BoenziJ_PAlbera_Pagine_da_203-272_RSS_vol63_2014_A033_n2_50-V2-6_SL-18-C-13


BoenziJ_PAlbera_Pagine_da_203-272_RSS_vol63_2014_A033_n2_50-V2-6_SL-18-C-13

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STUDI
RECONSTRUCTING DON ALBERA’S READING LIST
Joseph Boenzi*
Between 1892 and 1910, Don Paolo Albera (1845-1921) was called
upon to articulate the Salesian spirit for many groups within the Salesian
family. This period coincides with Paolo Albera’s service on the Salesian
Superior Chapter as Spiritual Director General. These were defining years for
D. Albera and for the office he held. For if the role of the “Catechist General”
or “Spiritual Director General” had been fluid until the time of his election,
Paolo Albera helped to set the parameters for this office. He clarified the re-
sponsibilities of the Spiritual Director General as a member of the Superior
Chapter and within the Salesian Society as a whole.
The previous Spiritual Director General, D. Giovanni Bonetti (1838-
1891), had been quite adept in the field of public relations. His pamphlets and
books were popular, instructive, and even controversial1. His most important
literary contribution, the Bollettino Salesiano, popularized Don Bosco’s
works and personality to the point of gaining many supporters for the saint’s
projects both throughout Italy and abroad.
D. Albera’s writings and especially his preaching ministry seemed more
in tune with formative aspects of his role on the council. The need was evi-
dent. The growing reputation of the Salesians’ saintly founder John Bosco
(thanks, no doubt, to D. Bonetti’s own publishing campaign) brought many
eager young applicants to join Salesian ranks. The early Salesians had grown
up with the founder, but if this rising generation of newcomers was to assimi-
late Don Bosco’s spirit, more systematic training was necessary. Formation
and retreats were frequent topics at the general chapters, and responsibility
* SDB, Professor of Theology at the Dominican School of Philosopy and Theology
(Berkeley CA).
1 Cf Pietro STELLA, Don Bosco nella storia della religiosità cattolica. Roma, LAS 1979,
vol. 1, pp. 73-74; Arthur LENTI, The Bosco-Gastaldi Conflict. Part II: From the Approval of the
Salesian Constitutions in 1874 to the Enforced Reconciliation [Concordia] in 1882”, in
“Journal of Salesian Studies” 5 (1994) 1, 80-88.

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204 Joseph Boenzi
for implementing subsequent guidelines fell to the Spiritual Director General.
D. Albera’s long-term habit of reading and note-taking, then, would serve to
sustain his new ministry. He was entrusted with the task of directing the spir-
itual formation, initial and ongoing, of his confreres, especially through re-
treats.
1. One Who Was Well Read
Those who knew Paolo Albera often pointed out that he was a man well-
read. D. Giovanni Battista Grosso (1858-1944), who worked closely with
D. Albera in Marseilles, cites D. Albera’s serious study habits as among the
most striking elements of his ministry as provincial. Reading spiritual authors
was a practice that D. Albera brought with him from Sampierdarena,
D. Grosso opined, but this flourished when he moved to France, where a spir-
itual renewal was already taking place:
Even in the midst of all his concerns as provincial and director of the “Oratoire
St. Léon” (among others, to provide for meals, making the rounds to ask for
charity as Don Bosco used to do, and as D. Albera himself did for many years in
Marassi and Sampierdarena), he still found time to do a lot of reading, and almost
exclusively he turned to ascetical books. He was an avid reader and kept on the
alert to acquire every new book of asceticism that the best French authors might
publish. Not only did he read them and take notes, but he used to summarize
them or make extracts of these works, which would then serve him very well in
the monthly conferences he used to prepare for the confreres, or for those occa-
sions when he was frequently invited to speak and willingly did so to the various
youth groups in the House2.
This testimony is interesting. D. Grosso gives us some important details
regarding D. Albera’s approach to preparing his conferences. He did not
simply rely on tried and true sources for his interventions – something that
would have been more than legitimate for a priest ordained 13 years already
2 ASC B0330314, Giovanni Battista GROSSO, D. Paolo Albera. Ricordi personali, ms
aut., p. 1: “In mezzo alle varie preoccupazioni di Ispettore e di Direttore dell’Oratoire St. Léon
(tra le quali quella di provvedere il pane, andando a chiedere la carità come faceva D. Bosco, e
come D. Albera stesso fece per molti anni a Marassi ed a S. Pier d’Arena) trovava tuttavia il
tempo di leggere molto, e quasi esclusivamente libri ascetici; ed era avido ed attento a procu-
rarsi ogni nuovo libro di ascetica che i migliori autori francesi pubblicassero; e non solo li
leggeva ed annotava, ma ne faceva sunti od estratti, che poi tanto gli giovavano nelle con-
ferenze mensili ai confratelli, ed a quelle che sovente accettava volentieri di fare alle diverse
compagnie della Casa”.

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 205
and struggling with a busy schedule. He read the spiritual masters, and since
he was in France, he seemed to feel that he needed to go to local sources if he
was to make the spiritual life accessible to his listeners.
Two decades later, D. Calogero Gusmano (1872-1935) would observe
this same attitude while accompanying D. Albera on his extended visit to the
houses in America. The visitor’s days were packed, but he conscientiously
prepared his conferences by reading spiritual authors who were most es-
teemed in the countries he visited. He read these authors in their original lan-
guage: Portuguese, Spanish or English. By concentrating on sources written
in the language of the country that he visited, D. Albera was able to offer a
spiritual message in the idiom of that nation. D. Gusmano described the
process in these words:
During the visit to the Houses, the days were filled, for he had made it a norm to
let the confreres speak with him as long and as much as they wanted to. “There is no
point in traveling from Italy and putting up with so many inconveniences if we do not
let the confreres speak their minds completely”. Nor did he ever neglect the practices
of piety made in common. Even when he was on the road he faithfully arranged to
make meditation and spiritual reading from books written in the language of the
country. Thus D. Albera, in a short time, could give the “Good Night” in the language
of the country and converse with numerous cooperators who came to visit him3.
Others who knew him personally concur that D. Albera was an avid
reader of spiritual and ascetical works. He took his role as spiritual director
very seriously, and therefore made every attempt to keep up-to-date in spiri-
tual matters. Without losing touch with the needs of the young people whom
the Salesian served and all the practical and professional preparation needed
to minister to them, D. Albera’s greatest priority was the interior formation of
Salesian personnel. They must ground themselves in Christ; only then could
they operate as Christ’s apostles4. As a preacher, he would integrate what he
drew from these spiritual authors with his pastoral experiences as a way to
teach the Salesian spirit. Any study of D. Albera’s teaching must begin, then,
with a look at the “masters” he drew upon as his own sources.
3 ASC B0330315, Calogero GUSMANO, Appunti alla rinfusa, 1935, ms aut., p. 23: “Le
giornate durante la visita alle Case erano piene avendo egli per norma di lasciare parlare i con-
fratelli quanto volevano. — Non si viene dall’Italia sottoponendosi a tanti disagi per non las-
ciare [parlare] pienamente i confratelli. — Nondimeno mai lasciava le pratiche di pietà in co-
mune. Anche durante i viaggi era fedele e procurava di fare la meditazione e la lettura spiri-
tuale su libri scritti nella lingua del paese. Così D. Albera poteva in breve tempo dare la buona
notte nella lingua del paese e conversare coi numerosi cooperatori che venivano a visitarlo”.
4 Cf ALOÏS [Louis CARTIER], Coups de Crayon. Un Homme de Dieu, in “L’Adoption” 20
(1921) n. 214, 178.

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206 Joseph Boenzi
2. Presentation of the “Fondo” and Documentation
This would be easy if we had a record of the man’s library, but no such
library probably ever existed. D. Albera was schooled in poverty by Don
Bosco, and so was careful never to accumulate any superfluities. Often D. Al-
bera would borrow books from collections and nearby libraries5, and what-
ever books he bought, he handed over to a library in one of the Salesian
houses. We will have to recreate D. Albera’s reading list by examining his
own notes and journal.
2.1. Index of Retreat Topics
The Central Salesian Archives (ASC) preserve twenty-seven cartons
containing D. Albera’s papers. This collection is found in the “Fondo Rettor
Maggiore”, and at the present time, they are largely unexplored. Two cartons
contain particularly pertinent materials. One, carton B032, contains appoint-
ment books and calendars which D. Albera kept from 1893 to 1899, and from
1902 to 1918. Carton B048 contains composition books, note pads, and
folders filled with observations, annotations, outlines and final drafts for con-
ferences, sermons and panygerics that D. Albera delivered during his years of
ministry. Some notes date back to Paolo Albera’s formation days; others are
jottings from conferences given while rector major. The majority of this mate-
rial, however, seems to have grown out of D. Albera’s years as Spiritual Di-
rector General, from 1892 to 1910.
While D. Albera quoted a number of theologians, saints and spiritual
writers in his circular letters, he rarely credited his sources. His composition
books, on the other hand, are filled with memos from his readings, studies
and meditations. Though there is little in the way of bibliographical data, he
clearly indicated the names of the authors who inspired his jottings. This al-
lows us to trace a list of authors that D. Albera found useful.
Returning to Turin in 1892, D. Albera brought a rich appreciation for
French authors, as we have heard from D. Grosso. French spiritual writers
represent nearly a quarter of the sources he would study in the next few years
as he prepared his sermons and conferences. He also would study a number
of Italian sources, as we see in his diary and in composition books and note
pads he used to prepare his talks.
5 “Lundi. Je sens la fatigue. Je me lève assez tard malheureusement. La matinée s’est
passée à la Bibliothèque pour le triage de livres français”, in ASC B0320102 (29 Nov 1897).

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 207
One such composition book (B0480126), is filled with transcriptions
and paraphrases of Catholic authors and seems to date back to D. Albera’s
first months on the Superior Chapter6. D. Albera did not outline sermons or
develop particular themes. Instead, he collected those “quotable quotes” that
he found most useful – an approach described by D. Grosso above. This of-
fers us a clue to the ascetical trail D. Albera followed as he prepared himself
for his formative mission as Spiritual Director General7.
2.2. Authors Cited in D. Albera’s Spiritual Journal
Another useful tool for recreating D. Albera’s reading list can be found
in the reflections he entered in his spiritual journal. He was not concerned
about citing complete titles, but he did briefly comment on authors he found
helpful for his own spiritual growth. A book that struck him during his study
might serve for his private meditation, or vice versa. If a book gave him
pause to reassess his own spiritual journey, he journaled his reflections. True,
D. Albera did not compose book reviews. His terse comments, however,
allow us to identify those authors whom he finds particularly appealing and
the effect they make on his life. Thus we find that D. Albera is humbled by
Teresa of Avila’s mysticism8, struck by Fr. Hamon’s humility9, shamed by the
high spirituality of Francis de Sales’letters10, impressed by Bishop Bossuet’s
Marian reflections11, consoled by Don Bosco’s sketch of the Last Things12.
6 ASC preserve 40 composition books or hand-sewn tablets of D. Albera’s notes in carton
B048. Though D. Albera normally did not date his notes, it is sometimes possible to approximate
the date using internal evidence, such as references to events in the Church or in the Salesian So-
ciety. The composition book B0480126 carries references to newspaper and magazine articles
published in 1891. The majority of other references in this notebook come from books published
in the 1860s and 1870s. Evidence exists to demonstrate that all these books were available in the
Oratory library or that D. Albera’s colleagues, members of the superior chapter, had copies of
these books in their personal collections. This notebook would thus offer us a clue to D. Albera’s
study and preaching preparation during the first months after his election as Spiritual Director
General.
7 D. Albera would continue to transcribe “quotable quotes” until the end of the first decade
of the twentieth century. He would learn how to modify his notetaking, thanks to his later read-
ing. Six composition books preserved in ASC follow this approach: B0480126, B0480130,
B0480131, B0480133, B0480134, B0480135. The bulk of his other notes are outlines or drafts
of talks, sermons and conferences. He makes less of an effort to quote his sources in these notes,
and therefore they become more difficult to trace. Not surprisingly, we can find more continuous
references to sources in D. Albera’s spiritual journals than in his work books.
8 Cf ASC B0320101 (15 Oct 1894).
9 Cf ASC B0320106 (26 Dec 1903; 23 Jan 1905).
10 Cf ASC B0320106 (16 Jan 1905).
11 Cf ASC B0320106 (21 Oct 1906).
12 Cf ASC B0320109: 3 Jan 1910.

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208 Joseph Boenzi
Occasionally D. Albera journaled about readings he made while
preparing a conference or a retreat. These authors, often those he has used pre-
viously for his own spiritual journey, seem to have struck him in new ways
when he tried to blend their teachings into his own presentations. If D. Albera
felt especially nervous about an upcoming preaching assignment, as when
preparing the retreat for the Directors in 1905, for the deacons preparing for
priestly ordination in 1909, or for the delegates of the eleventh Salesian gen-
eral chapter (GC11) in 1910, he made numerous comments about the authors
he consulted, often in the context of a prayer that could render their teachings
fruitful for his audience. He expressed his profound respect for Luigi Pis-
cetta’s scholarship13; he delighted in Alessandro Ciolli’s manual for new con-
fessors14. Though he scolded himself for not dedicating more time to study, D.
Albera eagerly and systematically drew from the “treasures” that he found in
the writings of his contemporaries – Jean-Baptiste Caussette, Louis Planus,
and Cardinal James Gibbons – to share with his fellow Salesians15.
We have already seen that D. Albera’s early responsibilities as Spiritual
Director General included editing the General Chapter documents, overseeing
the formation of young candidates for Salesian life and priesthood, and
preparing Salesians for their annual retreats. These three tasks, as his journal
bears out, kept him quite busy. Moreover, the constant demand to direct
others brought the man face to face with the issue of his own spiritual growth.
This is what prompted him to keep a spiritual journal, which he called “notes
confidentielles prises pour le bien de mon âme”16. This statement opens his
practice of keeping the journal. Over the years he will remark (to his journal)
that keeping notes is most helpful, and when he neglects to do so, he feels
that his spiritual progress is hampered17.
D. Albera’s journal, then, is not a chronicle but a daily spiritual role-call.
Whatever author, religious or secular, helps or hampers his spiritual progress
– this author will figure into D. Albera’s tiny note pad, especially in later
years. If, then, we find him jotting a comment about an author or article that
impresses him, the fact that he enters this data into his journal means that he
13 Cf ASC B0320107 (10 Dec 1907).
14 Cf ASC B0320108 (14 Jan 1909).
15 Cf ASC B0320104 (13 Jan 1898); B0320106 (27 Jul 1905; 27 Apr 1906); B0320107
(11 Jul 1908); B0320108 (31 Aug 1909).
16 ASC B0320101 (cover page 17 Feb 1893).
17 See also ASC B0320101 (2 Oct 1894); ASC B0320103 (Jun, 31 Dec 1897); ASC
B0320104 (31 Dec 1898); ASC B0320106 (29 Aug, 30 Oct, [10] Dec 1903); ASC B0320109
(1 Jan 1910; 4 Sep 1912).

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 209
finds this reading to be personally beneficial or detrimental for his spiritual
journey. In fact, when we look through D. Albera’s composition books or
other materials he used to prepare his conferences, we find many of the same
writers who feature in his journal. At the same time, however, we find entire
pages from a number of authors who never find their way into his “notes con-
fidentielles”. It is not unreasonable, then, to view D. Albera’s personal
reading as an important element in his spiritual awareness, for his felt-need to
sanctify himself intensified once he assumed a leadership role on the Superior
Chapter. He realizes his responsibility: “I promise to practise myself what I
recommend to others”18.
After his election as rector major on 16 August 1910, D. Albera was no
longer able to keep his journal with the same consistency that he had during
the previous period. He made spotty entries until 1913, and noted his final
journal reflections in December 1915, when Giovanni Cagliero (1838-1926)
had been named cardinal. This means that we have limited documentation of
D. Albera’s reading habits during his years as superior general. We can only
presume that he continued what had become a matter of habit: that he read
devotional books and ascetical literature for his own growth and as a help in
his teaching ministry19.
2.3. D. Albera’s Work-books
Continuing our discussion based on the workbooks, if we can set
B0480126 as being transcribed shortly after D. Albera’s return to Turin in
1892, we can begin to note a number of trends in D. Albera’s studies. The
new Spiritual Director General began to gather ideas from apologists, cate-
18 ASC B0320107 (25 Aug 1907). D. Albera repeatedly expresses his concern to practice
what he must preach to others, to be an example to others. These sentiments come out in the
following entries made in his spiritual journal: ASC B0320101 (27 Feb, 16 May, 17 Jul, 14 Sep
1893; 12 Dec 1895); B0320102 (19 Mar, 31 Dec 1896); B0320103 (18 Apr, 30 May, 11 Dec
1897); B0320105 (4 Feb, 14 Jun, 2, 3 Aug, 6 Sep 1899); B0320106 (16 Apr 1903, 1 Jun, 26
Dec 1904, 4 Aug 1905, 25 Feb, 31 May 1906); B0320107 (9 Jan 1907); B0320109 (12 Sep
1912).
19 A careful examination of his circular letters would provide evidence of D. Albera’s on-
going ascetical culture. His circular letter of 18 October 1920 reveals dependence on Dom Jean
Baptiste Chautard’s L’Ame de Tout Apostolat, rev. enlarged 9th ed. (Paris, P. Téqui 1920). The
circular of 19 March 1921 also draws quite amply from Dom Chautard, as well as from Fr.
Frederick Faber’s Spiritual Conferences. The theme of these circulars is D. Bosco as model of
perfection and priesthood. Cf Lettere circolari di D. Paolo Albera ai Salesiani. Torino, Società
Editrice Internazionale 1922, pp. 339-340; 402; 408-410; 415-416; 418-421.

