crystallise him in a rigid schedule or in a stereotypical succession of occupations:
he did everything for love and love gives a soul to life.225
Srugi’s spiritual commitment consisted in putting back together the fragments of life
in the unity achieved by the Spirit; working to overcome the ambiguities present in daily
experience; but above all ‘fermenting’ every choice with love: all this was the obligatory
step to discover and love everyday life as a new reality in which God worked as a Father.
1.4.2 Life in a multi-ritual context226
When the Salesians arrived in Palestine, in the orphanages at Bethlehem, Beitgemal,
Cremisan, they found only Christian pupils, perhaps more for practical reasons than
a particular mindset. The one exception was Beitgemal, about which Fr Belloni wrote
in 1887 that “of the 60 boarders almost all are Catholics, less one who is still a
225 E. Forti, Un buon samaritano concittadino di Gesù, 63-64.
226 For a better understanding of this term we refer to J. Polacek, I salesiani di don Bosco e le figlie di Maria
Ausiliatrice nella Palestina, specialmente tra il 1891 e il 1910, Rome, Archivio PIO, 1976.
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Mohammedan”.227 But even Fr Belloni, before the Salesians arrived, took in a number
of non-Catholic Oriental rite boys. So in 1887 Beitgemal had “4 Greek schismatics
converted and 6 who had run away from the Protestant orphanage.”.228
At Beigemal the Salesians naturally dedicated themselves to the Christians; of these,
Latin rite were only one part, almost always a minority. The initial restrictions imposed by
the ecclesiastical authorities on privileging Latins, changed in 1920 in an urgent request
by the same authority, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, that Beitgemal see to “the instruction
and Christian education first and foremost of young Catholics [emphasis on the term
“Catholics” instead of “Latins”] who belonged to the Patriarchate, especially the poor
ones, and then schismatics [...], at least for now Greeks and Armenians, because otherwise
they would go to Protestant schools.”229
After the merger with the Salesians, Fr Belloni’s work increased the number of Eastern
dissidents who entered, rather more than the number of Eastern Uniate members.230 At
Beitgemal in 1897, with no day students, “there were various schismatics [...] and even
one Armenian who had seen his parents murdered in the 1896 massacres.”231
The case regarding this boy, who later became Fr Almagian, will be discussed in the
final paragraph of this chapter; here it is only noted that the Armenian massacres had
some repercussions for the Salesians in the Middle East.232
227 A. Belloni, Bulletin Annuel, Bethlehem, 1887, 17.
228 A. Belloni, Bulletin Annuel, Bethlehem, 1887, 14.
229 Lett. di D. Rosìn a D. Sutera, in ASC 31.42 MO Relaz. Aut. Eccl., 22.7.1919. This is the report by Fr Sutera,
requested by the Patriarch of Jerusalem at the request of Propaganda, 16.6.1919.
230 Orphans continually arrive: “Today the Latin parish priest of Ramallah sent me an orphaned and abandoned
boy. [...] He is of Greek origin, but his mother became a Catholic for some time. I gladly took him in here, but
the dormitories are already more than full [...]. In order not to send him back into the midst of the Turks, I
recommend him to you [in Beitgemal] convinced that Providence will take care of maintaining him.” Belloni
A. a Varaia A., in ASC 275, 17.9.1894.
231 Lettera di D. Vercauteren C. a D. Durando, in ASC 38Beitgemal, 31.3.1897.
232 “This sad event marks a departure point in the history of the Salesian missionary apostolate, so deserves a
brief digression. The world was moved by the misfortune of Armenian Catholics, and there were demonstrations
on their behalf in the large cities. The Salesians responded in their typical style. In December 1896 the
Bollettino Salesiano printed a letter dated 24 July and already published in various dailies, written by Fr Belloni
to one of his friends, Fr Giuseppe M. De Carlo, in which he told the story of a visit from an Armenian Catholic
priest, parish priest of Beirut. He described the sad situation of so many towns in Armenia and the great
number of orphaned children, vagabonds, homeless and without food; many were picked up by the Turks and
sold [...] and he had ardently begged him to accept a certain number of these unfortunate orphans. Fr Belloni
had told him that his orphanage was already full, but faced with such an urgent case he promised to organise
a new dormitory, counting on the help of benefactors in whose hands he was ‘pronouncing a sentence of life
or death of innocent children who had escaped the massacres by the Turks.’ The dormitory was ready within
a year. The Bollettino Salesiano returned to the subject in March 1897, showing as an example the senior
students at Alassio who had sent a spontaneous donation ‘for the Armenian orphans at the orphanage in
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It was not always easy to observe the prescriptions of art. 3 of Orientalium dignitas
which required them to see that they could attend their own rite and to see that the
boarders also had (if there were at least ten of that rite) a priest from the rite who “would
celebrate Mass at least on Sundays, administer the sacraments and impart catechetical
and liturgical instruction.” This gave rise to many practical difficulties.
Towards 1900 one annual Report stated that “mixing Greek schismatics with Latins
is a plague”; because they “did not receive the sacraments while regularly attending
religious services, they had an influence on the Latins who also did not receive the
sacraments out of human respect”; thus the presence of Greek orthodox would be an
obstacle to creating a true environment of solid Christian piety.233
Even here, life has taught us to gradually overcome difficulties, and difficult situations
have served many times as a stimulus to amalgamate pupils from different Churches and
rites with each other and with the Salesians both in intentions and in practical life.
The Salesians have evolved, some with great effort, together with the Church in their
ecumenical mentality, even if, to tell the truth, what we call ecumenism of charity today
was already the experience ... from the very foundation of the orphanage.
Certainly contact with ritual diversity led many Salesians in Beitgemal to develop the
typically Salesian attitudes of openness and cordiality. In fact, many showed that they had
received the gift of empathy from the Holy Spirit and committed themselves to modelling
their relational skills on the gentleness of Christ’s heart.
1.4.3 Life in a multi-religious context
In Beitgemal, integration with the Arab and Jewish world was quite problematic, as was
to be expected. Relations, first with Muslims and then with Jews, were found to have
been numerous and courteous, but for many Salesians they remained mostly superficial
and rarely reached a point of intimacy with the people. The Chronicle, usually written
by missionary rectors, highlights the difficulty in discovering, beyond appearances, the
ethical and spiritual values of the people around them who had a social mentality and a
cultural heritage very different from that of the Salesians.
In this sense, the history of the community quite frequently reflects the mentality of
the Western world and of the pre-conciliar Church with regard to Islam and Judaism.
Bethlehem’; Fr Rua blessed the initiative, and urged that publicity be given to the boys taken in at Bethlehem,
Nazareth, Cremisan, Beitgemal. They were probably no more than a dozen in number, but it opened the way
to the extent that in 1919 Beitgemal saw ‘the number of pupils increase with Armenian orphans.” J- Borrego,
I salesiani nel Medio Oriente, 206.
233 Relazione annuale, in ASC 31.23 MO, 1900 and 1931.
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It draws attention, however, to how the radical approach of the Gospel and openness
of mind, the fruit of a humanity matured in faith, gave rise to a “second nature” in the
community or a mindset existing alongside the “more Western” one. Contact with people
of different nationalities234 and religions led some Salesians, attentive to the appeals
of the Spirit, to develop prophetic attitudes of dialogue, charity, service and respectful
proclamation. The Church would promote this approach to non-Christians especially as
a result of the Second Vatican Council.
We are focusing on the experience of Simon Srugi because it is the most radical and,
precisely because of his holiness, the most spiritually authoritative. However, remember
that one of the main objectives of this investigation is to look at the figure of Srugi in
relation to his community. He was not an oasis in the desert; he grew and matured in
faith and charity thanks to his community; through it and with it he learned to relate as
a disciple of the Lord with non-Christian brothers and sisters, and with him and thanks
to him other Salesians, especially the brothers, immersed themselves in the apostolate of
relationships and charity.
It is universally known how difficult the task of Christianity penetrating the Muslim
world is. The Islamic faith is tenaciously closed in on itself and defends itself to the point
of fanaticism: abandoning it entails an extreme risk, because its defence involves not only
the individual, but also the family and society.
If Srugi or the other confreres at Beitgemal had aroused even the least suspicion that
they wanted to proselytise, not only would they have been looked upon with distrust, but
they would have become victims of revenge and reprisals: this would have resulted in the
failure of practically all the Salesian activity that was planned through prudent dialogue
in the Beitgemal area.
Someone who openly worked for the conversion of a Muslim would have exposed
himself to the danger of not doing anything more, compromising the whole
institution. The Servant of God had to speak with Muslims cautiously so as not to
upset them by being fanatical about conversion.235
The only possible apostolate among Muslims, as a matter of course, was an indirect
one consisting of presence among them, consistent witness to Christian life, mutual
esteem and sympathy, and the unselfish exercise of charity.
This attitude, carried out with extreme patience and prudence for years, could soften
the barriers that divided Christians and Muslims for centuries and, in very rare cases,
234 We think in primis of the Palestinians, but then the Jews, and at a time of war, also of Turks, British, Egyptians,
Poles.
235 Summ., 292.
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with the help of God’s grace, could also result in conversion.236 This is what the entire
history of relations between Christians and Muslims teaches us.
If Islamic impenetrability placed so many limits and so many difficulties on the
direct evangelizing action of the Salesians in Beitgemal, then the action of the confreres,
especially that of Srugi, unfolded in a conscious way, with a precise supernatural purpose,
in the indirect apostolate. It was an heroic apostolate, in which self-sacrificing and
prudent charity converged admirably to somehow bring the message and the Christian
spirit to the Muslims who approached them. The results of their activity were very
positive, but unfortunately these results were lost, together with the Muslim population
after the expulsion of the Palestinians by the Jews in the 1948 war.
Let us recall first of all the effectiveness of Srugi’s presence among the Muslims,
which was like that of very few others. For about 50 years, the Servant of God lived
in Beitgemal in a continuous and intimate relationship with the ones who lived in
the surrounding villages. He did not meet them only occasionally and in external
circumstances, but lived with them, one can truly say, every day, in the work of the
mill or in the services of the clinic. He met children, adults and families. He dealt with
the Muslims in the Orphanage, but also frequently visited them in their poor homes.
