Turin, January 1875

To Salesian confreres,

1874, my beloved sons, was a very memorable one for us. His Holiness Pius IX currently reigning, after having granted us great favours on April 3, deigned then to definitively approve our humble Congregation. While of course this glorious event filled us all with true joy it was soon gravely saddened by another series of events. In fact on the 13th of the same month God called Fr Provera to himself, then Fr Pestarino, and then cleric Ghione and Fr Giuseppe Cagliero and all this in the space of just four months.

We have lost four workers for the Gospel in these dear confreres, all perpetually professed, all who very much loved the Salesian Congregation, faithfully observed our Constitutions, and were truly zealous in working for the greater glory of God.

So it should not surprise us that these losses were felt so hard in our Society. But God who is so infinitely good and who knows what can be to our greatest benefit judged that they were already worthy of himself. One can say of them that they lived only a short time but worked as much as if they had lived a very long time: Brevi vivens tempore, explevit tempora multa [Ws 4:13]. And we have well-founded reason to believe that these confreres, ceasing to work amongst us here on earth, have become our protectors with God in Heaven.

We therefore believe it is appropriate to offer some indications on the life of each of them so their memory may be preserved amongst us.

What we do for them, with the Lord’s help, we hope will be done for confreres already called to eternal life in times past and for those whom God will be pleased to call in the future. We do this for three reasons in particular:

1. Because other religious orders and ecclesiastical congregations usually do this.

2. So that those who lived amongst us and practised the same rules in exemplary fashion may be an encouragement to us to follow them in promoting what is good and fleeing from what is evil.

3. So that by preserving their names and their main actions we may more easily be reminded to lift up our prayers to God for the eternal repose of their souls, should they still not yet have been welcomed into the bosom of divine mercy.

We certainly must not serve the Lord so that the memory of our actions will be preserved amongst men, but so that our names, as the Saviour says, may be written in the book of life. This notwithstanding, we must recognise that just as our bad works can cause scandal to others after our death, so can our good deeds be a source of edification.

Therefore while we are reading this brief collection of information concerning our confreres let us not cease to lift up our prayers to God for them and for all the confreres who have been called to the other life since the beginning of the Congregation.

Over this current year (1875) we should demonstrate our indelible gratitude by raising up constant supplication to the Divine Majesty for the holy Church and especially for the preservation of the precious days of our Supreme Pontiff, our outstanding benefactor, from whom we have so often been filled with spiritual and temporal benefits. He deigned to give definitive approval to our Constitutions, so we may be faithful in observing them; he has granted us many favours. Let us try to show ourselves worthy by using them for the greater glory of God and the good of souls.

May God bless you all my dear sons, and pray for me too. I am most affectionately yours in Jesus Christ,

Fr John Bosco