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210 Joseph Boenzi
chists and retreat preachers who had already made an impact on the northern
Italian scene several decades earlier. It is likely that D. Albera knew most of
these authors before he had left Italy in 1882. Some of them published their
works through the Salesian press in Sampierdarena, where D. Albera had
served as director for a decade. It would seem, therefore, that D. Albera was
merely reacquainting himself with sources that he already knew.
As he had done in his early preaching days, D. Albera collected stories
from readings largely directed to young people. The themes that figure most
in the pages of B0480126 are the precariousness of human existence, the im-
mortality of the soul, the power of God as Creator, and the eternal nature of
the after life. All these themes are classic fare for an eight-day retreat!
Although the majority of D. Albera’s early transcriptions demonstrate an
interest in retreat themes and anecdotes appropriate to young people, his later
notes reflect his need to prepare for a more mature audience, and with every
passing year, D. Albera covered an ever-widening field. He also learned
something about referencing his notes. Following advice he picked up when
reading Cardinal James Gibbons20, he began to arrange topics alphabetically
in an addressbook for easy referencing and retrieving of information, anec-
dotes, examples useful in his preaching. This orderly approach makes it easier
to trace his sources by author, title and sometimes even by page number in
notes taken after 190521.
Collecting and transcribing anecdotes from the many authors that he
turned to while preparing instructions and conferences, D. Albera actually
filled several notebooks. But not all his sources are found in these notes. We
can trace other references by combing the text of his retreat sermons and in-
structions. Throughout his conferences, D. Albera cites sayings and anecdotes
from saints and sages, though he rarely makes clear reference to a specific
20 James Gibbons (1834-1921), born of Irish immigrant parents in Baltimore, became a
priest in 1861, and ordained bishop in 1868, serving as Vicar Apostolic for the Southern States
after the Civil War. His missionary experience in the American South enabled him to better ar-
ticulate Catholic Faith. He learned effective ways of expressing Catholic teachings in terms
that non-Catholics could understand. James Gibbons became the eighth archbishop of Balti-
more in 1877, and was named cardinal in 1885.
21 While D. Albera was always a good “note-taker”, his earlier transcriptions follow a
chronological order, in the sense that he copies down ideas as he reads them. After the turn of
the century he begins to note his topics by subject in address books that conveniently provided
alphabetical tabs: compare ASC B0480128-B0480131 with B0480134-B0480135. These later
address books, begun around 1905, are filled with short quotations and references similar to
index card transcriptions. This method follows to the letter advice he read in Cardinal Gibbons’
writings, which we know he was reading in 1905. Cf ASC B0320106 (24 April 1905); James
GIBBONS, The Ambassador of Christ. Baltimore, John Murphy Company 1896, pp. 285-286.

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 211
text. Often he seems to have taken many of his citations from secondary
sources. At other times he allows us to clearly identify a passage down to
“chapter and verse”. Direct citations or indirect allusions in his conferences,
and cross references from his spiritual journal, round out the picture of D. Al-
bera’s preferred authors and reading.
3. Panorama of “Authors” and “Titles” in D. Albera’s Reading
A careful examination of D. Albera’s notebooks, journals, and retreat
manuscripts leads us to identify eight general categories into which the bulk
of his reading fell during the period in which he served as Spiritual Director
General. These categories are:
1) Doctrinal expositions, including “catechisms” and collections of con-
ferences, as well as meditative works of philosophers, essayists, and literary
men;
2) Practical and applied theology: pastoral manuals, moral theology, ed-
ucational writing for parents, teachers, or young people, apologetics, autobi-
ographies of notable converts;
3) Devotional literature, including classical Christian sources, Marian
literature, works on the mysteries and prerogatives of Jesus Christ, and man-
uals on Christian discipleship;
4) Retreat literature, including meditations for the “Spiritual Exercises”,
and collections of sermons preached during parish missions;
5) Treatises, conferences and meditations on Religious Life;
6) Treatises and conferences on the priesthood;
7) Biblical resources in the form of commentaries and new translations;
8) Salesian sources related to the patron and the founder of the Salesian
Society.
Perhaps the clearest way to identify D. Albera’s sources is to explore
each of these categories and distinguish the individual authors he consulted in
each area.
4. Doctrinal Studies, Catechisms, Conferences
The earliest records we have of D. Albera’s reading, as we have seen,
are the notes he prepared for preaching to children and teenagers. His peers
commented that he was a wonderful storyteller; that he knew how to hold a

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212 Joseph Boenzi
young audience22. What the archives reveal is that Paolo Albera took copious
notes: in the early years of his ministry he was constantly on the lookout for
good stories and anecdotes to bolster his preaching. He transcribed passages
from literature directed toward young people, anecdotes from “catechisms”
and popular apologetical works.
4.1. Catechisms
Among the catechetical writings that appealed to D. Albera23, we find Il
giovane studente istruito, a defense of the Catholic faith written for teenagers.
This work which first appeared in 1871, was the work of Geremia Bonomelli,
a priest from Brescia who was elected bishop of Cremona a few months after
publishing this catechism24.
Bonomelli divides the major themes of Christian teaching into episodes
called “trattenimenti” – a term which can be translated as “sessions”, but
which carries the sense of “time spent together in conversation”. Each session
takes the form of a dialogue between teacher (il maestro) and the young
person identified as the student or disciple (il discepolo). The conversational
tone, with numerous quips and colloquialisms, makes the doctrinal presenta-
tion pleasant and interesting.
Using a later edition, D. Albera drew some arguments from Bishop
Bonomelli’s dialogues as back-up for his notes about the “end of man”, the
22 “A Marsiglia l’udii più volte D. Albera a predicare ai giovani: ricordo come fui edifi-
cato per la praticità delle cose che diceva, per lo zelo che dimostrava per far del bene ai gio-
vani. Il suo gran punto nelle prediche e nei discorsetti della sera era di parlare con frequenza
della fuga del peccato, e ne parlava con vera energia. Praticamente lo faceva vedere come il più
gran male, specialmente lo metteva in contraddizione con l’infinita bontà di Dio, dimostrando
la mostruosa ingratitudine, avendoci Iddio non solo creati ma redenti con infinito suo dolore,
colmati di benefizi tutto [il] giorno” (ASC B0330109, Giulio BARBERIS, Per le memorie di D.
Paolo Albera [1923], ms aut., p. 5). Giulio Barberis (1847-1927).
23 As shown above, D. Albera made transcriptions from classical and contemporary
sources into his own notes. He would then draw from these notes as he prepared his sermons.
A number of these composition books and note pads that he used for this purpose are now pre-
served in the ASC’s Albera Collection. Most of D. Albera’s catechetical entries were made in
note pads now identified as: B0480126, B0480130, B0480131, and B0480133. Later, he made
more thematic notes, as can be seen in B0480134 and B0480135, both of which seem to have
been compiled during the first decade of the twentieth century.
24 Geremia Bonomelli (1831-1914), theology professor and priest in the diocese of Bre-
scia, was ordained bishop of Cremona on 26 November 1871. An articulate and popular writer,
Bishop Bonomelli’s pastoral letters were widely read, as were his multi-volume catechisms and
dialogues on Christian doctrine, Catholic tradition and the sacred liturgy. He even produced a
number of travelogues, offering descriptive guides for pilgrims guides and helpful tips to vaca-
tioners: cf Geremia BONOMELLI, Misteri cristiani. Brescia, Queriniana 1894-1896, 4 vols.

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 213
last judgment, and God’s justice. He also found that the bishop of Cremona
offered a clear and youthful approach to prove God’s existence, explain the
creation of the world and the need to live in response to God’s natural and su-
pernatural gifts25.
Another resource for D. Albera’s sermons was a comprehensive cate-
chism by French educator and publisher Jean-Joseph Gaume26. Fr. Gaume
was a fervent follower of St. Alphonsus de’ Liguori, and with his brother
Jean-Alexis27, he became instrumental in propagating Alphonsus’ moral
teachings and approach across France.
Jean-Joseph Gaume published manuals for confessors, catechisms, and
books on Catholic education. In addition to St. Alphonsus, he popularized the
teachings of Saints Charles Borromeo, Francis Xavier, and Francis de Sales.
His writings are strongly apologetic in tone. Clearlly ultramontanist, he is an
adamant proponent of papal authority and a resolute adversary of the “Revo-
lution” under all its forms. His greatest concern was to produce works that
would be useful to those engaged in catechesis. By the end of the nineteenth
century Abbé Gaume’s writing style was already somewhat dated, but his
publications were still considered very innovative and so they remained influ-
ential until the turn of the century.
Abbé Gaume’s most famous work was his Catéchisme de persévérance28.
This catechism developed around the “Sacred History”, that is, it included
Bible history and the history of the Church, and ended the survey with an ex-
planation of the liturgy, the liturgical seasons and the major feast days of the
Church calendar: fifty-three lessons spread over eight volumes. These lessons
were meant to cover the curriculum for an entire year. They were designed for
youngsters who had already completed the sacramental catechesis for First
25 Cf Geremia BONOMELLI, Il giovane studente istruito e difeso nella dottrina cristiana.
2nd ed., Brescia, Queriniana 1886, pp. 6-7, 8-11, 17-18, 66-67, 194-195 (D. Albera transcribed
and paraphrased passages from these pages into his own notes; cf ASC B0480126, pp. 45-46).
26 Jean-Joseph Gaume (1802-1879), a priest for the diocese of Besançon, he taught in the
diocesan seminary of Nevers, and animated various lay organizations for women and men. In
1852 he moved to Paris to direct his brothers’ publishing house and to devote himself to
writing works of a catechetical and apologetical nature.
27 Jean-Alexis Gaume (1797-1869) was professor of moral theology at the major semi-
nary of Besançon. He was twice suspended from teaching because of his Liguorian and ultra-
montanist approach. He finally quit the diocese in 1834, and went to Paris where, in a short
time, he became vicar general of the archdiocese. He published a number of spiritual commen-
taries, including an edition of the Imitation of Christ.
28 Jean-Joseph GAUME, Catéchisme de persévérance. Paris, Frères Gaume 1838, 8 vols.;
Italian version: Catechismo di perseveranza. Esposizione storica, dogmatica, morale, liturgica,
apologetica, filosofica e sociale della religione, dall’origine del mondo sino ai nostri giorni.
Milano, Carlo Turati 1859-1860, 8 vols.

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214 Joseph Boenzi
Communion, which would have normally been celebrated at the age of 10 or
12. Lessons were not presented in the question and answer form typical of the
catechism. Instead, they appeared in the form of stories, anecdotes, histories29.
The word “catechism”, Abbé Gaume affirmed, signifies “oral teaching”, and
should be considered a “guide for the journey”30. The advantage of coming to
catechism lessons is that one can learn to deepen the faith with one’s compan-
ions, and grow to form “one mind and one heart” with them31.
D. Albera studied Abbé Gaume’s Le Seigneur est Mon Partage, a minor
work but one that carried the thesis of the “perseverance catechism” to a log-
ical conclusion. This work seems to have been written for personal use rather
than as a classroom text, and as far as D. Albera was concerned, it provided
some clear, catechetical points for his instructions to youth, particularly with
respect to reception of and devotion to the Eucharist32.
A great source of stories that mingled with a reasoned rebuttal to the lib-
eral undercurrent that many Catholics viewed as gnawing away at Italian so-
ciety, came with the conferences of Gaetano Alimonda, late cardinal arch-
bishop of Turin33. Cardinal Alimonda’s collected conferences represent a tan-
gible manifestation of what was the core of his ministry. His only ambition
was to instruct the people and thereby help them to improve their lives. He
believed that there were two poles which needed to be understood: grace and
nature. He wanted to unveil to his contemporaries the mysteries of supernat-
ural life while unmasking the errors of his times – errors that continually
threatened to compromise spiritual values; errors which only instilled intoler-
ance and prejudice that blocked the way to the truth. So he saw his mission as
quite simple: to preach the truth34.
29A later one-volume “compendium” of the Catéchisme de persévérance would, how-
ever, present each lesson as a series of questions and answers.
30 Cf GAUME, Catechismo, pp. 119-121.
31 Cf GAUME, Catechismo, p. 124.
32 Le Seigneur est mon partage first appeared in 1836, but the work went through nu-
merous reprints. D. Albera notations are written in French, which may indicate that he used a
French edition rather than an Italian translation. Given the year in which D. Albera studied
Gaume, it is likely that he used a later edition than what was available to us for our study. Cf
ASC B0480126, pp. 101-103 drawing from Jean-Joseph GAUME, Le Seigneur est mon partage!
Ou lettres sur la persévérance après la Première Communion. Paris, Gaume Frères 1836, pp.
23-38.
33 Gaetano Alimonda (1818-1891), renown as a Catholic lecturer in his native Genoa and
throughout Italy, was created cardinal by Leo XIII in 1879. The same pope appointed him to
the see of Turin upon the death of Archbishop Lorenzo Gastaldi in 1883. Cardinal Alimonda
did much to restore dialogue and reconciliation.
34 Cf Corinno BORALI, Soprannaturale nelle conferenze del card. G. Alimonda. Roma,
Pontificio Ateneo Angelicum 1962, p. 178.

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 215
D. Albera depended on Gaetano Alimonda’s early conferences. These had
been collected in a four-volume series entitled: Il sovrannaturale nell’uomo,
which contained conferences he delivered in Genoa between 1868 and 187135.
A second series, Problemi del secolo XIX, reproduced conferences delivered
over the next four years36. These conferences went through several editions,
and remained the cornerstone of the Alimonda corpus. As far as D. Albera was
concerned, Cardinal Alimonda offered clear argumentation and seemed helpful
in the confrontation between believers and forces hostile to the Church. He
transcribed some of the cardinal’s proofs for the spiritual nature of the human
being, and took consolation that “the insults that the wicked make regarding our
beliefs cannot harm us”37.
A fourth catechetical source was a popular mid-19th-century catechism au-
thored by a parish priest from Mans, Abbé Ambroise Guillois. This very prac-
tical Explanation historique, dogmatique, morale, liturgique e canonique du
catéchisme, saw translations into German and Italian within a decade after it
was first published38.
D. Albera seems to have made use of Guillois as a reference text rather
than as a book he read from cover to cover. He zeroed in on specific topics,
such as “Christian character” and “pantheism”39. It is interesting that he should
have done so, for though these topics appear abstract, they actually carried very
practical consequences. To be a Christian, one had to take one’s responsibilities
seriously. Baptism did not make one a member of a safe society, but a disciple
of Jesus Christ. As such, the disciple had to give absolute priority to Christ’s
teachings and apply them to their own lives. Christ is the center, and Christian-
35 Gaetano ALIMONDA, Il sovrannaturale nell’uomo. Conferenze recitate nella metropoli-
tana di Genova, anno 1868 [1869, 1870, 1871]. Genova, Tipografia della Gioventù 1870-1872,
4 vols.
36 Gaetano ALIMONDA, Problemi del Secolo XIX. Conferenze recitate nella metropolitana
di Genova, anno 1872 [1873, 1874, 1875]. Genova, Tipografia della Gioventù 1872-1874, 4
vols.
37 “Gli insulti de’ malvagi alle nostre credenze non ci arrecano alcun male”, ASC
B0480126, pp. 11-12; cf Gaetano ALIMONDA, Il sovrannaturale nell’uomo. Vol. 1: L’uomo nelle
sue relazioni con le facoltà personali. Conferenze recitate nella metropolitana di Genova, anno
1868. Genova, Tipografia della Gioventù 1870, p. 68. See also: ASC B0480126, pp. 14, 25.
38 Ambroise GUILLOIS, Spiegazione storica, dommatica, morale, liturgica e canonica del
Catechismo, colle risposte alle obiezioni attinte dalle scienze, per oppugnare la Religione.
Tradotte da Baldassarre Mazzoni. 4th corrected ed., Prato, Ranieri Guasti 1882, 4 vols. Abbé
Ambroise Guillois (1796-1856) compiled his series of catechetical for children and youth
based on his experience of adapting the standard cathechism of the Council of Trent to the
needs of his young parishioners in Mans. The series offered a comprehensive curriculum that
could accomodate local needs.
39 Cf ASC B0480126, p. 25.

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216 Joseph Boenzi
ity is not a theory or a philosophical system to explain the vicissitudes of this
world. It is more. It is union with God through Christ. On God’s part it is grace
freely given; on the part of the Christian believer, it is a matter of character40.
There were social and political consequences as well. New religious cur-
rents such as pantheism, Abbé Guillois argued, were philosophically fragile and
totally inconsistent. They did not explain evil in the world and therefore did not
allow for law and order. For example, if everyone and everything is part of
God, then a murderer is part of God. But if society were to punish a murderer
or a thief, this would be a way of punishing God. Pantheism, therefore, is not
only blasphemous, it is anti-social. It leads to anarchy41.
The religious education specialist Enrico Giovannini42 provided D. Albera
with a coherent approach in raising the question of God’s existence with young
people. His most important work, I doveri cristiani esposti alla studiosa gioven-
tù italiana, appeared in 1872, and was written in a question and answer for-
mat43. In an era when governments were abolishing religion classes in the state
schools, Msgr. Giovannini targeted young people who did not frequent parish
programs and missed on-going religious education. He maintained that the dif-
ficulties of adolescence, compounded by widening horizons and “inflamed pas-
sions”, made the study of religion even more necessary than it had been in
childhood. Giovannini addressed young people as the “hope of both the Church
and the Homeland”, and asked them to overcome peer pressure and “human re-
spect” by dedicating their time to learn their faith – that which was the religion
of the most glorious Italians, Dante, Michelangelo, Columbus, and which
“presided over your own birth, covered with motherly protection your cradle,
and which will consecrate the most solemn moments of your life, bless your last
moments, and will guard your tomb”44. With patriotic insistence, he urged them
40 Cf GUILLOIS, Spiegazione, vol. 1, p. 5.
41 Cf GUILLOIS, Spiegazione, vol. 1, pp. 117-119.
42 Msgr. Enrico Giovannini wrote apologetic and catechetical works for young people.
He was a doctor of theology, and a priest of the diocese of Faenza with strong links to the arch-
diocese of Bologna. He dedicated many years to the ministry of religious education in schools
and in parish environments. In the 1880s he was vicar general for the diocese of Faenza.
43 Enrico GIOVANNINI, I doveri cristiani esposti alla studiosa gioventù italiana. Bologna,
A. Mareggiani 1872, 456 pp. A second edition appeared in 1874; 3d ed. 1876, 488 pp.; 6th ed.
1886 added new reference tables, reached 536 pp.; 10th ed. 1900, updated and enl. to 564 pp.
The 13th ed., published in 1906, received good reviews from Civiltà Cattolica, which called
Msgr. Giovannini’s work “one of the best catechisms for young lay people”; cf “La Civiltà
Cattolica” 57 (1906) n. 1356, 735.
44 Cf Enrico GIOVANNINI, I doveri cristiani esposti alla studiosa gioventù italiana. Opera
commendata da Sua Santità Papa Pio IX, da arcivescovi e vescovi e da altri illustri scrittori e
adottata già in molti istituti di educazione e approvata da parecchi cardinali. 3rd rev. and enl.
ed., Bologna, Tipografia Pontificia Mareggiani 1876, pp. xxiii-xxiv.