He spent years of quiet industriousness with them, but was often called upon to act as
peacemaker in cases of local disputes and found himself amid dramatic moments of
hatred and fighting between unrestrained factions. All his activity was devoted mainly
to them with love, sacrifice, in a close correspondence of feeling and collaboration.
In the history of hagiography there is no lack of people who chose to live among
Muslims and by their presence wished to give a testimony of Christian life. Srugi did
something more: he not only sought to give testimony of his presence among them,
but he established a relationship of true involvement in their life, their sorrow and
their needs. He felt that he was not only among them and close to them, but like one of
them in sharing their affairs and their miseries above all: and as such he was well loved
by the Muslims too. He overcame every prejudice and every detachment from them,
overcoming secular attitudes, and established a meeting of authentic communion
with them, even beyond just one of mutual esteem and trust.237
Simon Srugi not only lived among Muslims and for Muslims, but by his holiness he
learned to appreciate their people and respect their religion. He made them appreciate the
236 “Significant among them all is the case of Joseph Hafiri, a Muslim, hospitalised in the orphanage and healed
“with the kind and patient care of Bro. Srugi". Hafiri himself testified as a deposition: ‘At that time I was still a
Muslim and from time to time Bro. Srugi asked me if I did not feel the desire to become a Christian. Perhaps
as a result of his prayers the Lord gave birth to this desire in me and I was catechised. Not being able to be
baptised on the spot, the superiors advised me to go to Italy where I remained from 1929 to 1934. In 1930 I
was able to be baptised in Cumiana’.It is no secret that, in order to be baptised, he had to leave the country
and thus escape the reprisals of his people.” Informatio, 209.
237 Informatio, 211-212.
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great values of Christianity and this was his great achievement and merit. By his delicate
and convinced gestures, he made Muslims understand the truth of the Gospel message,
taught them to respect Jesus and Our Lady, educated them to forgiveness, gave them the
irresistible lesson of charity.
Faith was inspired by deeds rather than by invitations and exhortations. Simon
managed to give rise to a desire in the midst of the Muslim population to grow in
Christian values, but achieved this because he himself constantly listened to the Spirit
and humbly followed Christ as he related with them day after day.
1.4.4 Life in the context of war and persecution
In addition to the general risk that being Christians, religious, missionaries on earth with
a Muslim majority could always entail, in the period between 1881 and 1958 Beitgemal
was involved in four periods of armed conflict: 1914–1919 the First World War; from
1930 the increasing violence of Arab guerrillas turned against the new Jewish community
and the British police: this tension reached its peak between 1936–1939; then in 1940
the Second World War began; and finally came the 1948–1950 with the expulsion of the
Palestinians and the creation of the State of Israel.
It is understood that in these periods there is almost no news of a religious nature
in the Chronicle, because the external events with the consequences they had for the
life of the community became the focus for all the chroniclers. The details of these sad
times have been abundantly told especially in the second chapter; now we stress how
the Salesians experienced this in terms of their formation, that is, as an opportunity for
configuration to Christ.
On the one hand, the First World War uprooted the entire grand project of
agricultural promotion that Fr Bianchi and Fr Sachettti were carrying out in the name
of the superiors in Turin. It was cut off from the roots. On the other hand it was the
opportunity for Fr Eugenio to display his fatherly kindness, maintaining the Salesian
spirit with true heroism in situations like this.
With Fr Bianchi, Beitgemal had gained a father. The times were so difficult that
his loving, understanding and strong heart was needed to comfort and animate the
confreres and young people in their hour of trial.238
Fr Bianchi’s charity, serenity and unlimited trust in God did not end with the young
people and the confreres: even with the soldiers on both sides, he showed signs of God’s
fatherhood:
238 E. Forti, Un buon samaritano concittadino di Gesù, 53.
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On November 10, the Turkish-German army suffered serious defeat and on days 12,
13, 14 and 15 the soldiers who previously came to taunt the community, now hungry
and wounded, begged for help, although there was no lack of others who came with
threats. Everyone was offered bread, olives and vegetables to eat to their fill, and after
a word from Fr Bianchi they left more serene.239
And his kindness gained the recognition of having conquered hatred with love:
The officers, but especially the Commander, greeted the Salesian community
affectionately. One of the officers confessed that a few hours earlier the Governor of
Jerusalem had telephoned and ordered the arrest of the Italian Salesians in Beitgemal,
but that the Commander did not want to do so, saying: “These are people who work
for humanity. Let’s leave them in peace.”240
The first war also resulted in the death of Bro. Bormida. And here too, life becomes
a teacher. He affirms the Letter to the Hebrews: “[Christ] learned obedience through
what he suffered”.241 We can say the same of Bro. Bormida who learned what mercy and
forgiveness were by offering them at the hour of death to both his corporal persecutors
(Turkish soldiers) and spiritual ones (his confreres).
The tortures of exile in Turkey also led Bro. Giacomo Zachetta to heaven;242 But as
far as we are concerned, our attention focuses on Fr Mario Rosìn, the only survivor
who decided to return to his mission post and faithfully continue his work on behalf
of the orphans from Palestine. One wonders if this was not Fr Rosìn’s true offering of
martyrdom, and that what happened in 1938 was only the consequence (accidental or
otherwise) of that oblation of life, consumed in love and faith, decided upon with full
awareness and conviction even after the harsh exile suffered in the First World War.
Perhaps for some conferes the First World War took them by surprise (it is not
possible to know how many and which ones), but certainly after it the consciousness
of the possibility of other conflicts, more than hypothetical, remained with the confreres;
239 Cf. p. 35.
240 Cf. p. 36.
241 Heb 5:8
242 Brother Giacomo Zanchetta worked at Beitgemal for 15 years and was then transferred to Cremisan. In the
final stage of the war, when British troops were already approaching Judea, the confreres from Bethlehem and
Cremisan lacked bread. In that difficult situation, Fr Mario Rosìn, Rector in Bethlehem, and Bro. Zanchetta,
economer atCremisan wanted to try to go to Beitgemal to supply flour to the two communities. They were
both arrested on the way to Hebron on November 17, 1917 and dragged to prison for wandering around
the war zone. After serving time in prison, they were sent into exile in central Anatolia. During the trip the
good Zanchetta fell violently ill with typhus. Forcefully removed from Fr Rosìn’s side, he was left dying and
speechless in a hospital in Eski Sceir, where he died on March 14, 1918. Cf. Lettera mortuaria del sig. Giacomo
Zanchetta for six other confreres from the communities in Bethlehem and Cremisan this exile made them
suffer two years of hell on earth.243, in AIMOR, March 1918.
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and many, aware of the significance of this, remained there: “In matters that benefit youth
at risk or serve to gain souls for God, I move ahead even to the point of recklessness.”244
And amid this tension the service of witness and charity continued:
They presented themselves confidently to the outpatient clinic where Srugi welcomed
them with charity and prudence in order not to harm the House in any way,
threatened both by reprisals from revolutionaries and by the strict control of the
police.
In order not to compromise anyone, the wise nurse treated the wounded in
private homes, keeping absolute silence with everyone, and faithfully following the
prudential rules spelt out to him by the Rector."245
Here, then, is the tension in a community of Christ’s followers in a context of war: an
encouragement to charity, faith and truth but at the same time prudence, a high capacity
for dialogue, respect and forgiveness.
In this the Salesians in Beitgemal were spiritually assisted to some degree by the
memory and veneration of Saint Stephen, deacon (servant) and first martyr (witness).
The Chronicles, the mortuary letters and the various biographies amply attest to this
dimension of emulation and configuration to Christ crucified, encouraged by the
testimony of St Stephen, also because of the presence of the tomb of the holy martyr.
In fact, similar circumstances of continuous armed conflicts broadened their
awareness to a dimension that, in itself, is intrinsic to the faith and, therefore, proper
to all Christians: openness to the possibility of martyrdom.
Martyrdom is proper to being a Christian, because Jesus told us so, when he declares
the conditions that one must accept in order to become his disciple: to deny oneself
and take up one’s cross to the point of giving one’s life. Therefore, in this obedience
– to truth and to God – there is also the possibility of martyrdom, that is, of giving
one’s life for fidelity to the truth and for fidelity to Christ, who is the revelation of
God. Martyrdom is intrinsic to faith, not in the sense that I must seek martyrdom,
but in the sense that I must keep in mind that martyrdom can exist for me. And the
Christians who today give their lives for Christ, who suffer for Christ, on the one
hand call on the commitment of faith and, at the same time, become themselves, like
Stephen, an proclamation of salvation and introduce others to the faith, as Stephen
did for Paul.246
According to the testimony of a Muslim teenager, the only spectator of the killing,
Fr Rosin’s first reaction was a plea for mercy: “But no! I’m a poor priest who hasn’t hurt
244 E. Ceria, Memorie Biografiche del beato Giovani Bosco XIV, S. Benigno Canavese-Torino, SEI, 1933, 662.
245 E. Forti, Un buon samaritano concittadino di Gesù, 139.
246 M. Ce, Il martirio oggi, message to the diocese of Venice, 26 December 2008.
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anyone!”247 But then he kept quiet, and here many would like to see the acceptance, in
faith, of martyrdom. It is a legitimate interpretation, even if it appears to rely on a not
very authoritative statement with the weakness that it is based on the hypothesis of an
interpretation of silence. This is a problem if we want to assert acceptance in the important
case of martyrdom.
In our opinion, he had made the option for martyrdom four hours earlier when he
decided to fulfil his priestly duty, despite the high risks of the situation. The option for
martyrdom was already taken, a week earlier, when he shared with his confreres the real
possibility of this happening. The option for martyrdom was taken, even a month earlier,
when outraged and threatened to death he decided to stay there (against the advice of
many) to fulfil his service. The option for martyrdom was taken twenty years earlier, when
after the very ugly experience of exile he decided to return to Palestine to be a sign of God’s
love for young people. Option for martyrdom confirmed day after day in love, service and
self-denial, quite apart from the hypothetical interpretation of silence.
