RMG, 10 May 2021 -- Don Bosco grew up immersed in the popular marian devotion of his own family and the people of Becchi and Castelnuovo particularly invoked as ‘Our Lady of the Rosary’. This helped him develop a personal relation with the Blessed Virgin Mary without any specific title.

When he started his ministry in Turin, he turned to the 'Consolata', the patroness of Turin. In fact, the first marian statue of the Pinardi shed was that of ‘Our Lady of Consolation’. during his first twenty years of ministry Don Bosco turned to the Immaculate Conception. Certainly, the declaration of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception (1854) and the apparition at Lourdes (1858) had some influence on Don Bosco. He turned to the Immaculate Virgin for help and protection in his ministry of educating the poor and abandoned boys.

Starting 1862 Don Bosco started using the title ‘Auxilium Christianorum’ which coincided with the difficult historical events the Church was facing. He told Fr Cagliero: “Our Lady wants that we honour her under the title of Help of Christians: The times are so sad that we really need the Blessed Virgin to help us preserve and defend the Christian faith.” He envisioned the Church in Valdocco built from 1865-1868 not as a parish but as a Marian shrine for the city of Turin, for Italy and for the whole world. From 1875 Don Bosco willed that every missionary send-off took place in this shrine. Thus, by his definitive choice the shrine of Mary Help of Christians at Valdocco became the centre of expansion of his charism as Founder. Thus, Fr. Egidiò Viganò affirmed that in the same way the missionary spirit is an essential element of our charism, the “devotion to Mary Help of Christians is an essential element of our charism; it permeates its characteristics and vitalises its elements.” (ASC 289).

Salesian missionaries brought the devotion to Mary Help of Christians to 134 countries. The Association Devoted to Mary Help of Christians (ADMA) became an important means of evangelising popular religiosity and nurturing the faith of the people, as envisioned by Don Bosco. The missionary send-off in the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Valdocco is a gesture with which the Congregation renews, in front of Mary Help of Christians, its missionary commitment every year.

Let us spread devotion to Mary Help of Christians as a means of rooting Don Bosco’s charism in our own contexts. Let us entrust to her all our missionaries and all those who are discerning their missionary vocation!