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 217
to cherish this religion, so that it would be their strength and shield. He sympa-
thized with young people who were exposed, as he said, to poison and blasphe-
my not only in the streets, but in their own schools and classrooms. Unfortu-
nately, he told them, they were born in a sad era!45 Even so, they must not fear
the scorn of the godless. Instead, they must arm themselves with reason and
truth. And why should they not hold on dearly to the faith of their ancestors and
the faith of their own childhood? Catholicism is a national treasure: “Is it not the
faith of Christ that has given us Italians primacy even in the civil realm?”46.
From Giovannini’s Doveri cristiani, D. Albera transcribed passages that
dealt with the nature of God and the futility of atheism. He examined “practical
atheists”, and highlighted ancient teaching that the wonders of Nature are proof
enough that God is behind all that is. He used Giovannini’s handy examples of
the immensity of and total, unique power of God, stressing against the scepti-
cism of the philosophers that God is not simply an “idea;” God is Being itself 47.
4.2. Literary Works and Effective Communication of the Faith
Some of D. Albera’s reading reveals his concern not just with solid con-
tent for his preaching, but with clear form. The same traits that attracted him
to that master communicator, apologist and catechist Geremia Bonomelli
brought him to study the works of literary men like seventeenth-century
French man of letters Jean de La Bruyère48, mathematician and mystic Blaise
Pascal49, and the Savoiard philosopher Joseph De Maistre50. During the same
45 Cf Enrico GIOVANNINI, La forza della verità sull’errore, ovvero saggio di apologia
cristiana offerto ai giovani studiosi italiani. 2nd rev. ed., Sampierdarena, Tip. S. Vincenzo
1886, pp. x-xi.
46 GIOVANNINI, La forza della verità sull’errore, p. xiv: “Non è la fede di Cristo, che ha
dato a noi italiani un primato anche civile?”.
47 Cf ASC B0480126, pp. 37-38; E. GIOVANNINI, I doveri cristiani esposti alla studiosa
gioventù italiana. 3rd ed., Bologna, Tipografia Pontificia Mareggiani 1876, pp. 6, 9-10.
48 Jean de La Bruyère (1645-1696), a Catholic essayist and tutor of Louis III de Bourbon
(grandson of Louis XIV), critiqued the political and social mores of the court of Versailles with
charm and wit, thus winning membership to the French “Accademy”. His most famous work,
entitled Les Caractères, was in 1688.
49 The mathematical genius Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) advanced differential calculus and
made scientific inroads in the study of hydraulics, but also nourished an intense spiritual life.
With his sister Jacqueline, he joined the community of Port-Royal in 1654, where he led a life
of prayer and asceticism. From that point on, he dedicated his energies to defending the Port-
Royal experience, and to spiritual writing.
50 Count Joseph-Marie de Maistre, born in Chambery on 1 April 1753, was one of the
most influential businessmen authors, philosophers, and diplomats of Restoration Kingdom of
Sardinia. He died in Turin on 28 February 1821.

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218 Joseph Boenzi
time frame he concentrated on the theme of duty, drawing his ideas from the
writings of Silvio Pellico51, Cesare Cantù52 and Antonio Pellicani53.
While we do not find D. Albera making extensive notes from the writ-
ings of La Bruyère or De Maistre, we do find him marking significant pas-
sages while preparing a conference to the Valsalice seminarians for the month
of May 190554. These two men of letters were likely very well known in that
academic environment that was the house of philosophy for young Salesians.
La Bruyère’s witty but poignant analysis of French manners offered the op-
portunity to examine the deeper levels of one’s motivating principles. Was it
proper for Christians to jockey for position in a fleeting, transitory kingdom,
as La Bruyère’s fellow courtiers at Versailles? Salesians must, with educated
people, read between the lines and know that seeking courtly power was vain.
Only those with the gift of discernment can spot the diamond in the rough55.
Joseph De Maistre had a more centered message. An essayist and keen
observer of humanity, this ambassador wrote his most important work on the
papacy. This was an attractive theme for Salesians. Still, the most evidence
we have of his thought in D. Albera comes through quick, maxim-like quota-
tions made during conferences to student Salesians56.
Blaise Pascal is most remembered for a book on the evidence supporting
religion. He had worked on this thesis over a period of four years, but never
completed the text. It was only after his death that his friends were able to as-
51 After eight years of solitary confinement under the Austrian imperial government, poet
and playwright Silvio Pellico (1789-1854) became a national figure when he published his
memoirs, Le mie prigioni, in 1832. The book was meant as a religious testimony; its impact
was to fuel anti-Austrian sentiment, becoming the most popular book of the Risorgimento. Fol-
lowing his release, Pellico became the secretary of the Marchesa Julie Colbert Falletti di
Barolo. He worked closely with with S. Joseph Cafasso, D. Bosco and others among Turin’s
Catholic renewal.
52 Cesare Cantù (1804-1895) taught in secondary schools and university, but his patriotic
style triggered a suspension from the Austro-Hungarian government. After unification, the ever
popular Cantù was elected to the Chamber of Deputies. In 1873, he became director of the
State Archives in Milan. His writings mainly consist of historical and literary pieces.
53 Former Jesuit, Fr. Antonio Pellicani (1817-1892) was a priest of the diocese of
Savona, and a confidant of D. Bosco. He wrote guidebooks for secondary school students.
54 Cf Paolo Albera, “Allo Studentato di Valsalice, 4 Maggio 1905”, in ASC B0480137,
Conferenze sulla vita religiosa: Quaderno III, ms aut., pp. 71-75; ASC B0320106 (3-4 May
1905).
55 Cf ASC B0480133, Paolo ALBERA, Quaderno con argomenti di vita cristiana, ms aut.,
p. 15, citing passages from Jean de La Bruyère, Les caractères (edition unknown).
56 Cf Paolo Albera, “Allo Studentato di Valsalice, 4 Maggio 1905”, in ASC B0480137,
Conferenze sulla vita religiosa: Quaderno III, ms aut., p. 72-73; see also: ASC B0480115, Rac-
colta di Istruzioni predicate dal Sign. D. Albera, Catechista Generale de’ Salesiani, in occasione
degli Esercizi Spirit[uali] tenuti in Foglizzo agli Ascritti Salesiani il Marzo 1894, ms, p. 64.

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 219
semble the manuscript and publish it under the title: Pensées57. D. Albera
makes reference to Blaise Pascal’s “Pensieri” in his notes, copying thoughts
on the “excellence of man”58.
D. Albera transcribed a number of examples from books written for
teenagers by Silvio Pellico and Antonio Pellicani. These concern taking pride
in the Catholic faith, facing up to one’s civil and religious duties with
courage59, recognizing the power of good conversation, and taking stock of
the damage that can take place when one is taken in by bad companions60.
Fr. Pellicani’s myriad examples taken from the Bible (Samson, David,
Jonathan), the classics (Seneca, Euripides), and the lives of the saints (Stanis-
laus Kostka, John-Francis Regis, Aloysius Gonzaga, Juliana Falconieri), in-
clude many cruel and vicious details of what can befall the unsuspecting
young person who trusts bad companions. The style remains simple, collo-
quial, almost breezy, and these 108 pages, presented in a handbook format,
must have made for easy but thought-provoking reading for young Catholics
in his day.
The book of short essays entitled Dei doveri degli uomini, meaning “On
the Duties of Men”, by Silvio Pellico, centers around the necessity and value
of duty, love for the truth and religion. This was not the playwright’s most
noted work, but it came after Le mie prigioni had brought him national
prominence and his Christian commitment had excluded him from economic
and literary celebrity. Dei doveri degli uomini is addressed to “young men” of
about 15 to 17 years of age, and composed in the second person, singular, as
if a quiet dialogue between the adolescent and a family friend. In a simple but
direct fashion, the text details issues such as the duties of a young man to his
country, loyalty to family and friends, the choice of a state in life, respect for
women, and the manly virtues of gentleness, gratitude, fatherhood, humility,
forgiveness, and courage. Writing from experience, Pellico invites the young
to face the trials of daily life in a realistic manner. In the final analysis, it
takes courage to be humane, courage to be an adult, courage to face one’s re-
sponsibility. This courage is the foundation of every virtue in Pellico’s lay
57 Blaise PASCAL, Pensées de M. Pascal sur la Religion, et sur quelques autres sujets, qui
ont esté trouvées après sa mort parmy ses papiers. Paris, G. Desprez 1669, xxx-365 p.
58 Cf ASC B0480126, p. 25. D. Albera cites from “Ed. Migne, 659”, but it is not clear if
he copied from a secondary source.
59 Cf ASC B0480126, pp. 4-5; Silvio PELLICO, Dei doveri degli uomini. Torino, Ti-
pografia e Libreria Salesiana 1877, pp. 10, 13-16.
60 Cf ASC B0480126, pp. 23-24; Antonio PELLICANI, I compagni. 6th ed., Bologna,
Giuseppe Legnani 1859, pp. 13-14, 32.

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220 Joseph Boenzi
spirituality. Christian adulthood, he says, is actually a call to holiness, the per-
fection of the Gospel61.
Cesare Cantù wrote Buon senso e buon cuore, he said, as an “act of repa-
ration” for all the books that he had written for scholars. Cantù hoped that his
“good sense” essays would become daily bread for the people62. Buon senso
resembles Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack, and carries many of
Franklin’s themes: thrift, moderation, modesty, temperance, and the value of
hard work. Cantù, who presents his Italian readers with a biographical sketch
of this self-made success story from America’s beginnings63, writes a series of
essays that raise the issues of freedom and equality, the duties of citizens, the
importance of literacy and good reading habits, economy, and the role of the
military64. Cantù also examines contemporary concerns such as socialism and
communism, and problems relating to the world of labor, mechanization,
strikes and justice in the work place65. However, he does not imitate Anglo-
American thinkers. His reflections take a definitely Italian and Catholic turn
when he reviews themes such as property rights, stressing the importance of
storing up spiritual rather than material treasures66. He includes an essay on
Divine Revelation, Sunday as the Lord’s Day, the duty to render homage to
God, and the role of churchmen in society67.
Throughout Buon senso e buon cuore, Cesare Cantù shows himself a
fervent patriot. He was a romantic who believed in family, freedom and
Catholicism, and saw no contradiction among them68. Cantù’s reflections on
the wonders of creation and the need for prayer strike D. Albera, who para-
phrases them in his own notes69.
61 Cf S. PELLICO, Dei doveri degli uomini, pp. 92-93.
62 Cf Cesare CANTÙ, Buon senso e buon cuore. Conferenze popolari. Milano, G. Agnelli
1879, p. vii.
63 Cf “Benjamin Franklin”, in CANTÙ, Buon senso e buon cuore, pp. 182-189. Benjamin
Franklin (1706-1790) was an American printer, writer, newspaper editor, scientist and
statesman. He became famous among his contemporaries for his wit and common-sense phi-
losophy, especially as expressed in his popular Poor Richard’s Almanack, published in succes-
sive editions between 1732 and 1757. Franklin experimented with methods of harnessing elec-
tricity, served as postmaster general of the British American colonies, helped draft the Declara-
tion of Independence in 1776, acted as first American agent and ambassador to France, and was
among the framers of the US Constitution in 1787.
64 Cf C. CANTÙ, Buon senso e buon cuore, pp. 41, 395, 140, 190, 564.
65 Cf C. CANTÙ, Buon senso e buon cuore, pp. 260, 271.
66 Cf C. CANTÙ, Buon senso e buon cuore, p. 167.
67 Cf C. CANTÙ, Buon senso e buon cuore, pp. 334-337, 341, 347-349.
68 Cf C. CANTÙ, Buon senso e buon cuore, p. 343: “Concedasi ad un romantico riverire
l’inviolabilità della famiglia, l’autorità della Chiesa, la libertà morale e quella di pregare”.
69 Cf C. CANTÙ, Buon senso e buon cuore, p. 16, note 1; ASC B0480126, p. 22.

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 221
It is not unlikely that D. Albera read beyond these passages, for his
journal indicates that during that same year that he took a greater interest in
cultural and literary sources. The following November, for example, we find
him pondering the beauty of his Italian home land in his reading: “I have read
a book of Stoppani, Il bel paese. It excites in me the admiration of the Provi-
dence which has recollected so many wonders in the country which is my
own home”70.
The book that D. Albera cites here, Il bel paese, was one of the most
popular publications of the late 1800s. It was written by a priest of the Milan
archdiocese, D. Antonio Stoppani71. His object was to help the young appre-
ciate the beauty of Italy’s geography and landscape, and by teaching them to
love the land, he hoped to lead them to cherish their country and its Catholic
heritage. He wrote as if he were a storyteller speaking to a group of children
and young people gathered around him. The style purposely imitates
Alessandro Manzoni72, making the Il bel paese a dual resource: a valuable ex-
ample of Italian prose for classical students; a natural history for science
buffs. By the end of the 1800s, Stoppani’s book was considered a classic for
young readers, but D. Albera is able to draw some spiritual benefit. His sense
of national pride derived from his gratitude to Providence for the beauties and
blessings bestowed upon his native Italy.
He was impressed by authors who could articulate religious truth in such
a way as to stimulate the faith of their readers. His journal entries reflect his
own desire to communicate, and his admiration for this ability of others. Thus
he found the sermons of Fr. Henri Chambellan “profound” in their doctrinal
exposition and “elegant” in their presentation73. He enjoyed reading Intimité
70 ASC B0320106 (27 Nov 1905).
71 Antonio Stoppani (1824-1891), priest, science professor, author, editor and out-
doorsman, was supportive of a reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the Kingdom of
Italy. When tension between the Holy See and the Italian government made outright political
participation impossible, D. Stoppani advanced the cause for reconciliation through the natural
sciences and by promoting the Italian Catholic cultural heritage.
72 Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873), writer and patriot, is a central figure of 19th-cen-
tury Italy. His romantic novel I Promessi Sposi (1825-26), set in 17th-century Milan, greatly
influenced the development of Italian prose and fueled the cause of Italian nationalism. The
book went through 118 editions by 1875. Manzoni also wrote tragedies and poetry, including
the celebrated ode “5 Maggio” (1821), on the death of Napoleon.
73 Henri CHAMBELLAN, Œuvres oratoires du père Henri Chambellan de la Compagnie de
Jésus. Tome 1 : Carême, Panègyriques, Descours de Circostances. Edited by Gaston Sortais,
Paris, Gabriel Beauchesne 1905; cf ASC B0320106 (20 Oct 1906). Henri Chambellan, SJ
(1834-1892), held various posts of leadership among the French Jesuits. An able administrator,
he was also a capable preacher, noted for his practical approach and his deep understanding of
human nature.

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222 Joseph Boenzi
avec Jésus, a volume that renewed his enthusiasm for personal spiritual
reading74.
D. Albera also registered feelings of inadequacy when faced with
writing and speaking. In February 1906 he commented, in broken English:
“I read an excellent book, entitled: Jésus et moi. I find a rich mine of saint
thoughts. This reading is very profitable for my soul. I take some notes in my
texte-book. How my ignorance is great, if I compare my with these, who
write such books!”75.
This prompted D. Albera to hone his writing style with the help of a
handbook on composition and rhetoric, conscious as he was of his need “to
learn a more efficacious form in writing” so as to better transmit his
thoughts76.
5. Practical and Applied Theology
5.1. Manuals of Practical and Moral Theology
If in the early days D. Albera was interested in building a repertoire of
preachable stories, years of experience on the Superior Chapter awakened
him to more technical aspects of ministry.
Accusations of sexual abuse against the Salesians of Varazze during
the summer of 1907 prompted him to deepen his own understanding of ethics
and moral theology. He waded through Luigi Piscetta’s Elementa theologiae
moralis, a Latin text published for the Archdiocesan seminary four years
earlier77.
In the later years of D. Michele Rua’s rectorate, Paolo Albera seems to
have dedicated himself more intensely to the ministry of spiritual direction as
a regular confessor at Turin’s Basilica of Maria Ausiliatrice. The confessional
allowed him to return to a more active pastoral experience after many years
of office work.
74 Cf ASC B0320106 (27 Apr 1905).
75 ASC B0320106 (23 Feb 1906).
76 Cf ASC B0320106 (27 May 1905).
77 Luigi PISCETTA, Elementa Theologiae Moralis. Torino, SEI 1903, 3 vols.; cf ASC
B0320107 (10 Dec 1907). Luigi Piscetta (1858-1925) was a Salesian and professor of moral
theology in the tradition of Guala, Cafasso and Bertagna; he taught at the archdiocesan semi-
nary from 1885 and directed the Salesian formation house of Valsalice from 1892. In 1907, D.
Rua appointed him to a position on the superior chapter as councilor for studies.