Certainly this openness to the possibility of martyrdom gives a great spiritual thrust
to the configuration of oneself to Christ. And configuration to the crucified Christ helps
one to be radically open to the possibility of martyrdom.
In a supreme act of self-offering, Fr Rosin had made a bloodied cross of himself. The
other Salesians also strove to assimilate their lives to Christ. Certainly, Simon Srugi stands
out.248 He had understood, no less than his beloved Rector, the mystery of the cross in his
life: he did not let a day go by without willingly carrying it on his shoulders, following in
the footsteps of the divine Master.
“The Crucifed Lord must be your preferred book”, Srugi noted down in his written
thoughts, and added that “the Religious, being consecrated to Jesus, must be nailed with
him.”249 “I want to carry his cross every day in order to be a true disciple of Jesus.”250
2. Simon Srugi: The little way of humility
“The works of the religious, however small and simple they may be, are precious and
pleasing to God when they are done with pleasure in giving glory to the Lord”, wrote
Srugi in the 1932 retreat.
247 AIMOR,Lettere mortuaria don Mario Rosìn, July 1938.
248 S. Srugi,Massime sul Sacro Cuore, in AIMOR. [Cf. Appendix no. 2, thought 97].
249 S. Srugi,Massime sul Sacro Cuore, in AIMOR. [Cf. Appendix no. 2, thought 89].
250 Cf. S. Srugi, Propositi ritiro spirituale 25 agosto 1927, in AIMOR, 1927. [Cf. Appendix no. 2, thought 428].
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In tune with what we have already indicated there are also some thoughts that the
good brother had diligently noted down under the generic title: “St Francis de Sales
says”:251
The Lord wants you to think about always grasping and using opportunities to serve
him and practise the virtues minute by minute.
Put small things into practice without which big things are often false and deceptive.
Let us gladly learn to suffer humiliating words aimed at suppressing our opinions and
proposals.
Direct your thoughts to improving yourself in all your ordinary actions, and carry
the large and small crosses that come to you. Believe me that the secret of becoming
saints lies here.
Let us try to be what God wants since we are his, and let us try not to be what we want
to be against his intentions.252
Enlightened by the Spirit of the Lord, Simon had guessed what was the shortest path
to holiness and he too had set out on that “Little Way” that St Theresa of the Child Jesus
had taken before him. For both of them there was a need to be simple and humble of
heart.
Authoritative witnesses say that Simon spent his day in silence and obscurity, always
seeking to remain in the shadows. His only concern was to observe the Holy Rule with
extreme perfection.
A life full of small acts carried out with the constant commitment to do them well
and with love: this is how the great heroism of the little way flourished in Simon: the
royal path by which the soul in love with Him proceeds towards God.
As a citizen of Nazareth, Bro. Srugi imitated the Saviour in his hidden and humble
life. His resolutions continually reminded him of thoughts of humility, which he derived
from readings, but which he assimilated deeply. He had a very low opinion of himself and
often repeated, with conviction, the words of the Gospel: “Nothing good can come from
Nazareth, and I am that nothing.”
He was meek by nature and character, but he had a clear supernatural sense of
humility and this inspired his inner attitude. “I will make the commitment to perfect
my soul by eradicating every reason for pride, vanity ... to make it worthy of possessing
God.”
251 These thoughts are taken from: E. Ceria, La Vita Religiosa secondo gl’insegnamenti di S. Francesco di Sales,
Turin, SEI, 1938.
252 S. Srugi, Massime varie, in AIMOR. [Cf. Appendix no. 2,thoughts 199-202].
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He considered himself the least of the community, never put himself in limelight,
never talked about himself and his family, about what he had done or about his
skills skills. He suffered when someone praised him in front of his confreres and and
addressed any recognition given him to God or to others. In meetings of the confreres
he usually kept silent, and in conversations he agreed with the others rather than
making his own judgement prevail, unless unless charity or proprietary suggested
otherwise. His warmth and availability to everyone and always, were an expression
of his humility.253
Srugi’s humility predisposed him to having delicate and respectful attitude, not only
towards superiors and confreres, but also towards boys and the rough types who came to
the clinic and the mill.
When he was occasionally the object of humiliating and disgusting behaviour he did
not react, but accepted everything out of a supernatural motivation of humility, happy to
suffer like Jesus.
Everything in his life was a manifestation of his humility: his clothing, his work, his
room, his attitude in community life,his way of dealing with people. Everything was for
God and for others; nothing for himself.
In particular, this attitude of true humility was shown in the continuous, and
sometimes heroic acts of forgiveness and mercy, as will be seen later.
3. The tomb of St Stephen and the Work of Christian Forgiveness
As we saw broadly in the second chapter, during the First World War (and precisely in
1916), an archaeological discovery was made at Beitgemal which created religious interest
around the Salesian house and gave direction to the spirituality of the Salesians who spent
some time of their life there, urging them to a more heroic practice of charity and mercy.
We will briefly outline the story of the discovery254 and its consequences, and then go
on to recognise and appreciate its most significant spiritual fruits.
In 1916 Brother Angelo Bormida, while digging at the bottom of the courtyard,
chanced upon the remains of an ancient mosaic. Shortly afterwards they found the
253 Positiones seu articuli, 43.
254 For a greater understanding we refer to specialised works on the subject: G. Fergnani, Il Sepolcro di S.
Stefano Protomartire scoperto a Beitgemal, monograph, Turin, 1930; G. Fergnani, L’Invenzione di S. Stefano
Protomartire negli scritti di S. Agostino, Beitgemal, 1930; G. Fergnani, Cafargamala, Jeruslaem, 1923; A.
Sacchetti, Studi Stefanini, Beitgemal, 1934; A. Charbel, Beit-jimal identificata con Caphar-Gamala negli
studi di St. H. Stephan, in Salesianum 31 (1969) 667-676; A. Rocca, Vita di Santo Stefano protomartire, San
Benigno Canavese, Tipografia Don Bosco, 1923.
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remains of an ancient Martyrium which thanks to the demanding archaeological study
by Dominican M. Gisler was identified with the tomb of Saint Stephen.
The discovery was of great historical importance, but it led the confreres of the house,
and in particular its outstanding Rector, Fr Eugenio Bianchi, to also enhance the spiritual
message of the Tomb. St Stephen is the classic saint of Christian forgiveness: the sense of
forgiveness was greatly needed all over the world after the hatred of war, and in particular
among the various Palestinian ethnic groups ready to unleash on each other and eliminate
the other.
It was therefore decided to promote the message of St Stephen among people, setting
up an Association that called itself the Pious Work of St Stephen the Protomartyr for
Spreading Christian Forgiveness. The Association was approved by Pope Pius XI on 9 June
1923.255
Other than this initiative of a spiritual nature, the Salesian community promoted the
construction of a Church dedicated to St Stephen by building the Martyrium above his
tomb. And so in 1930 there was the solemn consecration of the Church, a real jewel in
clear Byzantine style matching the mosaics found in the excavations.
The confreres in Beitgemal experienced the archaeological discoveries and the
various stages of the construction of the Church with enthusiasm and with a religious
soul. They zealously subscribed to the Pious Work of Christian Forgiveness. They
celebrated the feasts of St Stephen with solemn devotion and worked to make forgiveness
the imperative of their behaviour, as well as making forgiveness the subject of frequent
exhortations addressed to young people, visitors and Muslims.
We know, because of the lack of harmony that continued, especially between local
confreres and missionaries, that not all were consistent and faithful to the appeal to mercy
addressed by God through the testimony of St Stephen.
Nonetheless, we find abundant and beautiful evidence of a sincere effort to learn “to
forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”. We mention only
four:
The first is undoubtedly the story of Bro. Angelo Bormida who went to heaven
forgiving his killers despite being betrayed and handed over to death by his own confreres.
The second is offered through the life of Fr John Almagian,256 who while still a child
witnessed the murder of his parents, victims of one of the frequent Armenian massacres.
255 Cf. The Statutes of the Pious Work, p. 38.
256 John Almagian:son of Minas and Calagian, born in Marasce (Armenia) on 28 September 1886 and died in
Istanbul (Turkey) on 1 June 1945, at 59 years of age, 40 of profession and 32 f priesthood. He did his high
school studies in Bethlehem and Beitgemal and on 29 August 1904 he entered the novitiate in Cremisan.
He took the clerical habit in the same year and made his triennial profession on November 15, l905. He
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Taken in by devout individuals, he was sent to the Salesian orphanage at Bethlehem in
1896 and from there to Beitgemal.
The tragic death of his parents remained impressed in his heart like a prickly thorn
that made him groan and sometimes involuntarily tore from his lips burning words
against those who had been the immediate cause of so much barbarity. But then he
forgave and apologised, asking God for mercy for the merciless persecutors of his
beloved and unhappy country and the cruel killers of those who gave him life.257
The third testimony is from local confreres who worked on behalf of poor Muslim
farmers. It is well known that among Christians in the Middle East there often remains a
deep aversion to Muslims. Especially the families, clans and tribes that were particularly
persecuted or tortured in the past, inherit an acute distrust towards the followers of
Mohammed.258 It is much the same for Muslims in their relationships with Chistians.
The local Salesians (John Almagian, Peter Sarchis, Peter Katan, Simon Srugi, Joseph
Hauila, George Haruni, Naim Combaz, John Nahas, Joseph Calis, Atalla Auad, Roumman
Spiridione, Khalil Sciueri), who followed Christ including in what he said about loving
their enemies, had, in the spirit of Christian forgiveness, to go beyond themselves in order
to show kindness and charity towards Muslims; some of them proved exceptional in this.