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 223
To gain more depth in this ministry, he began reading a guidebook for
confessors by Alessandro Ciolli78. This massive tome entitled Direttorio
pratico del confessore novello, had gone through seven revisions by the time
D. Albera picked it up79. It was a popular resource, and D. Albera found it
quite useful. “The book of Mgr. Ciolli is very delightful for me”, he wrote in
his journal, asking himself: “Why have I delayed to read it?”80.
Ciolli’s directory is a compendium of principles, doctrine, and procedures
regarding the sacrament of “Penance”. The book seems to have been designed
as a ready reference for confessors. D. Albera spent a number of days studying
Ciolli’s articles on the role and obligations of the confessor early in 1909.
These were an aid in his own apostolate. They helped him to articulate minis-
terial approaches in his conferences addressed to Salesian ordinandi.
Along this same line, he read a book by Emilio Berardi which seems to
have troubled him somehow81. D. Berardi wrote texts of moral theology and
published a number of instructional manuals for confessors. He wrote mainly
in Latin, though he did publish some popular works designed as models for
parish missions82. D. Albera does not indicate clearly which of Berardi’s books
he used in the autumn of 1909, but given the context of his own ministry in
those months, it seems likely he read something that would help him in his
role as a confessor83.
All that D. Albera read on ministerial and moral issues helped his own
pastoral outreach, and gave him material for his formative conferences.
78 A religious writer in the second half of the nineteenth century, Alessandro Ciolli was a
priest of the archdiocese of Florence. A canon of the “Metropolitana Fiorentina”, and vicar
general of the archdiocese, he wrote a number of practical and pastoral books. One of his ear-
liest books was: I maghi moderni ossia lo spiritismo smascherato (Firenze 1861). His most im-
portant work, Direttorio pratico del confessore novello, was first published in 1883.
79 Alessandro CIOLLI, Direttorio pratico del confessore novello. 7th enlarged ed., Firenze,
G. Bencini 1906.
80 ASC B0320108 (14 Jan 1909). See also entries for 13, 26 Jan 1909.
81 Cf ASC B0320108 (30 Oct 1909). The prolific Emilio Berardi (1854-1916) authored
over 20 volumes of moral theology, pastoral theology, and practical manuals for confessional
counseling. The majority of his works were written in Latin, though he did write some popular
works designed as models for parish missions.
82 Cf e.g., Emilio BERARDI - Enrico GRAZIANI, L’uomo apostolico provveduto. Volumetto
che contiene le istruzioni sulla confessione colla giunta del rosario meditato e varie laudi
sacre ad uso delle sante missioni. Faenza, Tipografia Novelli 1888. This thin volume blended
practical guidelines and devotional meditation. Berardi became such a favorite in Salesian cir-
cles that the Salesian publishers were able to entice him to adapt his meditations for young
people a few years later: Emilio BERARDI, Esercizi spirituali ai giovani. Volume che compie
“L’uomo apostolico provveduto”. Faenza, Libreria Salesiana 1911.
83 In that case, a likely text is: Emilio Berardi, Praxis confessariorum, 4th ed. (Faenza:
Tipografia Novelli e Castellani, 1903).

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224 Joseph Boenzi
He continued to delve into this type of material well into the summer of 1910,
as he prepared to preach the retreat that would inaugurate the general chapter
that would elect a successor for D. Michele Rua (1837-1910). His theme was
priestly ministry, and even technical manuals were inspirational to him84.
5.2. Educational and Instructional Literature
For Paolo Albera, every Salesian priest was an educator as well as a min-
ister. This opinion was reinforced by a number of titles in his reading list. L’É-
ducateur apôtre, by Jean Guibert85, cites education as the key to renewal and
to the regeneration of society against the inroads of neo-paganism. Fr. Guibert
wrote for Catholic educators. It is their task to form the Catholic young in such
a way that they will not be easily won over by the enemy. If the next genera-
tion is equipped to take a firm stand beside Christ, the Catholic people will
once again be able to regain the ground they have lost, and return to the places
from which they have been expelled. To do this, however, it is urgent to form
truly Christian educators. They must cultivate a sense of mission. They must
feel the need to bring salvation to society and study the most effective means
to do this. This is not just a matter of technique. To be a Christian educator,
one must live in union with Christ, must strive to grow in virtue, must know
how to witness to a living, growing and fruitful faith. The educator will know
which technique and strategy to apply. The scope of Fr. Guibert’s book is to
cast the seed, and to help Christian educators to reflect and to take up the chal-
lenge. D. Albera read Guibert in an Italian edition published by the Salesians
in Rome86, and exclaimed: “What I have to learn!”87.
Not everything D. Albera read met with his approval. When in 1910 he
picked up a treatise on matrimony by Fr. Alfonz Eschbach88, D. Albera found
the book too explicit for his taste89.
84 For instance, a volume by a certain Fr. Lesers made D. Albera examine his conscience
concerning his own priestly spirit; see: ASC B0320109 (3 May 1910).
85 Jean Guibert (1857-1914), a priest of the Society of St. Sulpice, spent many years
teaching natural sciences and philosophy in Issy. He became superior of the Seminary at the Is-
titut Catholique — a post he held until his resignation for poor health in 1912.
86 Jean GUIBERT, L’educatore apostolo. Versione libera del prof. Domenico Dall’Osso.
Trilogia del prof. Francesco Cerruti. Roma, Libreria Salesiana 1909.
87 ASC B0320108 (7 Jan 1909). D. Albera read Fr. Guibert’s L’Éducateur apôtre in
Italian translation as it came off the press in 1909. He consulted a second work: Culture des vo-
cations, which, as rector major, he would quote in his circular letter on oratories, missions and
vocations, published on 31 May 1913. Cf P. ALBERA, Lettere circolari, p. 130.
88 Alfonz Eschbach (1839-1923), rector of Collegio Santa Chiara, the French seminary in
Rome, and procurator general for the Spiritans. Leo XIII made Fr. Eschbach his special dele-

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 225
On the other hand, D. Albera enthused over a volume he calls L’edu-
cazione della castità. Written by Spanish Jesuit Ramón Ruiz Amado de Con-
treras90, this guidebook for parents, priests and educators was both informa-
tive and delicate in its approach. D. Albera appreciated this fact. “It is very
consoling”, he wrote, “to see that all the men very good exert himself for
aiding the youth to conserve the chastity”91.
5.3. Apologetics
Early in D. Albera’s term as Spiritual Director General, he consulted the
writings of apologists. Many of the catechisms he studied during that early
period had an apologetic edge to them92. In a world perceived as hostile to
Catholicism, D. Albera seems to pursue authors that set the record straight, so
to speak. Among these we find Cardinal Alimonda and Bishop Bonomelli, but
more explicitly, René-François Rohrbacher93.
D. Albera outlined passages from Abbé Rohrbacher’s Histoire universelle
de l’Église catholique94, which was a monumental if not a critical history of
gate to Constantinople in 1895 to facilitate renewed contacts between the Orthodox and
Catholic Churches. He also served on several Roman Congregations: consultor for the Congre-
gation of the Index, the Propagation of the Faith, the commission for the codification of Canon
Law; censor of the theological academies and for the “moral case” of Rome. For many years
he was professor of “diplomacy” at the academy for Rome’s nobility. Through his leadership,
Collegio Santa Chiara was raised to the rank of a Pontifical Seminary.
89 Cf ASC B0320109 (15 Jun 1910).
90 Ramón Ruiz Amado de Contreras, SJ (1861-1934), was a leading figure in Catholic
publishing. He wrote over 60 books in area of catechetics, education, history and spirituality,
and contributed numerous articles to reviews and encylopedias.
91 ASC B0320108 (13 Dec 1909); cf Ramón RUIZ AMADO, Ai confessori, educatori e
padri di famiglia sopra l’educazione della castità. Translated by Domenico Valle, Torino, Ma-
rietti 1909.
92 D. Albera would have encountered “catechisms with an apologetic edge” in a number
of the booklets published by D. Bosco and, while still a boy, would have found these works
available at the Oratory of St. Francis de Sales. See, e.g., Giovanni BOSCO, Il cattolico istruito
nella sua religione. Trattenimenti di un padre di famiglia co’ suoi figliuoli secondo i bisogni
del tempo. Torino, Tipografia dir. da P. De-Agostini 1853, 2 vols.
93 Historian and apologist, Fr. René-François Rohrbacher (1789-1856) authored an influ-
ential 28-volume “universal history” of the Church that put an end to Jansenism and Galli-
canism in France.
94 The work originally appeared in the 1840s as: René-François ROHRBACHER, Histoire
universelle de l’Église catholique. Paris, Gaume freres 1842-1849, 29 vols. The Italian version,
prepared by Giacinto Marietti in Torino in the 1850s, appeared in 16 volumes. It would seem
that D. Albera consulted this edition, namely: René-François ROHRBACHER, Storia universale
della Chiesa cattolica dal principio del mondo fino ai dì nostri. Torino, Giacinto Marietti 1859,
vol. 1, pp. 63, 64-65.

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226 Joseph Boenzi
the Church. This rich mosaic of anecdotes tended to highlight the importance
of the Church and the papacy in world history. Its real significance lies in its
open criticism of Jansenism and Gallicanism. Rohrbacher effectively put an
end to both movements in France, for his Histoire universelle was so influen-
tial that after its publication many Catholic writers, seminary professors and
churchmen put aside any author, essayist or historian that showed Jansenistic
or Gallican tendencies. Rohrbacher’s epic brought “ultramontanism” – a
Church rooted in the papacy – to the center of the ecclesial scene.
A new breed of apologist was needed at the start of the twentieth cen-
tury. On the one hand, the governments of traditionally Catholic countries
were finding new ways to exert control over religion; on the other, Catholic
clergy and laity felt they had endured prejudicial policies long enough: they
were beginning to organize and exert themselves. D. Albera too had experi-
enced what renewed anticlericalism could inflict on his Salesian brothers and
sisters in France, Brazil and Italy. He perceived the need to strengthen him-
self in this ongoing battle, and perhaps for this motive he read many of the
new apologists95.
He waded through La nuova apologia, by Jesuit Eugenio Polidori96.
Though he felt he was less than conversant in the issues raised by Fr. Poli-
dori97, this reading demonstrates his efforts to keep up with the Church’s
stand on biblical scholarship and other controversial doctrinal topics of his
times. The same principle was at work with respect to Louis Baunard’s Il
Vangelo del povero, which D. Albera picked up while visiting the Salesians in
Faenza in April 1907. This book of essays is easy reading, and D. Albera
seems to have been able to complete it in one day98.
95 For an insight into D. Albera’s views regarding the organized forces of anticlericalism
and they way it victimized missionaries and innocent Christians, see his presentation of the
train accident that killed Bishop Luigi Lasagna and six of his companions, and of the cynical
approach of the Brazilian transportation ministry and courts during the ensuing investigation in
Paolo ALBERA, Mons. Luigi Lasagna. Memorie Biografiche. San Benigno Canavese, Scuola Ti-
pografica Libreria Salesiana 1900, pp. 408, 410, 425-428.
96 Eugenio POLIDORI, La Nuova Apologia del Cristianesimo. 2d rev. ed., Roma, Civiltà
Cattolica 1905; cf ASC B0320106 (25 Apr 1906).
97 A Jesuit staff writer for the bimonthly review Civiltà Cattolica, Eugenio Polidori
(1851-1906) published critical and apologetic articles challenging the historical criticism of
contemporary scholars Alfred Loisy, Aldoph Harnack and Count Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy. He
collected some of his more significant essays in Nuova Apologia del Cristianesimo, released in
1905. Fr. Polidori’s arguments are logical and rooted in Catholic philosophical traditions, but
his approach, by his own admission, is passionate and often hard-line. Cf Polidori, La Nuova
Apologia, 4.
98 Louis BAUNARD, Il Vangelo del Povero. Translated by Domenico Dall’Osso, Faenza,
Libreria Salesiana 1907. The latest French edition (L’Évangelie du Pauvre. 3d rev. & enl. ed.,

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 227
D. Albera read other works by Msgr. Baunard99, though the exact
sources are not always clear100. We know that he studied the monsignor’s bi-
ography of Cardinal Charles-Martial Lavigerie, missionary bishop in
Africa101. He had met the cardinal personally when he escorted Don Bosco
through France in 1883 and 1886102. It was either from experience, popular
reputation, or the result of his reading, but when writing the biography of his
own missionary pupil, Luigi Lasagna, he compared Bishop Lasagna’s apos-
tolic sensitivity to that of Cardinal Lavigerie103.
This genre appealed to D. Albera. During a few days of rest in the
Alpine town of Oulx, he spent some leisure time with a popular apology by
the combative Savoiard bishop of Nancy and Toul, Charles-François
Turinaz104, a book which he identified as La foi catholique105.
D. Albera reads “a book very bad […] against the popes”. He gives no
hint of author or title, but exclaims indignantly: “What calumnies against the
Popes! What falsehoods against the Catholique Church! What are blind on
the truths of our faith!”106.
D. Albera spent some January evenings reading Cardinal James Gib-
bons’ first book, Faith of our Fathers107. This work was half apologia and
Paris, Poussielgue, 1904), had met with great success in Catholic circles. This Italian transla-
tion by Salesian D. Dall’Osso received the imprimatur on 18 March 1907, and went to press
shortly afterwards. D. Albera, then, would have read this book while it was literally “hot off the
press” Cf ASC B0320107 (28 Apr 1907).
99 Msgr. Louis Pierre André Baunard (1828-1919), professor of patristics and Church
history, and rector of the Catholic Faculty of Lille, incorporated contemporary political, philo-
sophical and social issues into his teachings. He wrote on a panorama of Christian, spiritual
and moral topics.
100 See: ASC B0480130.
101 Louis BAUNARD, Le cardinal Lavigerie. Paris, Poussielgue 1896, 2 vols. Charles-Mar-
tial Lavigerie (1825 1892) founded the Missionaries of Africa, popularly known as the “White
Fathers”,
102 Cf MB 16, 252-255; 18, 258-260; L. BAUNARD, Le cardinal Lavigerie, vol. 2, p. 239.
In 1885, Cardinal Lavigerie traveled to Turin to ask D. Bosco for Salesian missionaries in
Africa; cf MB 17, 472-473.
103 Cf ASC B0320103 (22 Jan 1897); P. ALBERA, Mons. Luigi Lasagna, p. 258.
104 Charles-François Turinaz (1838-1918), bishop of Nancy and Toul since 1882, re-
mained vocal in the face of religious repression by the French government, and became pro-ac-
tive in the renewal of parish life for both clergy and laity.
105 In ASC B0320107 (31 May, 4 Jun 1907), D. Albera identifies the book as La Foi
Catholique, but the work closest to this seems to be: Charles-François TURINAZ, Une Démon-
stration Claire et Décisive de la Divinité de la Foi. Nancy, Drioton 1902.
106 ASC B0320108 (8 Jan 1909).
107 James GIBBONS, The faith of our fathers, being a plain exposition and vindication of
the Church founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ. 69th rev. and enl. ed., Baltimore, John Murphy
Company 1907.

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228 Joseph Boenzi
half catechism. Directed toward American Protestants, it attempted to explain
Catholic teaching and practice in a down-to-earth fashion, appealing to reason
and dispelling the air of suspicion that characterized Protestant-Catholic rela-
tions on the new continent. The book was a best seller in North America and
England, and D. Albera himself found it “very instructive”108.
Personal renewal and conversion is a theme that attracted his attention in
the opening year of the new century. He read at least three books in 1907 that
told the stories of prominent converts to Catholicism. While visiting Alassio in
early February 1907, D. Albera picked up a book by “Mr. De La Rive”, and read
“a few pages”109. Ten weeks later he completed reading the conversion story of
French poet Adolphe Retté110, followed a week later by an anthology of essays
by François Coppée telling of his own journey back to the Catholic faith111.
6. Devotional Literature
6.1. Insights from the Fathers of the Church
A discrete number of “classical authors” find their way into D. Albera’s
sermons, conferences and spiritual writings. We see quotations and allusions
from Patristic sources and classical liturgical and Scriptural commentators. Did
D. Albera read the Fathers of the Church directly? It is hard to say. Nearly every
one of his contemporary sources – sermons, retreats, commentaries – quoted
the Fathers. He particularly favored Saint Augustine and Saint Jerome, citing
their sayings and relating anecdotes from their writings.
108 ASC B0320109 (15 Jan 1910).
109 Théodore DE LA RIVE, Vingt-cinq ans de vie catholique. Expériences et observations.
Paris, Plon 1907; cf ASC B0320107 (3 Feb 1908). Théodore De la Rive, born in 1855, was a
member of one of the most prominent Calvinist families in Geneva. The De la Rive family was
enormously influential in economic circles across Switzerland, and had major political ties in
France and Italy. Théodore’s conversion to Catholicism in 1880 created something of a sensa-
tion.
110 Adolphe RETTÉ, Dal diavolo a Dio. Storia di una conversione. Treviso, Luigi Buffetti
1908; cf ASC B0320107 (24 Apr, 1908). French poet and social activist Adolphe Retté (1863-
1930) professed a militant materialism and atheism. He converted to Catholicism in 1906. All
of his works afterwards were religious in nature.
111 François COPPÉE, Saper soffrire! Treviso, Luigi Buffetti 1907; cf ASC B0320107 (1
May 1908). Parisian poet and drammatist Francis-Edouard-Joachim “François” Coppée (1842-
1908) was an important figure in French letters and a member of the French Academy. He re-
turned to the practice of his faith after a severe illness in 1897, bringing a renewed spiritual di-
mension into his literary, social and political activities.