Finally, as the last testimony, we record the attitude of Simon Srugi in the painful
circumstances of the death of Fr Mario Rosìn. It is easy to imagine the feelings that
reigned in the house due to what had happened and what could happen again. Instead,
Sister Teresilla Ferrero offers her testimony of heroic charity for one’s neighbour without
limits:
On one occasion after the murder of Fr Mario Rosìn, the Rector of Beitgemal, and
precisely the next day, three not very reassuring individuals came came to the clinic
on one or other pretext, three real thugs from Deraban who were suspected to be
also made his perpetual profession in Bethlehem on 4 October 1908. He worked for a long time in the
Houses in Palestine, especially in Bethlehem, performing various tasks, always with a praiseworthy spirit
of industriousness and sacrifice. Because of his knowledge of Turkish, he was sent to the House in Istanbul
towards the end of 1912 and was ordained a priest there in November the following year. After the First
World War he went to Italy, where he remained for some time, and then returned to Palestine, to Bethlehem,
in 1924 and remained there until 1929 as councillor for the orphans. From 1929 to his death he stayed in
Istanbul, in various roles, and was a valuable support for the House as a faithful interpreter for the Rector,
and valuable assistant in all matters dealing with the local government.
257 Lettera mortuaria di Giovanni Almagian, in AIMOR, June 1945.
258 One thinks, for example, that the Srugi (originally Fer‘on) family history goes back to around 1550, when
they were forced to migrate from Hauran, and flee the Damascus region, leave Furzol (in the Bequaa), take
refuge in Tersihiha and finally, after changing name to lose all trace of who they were, finding refuge in 1772
in Nazareth, where they were finally able to establish themselves and make a home.
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responsible for the crime. In fact, even when they came, no real problem occurred,
but they certainly came to see how things would turn out and what feelings there
were in Beitgemal. They came to the clinic and I was alone at that moment. To be
honest – and I humbly confess this – I did not completely agree with Bro. Srugi’s
feelings, so I glared at them and shut the door in their faces with four choice words.
But immediately after, Bro. Srugi arrived, and seeing what had happened, or rather
having learned from the three who immediately told him on his arrival how I had
treated them, he called me back to duty with the thought of the passion and death
of the Lord and told me : “Not this way mother, not this way.” Jesus Christ Our Lord
on the cross said on behalf of his crucifiers: Father, forgive them for they do not know
what they do! And it could be that with our forgiveness they will repent and do better
in the future.259
Some days later six or seven thugs broke down the door to the clinic, also pushing
Bro. Srugi violently to the floor and asked to be treated immediately. Simon once again
said: “the Lord said: ‘Forgive them for they do not know what they do.’” These characters
didn’t leave, and Bro. Srugi treated them calmly and naturally as if nothing had happened.
Something more serious happened. A few days later, chased by the British police
and wounded in the head, the one who, in the opinion of the community, was primarily
responsible for the killing of Fr Rosìn arrived at the clinic. The sister proposed handing
him over to the British who were about to arrive: Srugi instead treated him and let him
escape.
And to the sister who was protesting “vigorously” once again he replied: “Hand him
over to justice? Why? Should we do wrong? We must always do good to others. If he
has done wrong he has to deal with God who will see to justice. But we always have
to do good to our neighbour and forgive. Then he added (and I recall this well) …
“as if nothing has happened... So with our religious behaviour we set a good example,
and so they will understand that we Christians are something more than they are by
practising Christian forgiveness.”260
The lesson of charity and forgiveness had its effect. In fact, three months after the
death of Fr Rosìn, five leaders of armed rebel bands on horseback came to Beitgemal and
asked to speak with the Salesian superiors. Their visit was to apologise for the Rector’s
death and ensure the punishment of those who were guilty. The Salesian superiors told
them that they willingly forgave. “Our faith” they said “exhorts us and indeed obliges us
to forgive.”
And again the testimony of Sister Ferrero who refers to Simon Srugi’s comment on
all this:
259 Summ., 32.
260 Informatio, 133.
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Sister, those poor people will remember this day for their whole life. They too have a
conscience and a soul to save. The Lord made them feel remorse so much that they
came to humble themselves, and the superiors did well to forgive and forget. The Lord
will do justice, but it is up to us to forgive and always do good. Let us pray for them
and who knows that they may e converted.261
261 Summ., 28-29.
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Chapter Five
Elements for a Salesian
Spirituality in the the Middle East
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you,
ask for whatever you wish,
and it will be done for you.
My Father is glorified by this,
that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
As the Father has loved me,
so I have loved you...
No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
(Jn 15:7-8,12-13)
The time has come to identify, from this interpretation of the history of the Beitgemal
community in the light of faith, the applications for the life and spiritual formation of the
Salesians in the Middle East, in view of a more existential dimension in the research as a
whole.
We asked ourselves in the introduction: what did God inspire in the Beitgemal
community that can help the confreres of the Province today to grow in their identity
as Salesians in the Middle East? After the historical, theological and spiritual journey we
have taken, it seems to us well founded to stress the following conclusions.
Undoubtedly, the strongest message of the community’s experience is the invitation
to the fundamental attitude of always knowing that one is a disciple (learner).
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The Salesian vocation in the Middle East is a gift from God. It is the call to become,
like Don Bosco, disciples of Christ and to form communities that testify his love as a
Good Shepherd to the young people of this “Holy Land”. A call, however, that does not
end in a specific act, but is renewed at every moment of existence.
“We respond to this call by committing ourselves to an adequate ongoing formation
for which the Lord daily gives us his grace.”262 In responding faithfully to his vocation,
every Salesian finds the way to his full realisation in Christ and his way to holiness.263
The experience that the first disciples had in their encounter with Jesus, the journey
they travelled by sharing his life, accepting his mystery, making the cause of the Kingdom
their own and taking up the evangelical style proposed by him is also what makes up
the experience and journey of every Salesian. The formative and spiritual experience of
Belloni, Bormida, Bianchi, Rosìn and Srugi remind us that this is the only way for us
too. The Salesian is above all a disciple, a disciple in the faith, and thus, and only in this
way, can he become a teacher in the faith of the young. The only way to be Salesians in
the Middle East, faithful to the particular call that the Lord has made to us, is to live in
continuous discipleship, and consequently in continuous formation.264
Formation is joyfully accepting the gift of a vocation and making it real in every
moment and situation of existence. Formation is the grace of the Spirit, a personal
attitude, a pedagogy of life.265
Christian formation is a process that aims at forming in the believer “the mind that
was in Christ Jesus”,266 indeed, from a Christian perspective it should be specified that it is
262 C 96.
263 Cf. C 2. 22.
264 Let’s start by saying that formation is ongoing, particularly if Christian formation, precisely because it consists
in the Father’s plan and desire to form the mind of Christ in us. Now such a project has an immediate and
intrinsic characteristic of totality-integrality, since
• it embraces the whole person, right to his inner depths, his every feeling and emotion, instinct and desire,
conscious or unconscious;
• it extends to all of life, since a limited period of time certainly cannot be enough to achieve such a goal;
• it even includes death, since the Christian becomes conformed to the mind of the Son especially when he
is conformed to him through the mystery of his own death;
• at the same time it happens, in every instance and situation of life, even those that seem the most adverse,
since this plan is carried out by the Father, in whose great hands every circumstance of life can become a
providential, albeit mysterious, mediation of his salvation and this divine desire;
• it touches on all levels and dimension of formation: the human and the psychological (affective, relational,
intellectual…), the spiritual (formation of conscience, spiritual experience, or the various aspects bound up
with the vocation of special consecration …).
Cf. A. Cencini, L’Albero della vita, 260-264.
265 Cf. The Formation of the Salesians, 1.
266 Cf. Phil 2:5.
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the Father who carries out this formative process (it is only the Father, in fact, who knows
the Son and who can therefore achieve this conformation, in the Spirit). To the Salesians
in the Middle East, God spoke through the spiritual experience of the pioneers of the
Province. By interpreting the history of the Beitgemal community in the light of faith, the
following elements are identified as essential parts of the identity of the Lord’s disciples
as Salesians in the Middle East: guided by the Spirit, learning to learn from life, family
spirit, openness to listening and to dialogue, Christian forgiveness, charity and service as
a way of configuration to Christ and, finally, openness to the possibility of martyrdom.
1. Guided by the Spirit
God’s gift of the Spirit makes believers understand and welcome his saving plan, which
is manifested in Jesus, the crucified Christ. The Spirit shapes the identity and action of
the disciples who, precisely because marked by his work, are called to live in a “spiritual”
way in their following of Christ.267
Before being a “human attitude”, spirituality is presence, grace, gift of the Spirit of
God.
Of themselves, the Salesians are a community of the baptised submissive to the
bidding of the Spirit,268 but the particular circumstances of the Salesians in the Middle
East require a special openness; not moving away from Salesian spirituality, but on the
contrary, living with depth the same fundamental attitude Don Bosco had:
In openness to the working of the Spirit, Don Bosco successfully interpreted the signs
of the times and responded to new needs in a wise, creative and practical manner. The
contact with reality was woven into the fabric of his vocation.269
The experience of the saints is indeed excellent because, in one way or another, they
were able to welcome the action of the Holy Spirit in their lives, summing up everything
in the cross of the Son. It is the docility [docibility or ability to be taught] of their heart to
267 “The Spirit arouses and nourishes those profound dispositions that are in conformity with God’s plan, in
antithesis with those of the ’flesh’, that is, with an existence closed in on itself and extraneous to God’s plan.
It is the Spirit that makes it penetrate into the hearts of believers. the love of God, which becomes a source
of brotherly love. The Spirit of God arouses in those who believe the attitude of filial confidence of Jesus,
which is expressed in the invocation Abba ’Father’ (...) The Spirit of Christ the Lord is the guarantee of the
freedom of the disciples in comparison with the old existence and is the source of a new dynamism of life
characterised by love.” cei episcopal commission for the doctrine of the faith, proclamation and
catechesis, Lettera ai cercatori di Dio, Leumann, Elle Di Ci, 2009, 60-61.
268 Cf. C 2.
269 The Formation of the Salesians of Don Bosco. Principles and Norms. Ratio fundamentalis et studiorum, SDB,
Rome 2000, 37.
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the Spirit that is the model for us, rather than the different expressions or results of their
spiritual journey.
It is not the events experienced by Fr Belloni, Fr Mario Rosìn or Simon Srugi that we
are called to reproduce. But their ability to see the action of the Spirit in their history, past
and present.
Only in this way can we be faithfully Salesians and living members of the Church in
the Middle East. In fact, one of the most significant traits of Eastern spirituality is to leave
ample space for the divinising action of the Spirit.
Hence it follows that the main function of formation, both for local confreres and
missionaries, is to shape a heart open to the Spirit:
…capable of living faith explicitly as a source of meaning, as a criterion for
interpreting experience and life, what one feels in his heart, what seduces and attracts
him, frightens and disturbs him, but also that part of human experience, past and
present, proper to every man, more difficult to accept and contrasting with the natural
need for human happiness and harmony, meaning discomfort, aggression, emptiness,
obscurity, self-refusal, suffering, old age , failure, failure, change, crisis, death…270
For authentic believers it is the Spirit who educates and animates this memory. “He
will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you”,271 “He will guide
you into all the truth.”272 He is the vital synthesis capable of producing spiritual memory
because he is able to grasp the radical meaning of reality, filling all the paradoxical
tensions of life with meaning. This is the way to become significantly Salesian in the
land blessed with the presence of Christ, but so affected by poverty, war, hatred and
persecution.
2. Learning to learn from life
The challenges of our mission land are truly unpredictable and highly provocative; it
would be impossible, disappointing and frustrating to try to prepare for individual
possible situations.
None of the Salesians in Beitgemal could have imagined what God and circumstances
would require of them. Those who were able to face difficult situations are those who had
a fundamental attitude of trust in God and in life.
270 A. Cencini, L’Albero della vita, 130-131.
271 Jn 14:26.
272 Jn 16:13.
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A Salesian in the Middle East who wants to respond faithfully to God’s call will have
to initiate a learning process through which he recognises God’s ongoing forming action,
at times evident and at other times hidden, but nevertheless present in every event.
A Salesian in the Middle East is called to have a readiness for the action of the
Spirit at work in his own history and in his own reality; an intelligent and attentive,
enterprising and flexible availability which allows him to live every day of life and every
relationship, every age and season, every place and every circumstance, even those that
are new or those that seem adverse, as times and opportunities for formation, as times
and opportunities for configuration to Christ.
The greatness of Fr Belloni, Fr Varaia, Fr Corradini, Bro. Bormida, Fr Bianchi, Fr
Rosìn, Bro. Srugi and the other Beitgemal confreres was precisely this ability (openness
to the action of the Spirit in their life) to let themselves be formed by history, to enter into
spiritual dialogue, in a Paschal and relational dialogue, with reality.
3. Family spirit
“To live and work together is for us Salesians a fundamental requirement and a sure way
of fulfilling our vocation”273 says Article 49 of our Constitutions. Salesians in the Middle
East live in a context that seems to be scattered274 and very demanding in spiritual and
pastoral terms.
Community life, with its regular rhythms and its wealth of relationships, will save
the individual confreres from emotional loneliness and from those forms of progressive
"fading" of the identity of consecrated individuals which are, especially in the Eastern
context, a clear form of counter-witness which does not attract, but alienates potential
vocations.
History teaches us that it is urgent to attend to a community atmosphere;275 Fr
Varaia, a keen disciple of Don Bosco, was able to invest time and effort to look after the
community atmosphere during his position as first Salesian Rector in Beitgemal in the
delicate process of the merger of the two congregations (Brothers of the Holy Family, Fr
Belloni, and the Salesians); and so we can see how in Beitgemal energies, reinvigorated by
273 C 49.
274 Due to their presence in 7 different countries, with connection difficulties and great distances, linguistic
and cultural differences. Then consider the heterogeneity of origin (17 different nations), the environmental
difficulties in which one lives, the distance from countries of origin.
275 By safeguarding the rhythms of prayer (daily, monthly, quarterly), regular meetings between the confreres,
periodic scrutinies (as an opportunity for continuous conversion and community discernment), stable times
for ongoing formation through the study of the guidelines of the Congregation and of the Church, times of
community relaxation, availability for informal communication which is a sign of true fraternity.
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common life, were directed to tackling the abundant challenges that the mission brought
day after day (instead, we know how from the beginning so much energy was wasted in
the communities in Bethlehem and Cremisan judging each other: until it broke out in
1915 with the question of the Arab confreres).
The sad events of community division, which came to a painful peak between 1914
and 1919 (but which began a long time before and which in one or another form continue
to this day), must not frighten us, or make us ashamed to the point of wanting to erase
what historically happened from history. On the contrary, we must remember in faith
and love: because those who do not know history are forced to repeat it.
In an environment marked by hatred, revenge, religious and racial discrimination,
the community can become a table of salvation for the confreres276 and at the same time,
most significant apostolic testimony.
History shows us to what extent even we “men of God” can go when we allow our
hearts to be filled with hatred. But it also shows us how far the redemptive action of the
cross can reach us.
In the Middle East, just as it was in the past and is now, the witness of communion
is our first mission and this is why it is important to see to fraternal relations and the
community atmosphere. It is essential to dedicate time to the community to create a
family atmosphere, mutual trust, acceptance of everyone’s limitations. It is necessary
to help us have understanding, fraternal correction, dialogue and forgiveness among
confreres. Then cultural diversity and internationalisation, instead of being an obstacle,
will become a resource that encourages peace, love and forgiveness.
But in the case of the Salesian Province of the Middle East, so in need of its own
identity, the family atmosphere does not speak to us only of an effort of communion
among current confreres. In our case, we also have a strong need for communion with our
predecessors. For better or for worse, we owe everything we have to them. And whether
we want to accept it or not, we really need to be planted on what they have sewn. They are
our roots. Often our anxiousness to be the main players leads us to present ourselves as
“Alpha and Omega”, and it is here that God really speaks to us through the testimony of
276 Through the sharing of the same gift: cohabitation of individuals becomes a religious community not simply
because there are individuals engaged in as many individual spiritual journeys as there are individuals, but
when these journeys are put in common to the point of ideally constituting a single one. Then and only then
is the charism at the centre and can one speak of a consecrated community, while friendship becomes the
normal way of relating in companionship and solitude, in the sharing of bread on the journey and intimacy
with God, in the silence that opens up to relationship and in the dialogue that leads back to unity.
Then the ‘house’ of the individual and community is built on rock, and can withstand all storms. Otherwise
it is founded on sand, or is a fake community of fake consecrated individuals....” Cencini A., I sentimenti del
Figlio, Bologna, EDB, 1998, 134.
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Simon Srugi: we can become “something” when we become “a nothing” in God. In this
regard:
God has not called us to be super-heroes in the spiritual or pastoral life, He has called
us to live and work together, this is a fundamental need and the sure way to fulfil our
vocation.
4. Listening and dialoguing
Diversity is often a source of suspicion… if not fear... and even hatred. The Middle
East, as we have said many times, is a context characterised by being multi-ritual,
multi-confessional, multi-religious, multi-racial, multi-linguistic, multi-cultural, etc.).
Diversity and, above all, differences are always and everywhere present. This presents
a difficult challenge and, at the same time, a great opportunity for formation (in the
sense of formation as the gradual journey of configuration to Christ, the one who is the
image of the Trinity: that agapaic Love which unites by distinguishing and distinguishes
by uniting).
Diversity requires an attitude of listening and dialogue that is not always easy. In turn,
listening and dialogue require an overcoming of oneself and above all an openness to the
other in the intelligence of faith.
There is a huge gap between hearing and listening. Because in listening there is not
only a sense of hearing but also a profound perception of oneself, which comes from God
who speaks to one’s soul. Listening is being attentive inside, it is offering the ear of the
heart. Diversity heard is a source of danger and fear, diversity listened to is a source of
growth. A profound listening like that of Fr Belloni who allowed himself to be challenged
by the needy and the different. Listening like that of Fr Varaia who respected and fully
valued the “Brothers of the Holy Family”. Fatherly listening like that of Fr Eugenio Bianchi
capable of finding the point of good in everyone and of offering, to each one, the support
of someone “who is present” and “who is present for him.”
Only by listening can true dialogue arise. Because in order to truly dialogue, it is
necessary to combine acceptance of the other, of the one who is different, with gratuity.
Dialogue does not develop where the dignity of the other is not respected and accepted. If
the Salesians can provide some service to the various religious and cultural communities
present in the Middle East, this service is called dialogue, lived primarily for themselves
and educating the younger generations to open up to this healthy relationship.277
277 “The proper style of service is dialogue, that language of love in which love itself is manifested as attention
and availability to others. The fatigue of loving is therefore inevitably reflected in the resistance and risks
inherent in dialogue. Just as the gratuitousness of love is dried up by possessiveness, so dialogue does not
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Dialogue like that of the cleric Thomas Farah who in the conflict did not judge one
or the other but offered himself on behalf of peace. Profound dialogue like that of the
brothers who shared their life and suffering with Muslim peasants. Dialogue like that of
Bro. Angelo Bormida, willing to forgive those who judged him unfairly, ensuring that
love won out over difference.
In the historical and cultural context of the Salesians in the Middle East, the measure
of holiness is given by the recognition and acceptance of the other, the measure of
responsibility is defined by the necessity, the need, the suffering of which the other is
the bearer:
It is from this exclusive “being-for-others”, fully embodied by Christ, that holiness,
“responsible personal action”, the openness to the risk of encounter, the overcoming
of bourgeois “mediocrity”, the emergence of the whole, complete man who knows no
distinction between inner and outer being. We cannot be “complete men” on our own,
but only together with others. Man does not give God “some ultimate secret space”,
but knows how to recognise Him in the events of life and above all in the inescapable
presence of the other.278
Diversity, listened to with interest, proves to be a necessary richness. Only deep
listening and sincere dialogue with the diverse and with the differences can open us to
an authentic experience and testimony of the relationship founded on the Trinitarian
perichoresis.