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 229
D. Albera cites Augustine’s second letter to Volusian to set the stage for
his discussion of Jesus as model and exemplar for all human beings. D. Al-
bera develops this thought during a retreat for directors and again for the
chapter delegates gathered in 1910 to elect a successor for D. Rua112. Most of
the other numerous references to Augustine are easily recognized and almost
slogan-like: about “hearts” that “are restless”, and “love” that allows one to
“do what you will”. Each epigram highlights virtue or describes the nature of
that responsibility necessary to live a Christian lifestyle113.
Saint Jerome, student and translator of the Sacred Scriptures, is another
frequent guest in D. Albera’s sermons, although he tends to pull more from
the scholar-hermit’s autobiographical reflections than from his biblical com-
mentaries. The anecdotes he cites were well known, and seem to figure in the
talks of many a retreat master114.
It is true that with revived interest in the Fathers of the Church during
the nineteenth century, even the Salesian press at Valdocco produced a
number of text-book editions of the Latin Fathers for use in the schools115.
It would seem, however, that Paolo Albera simply culled their sayings from
secondary sources. He may have even collected their sayings years earlier
from the theology manuals used for seminary instruction in his days, for he
112 Cf ASC B0480139, p. 47; B0480138, enclosed S, p. 1: quoting from S. Augustine,
Epistola 137, Domino illustri et merito insigni, et praestantissimo filio Volusiano, Augustinus,
in Domino salutem, §3.12, found in Opere di Sant’Agostino. Edizione latino-italiana. Parte III:
Le lettere. Vol. 22, Roma, Citta Nuova 1971, vol. 2, p. 156.
113 Quotations from S. Augustine and references to his life can be found throughout D.
Albera’s retreats, eg. at: B0480111, p. 73, 81; B0400112, pp. 17, 55, 90, 3:38, 49, 90;
B0400115, p. 116; B0480139, p. 47; B048137, pp. 16, 35, 63, 65; B0400138, enclosed S, pp.
1-2. Are these passages quoted directly or through secondary sources? A clue comes in
B0480111, pp. 86, were D. Albera quotes S. Thomas Aquinas quoting Augustine. The fact re-
mains, however, that D. Albera seems to like Augustine’s ability to express the faith. On the
cover page of a composition book where, around 1905, D. Albera collected apt phrases and
anecdotes from his readings, we find this phrase from Augustine: “Amate scientiam, sed an-
teponite charitatem”, that is, “Love knowledge, but put charity first”, See: ASC B0480133,
Paolo Albera, Quaderno con argomenti di vita cristiana, 1905, ms aut., p. 1.
114 Jerome’s teaching and experience appears in: B0400111, p. 81; B0480112, pp. 27-28;
B0400113, pp. 45, 75-76, 81; B0480115, p. 7; B0400139, p. 27; B0400137, pp. 16, 17, 37-38,
43, 124.
115 D. Albera’s successor at Sampierdarena, D. Giovanni Tamietti (1848-1920), published
at least 9 secondary school texts of Latin readings based on the Fathers, including Augustine,
Ambrose, Cyprian and Jerome. These were published at Valdocco between 1875 and 1899,
with reprints extending into the 1920s. Interest in the Fathers grew as more critical editions be-
came available, and this was largely thanks to the efforts of Abbé Jacques-Paul Migne (1800-
1875) and his publishing house. For a description of Migne’s work and that of his successors,
see: Johannes QUASTEN, Patrology. Vol. 1: The Beginnings of Patristic Literature. Utrecht-
Antwerp, Spectrum Publishers 1950, pp. 14-18.

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230 Joseph Boenzi
reported many striking sayings of the Fathers with index-card accuracy116.
Whatever the case may be, D. Albera drew from the insights of Saints Am-
brose, John Climacus, John Chrysostom and others as authoritative guides
when he needed to drive home his own message117.
Some known sources for passages from the Fathers were sermons pub-
lished by noted retreat masters and mission preachers. They also quoted anec-
dotes from the lives of the saints, particularly those of great founders, ascetics
and mystics. D. Albera often prepared his talks by studying writings of this
sort, as we shall see later.
Many more references to ascetical authors appear in his spiritual journal
than in his composition books. This indicates that D. Albera did not just pre-
pare his talks at his desk. He brought this ministry into his prayer and medita-
tion as well. The writings of these authors sustain him on his spiritual journey.
References to spiritual authors increased during the period between 1903
and 1910. D. Albera’s religious reading took in a greater variety of sources, at
least as far as can be determined in his journals. He was also more apt to
quote a passage that moved him, or in some way comment on the nature of
the book he was reading.
6.2. Devotion to Jesus
The most widespread 19th-century devotion was that of the Sacred Heart.
D. Albera shows evidence of having done extensive reading on this subject.
He read a number of books and seems to have been a regular reader of con-
temporary journals and magazines for devotion to the Sacred Heart.
D. Albera meditated on the Sacred Heart by using the writings of Fr. Albert
Tesnière118 for his own edification and as a resource when preparing confer-
ences for his younger confreres. Fr. Tesnière was highly influential in France
and abroad, especially with regard to Eucharistic devotion. He viewed all de-
116 In addition to the Fathers, D. Albera frequently reports dicta from Medieval doctors
and saints such as Hugh of Saint-Cher (cf B0480112, p. 81; B0480138, p. 11), S. Anselm of
Canterbury (cf B0480111, p. 77), and Jean Gerson (cf B0480111, pp. 81-82). These too appear
with manual-like directness.
117 This tactic of bolstering his own position with a “word” from an authoritative source
was fairly typical. D. Bosco himself took a similar approach to “the sources”; cf Pietro STELLA,
Don Bosco nella storia della religiosità cattolica. Vol. 1: Vita e Opere. Roma, LAS 1979, 241.
118 Albert Tesnière, SSS (1847-1909), theologian, novice director and later editor of the
revue, Le Très Saint Sacrement, did much to promote Adoration and Benediction of the
Blessed Sacrament, Frequent Communion, and the movement of the Eucharistic Congresses.
He was elected superior general of the Blessed Sacrament Fathers in 1887.

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 231
votion, including devotion to the Sacred Heart, from a sacramental perspective.
D. Albera found this perspective particularly helpful119. Along the same lines,
the writings of French Sulpician Charles Sauvé offered him a systematic ap-
proach to the study of the interior life120. Fr. Sauvé had a way of grounding pop-
ular piety in dogmatic accuracy. Devotion to the Heart of Christ was not some-
thing sentimental. It implied striving to cultivate an intimate relationship with
Jesus that demanded making him the center, the core of one’s life121.
D. Albera’s sources confirmed his own opinion that the devotion to the Sa-
cred Heart was devotion to Christ in the Eucharist. The sacramental and sacri-
ficial aspects of this mystery were key in his reading of both technical man-
uals and devotional literature122.
There are traces of the English convert Frederick William Faber123 in D.
Albera’s notes. In his early notebooks, he transcribes passages from an Italian
version of Fr. Faber’s last book of essays, Bethlehem. He is struck by the de-
scription of the “first Christmas”, which did not occur in the “dark cave” or
“moon lit slope” of Bethlehem. No, “his home has no scenery, no walls, no
shape, no form, no colour, no spot which can be loved with local love. It is
not in space, nor in imaginary space, nor within the world, nor at the world’s
edge, nor beyond it. It is the Bosom of the Father”124.
119 Albert TESNIÈRE, Le Sacré-Cœur, sujets d’adoration pour les premiers vendredis du
mois. Paris 1902; cf ASC B0320106 (5 Jun 1903, 16 Mar 1905).
120 Charles Sauvé (1848-1925) of the Society of St. Sulpice, taught systematic and moral
theology at the major seminary of Dijon for 28 years until a gradual paralysis took him out of
the classroom in 1903. He dedicated the remainder of his life to writing and publishing.
121 Charles SAUVÉ, Le Chrétien intime. Le culte du Cœur de Jésus. Jésus notre vie. Paris,
Vic et Amat 1905; cf ASC B0320108 (3 Jun 1909).
122 Cf ASC B0480126 (1892-3?), reference to: Giovanni Battista GIORDANO, Novena del
Santo Natale. Giovedì Eucaristici, in Prediche del Canonico Giovanni Battista Giordano. Vol.
3, Torino, Tip. e Libr. S. Giuseppe - Collegio degli Artigianelli 1873; B0320103 (9 Nov 1897),
reference to: Probation sacerdotal sur le culte de la Sainte Eucharistie, Paris, J. Mersch 1890.
B0320106 (14 Jun 1906), reference to: Pierre CHAIGNON, Il prete santificato dalla pratica del-
l’orazione, ossia corso di meditazioni per i sacerdoti. 2nd rev. ed., 3 vols., Imola, Lega Ti-
pografica 1881 (meditation on the Eucharist); B0480130, enclosed U, p. 3, reference to: Jo-
hannes Baptist FRANZELIN, Tractatus de SS. Eucharistiae Sacramento et Sacrificio. 4th ed.,
Roma, Typographia Polyglotta 1887.
123 Frederick William Faber (1814-1863) was ordained for the Church of England in
1839, converted to the Church of Rome in 1845, and entered the Oratorian community founded
by John Henry Newman in 1848. Fr. Faber had a knack for popularizing Catholic teaching for
his contemporaries. He was an effective speaker; his published conferences went through mul-
tiple editons; he translated many classic and devotional works from French, Italian and Latin
into English and dabbled in composing hymns in the vernacular.
124 Frederick William FABER, Bethlehem. London, Burns & Oates 1897, p. 8. Cf ASC
B0480126, p. 37; Frederick William FABER, Betlemme. Torino, Giacinto Marietti 1869, p. 5.

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232 Joseph Boenzi
Many common people found Fr. Faber’s writings uplifting and gently
optimistic. His writings grew out of his preaching, and his ability to use
common speech with graphic and flowery images, may have accounted for
his great popularity at home and on the Continent. D. Albera appears to have
been familiar with a number of his works, which he read in translation, in-
cluding All for Jesus, and Spiritual Conferences, which he read in transla-
tion125. He also read commentaries by Fr. Faber on some French devotional
authors, and inscribed the Faberian phrase, “All for Jesus”, at the start of
many of his conference notes126. This phrase typified for Fr. Faber, and per-
haps for D. Albera, the fundamental attitude of Christian discipleship.
6.3. Discipleship
The Imitation of Christ had to have been one of Paolo Albera’s favorite
texts127. He consistently turned to this classic, noting choice passages in his
spiritual journal and retreat conferences. Besides the Holy Scriptures, it is the
Imitation of Christ that he would access most often over the course of his 18
years as Spiritual Director General.
In certain periods D. Albera seems to have worked through the Imitation
fairly systematically, as when he consulted it in preparation for Christmas and
Easter128. At other times he seems to pick it up as a text for personal medita-
tion in periods of physical or emotional crisis129.
125 Frederick William FABER, La bonté. Extrait des conférences du Pére Faber. Avignon,
Aubanel Fréres 1907; ID., Tutto per Gesù, overo, gli agevoli modi d’amor divino. Torino, Pietro
Marietti 1897. See notes transcribed in ASC B0480120 and B0480135 (ca. 1907).
126 See the cover or title pages of ASC B0480105-8, B0480111-4, B0480117, B0480121,
B0480131.
127 Archbishop Fulton Sheen states that the Imitation of Christ “has been more widely
read by Roman Catholics than any other religious book except the Bible”. A venerable tradition
credits an Augustinian Canon, Thomas Hemerken à Kempis (1379-1471) with writing the Imi-
tation of Christ. Many English and American Christians hold to this tradition, while the ma-
jority of Italian and French scholars since the end of nineteenth century have contested this
claim [cf Fulton Sheen, “Thomas a Kempis”, in The World Book Encyclopedia (Chicago: Field
Enterprises Educational Corporation, 1961), 17:202; Jordon Aumann, Christian Spirituality in
the Catholic Tradition. (London: Sheed & Ward, 1989), 164-168; Piergiorgio Bonardi, and
Tiburzio Lupo L’Imitazione di Cristo e il Suo Autore (Torino: SEI, 1964), 1:251-252, 286-287].
Paolo Albera appears to have been aware of the controversy surrounding this classic, but does
not speculate on its authorship. Rather than mention any particular name, he spoke of “the au-
thor of the Imitation”, cf B0480111, p. 44; B0480115, p. 118. Following his lead, we will con-
sider the source and not the author.
128 Cf ASC B0320101 (14, 23, 25 Dec 1893); B0320108 (7 Feb, 19 Dec 1909).
129 More often than not, D. Albera would make use of Bishop Challoner English version
when reflecting on personal matters; cf ASC B0320101 (1 Apr, 23, 25 Dec 1893; 2 Jan 1894);

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 233
The Imitation of Christ both challenged and consoled D. Albera. When
the rector major, D. Michele Rua, asked him to write some directive letters to
the confreres on renewing their spirit of piety and self-sacrifice in the begin-
ning of 1909, he found inspiration in the pages of the Imitation130. D. Albera
recommended the Imitation of Christ to novices and to young confreres on re-
treat131 and to Salesians serving in the military, instructing them to carry the
volume on their persons at all times132. He never comments on the style or
quality of the book. His focus is the message: following Jesus Christ who
dialogues with the would-be disciple133.
6.4. Marian Titles and Themes
Among the many devotional works that D. Albera consulted, he favored
several that centered on the figure of the Virgin Mary. The same dynamics
were at play that we have seen characterized D. Albera’s entire experience.
As he prepared specific conferences on devotion to Mary he consulted clas-
B0320106 (11 Jan, 21, 25-28 Jul, 4, 17 Aug, 7, 13, 15 Nov, 18 Dec 1904; 8 Apr, 29 May 1906);
B0320107 (18, 24 Feb, 7 Apr, 7 Jul 1907; 12 Jan 1908) B0320108 (7 Feb, 19 Dec 1909). How-
ever, he is sufficiently familiar with the common Latin text; cf ASC B0320101 (14 Dec 1893;
28 Dec 1895).
130 Cf ASC B0320107 (10-12 Jan 1908).
131 Cf ASC B0480115, p. 118; B0480111, p. 44.
132 Cf [Paolo ALBERA], Il Salesiano sotto le armi. Torino, Scuola Tipografica Salesiana,
s.d, p. 15: “Nel recarvi alla casa salesiana o al Seminario, sia vostra prima cura di fare in cap-
pella almeno un quarto d’ora di meditazione, servendovi o del libro della comunità o della Imi-
tazione di Cristo, che dovreste sempre portare con voi”.
133 From De Imitatione Christi, these are the “Words of the Master” that appealed to D.
Albera, and which he traced into his journal in English or Latin: bk. 1, c. 2: “Ama nesciri et pro
nihilo reputari”; bk. 1, c. 9: “It is much more secure to be in the state of subjection than in au-
thority”; bk. 1, c. 20: “In silentio et quiete proficit anima devota et discit abscondita scrip-
turarum”; bk. 1, c. 23: “If thou art not prepared to-day to die, how wilt thou be prepared to-
morrow? bk. 1, c. 23: “Keep thy heart free, and raised upwards to God, because thou hast not
here a lasting city”; bk. 1, c. 25: “Tantum proficies, quantum tibi ipsi vim intuleris; bk 2, 2:
“On humble submission – Non reputes te aliquid profecisse, nisi te omnibus inferiorem esse
sentias”; bk 3, 21: “Behold, I am here; behold I come to thee, because thou hast called upon
me”; bk 3, 23: “Always seek the lowest place and to be inferior to every one”; bk 3, 25: “Si ad
plenum tui contemptum perveneris, scito quod abudantia pacis perfrueris; bk 3, 27: “Covet not
that which thou mayest not have”; bk 3, 28: “Take it not to heart if some people think ill of
thee, and say of thee what though are not willing to hear”; bk 3, 32: “Thou canst not possess
perfect liberty, if thou doest not deny thyself”, From De Imitatione Christi, these are D. Al-
bera’s favorite expressions as mouthed by the disciple: bk. 1, c. 21: “O God, this is my whole
desire, that my heart may be united to thee”; bk 3, 35: “Oh! When thou shalt fill me with thy
presence and become to me all in all? bk 4, 3: “O God, this is my whole desire, that my heart
may be united to thee”.

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234 Joseph Boenzi
sical authors such as Jacques Bénigne Bossuet134. For his own instruction, he
dipped into the spiritual writings of Louis Grignon de Montfort135.
The works of Bishop Bossuet appear more assertively, with direct refer-
ences to specific titles. Several editions of his sermons were available, but it
is difficult to pinpoint the exact edition that D. Albera may have read. Still,
we can trace the specific work that he consulted, and can see its impact on his
Marian teaching. Jacques Bénigne Bossuet’s sermons on the Mother of God
become a resource when reflecting with the seminarians of Valsalice on
Mary’s purity and her immaculate conception136.
Between 1893 and 1895, D. Albera read extensively from Le secret de
Marie, by Louis Grignon de Montfort137. The version of this book that seems
to have been most readily available to D. Albera – indeed, it is the copy used
by his protégé Fr. Francesco Binelli in the novitiate at St. Pierre de Canon –
was not a “pure version”. H. Oudin of Poitiers and Paris published numerous
editions of Le secret de Marie between 1868 and 1893. It was attractive and
brief – perhaps too brief. It seems the editors felt it was somewhat incom-
plete, for they opted to integrate passages into the text from a larger work
called Traité de le vraie dévotion a la Sainte Vierge. Not only did the pub-
lisher make no apologies for this interpolation: no mention was made that this
had in fact occurred.
Within a short time, D. Albera graduated to the longer Vraie dévotion a
la Sainte Vierge138. This work had only been discovered among Grignon de
Montfort’s papers in 1842. It was more theological in content and presenta-
134 Orator, controversialist, apologist, spiritual writer, and reformer, Jacques-Bénigne
Bossuet (1627-1707), bishop of Meaux, was one of the most influential Catholic figures of
17th-century France.
135 S. Louis-Marie Grignon de Montfort (1673-1716) is considered a member of the
“French School”, He completed his formation at St. Sulpice, and founded schools for the chil-
dren of the common people. He integrated Sulpician ideals with Dominican traditions, and
founded two religious communities: the Missionaries of the Company of Mary and the Daugh-
ters of Wisdom. Interest in Grignon de Montfort was ignited in 1842 when unpublished trea-
tises on Marian devotion were discovered among his papers. He was beatified in 1888; Pius
XII canonized him in 1947.
136 Cf ASC B0320106 (22 Oct 1906, feast of the Purity of Mary). 13 months later, D. Al-
bera would again page though Bossuet’s marian meditations as he prepared a series of sermons
for the feast of the Immaculate Conception: see ASC B0480137, Paolo ALBERA, Im[macolata]
Concezione: Fecit mihi magna qui potens est [5 Dec 1907], ms aut., 1907, p. 81.
137 Louis-Marie GRIGNON DE MONTFORT, Le secret de Marie dévoilé à l’âme pieuse. 16th
ed., Paris, H. Oudin 1893 ; cf ASC B0320101 (12, 16, 19 Nov 1893).
138 Louis-Marie GRIGNON DE MONTFORT, Traité de la vraie dévotion a la Sainte Vierge.
13th ed., Paris, H. Oudin 1891; cf ASC B0320103 (23 Oct, 7 Nov, 1897); B0320104 (2, 31 May
1898).