5. Christian forgiveness
In the church at Beitgemal, above the apse, Jesus is depicted on the cross with the Virgin
Mary and St John at his feet. Beside the Crucifix, in large letters, the request of Jesus to
the Father is written, regarding his crucifiers: “Pater, dimitte illis”.279
Our confrere Fr Domenico Dezzutto, 84 years old but still young, at the end of his
explanation to the groups whoever they are large or small, explains those words by saying:
really exist unless it is prompted by gratuitous initiative, free from calculation. Nothing is more opposed
to the authenticity of dialogue than strategy or tactics: where dialogue is a means of dominating the other
or of using it for one’s own ends, it ceases to exist. Dialogue has the dignity of an end and not a means: it
comes from gratuitousness and is an offer of encounter that springs from the joy of loving. (...) Dialogue needs
exchange, in which giving and receiving are measured by the gratuitousness and acceptance of each of the two.
Massification - which ignores the originality of the other - excludes all dialogue, and therefore all authentic
attitudes of service.” cei episcopal commission for the doctrine of the faith, proclamation and
catechesis, Lettera ai cercatori di Dio, 87.
278 J.M. García, Teologia dell’esperienza spirituale cristiana – temi fondamentali, Rome, 2010, 377.
279 “Father, forgive them” Lk 23:34.
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“We all need God’s forgiveness and to forgive one another. This is St Stephen’s message
in his invocation: ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’” It is the main message that
the current apostolate in Beitgemal is trying to convey to visitors.
As the chronicles tell it, the Salesians in Beitgemal, in their enthusiasm for the
discovery of the tomb of Saint Stephen, had planned to build, on the site of the mosaics
of the Byzantine Church, a large shrine dedicated to “Christian Forgiveness”. They had
already obtained the approval of the Holy See, then, for many reasons they abandoned
the project, contenting themselves with the current church, a very beautiful one, but of a
more modest size.
Of course, in the Middle East, according to what the daily newspapers show, a lot
of forgiveness is needed. Some say that there will never be peace there because the two
peoples who face each other, Arab-Muslim and Jewish, do not know how to and cannot
forgive each other, not having the tradition or culture of forgiveness. And to make peace,
as Blessed John Paul II taught, we also need forgiveness:
“There is no peace without justice, and there is no justice without forgiveness.”280
The great shrine to Christian forgiveness was not built... But the Salesians are called
by God, by the peoples they serve, by Don Bosco’s own spirituality, by the predecessors
of the Province: Belloni, Bianchi, Bormida, Rosìn, Srugi to themselves become the very
shrines of Christian forgiveness.
St Paul exhorts us: “As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with
compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience”.281
Our authentic tradition from St Francis de Sales to Don Bosco and on to
Dominic Savio shows us that a friendship inspired by God can perfectly integrate
"human" aspects; it adds to them its own "grace" and rejects any selfish imitations.
This is what is indicated in the first paragraph of the article which, through
the mouth of St Paul, invites us as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, to
commit ourselves with a generous heart to those attitudes which are typical of
evangelical friendship: compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness and patience,
mutual forbearance and forgiveness: demanding virtues which have always been the
mark of true friendship!282
The Pious Work of Christian Forgiveness had the aim of imploring St Stephen and
spreading among the Christian people the full practice of charity, even towards enemies,
280 John Paul II, There is no peace without justice. There is no justice without forgiveness. Message for the celebration
of the day of peace, 1 January 2002.
281 Col 3:12-13.
282 Project of Life of the Salesians of Don Bosco, 332-333.
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to extinguish the flame of hatred still alive in poor humanity, both Christian and non-
believer, being a centre of prayers and good works at the tomb of the Protomartyr himself.
If we are convinced that God speaks to us through the saints, here is the programme
prophetically left to us, here is one of the fundamental attitudes of our being Salesians in
the Middle East.
6. Christian love and service, configuring oneself to the mind of the Son
Being signs of God’s love among the young and poor of the Middle East is expressed in
the fundamental attitude of becoming servants out of love, making available to others
freely what has been freely received from God.283
The heart of the Salesian spirit is “pastoral charity characterised by that youthful
dynamism which was revealed so strongly in our Founder and at the beginnings of our
Society [and our Province (we can very rightly say)]. It is an apostolic impetus that makes
us seek souls and serve God alone.”284
These words recall a charity on the move which needs to act and be realised in a
practical and passionate way; a charity, however, which is not based on philanthropy but
on knowing that we are loved first. Thus charity does not become a stoic exercise but the
natural response to the Lord’s call to love as he loved us.
Loving authentically is demanding, and in fact “no one has greater love than this, to
lay down one’s life for one’s friends”.285 Such an oblation is only possible for those who
first welcomed the infinite love of God.
Serving in charity is truly challenging, in a context in which the logic that binds
people together often experiences the drama of sin and destruction, division and
misunderstanding, hatred and war (sadly hatred and wars declared many times in the
name of faith, peace, justice or freedom). In a context torn by hostility such as the Middle
283 “Personal gifts of different orders (intellectual, practical and above all spiritual) are given so that the one
called may be able to know and live the values of the Salesian vocation, especially the urgent need for service
to poor youngsters, and to take his place in the plan of a community, which is itself a meeting of individuals,
which is in fact "Congregation" (the very word expresses the dynamic aspect of the vocational "call"). These
gifts are given to enable him to realise himself fully in Christ, the perfect Man.
Here is expressed the certainty that the Lord accompanies with the riches of his grace each one who has
been called: how indeed could the Spirit point out to someone a road to be followed without giving him the
strength and capacity to follow it? But at the same time the importance is emphasised of the discernment
that each one must make to know his own vocation, and verify his suitability for it if he chooses the Salesian
life. If he is called, what must he do to respond to God’s gift?” Project of Life of the Salesians of Don Bosco,
178.
284 C 10.
285 Jn 15:13.
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East, serving God and others is tiring in many ways ... this is one of the clearest kinds of
data in the history of Beitgemal. However, it is this labour that was made his own by
the incarnate Son of God, who has thus given new dignity to human work and days.
In communion with Him “who laboured with human hands and loved with a human
heart”286 the Salesians at Beitgemal recognised that daily toil is the instrument with which
to intervene in the transformation of reality in order to conform it to God’s plan.
While awaiting the new heavens and the new earth, the Christian knows he is serving
the cause of God in the cause of man. To humanise the world is to serve the Lord who
has entered it and works in it with a view to the final “recapitulation” of all things in
God. Offered to God in the toil of days, our life can become the way of an ever deeper
communion. with Christ, the redeemer of man.287
The Constitutions say that “reading the Gospel [Salesians] become more aware of
certain aspects of the figure of the Lord”;288 within this charismatic sensitivity we will
be able to argue that God – through the life of the two spiritual pillars of the MOR
Province: Fr Belloni and Bro Srugi – is inviting us to privilege, for our context, two highly
significant passages: the parable of the prodigal Father (Belloni) and the parable of the
Good Samaritan (Srugi).
Through his life Abuliatama (Father of Orphans – Fr Belloni) was a living reflection
of the father who sees his son “when he is still far away” and goes to meet him, listens to
the awkward confession of his son who wishes to regain his dignity, embraces and kisses
him and has a joyful banquet prepared for him. It is joyful because the son who was lost,
or could get lost and die in the world of indifference, has been found and returned to life.
Fr Belloni was real transparency of the Father’s goodness for the poor and abandoned
children of Palestine, everything that Abuliatama offered them (bread, home, family, care,
education, fatherhood) referred to a higher reality, to a heavenly reality of love.
Also Mualem Srugi (teacher/master Srugi) is God’s living invitation to respond with
sincerity to the question, often selfish, that we ask ourselves: Who is my neighbour? Who
are those to whom I am genuinely sent? And here Simon Srugi refers us to the good
Samaritan as told in Lk 10: 25-37. He does not ask himself how far his duties of solidarity
286 cei episcopal commission for the doctrine of the faith, proclamation and catechesis, Lettera ai
cercatori di Dio, 85.
287 cei episcopal commission for the doctrine of the faith, proclamation and catechesis, Lettera ai
cercatori di Dio, 86.
288 “Reading the Gospel we become more aware of certain aspects of the figure of the Lord: gratitude to the
Father for the gift of a divine vocation offered to all men; predilection for the little ones and the poor; zeal in
preaching, healing and saving because of the urgency of the coming of the Kingdom; the preoccupation of
the Good Shepherd who wins hearts by gentleness and self-giving; the desire to gather his disciples into the
unity of brotherly communion.” Cf. C 11.
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go and not even what are the merits necessary for eternal life. Something else happens: his
heart breaks. Seeing someone in those conditions moves him “in his gut”, in the depths
of his soul. And by virtue of the flash of mercy that strikes his soul, he himself becomes
the neighbour, going beyond every question and every danger.
Therefore, here the question has changed: it is no longer a question of establishing
who among the others is my neighbour or who is not. It’s about myself. I have to
become the neighbour, so the other becomes “like me”.
If the question had been: “Is the Samaritan also my neighbour?” then in the given
situation the answer would have been a rather clear “no”. But behold, Jesus turns the
question upside down: the Samaritan, the stranger, makes himself a neighbour and
shows me that starting from my inner self, I must learn to be the neighbour and that
I already carry the answer within me. I have to become a person who loves, a person
whose heart is open to be troubled by the need of the other. Then I find my neighbour,
or rather: he is the one who finds me.289
“Seeing the son when he is still far away and going out to meet him” and “seeing
someone injured and being struck at the level of gut-feeling, becoming his neighbour
and looking after him” are the school of service, the school of love which Jesus invites
us to realise in him and with him; to make his gaze our gaze, his criteria our criteria, his
actions our actions, his feelings our feelings. “Whoever loves God is in God; ceasing to
live in himself, he lives in him in whom everything has its being.”290
7. To the spilling of blood
The Second Vatican Council affirms that as Jesus, the Son of God, manifested his love by
surrendering his life for us and freely accepting death for the salvation of the world, so
some Christians were called by God, from the earliest centuries and will be called until
the end of time, to bear supreme testimony of love before men, especially before their
persecutors.291
Martyrdom belongs to being a Christian, because Jesus told us so, when he stated the
conditions that one must accept in order to become his disciple: to deny oneself and take
on one’s cross to the point of giving one’s life. Therefore, in this obedience – to the Gospel
of Christ – there is also the possibility of martyrdom, that is, of giving one’s life in fidelity
to the truth and fidelity to Christ, who is the revelation of God.
Martyrdom is intrinsic to faith, not in the sense that one must seek martyrdom, but in
the sense that one must keep in mind that martyrdom can exist “for me”. This principle,
289 J. Ratzinger, Gesù di Nazaret, Vatican City, LEV, 2007, 234.
290 S. Srugi, Massime per i confratelli 2, in AIMOR. [Cf. Appendix no. 2, thought 289].
291 Cf. LG 42.
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general for all Christians, is not foreign to Salesian spirituality, as a superficial vision of
it might make us think:
The joyful outlook of the Salesian, his profession of kindness and desire to collaborate
with others in his work, makes the idea of martyrdom a rather distant concept. And
yet pastoral service to the people and dedication to the education of the young cannot
be realised without the inward dispositions for martyrdom, i.e. the offering of one’s
life and the consequent taking up of the cross. Our mission is in fact the giving of
ourselves to the Father for the salvation of the young in the manner that he himself
prescribes. The same may be said of fidelity to our consecration, which has long been
likened to a bloodless martyrdom because of its character of total and unconditioned
self-giving.
We live the spirit of martyrdom in the daily pastoral charity, of which Don Bosco
said: “When it happens that a Salesian yields up his life whilst working for souls, the
Congregation has registered a great triumph”. And it is interesting to note that in the
context of this daily offering we must be open to the possibility of a cruel martyrdom:
“If the Lord in his Providence disposes that some of us should suffer martyrdom,
should we be afraid on that account?”292
Even more, this possibility becomes especially likely in the context of the mission in
the Middle East.293 In Beitgemal it did happen, and history clearly shows that these were
not just sporadic episodes.
Martyrdom, being conformed to Christ, bears radical witness to the holiness of God
and the dignity of the human being, and the martyr’s death paradoxically achieves,
beyond time and history, the definitive victory of good over evil. By freely offering their
life in union with Christ, martyrs are a living sign of the communion of saints and a
source of new life because, by participating in the mystery of the cross, they become part
of the dynamic of the power of the Risen One and, by experiencing mystical union with
the divine Persons, they continue to build the Church, bringing salvation to the world.
292 J. Vecchi, Sanctity and Martyrdom at the Dawn of the Third Millennium, in ASC (1999) 368, 4-26.
293 They recall the proposals of the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East: “While denouncing persecution and
violence like every man, the Christian recalls that being a Christian involves sharing the Cross of Christ.
The disciple is no greater than the Master (cf. Mt 10:24). The Christian remembers the beatitude of those
persecuted because of justice that will inherit the Kingdom (cf. Mt 5:10)”.
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Conclusion
I started with the conviction of the spiritual and formative usefulness of remembering
one’s history; it is even more enriching if this exercise of memory takes place within a
faith perspective, with the certainty that God is really present in history.
Furthermore, I made my own the criterion of spiritual theology which sees in the lives
of saints real “privileged places for doing theology”. Capable of interpreting an era and
becoming points of reference for every time, they are able to indicate some constants of
the spiritual life and offer a unified and systematic understanding of the entire experience
of faith. In this regard, I set out on an adventure of providing a reading of the life of Simon
Srugi and the Salesian community at Beitgemal (1891–958) in the light of faith. And this
in order to highlight the elements in it of a Salesian spirituality in the Middle East.
My starting points did not disappoint me. The exercise of memory proved to be
particularly enriching; Simon Srugi’s life proved to be a true “theological place”; and
the effort to privilege the relational experience of his community turned out to be very
positive. I must admit, however, that in highlighting the “relational experience” in depth, I
did not go as far as I wanted: first, because I was conditioned by the existing bibliographic
and archival material; and second, because even I myself (educated in the current mindset
and bound to it) struggle to be faithful to my intuition.
Given all this, original perspectives emerged (for a charismatic and cultural
contextualisation) of some constants of the spiritual life. First of all, the renewed
awareness of the value and the spiritual and formative implications of awareness and
experience of discipleship: one cannot become educators in the faith (of the young, the
poor, the Orthodox, Muslims) if one does not live first and continuously as disciples /
learners in the faith.
God has spoken to the Salesians in the Middle East through the spiritual experience
of the pioneers of the Province. Rereading the history of the Beitgemal community in the
light of faith, I was able to identify the following elements as essential parts of the identity
of the Lord’s disciples as Salesians in the Middle East: guided by the Spirit, learning to learn
from life, family spirit, openness to listening and dialogue, Christian forgiveness, charity
and service as a way of configuration to Christ and, finally, openness to the possibility of
martyrdom. These were explained in Chapter Five.
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In order to appreciate the work in its entirety, I would now like to highlight what, in
my opinion, are the merits, limitations and perspectives for the future.
The research offers the community of Beitgemal a valuable historiographical
contribution by collecting, in 40 folders, a presentation of the 120 years of history told by
the community chronicles.
The identification of the list of confreres who belonged to the community is also
interesting. In addition, various data are now available on them: classification by status,
years of belonging, origin, perseverance, etc. This may seem an insignificant effort, but
in my case it was fundamental to obtaining the list of mortuary letters that I had to read;
only in this way have I been able to obtain valuable information that otherwise would not
be sufficiently well founded.
This is how I managed to get to the stories of Bro. Angelo Bormida (for me the greatest
discovery of this research), Fr Varaia, Fr Corradini, cleric Thomas Farah (this too was a
surprise; it is quite something for us to have our own Arab Andrea Beltrami), Fr John
Almagian.294 Otherwise these experiences could be lost in the oblivion of ignorance.
Identifying the right mortuary letters and reading them allows me to state something
that is not addressed anywhere else: that Simon Srugi’s work with Muslims was shared by
his confreres to a great extent; that many confreres established sympathetic but somewhat
superficial relations with them; and that, instead, it was the brothers who deeply involved
themselves in the daily life of the Muslim peasants, thus managing to carry out an
excellent activity of indirect evangelisation, including gaining some some conversions.
Now I can also affirm that, for reasons explained in the research, the local confreres
found it more difficult to work with the Muslims, but those who went beyond themselves
in the Lord were able to carry out a highly qualified spiritual and pastoral service.
The recovery of Simon Srugi’s writings has been useful (I recognise that I made little
use of them, but it is a great advantage for future studies to have them available).
It has also been useful to recall the historical facts of “the question of the Arab
confreres” so as not to forget them, but also not manipulate them (reporting only what
may be convenient for those whose discourse is biased).
In discussion of epistemological foundations, there is a good synthesis and intelligent
intention for the two components of the curriculum to be in dialogue. Indeed, the
research was a practical exercise that benefited from this dialogue.
The exercise of interpreting one’s history in the light of faith is a formative proposal,
one that is theoretically based and quite developed, especially by Professors Roggia
294 Bearing in mind that the significance of the experiences of Fr Belloni, Fr Eugenio Bianchi, Fr Rosìn and
Simon Srugi was already widespread.
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and Cencini. If there is anything new in my research, I believe it can be found in the
application of such an exercise to a community experience; this can also be found in the
thinking of the professors just mentioned but h in the context of a community application
this thinking is still rather generic and hypothetical.
With regard to an interpretation in the light of faith, I believe it has been of great
spiritual and formative validity especially for some topics whose wounds are still being felt
today: the relationship between local confreres and missionaries, the relationship with the
Pastors of the Church, the relationship with Muslims, the attitude/comparison regarding
martyrdom/witness both ordinary and extraordinary.
Finally, the elements for a Salesian spirituality in the Middle East proposed in
Chapter Five, are certainly neither an exhaustive list nor the fulfilment of any of the
topics dealt with there; they propose to offer some significant avenues for awakening the
identity proper to the Salesians of MOR and, consequently, for strengthening the sense
of belonging to the provincial community.
On a personal level, I must say that I am pleased to have remained faithful to
the principles proposed in the preface (that the final contributions of the research
would useful for me and those close to me; that the investigation would bring the two
components of my curriculum into dialogue: spiritual theology and the sciences of
formation; and finally, that this academic effort be a real effort of dialogue between faith,
culture and life).
This research was a wonderful opportunity for affective and effective insertion into
the experience of the Province. I believe it will certainly help me in my existential task of
inculturation.
Although I recognise that the option of developing a wide-ranging theme has its
drawbacks at an academic level, I believe that this choice allows me to have an overall view
of the reality in which I have to work... in my circumstances, preferable to specialising in
a single aspect of it. The research was based on archival sources: for me it was a great
challenge, and I have the feeling of not having been up to it. I believe that such a job
requires historical and literary skills that I do not possess.
Along the way, I realised that in addition to chronicles, mortuary letters, documents
and biographies, another very important source would be exchanges of letters. But the
richest archive in this sense is the ASC , access to which presents some problems, as well
as implying a job for which I was not prepared and the providing of time that I did not
have.
Although what I am presenting historically is quite good material, I am aware of
there being some historical imperfections that I would not know how to overcome. For
example, despite the demanding work in identifying the list of confreres who lived in
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Beitgemal, it is very likely that there is a margin of error (hopefully not very high) both
in the list itself and in the complementary data.
The most obvious limitation is the lack of depth of the various topics as a result of
the breadth of the theme. I also realised that there were other ideas emerging from the
history of the community which I did not want to point out in order not to scatter the
contents already proposed.
I consider, as I have already mentioned, that one could be even more spiritually
attentive to the relational / community experience. Sometimes the themes are more
developed through an over view of individual experiences and not so much a highlighting
of the relational side. The thesis offers the basis for continuing the exercise of an
interpretation in the light of faith in the years following our research, that is, from 1958
to the present day; in itself, it is known that in this more contemporary period one can
discover the spiritual figure of Fr Domenico Dezzutto and his wonderful apostolate of
the good press. It is a task I hope someone takes up.