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 235
tion: the author wrote it as a “treatise” as opposed to the “spiritual letter”
genre he employed in Secret. However, Grignon de Montfort never published
the Vraie dévotion, and critics are unable to determine which piece he actu-
ally wrote first139.
Interest in this treatise on devotion to Mary received a major boost when
Frederick Faber translated it into English in 1862. Fr. Faber related to his
readers that he felt this book had been a major influence on his own piety
ever since he had first read it in 1846. Furthermore, he cited the Vatican’s
1853 decree that Montfort’s writings were free from doctrinal error as tanta-
mount to an official validation of his teachings. Now, wrote Fr. Faber, it was
simply a matter of making this teaching known – or better, making Mary
known – and the renewal of the Church and Society would be assured140.
Both works made a deep impression on Paolo Albera. He used Secret
and Vraie dévotion as texts for his personal meditation, and repeatedly re-
turned to both books over a period of at least five years. As personal reflec-
tions jotted down in his spiritual journal bear out, D. Albera fairly well assim-
ilated the Marian teachings of Saint Louis-Marie Grignon de Montfort. Here
was a spirituality that demanded a total consecration of self to the Virgin
Mary as a means of entering into deeper union with Jesus the Incarnate Word.
This approach made a strong impact on D. Albera’s sensibilities, motivated
his actions, influenced his relationships, and colored his prayer life. Grignon
de Montfort’s “true devotion” became a model for D. Albera in consecrating
his life to the Mother of God; he spoke of this with novices in Saint Pierre de
Canon, and used this spiritual program to reflect on his own status during his
spiritual exercises in the 1890s141.
D. Albera found another book, La Vergine Immacolata, don Bosco e i
Salesiani, an articulate presentation on Marian devotion. This book was
139 Cf Stefano DE FIORES, “Il Segreto di Maria. Presentazione”, in Louis-Marie GRIGNON
DE MONTFORT, Opere. Vol. 1: Scritti Spirituali. 2d ed., Roma, Edizioni Monfortane 1990,
p. 297.
140 Cf Frederick W. FABER, “Preface”, in Louis-Marie GRIGNON DE MONTFORT, A Treatise
on the true devotion to the Blessed Virgin Translated from the original French by Frederick
William Faber; preface by cardinal [Herbert] Vaughan. 5th ed., London, Burns & Oates 1888,
pp. xviii-xix: “Oh, if Mary were but known, there would be no coldness to Jesus then! O, if
Mary were but known, how much more wonderful would be our faith, and how different would
our Communions be! O, if Mary were but known, how much happier, how much holier, how
much less worldly should we be, and how much more should we be living images of our sole
Lord and Saviour, her dearest and most Blessed Son!”.
141 Cf ASC B0320101 (7 Oct, 8 Dec 1895); B0320102 (11-20 Mar 1896). To better un-
derstand Paolo Albera’s Marian devotion, we will briefly survey S. Louis Grignon de Mont-
fort’s teachings in the next chapter.

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236 Joseph Boenzi
written by his former teacher and confrere D. Giovanni Battista Francesia142,
and like most of Francesia’s compositions, was directed toward the common
people and the young. It offered clear indications as to how, in Don Bosco’s
tradition, the Salesian Family could and must develop its attachment to the
Mother of God. What seemed to have impressed D. Albera most, however,
was the author’s fervor, which was so evident, in D. Albera’s opinion, that it
shone through the printed page143.
References to Mary’s role in the redemptive mission of Christ, her influ-
ence as a model of virtue and apostolic lifestyle, appear frequently in the
meditative books D. Albera employed as aids in his own prayer. Certain
themes move from his prayer to his instructions, as we find in March 1911,
when he recommended to Salesians preparing for ordination that they look to
Mary as the guide and model of their priesthood – a concept he culled from
the conferences of the popular Parisian retreat master Canon Romain Louis
Planus144.
7. Retreat Literature
Sunday instructions, parish missions and classical retreat conferences of-
fered Paolo Albera a popular if somewhat austere menu of religious entrées.
We find that D. Albera relished those preachers who served up appetizers in
the way of anecdotes, examples, or allegories about the “end of man”, the
“fear of God”, and the eternal option of salvation or perdition.
In the nineteenth century, the Company of Jesus rediscovered the Spiri-
tual Exercises of St. Ignatius. D. Albera himself studied the Ignatian retreat,
either directly or through the writings of noted Italian and French retreat mas-
ters such as Carlo Gregorio Rosignoli, Secondo Franco, Giuseppe Maria Vigi-
tello, Antonio Ciccolini and François Bouchage. He increasingly felt at home
142 Giovanni Battista Francesia (1838-1930), was a member of the first group of Sale-
sians in 1859, made his profession on 14 May 1862, and was ordained to the priesthood on 14
June 1862. He was a Latinist and a prolific author, with over 60 titles to his credit, but perhaps
was best known as a storyteller. His “oral history” of the Oratory enthused young and old in
their Salesian experience.
143 Cf ASC B0320106 (10 Jan 1905); Giovanni Battista FRANCESIA, La Vergine Immaco-
lata, Don Bosco e i Salesiani. S. Benigno Canavese, Scuola Tipografica Salesiana 1904.
144 Cf ASC B0320110 (Mar 1911): conference outlines; cf Romain Louis PLANUS, Le
Prêtre. Paris, C. Poussielgue 1898, vol. 1, pp. 360-362. At one time vicar general for the dio-
cese of Autun, France, Canon Romain Louis Planus (1838-1916) directed a center known as
“La Maison des Chartreux de Lyon”, and was active in retreat ministry at the close of the 19th
and beginning of the 20th Centuries.

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 237
in that tradition and wished to introduce his confreres to Ignatius’ systematic
spiritual approach145.
Before delving into Ignatius and the Jesuit masters, it may be more
useful to examine retreat masters who were closer to D. Albera’s personal ex-
perience. His earliest retreat experiences came from personal contact with
Don Bosco. In fact, he built an entire repertory of material based on his own
founder’s teachings.
7.1. The “Last Things”
Paolo Albera often paged through Don Bosco’s Il giovane provveduto,
and specifically to Don Bosco’s motivational meditations on “the Last
Things”. Though this handy volume appears to be a simple prayerbook for
adolescents, it was intended by its author and understood by the first Sale-
sians to be a guidebook, a “method for living”, as it were, that, if consulted
daily, could help a young person from the time of adolescence, to “make
something” of his or her life – spiritually speaking146. These considerations
were themselves developed in Saint Alphonsus de’ Liguori’s Massime
eterne147.
In later years, D. Albera seems to have been haunted by thoughts about
death. The cause for his anxiety was, no doubt, linked to his awareness that
his health was steadily deteriorating. Furthermore, with advancing age, close
friends and family members were dying one by one, including three of his
colleagues on the Superior Chapter148. It is no wonder then that D. Albera
145 Cf ASC B0320101 (14 Aug 1893); B0320102 (12 Mar 1896); B0320104 (13 Jan
1898); B0320105 (31 Jul 1899); B0320106 (2-7 May 1902, 31 Jul 1905); B0320107 (20, 22
Aug, 14, 28 Sep, 15 Dec 1907, 14 Apr, 27 Aug 1908); B0320108 (31 Jul 1909).
146 Cf Pietro STELLA, Don Bosco nella storia della religiosità cattolica, vol. 1, pp. 235-236.
147 Cf Giovanni BOSCO, Il giovane provveduto per la pratica de’ suoi doveri negli eser-
cizi di cristiana pietà per la recita dell’uffizio della Beata Vergine e de’ principali vespri del-
l’anno, coll’aggiunta di una scelta di laudi sacre ecc. Torino, Paravia 1847, pp. 31-50;
Alphonsus DE’ LIGUORI, Massime eterne, ossia meditazioni per ciascuno giorno della setti-
mana, in Opere ascetiche di S. Alfonso Maria de Liguori, dottore di S. Chiesa, vescovo di San-
t’Agata de’ Goti e fondatore della congregazione del SS. Redentore, Torino, Giacinto Marietti
1880, vol. 2, pp. 473-480.
148 D. Celestino Durando had died on 27 March 1907, and D. Luigi Rocca died on 21
January 1909. Though a good deal of time had already passed, certain expressions in D. Al-
bera’s journal lead us to believe that he still felt their loss. D. Giuseppe Lazzero had retired
from council in 1898, but D. Albera had maintained closed ties, as did other members of the
council, all of whom considered D. Lazzero as member emeritus rather than retired. D. Albera
had assisted him in his last hours; he died in Mathi on 7 March 1910. Besides the deaths of
these superiors, D. Albera registers shock over the sudden deaths of a number of other Sale-
sians that Spring. A number of Salesians quickly followed these beloved superiors to the grave

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238 Joseph Boenzi
meditated on the “Last Things”. This was a regular theme, common to the re-
treat literature, but in 1910 he reflects on these truths in a Salesian context.
He used Don Bosco’s week-long reflections in the Giovane provveduto as the
text for his meditation at the start of the year149.
In April and May 1910, he meditated on the life of D. Luigi Rocca,
written by Carlo Baratta150, and a biographical profile of Celestino Durando
by D. Giovanni Battista Francesia151. Both these Salesian biographies were
brief, popular in format and content. The authors, Baratta and Francesia, de-
veloped the “obituary letter” genre common among Salesians. The audience
they addressed were Salesians, both religious and lay, and these biographies
are more like “in-house” print jobs rather than works for public consumption.
We can imagine that D. Albera heard or read all the obituary letters that came
to the mother house. These, however, seemed to impress him to the extent
that, in that year of mourning, he was prompted to review the lives of his
peers, for both Durando and Rocca were members of the Superior Chapter.
“The life of Fr. Durando”, D. Albera wrote, “is also very useful for my soul.
What distance between his virtues and mine!!”152.
7.2. Popular Parish Missions
A variant within the genre of spiritual exercises was the parish mission.
This practice that had a long history of success in post-reformation Italy, and
received added impulse during the post-Napoleonic Restoration. Local “mis-
sionaries” figure heavily in D. Albera’s reading during the 1890s. Among
these we find Fr. Antonio Francesco Biamonti, a mission preacher active in
that year: Luigi Pesce (†Fontanile, 22 Apr 1910); Carlo Maria Baratta (†Salsomaggiore, 23 Apr
1910); Salesian missionaries who were victims of earthquake in Costa Rica that Spring:
Manuel Solano, Francesco Stanga, Joaquín Vega León (†Cartago, Costa Rica, 4 May 1910);
Francesco Fenoglio (†Málaga, 20 May 1910). Add to this number D. Albera’s oldest brother,
Giovanni Francesco Albera (†None, 20 Jul 1910), and the Salesian economer general Giuseppe
Bertello who died three months into D. Rua’s term as rector major (†Torino, 20 Nov 1910),
D. Albera could not but feel that death was camped in every quarter of his world.
149 Cf ASC B0320109 (3 Jan 1910).
150 Carlo BARATTA, D. Luigi Rocca. Cenni biografici. Torino, SAID “Buona Stampa”
1910; cf ASC B0320109 (29 Apr 1910). The Salesian priest Carlo Maria Baratta (1861-1910)
was an accomplished musician, sociologist, and his experience in agricultural schools brought
him into contact with emerging scientific methods of farming, which he promoted among Sale-
sian schools, and, through the Bollettino Salesiano, among the public at large.
151 Giovanni Battista FRANCESIA, Memorie biografiche del Sac. Celestino Durando d. P.
S. S. S. Benigno Canavese, Scuola Tipografica Salesiana 1908.
152 ASC B0320109 (3 May 1910).

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 239
northern Italy during the early 1800s153. His ministry in preaching retreats and
missions was furthered by his committing his conferences and sermons to
print154. According to his publishers, Fr. Biamonti did not stand out as a florid
orator. His sermons and talks were simple rather than elevated in style, and
the examples he used were ordinary, homey, down-to-earth. He stressed the
essentials. He avoided anything that would smack of profane rhetoric, and
presented his subject matter simply, clearly and systematically155.
D. Albera’s instructions during the 1894 mid-year retreat for novices
carry traces of the parish sermons of Canon Giambattista Giordano156. A con-
temporary and a friend of Don Bosco, his clear and inspired preaching style
made him one of Turin’s post sought after preachers, and attracted invitations
to preach in Genoa, Milan and Bologna, and throughout northern Italy. Canon
Giordano’s ministry included conducting Lenten series, directing priests and
preaching clergy retreats. He was one of Piedmont’s most celebrated mission
preachers in the mid-nineteenth century. From the series of Sunday Instruc-
tions by the Canon, his reflections on the seven capital sins find a place into
D. Albera’s own sober reflections that stressed the “need to attend to the
needs of one’s soul”157.
Canon Luigi Nasi, another friend and staunch support of Don Bosco and
his work158, was a regular visitor at the Valdocco Oratory. As a young priest
he had helped the saint with the Lenten religious education program and had
been one of the most beloved catechists at the Oratory. In later years, he
preached in tandem with Canon Giordano. The Salesians published his col-
153 Priest and academic Antonio Francesco Biamonti was active in the early part 1800s.
A Doctor in Sacred Theology and censor for the “Accademia Teologica” at the “Archiginnasio
della Sapienza” in Rome, he dedicated himself to preaching missions in parishes and towns
throughout Italy.
154 Antonio Francesco BIAMONTI, Serie di meditazioni, prediche ed istruzioni ad uso delle
sacre missioni e de’ santi spirituali esercizj. 6th ed., Milano, Ernesto Oliva Editore 1873, 4
vols.
155 Cf “Ai Lettori”, in F. BIAMONTI, Serie di meditazioni, vol. 1, p. 5.
156 Giambattista Giordano (1817-1871), priest of the archdiocese of Turin and canon at
Corpus Domini church, preached Lenten missions throughout Piedmont, and in major churches
in Milan, Genoa and Bologna from 1849 to 1869, when poor health forced him from the pulpit.
His sermons were collected and published posthumously.
157 Cf ASC B0480126, pp. 67-68; see: Giovanni Battista GIORDANO, Istruzioni parroc-
chiali sui sette vizi capitali. Torino, Tip. e Libr. S. Giuseppe - Collegio degli Artigianelli 1875,
pp. 22-43.
158 Luigi Nasi (1821-1896), canon of the cathedral of Turin and vicar for women reli-
gious, preached Lenten exercises and for the month of May from the early 1860s through the
1880s in Turin, Genoa, Bologna, Florence, Milan, Modena, and other Italian centers. In his
early years of priesthood, he worked with D. Bosco in the oratories of Turin.

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240 Joseph Boenzi
lected Lenten sermons in 1893, and we can find traces in notes penned by D.
Albera over a decade later159.
Like Giordano, Luigi Nasi was a Canon of Corpus Domini, and like all
the members of that “fraternity”, pledged himself to effective preaching. Fur-
thermore, Canons Giordano and Nasi were close friends. They described their
relationship like that of David and Jonathan, and during Canon Giordano’s
last illness, it was Canon Nasi who cared for him. Yet, in spite of living and
working very closely together, each had a very different style of preaching.
Giambattista Giordano was a master of gesture and rhetorical tone; Luigi
Nasi was simple and spontaneous when he stood in the pulpit. Giordano’s fig-
urative language would strike his listeners, impress itself in their imagination,
and gradually work to move their hearts to conversion; Nasi’s manner was
measured, cautious, almost timid as he spoke “heart-to-heart”, in a way that
took his listeners into his confidence. His aim was to move them, to allow
them to reflect and ground the message in realities of their daily lives160.
7.3. Jesuit Masters
The “following of Jesus” and the “cost of discipleship” are themes that
D. Albera revisited often. He found they were staples in writings of Jesuit re-
treat masters, and throughout his preaching career, D. Albera turned to Jesuit
sources for substance and content.
We have already seen how D. Albera followed the Ignatian method for
journaling as outlined in the writings of Fr. Secondo Franco, SJ. He knew Fr.
Franco personally and read his retreat meditations as they came off the
press161. He consulted the published works of a number of French Jesuits, be-
ginning with the instructions of the martyred Pierre Olivaint, and continuing
through the years with the meditations of Pierre Chaignon and Jacques Nouet
particularly helpful in times of personal suffering.
There was no dearth of resources for one who wanted to make or preach
the spiritual exercises. At the end of the nineteenth century, D. Albera system-
atically consulted editions and adaptations of the Exercitia spiritualia of Saint
Ignatius, such as the Italian course of spiritual conferences by Giuseppe Vigi-
159 Cf ASC B0480134; Luigi NASI, Quaresimale. S. Benigno Canavese, Tipografia e Li-
breria Salesiana 1893, 2 vols.
160 Cf [Giovanni Battista FRANCESIA], Il Can. Luigi Nasi e l’Oratorio di S. Francesco di
Sales, in NASI, Quaresimale, vol. 1, pp. xiv-xv.
161 Secondo FRANCO, Gli esercizii spirituali di sant’Ignazio. Torino, Tip. e Libr.
S. Giuseppe - Collegio degli Artigianelli 1892.

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 241
tello162, and the Ignatian anthology of the much sought-after retreat master
Antonio Ciccolini163. Both authors offered practical instructions to spiritual
directors as to how to conduct retreats in the tradition of Saint Ignatius along
with their sermons. What’s more, Fr. Ciccolini’s book gathered classical ser-
mons from the great Jesuit masters, including the great “Restoration” gen-
eral, Fr. Jan Philip Roothaan, who taught that the path to holiness followed
the perfect fulfillment of one’s duties, and held the Ignatian Exercises to be a
resource for prayer life, as well as a guide in the continuing struggle for self-
mastery. In short, the spiritual exercises were presented as the framework of
spiritual life.
He studied the conferences of Paolo Segneri the elder164, outlining and
drawing inspiration from the eminent Jesuit’s “Lenten sermons”165, and
when instructing novices, he employed the imagery he found in Fr. Segneri’s
daily meditations called “Manna for the soul”166. Another source of good re-
treat stories was the collected works of Milan’s Carlo Ambrogio Cattaneo167.
D. Albera read Fr. Cattaneo’s retreats, but drew especially from sermons
162 Giuseppe Maria VIGITELLO, Meditazioni e istruzioni per otto giorni di esercizi spiri-
tuali secondo la materia e la forma prescritte da sant’Ignazio da Lojola. 3 rev. ed., Milano,
Boniardi-Pogliani 1876, 2 vols; ASC B0320102 (15 Mar, 25 Dec 1896); B0320103 (6 Jan
1897). Giuseppe Maria Vigitello, SJ (1799-1859), was one of the principal players in the
restoration of the Ignatian Exercises after the restoration of the Society of Jesus in the nine-
teenth century. He preached missions and conducted retreats throughout Italy.
163 Antonio CICCOLINI, Raccolta di meditazioni e documenti secondo la materia e la
forma proposte da S. Ignazio di Loyola nei suoi esercizi spirituali. 2 rev. ed., Firenze, L.
Manueli 1880, 2 vols. ASC B0320103 (6 Jan 1897); B0320104 (13 Jan 1898); B0320107 (20
Aug 1907). Antonio Ciccolini, SJ (1804-1880) was a popular Italian retreat master, who based
his retreats on the Ignatian Exercises. The work which D. Albera consulted was collection of
Fr. Ciccolini’s own meditations, backed up with documents and commentaries on the Ignatian
themes and methods.
164 Paolo Segneri, SJ (1624-1694), was a talented teacher, an able preacher, and an adept
spiritual director. In direction, he insisted on discernment and detachment, two virtues possible
only to those who are humble. He spent 27 years traveling from city to town in Italy, preaching
parish missions and Lenten series. Many of his conferences, meditations, and significant sam-
ples of his correspondence has be published.
165 Paolo SEGNERI, Il Quaresimale del padre Paolo Segneri della Compagnia di Gesù.
Torino, Giacinto Marietti 1876, pp. 49, 171-173, 228-230; cf ASC B0480126, pp. 26, 27, 28, 33.
166 Cf ASC B0480115, pp. 41, 44; cf Paolo SEGNERI, La manna dell’anima. Torino, Ti-
pografia e Libreria Salesiana 1885, vol. 1, pp. 26-29.
167 Carlo Ambrogio Cattaneo, SJ (1645-1705) taught rhetoric a the University of Brera,
and outside school hours, he would apply himself to preaching missions and retreats in the
churches of Milan. Though a master of baroque composition in the classroom, in the pulpit he
spoke simply, directly, and from the heart. He preached regularly in the church of S. Fedele in
Milan. During his sermons and instructions, the overflow of his listeners packed the plaza and
surrounding streets. His sermons were collected and published after his death.

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242 Joseph Boenzi
he preached for the monthly “exercise of a happy death”168.
Other classical Jesuit authors that find their way into D. Albera’s reper-
tory include the Roman-born Giovanni Battista Scaramelli169, and the devout
French educator Jacques Nouet170. From Fr. Scaramelli’s landmark Direttorio
ascetico, D. Albera transcribed passages on such themes as “spiritual commu-
nion” and devotion to Mary171. He made mention of Fr. Nouet in his spiritual
journal and quoted him during the course of his own conferences to directors
as well, drawing on passages from L’homme d’oraison, on the theme of union
with God, conformity to God’s will through obedience and purity172.
The more contemporary retreat master Pierre Olivaint offered a tremen-
dous spiritual patrimony, not only for his Jesus-centered preaching, but for his
convictions regarding faith and faithfulness which exposed him to grave per-
sonal danger173. Père Olivant’s retreats stress committment to duty, which in
turns implies the need to follow Jesus in times of difficulty and trial as well as
in times of consolation and joy. D. Albera understood that union with Christ
necessitated embracing the cross of Christ174.
168 Carlo Ambrogio CATTANEO, Opere del padre Carlo Ambrogio Cattaneo della Com-
pagnia di Gesù. Vol. 2: L’esercizio della buona morte. 2d ed., Milano, Boniardi-Pogliani 1867,
pp. 10, 18, 20, 35, 40, 43-44, 49, 51, 55, 59; cf ASC B0480126, pp. 28-32.
169 Giovanni Battista Scaramelli, SJ (1687-1752), was well versed in rhetoric, literature,
philosophy and theology. His prinicipal ministry was to preach parish missions. This he did
throughout Italy.
170 Jacques Nouet, SJ (1605-1680) was a Latin and rhetoric professor by training. He di-
rected schools in Alençon, Moulins, Rouen and Arras. He also became an official preacher at
Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris. After retiring from the classroom in 1666, he dedicated his time
to preaching, spiritual direction, and retreat work. Most of his spiritual writings grew out of his
retreat experience, and recast his sermons and conferences.
171 Cf ASC B0480126, pp. 20-21. An edition available to D. Albera at this time was: Gio-
vanni Battista SCARAMELLI, Direttorio ascetico, nel quale si insegna il modo di condurre le
anime per vie ordinarie della grazia alla perfezione cristiana, indirizzato ai direttori delle
anime. Torino, Speirani e Tortone 1856, 4 vols.
172 Cf ASC B0320102 (17 Mar 1896); B0320106 (28 Mar 1905); B0480137, p. 62. As
for the exact work by Fr. Nouet, it is hard to tell, since L’homme d’oraison, had almost become
his “trade mark”, Two collections of his sermons bore that title, e.g.: Jacques NOUET, L’homme
d’oraison, ses méditations et entretiens pour tous les jours de l’année. Ed. r. et corr., Lyon-
Paris, Périsse Frères 1850, 20 vols.; ID., L’homme d’oraison: ses retraites annuelles. Ed. r. et
corr., Paris-Lyon, Victor Lecoffre 1868, 3 vols.
173 Pierre Olivaint (1816-1871), a priest of the Society of Jesus, was a well-known edu-
cator and retreat preacher. During the “Paris uprisings” of May 1871, he was taken prisoner by
the radical leaders of the Paris Commune and executed. Fr. Olivaint was acknowledged as
master of prayer and spiritual direction in his day, but it was not until after his death that his
teachings were collected and published. His personal diary reveals him as an ascetic, open to
suffer for the Lord, and open to those who suffer. Fr. Olivaint’s cause for beatification was in-
troduced in 1937.
174 Cf ASC B0320101 (17 Feb 1893). D. Albera notes that he reflects on P. Olivaint’s
meditation on “union with Jesus” in Pierre OLIVAINT, Journal de ses retraites annuelles de

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 243
In terms of sheer usage, D. Albera assigned Pierre Chaignon pride of
place among his most cherished spiritual authors175. Père Chaignon was one
of the first Jesuits in France to take up the ministry of retreats, and specialized
in retreats for the clergy. This had been one of the great missions of the So-
ciety of Jesus before the suppression, and Fr. Chaignon reasoned that renewal
of the Church would certainly take place when the leaders of the Church are
committed to a life of personal conversion and ongoing spiritual growth. Fr.
Chaignon began this ministry in 1833 and would preach over 300 retreats to
priests. His published works are nothing else but a development of his retreat
talks176.
D. Albera found Fr. Chaignon’s seasonal meditations helpful for his own
asceticism. The French Jesuit’s teaching on “conformity to God’s will” sus-
tained D. Albera when confronting his own deteriorating health, encouraging
him to pray for the gift of resignation and perseverance177. He turned to Fr.
Chaignon’s retreats when in France, when visiting America, when back at
home and when he went away for a few days of personal reflection. He med-
itated with Chaignon on such themes as union with Jesus Christ and priestly
ministry178. These same reflections became so many resources for instructing
seminarians and superiors in the sacraments and especially in priestly spiritu-
ality179. More pertinently, Chaignon’s imagination-based presentations of
scriptural accounts seem to have helped D. Albera put flesh and blood on
Gospel teaching. Concretely, they bolstered his respect and devotion for his
own patron Saint Paul180.
1860 à 1870. 4th ed., Paris, V. Retaux 1892, 2 vols. This entry comes at the very beginning of
D. Albera’s spiritual journal. It may well be that he had been using P. Olivaint’s retreat medita-
tions for some time before he began the practice of journaling.
175 Cf ASC B0320101 (26 Sep 1893); B0320102 (14 Dec 1896); B0320106 (3 May
1902, 25 Jan 1904, 18 Feb, 1 Mar 1905, 14 Jun 1906); B0320108 (25 Jan, 11 Apr 1909). Pierre
Chaignon, SJ (1791-1883) was a noted retreat preacher who dedicated himself to the renewal
of the clergy. He was ordained to the priesthood on 5 June 1819, and entered the Society of
Jesus that same year. In 1839, he opened a retreat residence in Angers, which would continue
to be his headquarters until his death. P. Chaignon’s most noted works are: Le prêtre à l’autel
(Angers, Lainé frères 1853), and a collection of his conferences and talks, entitled Nouveau
cours de méditations sacerdotales (Angers, Lainé frères 1857, 5 vols).
176 Cf Joseph DE GUIBERT, The Jesuits, their spiritual doctrine and practice. A historical
study. St. Louis, Institute of Jesuit Sources 1964, p. 489.
177 Cf ASC B0320106 (18, 28 Feb, 1 Mar 1905).
178 Pierre CHAIGNON, Nouveau cours de méditationss, ou le prêtre santifié par le pratique
de l’oraison. 11th ed., Angers, H. Briand 1883, 5 vols.; ASC B0320102 (26 Sep 1893, 14 Dec
1896); B0320106 (3 May 1902, 25 Jan 1904, 14 Jun 1906).
179 Cf B0320108 (25 Jan 1909).
180 Cf ASC B0320106 (14 Jun 1906); B0320108 (25 Jan, 11 Apr 1909).

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244 Joseph Boenzi
7.4. Northern Exposure
The restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in Great Britain brought new
angles to spiritual thought as the English idiom was used to articulate
Catholic experiences. This can be seen in the popular retreats preached by the
Bishop of Newport and Menevia, Cuthbert Hedley. Monk and scholar, Dom
Hedley drew from years of reflection on classical Catholic sources on the
continent, weaving in a common sense, pragmatic approach to prayer as was
dear to the British181. Though he was never comfortable speaking in front of a
group, this Benedictine scholar was an effective communicator. He was aware
of the real world and grounded his presentation of Christianity in the needs
and demands of daily life. What inspired his listeners and readers was that he
made holiness, if not easy, certainly accessible182. D. Albera meditated on his
conferences at a time when he wanted to explore the meaning of union with
the Holy Spirit and the practical workings of charity183.
D. Albera was convinced that Salesians suffered from “activism”. He
felt that they lacked seriousness and depth in their preparation for ministry.
When it came to fulfilling their spiritual duties, Salesians were often
makeshift and somewhat off-handed in their approach184. He firmly believed
that the best way to combat vice was by strenuously cultivating virtue, and
the yearly retreat was a means of doing just this185.
Another British author that D. Albera discovered during the opening
years of the twentieth century was the slightly younger but equally articulate
Bishop James Bellord186. During his years of priestly ministry in London,
Fr. Bellord actively participated in the apostolic outreach of the Catholic
181 John Cuthbert Hedley, OSB (1837-1915), lectured in theology in the monastery of St.
Michael’s, Hereford, before being ordained auxiliary bishop of Newport in 1873. He became
Ordinary of the Diocese of Newport and Menevia on 18 February 1881. Author and editor of
the Dublin Review, Bishop Hedley brought a scholar’s precision to his preaching; his writings
influenced many in Britain and America.
182 Cf J. C. ALMOND, “Preface”, in John Cuthbert HEDLEY, A spiritual retreat for reli-
gious. 3d ed., London, Burns, Oates & Washbourne 1927, pp. vii-viii; Pierre POURRAT, Chris-
tian spirituality. Westminister, MD, Newman Press 1955, vol. 4, p. 439.
183 Cf John Cuthbert HEDLEY, The Light of life, set forth with sermons. London, Burns &
Oates 1899, pp. 216-218, 219; ASC B0320106 (10-11 Jun 1905).
184 Cf ASC B0320107 (11, 20, 27 Aug 1907); ASC B0320109 (6 Sep 1912).
185 Cf ASC B0480111, pp. 5, 16, 21; B0480115, pp. 18-19; B0480127, p. 26; B0480137,
pp. 89, 97, 148.
186 James Bellord (1846-1905) was a priest for the archdiocese of Westminster who was
ordained bishop in 1899 when called to serve as Vicar Apostolic of Gibraltar. He returned to
London in July 1901 as Chaplain to “Her Britannic Majesty’s [Armed] Forces”, He died in
London on 11 June 1905.

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 245
Truth Society. He wrote a number of instructive pamphlets, but his principal
work was a two-volume series of meditations on the doctrines of the Catholic
Church187.
James Bellord’s meditations began as an attempt to translate voluminous
La théologie affective, ou St. Thomas en méditation by Louis Bail of
Abbevile. Bail’s meditations first appeared in 1638 and underwent 6 revisions
before the author’s death in 1669. The work was rediscovered and published
in 1845. It went through three further editions by 1857, but by the end of the
century the work was out of print and difficult to find. Bail’s meditations, ac-
cording to Bellord, were systematic and practical. They had the virtue of con-
verting the abstract and scientific presentations of Thomas and the Scholastic
theologians into prayerful meditations that linked the intellect with the heart.
The difficulty, however, lie in their sheer bulk. Each meditation went on for
pages, and seemed more like sermons than aids to mental prayer. For this
reason, James Bellord decided that rather than translate the work, he would
attempt to re-write the “Affective Theology” in a way that would make it
useful to English Catholics188. Evidently they could appeal to others as well,
for D. Albera made use of these meditations in his personal preparation for
Marian feasts189.
8. Treatises and Meditations on Consecrated Life
Traditional and contemporary authors helped D. Albera articulate a
lifestyle rooted in the evangelical counsels. In the early years, he drew from
the Jesuit School and Alphonsus de’ Liguori. Later he detailed religious ob-
servance as prescribed in monastic and conventual sources.
187 James BELLORD, Meditations on Christian Dogma. London: Catholic Truth Society,
1898, 2 vols.
188 Cf James BELLORD, Meditations on christian dogma. London, Burns, Oates & Wash-
bourne 1930, vol. 1, pp. ix-xii. Bellord maintains Bail’s outline of theses and themes, but each
meditation is written from scratch. Bail is his principal source. Other sources include treatises
by Auguste Nicolas (La Vierge Marie dans les Evangiles), Dominic McCausland (notes on cre-
ation), Henri-Dominique Lacordaire (his celebrated Notre Dame conferences), Dr. Stroud (an
April 1871 review in the Tablet on Stroud’s The Physical Cause of the Death of Christ), Max
Nordau (on degeneration), Benjamin Kidd (pioneer studies in social evolution), and Herbert
Spencer.
189 Cf ASC B0320106 (25 Mar 1904); B0320107 (29 Nov 1908).
190 Cf ASC B0480111, p. 43; B0480112, pp. 30-31, 51, 55; B0480114, p. 42, 54, 70, 77;
B0480127, pp. 22-23, 27; B0480139, p. 34; B0480137, pp. 13, 63; B040138, enclosed T, p. 1.