This research also offers itself as a model for carrying out a similar study in the
other communities of the MOR Province. The ideal would be to have a sufficiently rich
reflection at an historical and spiritual level level, which would allow for a serious re-
interpretation of the history of the provincial community.
With reference to Simon Srugi, I thought that his writings should be more valued. Of
course it would take not only serious literary criticism, but also theological and spiritual
critique, as well as discerning the perennial from the dated in his message. In addition, I
believe that Srugi can offer a spiritually competent message regarding certain topics that
are still a bit painful: the identity of the Salesian brother, the oriental identity of local
Salesians, the apostolate with Muslims.
Finally, what is needed now is a serious pedagogical reflection to help assimilate what
is proposed in the research in favour of the ongoing formation of all the confreres, the
initial formation of the local confreres and the proper formation in the insertion of the
new missionaries.
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Bibliography
1. Sources
1.1 Archival sources
House Chronicles - Beitgemal community (pro-manuscripto) 34 detailed chronicles and 4
summary chronicles, in ACB, Beitgemal, 1891–2010.
Mortuary letters (88 leaflets), in AIMOR, Provincial House MOR Bethlehem, 1892 –2010.
School records 1908–1914, in ACB, Beitgemal, 1908–1914.
Register of the “Pious Work of Stephen for spreading Christian forgiveness”, in ACB,
Beitgemal, 1923.
BELLONI A., Bulletin Annuel (Annual Report to benefactors), in AIMOR, Bethlehem
1880-1902.
BIANCHI E., Lettera sullo stato della Colonia Agricola di Beitgemal inviata da don
Eugenio Bianchi e Alfredo Sacchetti al Capitolo Superiore dei Salesiani, in ACB,
Beitgemal, April 1913.
BORREGO J., I salesiani nel Medio Oriente(pro-manuscripto), in AIMOR, Bethlehem,
1983.
DEZZUTO A., Apostolato della buona stampa a Beitgemal. Relazioni annuali 1986-2010,
in ACB, Beitgemal, 2010.
POLACEK J., I salesiani di don Bosco e le figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice nella Palestina,
specialmente tra il 1891 e il 1910, in the Archivio Pontifìcio Istituto Orientale
(PIO), Rome, 1976.
SRUGI S., Massime ai giovani, massime sul Sacro Cuore, massime varie, massime ai
confratelli (Pro-manuscripto), in AIMOR, 1896–1940.
1.2 Sources on the life of Simon Srugi and the Beitgemal Community
FORTI E.,Un buon samaritano concittadino di Gesù, Leumann, Elle Di Ci, 1967.
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, Fedeli a don Bosco in Terra Santa, Leumann, Elle Di Ci, 1988.
GISLER M., Cafargamela : il sepolcro di santo Stefano protomartire e dei santi Nicodemo,
Gamaliele e Abibone ritrovato a Beitgemal (Palestina) dai salesiani del ven. don
Bosco, B. Kuhlen (Germania), Typogr. Apost., 1923.
PEDRAZZI O.,Una croce in terra santa. In memoria di don Mario Rosin, Rome, Scuola
Salesiana del Libro, 1938.
RIVA G.,Manuale di Filotea, Milan, Serafino Majoreli, 1884.
SHALHUB G., Abuliatama, il “Padre degli orfani” nel paese di Gesù, il can. A. Belloni,
Turin, SEI, 1955.
1.3 Documents of the Salesian Congregation (in chronological order)
SALESIAN HEADQUARTERS, Annuario. Salesiani di don Bosco, Direzione generale
Opere Don Bosco, Rome S.D.B., 1890–2011.
Constitutions of the Society of St Francis de Sales, Rome, S.D.B., 1984.
Project of Life of the Salesians of Don Bosco, A guide to reading the Salesian Constitutions,
Rome, S.D.B., 1986.
23RD GENERAL CHAPTER OF THE SALESIANS OF DON BOSCO, Educating the
young in faith, Chapter Documents, Rome, S.D.B., 1990.
VECCHI J., Sanctity and martyrdom at the Dawning of the Third Millennium, in ASC 80
(1999) 368, 4-26.
The Formation of the Salesians of Don Bosco. Principles and norms. Ratio fundamentalis
et studiorum, S.D.B., Rome 2000.
CHAVEZ P., Rector Major’s Letter at the Conclusion of the Extraordinary Visitation,
29.06.2004.
Positio super virtutibus. Beatificationis et Canonizaionis Servi Dei Simoneis Srugi Laici
Professi Societatis Salesianae, Rome, 1988.
1.4 Documents of the Church (in chronological order)
VATICAN COUNCIL II, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium on the Church, 21
November 1964, in Enchiridion vaticanum, 1. Official Documents of the Holy
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See 1971. Official text and Italian version, EDB, Bologna 1971, 284-445. English
can be found on the Vatican website.
VATICAN COUNCIL II, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes on the Church in
the Modern World, 7 December 1965, in Enchiridion vaticanum, 1. Official
Documents of the Holy See 1971. Official text and Italian version, EDB,
Bologna 1971,1319-1644. English can be found on the Vatican website.
VATICAN COUNCIL II, Council Decree Ad Gentes on the Church’s pastoral activity, 7
December 1965, in Enchiridion vaticanum, 1. Official Documents of the Holy
See 1971. Official text and Italian version, EDB, Bologna 1971, 1087- 1242.
English can be found on the Vatican website.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, LEV, Vatican City, 1992.
JOHN PAUL II, Post synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata, 25 March 1996, in
Enchiridion vaticanum, 15. Official documents of the Holy See 1996. Official
text and Italian version, EDB, Bologna 1999, 205-455. English can be found on
the Vatican website.
JOHN PAUL II, There is no peace without justice and no justice without forgiveness.
Message for the celebration of the day of peace, 1 January 2002, in Enchiridion
vaticanum, 20. Official documents of the Holy See 2001. Official text and Italian
version, EDB, Bologna 2004, 2292-2318. English can be found on the Vatican
website.
2 Studies on the source
SACCHETTI A., Studi Stefanini. Beitgemal, 1934.
CHARBEL A., Beit-jimal identificata con Caphar-Gamala negli studi di St. H. Stephan, in
«Salesianum» 31 (1969) 667-676.
FERGNANI G., Il Sepolcro di S. Stefano Protomartire scoperto a Beitgemal, Torino, 1930.
, L’Invenzione di S. Stefano Protomartire negli scritti di S. Agostino, Beitgemal,
1930.
, Carfargàmala: monografìa e prove dell’autenticità della scoperta del Sepolto di
S. Stefano, Beitgemal, Tipografia Santo Stefano, 1932.
HEIDET B., Caphargàmala Beitgemal, Beitgemal, Tipografia Santo Stefano, 1931.
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RINALDI F., Le prove indirette a favore del sepolcro di santo Stefano, in «Bollettino
Salesiano», 54 (1930), 6.
ROCCA A., Vita di Santo Stefano protomartire, San Benigno Canavese, Tipografia Don
Bosco, 1923.
3 Other studies
CEI/EPISCOPAL COMMISSION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH, PROCLAMATION
AND CATECHESIS, Lettera ai cercatori di Dio, Leumann, Elle Di Ci, 2009.
BALTHASAR H. U. von, Gloria I. Un ’estetica teologica, Milano, Jaca Book, 1975.
CARELLI R., L’uomo e la donna nella teologia di H. U. von Balthasar, Lugano, EUPRESS
FTL, 2007.
CENCINI A., I sentimenti del Figlio, Bologna, EDB, 1998.
, L’ albero della vita. Verso un modello di vita di formazione iniziale e
permanente, Cinisello Balsamo, San Paolo, 2005.
CERIA E., Annali IV, Turin, Edizione Internazionale, 1951.
, La Vita Religiosa secondo gl’insegnamenti di S. Francesco di Sales, Turin, SEI,
1938.
GARCÍA J.M., La teologia spirituale oggi. Verso una descrizione del suo statuto
epistemologico, in La teologia spirituale. Acts of the International OCD
Conference (Rome 24–29 April 2000), Rome, OCD/Teresianum, 2001, 205-238.
, Teologia dell’esperienza spirituale cristiana - giustificazione epistemologica e
interdisciplinarietà, Rome, 2009.
, Teologia dell’esperienza spirituale cristiana - temi fondamentali, Rome, 2010.
LEMOYNE G.B. - AMADEI A. - CERIA E., Memorie biografiche di don (del beato - di
san) Giovanni Bosco (19 vols), S. Benigno Canavese-Turin, SEI, 1898-1939.
GUARDINI R., Accettare se stessi, Brescia, Morcelliana, 1992.
MANENTI A., Vivere gli ideali, IL Fra paura e desiderio, Bologna, EDB, 2001
MOIOLI G., Il discepolo, Milan, Glossa, 2000.
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PANIMOLLE S. (ed.). Apostolo discepolo missione, Rome, Boria, 1993.
STAGLIANO A., La teologia «che serve». Sul compito scientifico-ecclesiale del teologo per
la nuova evangelizzazione, Turin, SEI, 1996.
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Appendices
Note: For now, the appendices will appear in a separate file when completed, but will
eventually be added to this file.
1. Lucian’s Letter. On the discovery of the body of St Stephen in 415 AD.
2. Simon Srugi’s writings.
3. Beitgemal 1958 –2011 according to the chronicles.
4. Biographical notes on Beitgemal’s most significant confreres.
5. A list of confreres who lived at Beitgemal (1892–2011) in chronological order
according to the first year of their stay in the community.
6. A list of confreres who lived at Beitgemal (1892–2011) in alphabetical order.
7. A list of confreres who lived at Beigemal and then left the Congregation.
8. A list of confreres who lived at Beitgemal and then changed Province.
9. An overview of the presence of the Salesians in Beitgemal.
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