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246 Joseph Boenzi
8.1. Jesuit School
When explaining religious observance and growth in virtue, D. Albera
borrowed many popular stories of Jesuits, including the founder himself,
Saint Ignatius Loyola190, and his successors Diego Laínez191, Francis
Borgia192, Claudio Acquaviva193, as well as the great missionary Saint Francis
Xavier194 and John Francis Regis195. In his talks to novices, mature Salesians
and directors, D. Albera frequently mentioned that trio of Jesuit youth, Aloy-
sius Gonzaga, John Berchmans, Stanislaus Kostka, whom he presented as
models to imitate and protectors to invoke196.
Most of what he shared about the Company of Jesus came out of sec-
ondary sources, but he did read those classics on religious life that came out
of the Jesuit school. Alonso Rodríguez’s landmark work, Practice of Perfec-
tion and Christian Virtues, was an important source for Paolo Albera in his
early conferences on religious life197.
191 Cf ASC B0480137, p. 4-5.
192 Cf ASC B0480112, p. 61; B0400113, pp. 17-18; B0480114, p. 14; B0480127, p. 21;
and especially B0480115, pp. 27-28.
193 Cf B040138, enclosed T, p. 2.
194 Cf ASC B0480111, pp. 43-44; B0480115, pp. 72-73; B0480127, p. 21; B0480137, pp.
148-149.
195 Cf ASC B0480126, pp. 23-24.
196 In Jesuit formation literature, these 3 young scholastics had long been offered as ex-
amples, if not as norms of holiness. S. Aloysius Gonzaga (1568-1591) personified steadfast re-
nunciation of the world, purity and penance; S. John Berchmans (1599-1621) modeled total fi-
delity to God’s will in obediently fulfilling the duties of daily life; S. Stanislaus Kostka (1550-
1568) exemplified boundless generosity in following God’s call. Aloysius and Stanislaus had
been canonized in 1726, and this had gained them wide veneration outside Jesuit circles. John
Berchmans was canonized much later, in 1888, but both John Berchmans and Stanislaus were
seen as Marian saints, for both had a very tender devotion to the Virgin Mary (cf DE GUIBERT,
The Jesuits, their Spiritual Doctrine and Practice, pp. 250-251). As for D. Albera’s use of
anecdotes from the lives of these saints to cultivate Salesian spirituality, see his references to S.
Aloysius in ASC B0480111, pp. 105, 3:9; B0480115, pp. 18, 35, 55, 93, 95; B0480127, p. 47;
B0480139, p. 6; B0480137, pp. 126 (at the beginning of a conference on chastity, D. Albera in-
vokes S. Aloysius Gonzaga as “co-patron of every one of our houses”: B0400113, p. 10); for
references to S. John Berchmans, see: B0480112, p. 25; B0480115, pp. 18, 36; B0480127, pp.
22-23, 27, 47; B0480139, p. 6; B0480137, p. 126; for references to Stanislaus Kostka, see:
B0480111, pp. 13, 105; B0400113, p. 40; B0480127, p. 47.
197 Alonso Rodríguez, SJ (1537-1616), spent 29 years in formation ministry as novice di-
rector and rector of Jesuit scholastics. After his retirement from active ministry at age 68, he col-
lected his notes and published works on spirituality and religious life. These were published in
1609 as Exercicio de Perfeción y Virtudes Cristianas. A Italian edition was available in the early
nineteenth century — Alonso RODRÍGUEZ, Esercizio di perfezione e virtù cristiane e religiose.
Torino, Giacinto Marietti 1828, 3 vols. — but it is not clear if D. Albera used this version, espe-
cially since he transcribed ideas from Rodríguez in French; see: ASC B0480130. Through this
study we will pull all references from the first English edition directly translated from the

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 247
At the beginning of Advent 1893, D. Albera studied the theme in depth
by taking up the four-volume manual on religious life by French Jesuit Jean-
Baptiste Saint-Jure198. The text was Homme religieux, and D. Albera noted
that he found this work most beautiful199.
On a visit to Marseilles in February 1895, he looked for a text that would
help him to prepare novice Daughters of Mary Help of Christians for profes-
sion. He settled on a small collection of meditations by Jesuit Claude Judde200.
Fr. Judde was primarily a preacher and retreat master. He related the “eternal
maxims” to the daily struggles of his listeners, and was especially vehement in
his condemnation of “human respect”. D. Albera liked his Méditations for those
preparing for religious profession; he found them to be “useful for the soul”201.
He promoted the tract De conditionibus boni superiori, by the seven-
teenth-century Lithuanian Jesuit Nikolaj Leczycki. “Lancicius”, as Leczycki
was commonly known, had only recently been reintroduced to the Catholic
world202. D. Albera cited this work as an important resources for superiors,
asserting that it detailed the qualities superiors are required to deepen in their
own lives203.
Another important retreat resource was a 2-volume treatise on religious
life, Traité de l’état religieux, by Sulpician-trained Jesuit François Xavier
Gautrelet204. Fr. Gautrelet’s approach was theological, but he also delved into
Spanish: Alonso RODRÍGUEZ, Practice of perfection and christian virtues. Newly translated from
the original Spanish by Joseph Rickaby, Chicago, Loyola University Press 1929, 3 vols.
198 Jean-Baptiste Saint-Jure (1588-1657) entered the Jesuits in 1604, was ordained in
1617, and made solemn profession in 1623. He directed schools in Alençon, Amiens, Orléans
and Paris at great personal cost, for in each of these sites the Company of Jesus faced hostility
from Protestants, government, and even from Catholic prelates. Fr. Saint-Jure also carried on a
ministry of preaching, writing and spiritual direction. In 1649, he retired from administrative
positions, and dedicated himself to spiritual ministries on a full-time basis.
199 Cf ASC B0320101 (10 Dec 1893); Jean-Baptiste SAINT-JURE, L’homme religieux.
New rev. ed., Paris, Régis Ruffet 1867, 4 vols.
200 Claude Judde, SJ (1661-1735), was an expert teacher, formation counselor, and re-
treat master. His writings are actually transcriptions of his sermons, preserve the literary style
of the orator. Little is known of his early ministry; in later years he was much sought after as a
spiritual director of religious and laity alike.
201 Cf ASC B0320101 (10 Feb 1895); Claude JUDDE, Méditations pour les trois jours de
retraite qui précèdent l’emission et le renouvellement des vœux. Paris, Vic et Amat 1878.
202 Nikolaj LECZYCKI, De conditionibus boni superioris. Torino, Pietro Marietti 1901.
Nikolaj Leczycki, SJ (1574-1653), wrote numerous tracts, spreading Jesuit spirituality in
Lithuania and Poland as he had learned it in Rome.
203 Cf ASC B0480137, p. 130.
204 The founder of the “Apostleship of Prayer”, François-Xavier Gautrelet, SJ (1807-
1886) had been trained by the Sulpicians before entering the Company of Jesus. He tried his
hand at formation ministry, the missions, lay animation, and spiritual direction.

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248 Joseph Boenzi
details of canonical regulations governing religious life. Gautrelet’s text was
a standard resource at the turn of the twentieth century, though many of its
juridical details would become obsolete with the promulgation of Canon Law
in 1917. D. Albera used Fr. Gautrelet’s arguments to explain to directors and
provincials what he understood to be the purpose of religious life: correction
of one’s own faults and advancement in perfection, which he calls the “foun-
dation” upon which all other religious obligations rest205.
8.2. School of Saint Alphonsus
We have already made mention of Saint Alphonsus de’ Liguori (1696-1787).
This eighteenth-century moral theologian, founder and bishop was one of the
most widely-read Catholic authors of the nineteenth century, especially after his
canonization in 1839. His moral and pastoral approach had been the foundation
of Don Bosco’s own formation under the aegis of Don Giuseppe Cafasso206, and
was infused a second time when the “spirit of Mornese” became part of the Sale-
sian experience with Saint Mary Domenica Mazzarello cooperating in the found-
ing of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians207.
Two major texts by Saint Alphonsus that figured prominently in Don Al-
bera’s reading list are The Dignity and Duties of the Priest208, and The True
205 François Xavier GAUTRELET, Traité de l’état religieux, ou notions théologiques sur la
nature et les obligations de cet état. New rev. and enl. ed., Paris, Delhomme & Briguet 1900, 2
vols. This work was originally published in 1846, and met with some success and went through
a number of editions. The 1900 reprint is a sturdy hard-bound edition on quality paper, with the
page edges dyed red; it has all the class of a seminary rector’s ready reference. For D. Albera’s
usage, see: ASC B0480137, pp. 137-138.
206 Cf Pietro STELLA, Don Bosco nella storia della religiosità cattolica. Vol. 1, pp. 54,
63, 93, 194; vol. 2, pp. 51-52, 398; Jack FINNEGAN, Prayer in the life and writings of St. John
Bosco. Ph.D. diss., Maynooth, Saint Patrick’s College 1983, pp. 94-95.
207 The Mornesine parish priest Domenico Pestarino, SDB, formed the Daughters of
Mary Immaculate, forerunners of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, in the spirituality
of Teresa of Avila, Francis de Sales and Alphonsus de’ Liguori. He himself had learned to make
this synthesis from his friend colleague in Genoa, the theologian Giuseppe Frassinetti; Mary
Mazzarello delved into these spiritualities, making Teresa and Alphonsus two of her favorite
authors. For an understanding of the Alphonsan influences in Mornese, see: Maria Esther
POSADA, Giuseppe Frassinetti e Maria D. Mazzarello. Rapporto storico-spirituale. Roma, LAS
1986, pp. 55, 107-108; ID., Storia e santità. Influsso del teologo Giuseppe Frassinetti sulla
spiritualità di S. Maria Domenica Mazzarello. Roma, LAS 1992, pp. 41, 100, 110-111, 118.
See also: Ferdinando MACCONO, Santa Maria D. Mazzarello, confondatrice e prima superiora
generale delle Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice. Torino, Scuola tipografica privata FMA 1960, vol.
1, pp. 49-50, 62, 113; Giselda CAPETTI (ed.), Cronistoria. Vol. 1: La preparazione e la fon-
dazione 1828-1872. Roma, Scuola tipografica privata FMA 1974, p. 124.
208 Alphonsus DE’ LIGUORI, Selva di materie predicabili ed istruttive per dare gli esercizi
a’ preti ed anche per uso di lezione privata a proprio profitto”, in Opere Ascetiche di S. Alfonso

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 249
Spouse of Jesus Christ209. The first work is a series of “preachable” themes is
a printed version of the spiritual exercises for priests. Here Alphonsus’ style
resembles an oral presentation. He makes ample reference to the Scriptures,
Fathers of the Church, and popular saints and mystics; he then masterfully
weaves together every thought for maximum impact. D. Albera copied pas-
sages on “zeal” and “humility”210 – themes he continually integrated into his
own retreats and circulars211.
The True Spouse, on the other hand, is directed to religious women. D.
Albera had long known the themes of this book from Don Bosco’s own
writing212, but it is likely that he took up this book personally when he pre-
pared to preach to the Salesian Sisters. The Liguorian passages he transcribed
into his composition books – advantages of the religious life, greatness of the
chaste soul, examples of purity, example of saints, small sins that cause the
ruin of souls213 – he found applicable to both men and women religious. Saint
Alphonsus offered a wealth of material that D. Albera would use in his early
retreats214. This remained a source of inspiration in the later years215.
In December 1907, he embarked on a systematic reading of the works of
the Savoiard Redemptorist François Bouchage, beginning with Introduction à
la vie sacerdotale216, and continuing with Bouchage’s collection of daily
meditations called Pratique des vertus.217 Fr. Bouchage follows the tradition
Maria de Liguori. Torino, Giacinto Marietti 1880, vol. 3, pp. 5-297.
209 Alphonsus DE’ LIGUORI, La vera sposa di Gesù Cristo, cioè, la monaca santa per
mezzo delle virtù proprie d’una religiosa, in Opere Ascetiche di S. Alfonso Maria de Liguori.
Torino, Giacinto Marietti 1880, vol. 4, pp. 5-374.
210 Cf DE’ LIGUORI, Selva, vol. 3, pp. 63-64, 69, 137-138.
211 Cf Paolo ALBERA, Lettere circolari di don Paolo Albera ai salesiani. Torino, SEI
1922, pp. 11, 19, 26, 28, 56, 81, 87, 111, 166, 183, 184, 187, 206, 207, 214, 226, 227, 228, 229,
240, 241, 255, 257, 281, 284, 286, 298, 300, 318, 347, 363, 370, 372, 375, 377, 379, 380, 388,
427, 428, 468.
212 Cf Pietro STELLA, Don Bosco nella storia della religiosità cattolica. Vol. 1, p. 241.
213 Cf ASC B0480126, pp. 75-76, 82, 83, 95.
214 Cf ASC B0480112, pp. 26, 27, 38, 39, 43, 54, 81, 90, 94, 3:51, 81, 4:33, 39, 43, 70;
B0480115, pp. 30, 93, 104, 110.
215 Cf ASC B0320106 (28 Dec 1903, The times does not seem me long. I read with a
great pleasure the life of S. Alphonse de Liguori. What I have to learn in this book! What suf-
ferings for the glory of God! How he worked for the salvation of souls!
216 François BOUCHAGE, Introduction à la vie sacerdotale. Paris, Delhomme 1897; cf
ASC B0320107 (10 Dec 1907). François Bouchage was born in Chambéry on 9 March 1855.
He entered the Redemptorists in 1876, and was ordained in 1879. His early writings were his-
torical presentations of religious life. He later moved on to vocational topics, which in turn
evolved into ascetical and mystical literature.
217 François BOUCHAGE, Pratique des vertus. Méthode pour travailler à la perfection au
moyen d’un exercice de vertu chaque jour. 2nd rev. ed., Paris, Haton 1894, 3 vols; ASC
B0320107 (18, 21 Dec 1907, 9 Jan 1908).

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250 Joseph Boenzi
of Saint Alphonsus. He inculcates a practical and intense piety based on the
love of God and of Jesus as Redeemer. Like Alphonsus, he recommends
prayer and mortification as the means of attaining this love of God – an ap-
proach that appeals to D. Albera, who returns to Fr. Bouchage’s meditations
over the next few years218.
8.3. Women as Models of Consecrated Commitment
Perhaps the work on religious life that Paolo Albera studied most during
his years as spiritual director was Bishop Charles Gay’s three-volume work of
meditations for religious women on “Christian life and virtues” developed in
light of religious life219. D. Albera appears to have turned to this resource
when preparing retreats, but he used it for his own reflection as well. He
found Gay’s presentation thorough, even humbling, for the bishop’s rich ex-
pression and minute treatment of religious life issues left him wondering
whether after years of profession he himself had even taken the first step for-
ward in consecrated life – that of humility220. On other occasions, he concen-
trated on the bishop’s exposition of the evangelical counsels, not only in view
of future conferences, but to assist D. Rua who was preparing a circular on
poverty that year221.
When studying religious life, D. Albera did not take all his counsel from
male writers. Saint Catherine of Alexandria and her namesake Catherine of
Siena, were also presented as models of faithfulness222. He liked to quote ex-
amples from the teachings of Saint Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi, though he
218 Cf ASC B0320107 (9 Jan 1908); B0320108 (18 Feb 1909).
219 Charles Louis GAY, De la vie et des vertus chrétiennes, considérées dans l’état re-
ligieux. Enrichie d’un Bref de S.S. Pie IX et augmentée de tables analytiques. 11th ed., Paris,
H. Oudin 1888, 3 vols. This work, which had met with great success in France, was published
in Italian by the Salesians while D. Bosco was still alive: Della vita e delle virtù cristiane con-
siderate nello stato religioso. S. Pier d’Arena, Tipografia e Libreria Salesiana 1887, 3 vols.
Charles-Louis Gay (1815-1892), auxiliary bishop and vicar general of Poitiers, reintroduced
ascetical and mystical literature into the French scene.
220 Cf ASC B0320101 (19 Aug 1894); B0320107 (11-12 Apr 1908).
221 Cf ASC B0320107 (13 Jan 1907): on poverty; B0320107 (14, 16 Feb, 6, 10 Mar
1907): on chastity; B0320107 (10-20 Jul 1907): on obedience.
222 Cf B0400113, pp. 28-29. The virgin martyr S. Catherine of Alexandria, whose cult re-
mained popular from Medieval times until the twentieth century, represented the cool logic and
limpid faith won many from idolatry to Christianity. S. Catherine (Caterina Benincasa) of
Siena (1347-1380) became a deciding force in moving the pope to abandon Avignon to return
the papacy to Rome. Her correspondence and mystical writings were influential in the reform
of the Church in her days and in later eras. She was declared a Doctor of the Church by Paul
VI in 1970.

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 251
probably accessed her writings through secondary sources223. When the life of
Joan of Arc became popular at the turn of the century, he cited the Maid of
Orleans’ purity and courage in his conferences with the Sisters224.
One of his preferred authors was Teresa of Jesus225. He found her autobi-
ography instructive and inspiring to the point that he read it several times,
even though he felt called to task by every page he read: “Chaque page est un
reproche à ma faiblesse, à ma tiédeur, à mon ignorance”226. He quoted from
her Camino de perfección in his conference on obedience227. He dipped into
her Book of Foundations when discussing the vocation to the religious
state228, and, at one point, told the novices that he personally cherished her
commentary on the “Song of Songs”229.
Saint Teresa of Avila was more than a good writer: she was one of D. Al-
bera’s favorite saints. He called her “the Seraphic Teresa”, and the “faithful
servant of Christ”230. He venerated her as his own patron and protector “on
the way of perfection”231, and quoted her words and from her liturgy when
preaching to Salesian women and men religious232.
223 Cf ASC B0480111, p. 90; B0480112, p. 28; B0480114, p. 14; B0480115, pp. 7, 24,
61, 93, 112; B0480139, p. 18, B0480137, p. 62. S. Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi (1566-1607)
was a Florentine Carmelite and a mystic. Her correspondence and spiritual writing placed the
primacy on the passion of Jesus as the sublime expression of pure love. In the nineteenth cen-
tury she was presented as the model of religious consecration.
224 Cf ASC B0320107 (4 Jul 1908); B0320108 (31 Jan 1909). Renewed French interest
for the story, mission and holiness of Joan of Arc (1412-1431) rose in the late 1800s, thanks to
the efforts of Félix Dupanloup, Catholic activist and Bishop of Orleans from 1849 to 1878.
Popular enthusiasm reached fever pitch when Leo XIII declared her Venerable on 27 January
1894. Pius X beatified her on 18 April 1909, and Benedict XV canonized her on 16 May 1920.
225 S. Teresa of Jesus (1515-1582), also known as Teresa of Avila, began a reform of
Carmel in 1562, integrating her mission and her contemplative vocation. Francis de Sales
quoted her in key passages of the Introduction to the Devout Life (part 1, c. 4; part 2, c. 17; part
3, c. 11; part 5, c. 11), and Don Bosco proposed her as a model for his Salesian Sisters (Istituto
Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice, Costituzioni e regolamenti. Roma, Istituto FMA, 1982, §45).
Teresa of Jesus was canonized in 1622, and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1970.
226 ASC B0320101 (15 Oct 1894). It is very possible that D. Albera read S. Teresa’s spir-
itual biography in French; many editions were available in French and Italian in the latter part
of the nineteenth century.
227 Cf ASC B0480114, pp. 38-39.
228 Cf ASC B0480111, pp. 98-102.
229 Cf ASC B0480115, pp. 92-93.
230 Cf ASC B0480111, pp. 47-48.
231 Cf ASC B0320103 (31 Dec 1897); B0320106 (15 Oct 1904); B0320108 (15 Oct
1909).
232 Cf Retreat instructions to SDB: ASC B0480112, pp. 30, 39, 62, B0400113, pp. 23, 29,
B0480114, pp. 43, 71; B0480115, pp. 31-32; B0480127, pp. 21, 27; B0480139, p. 29; for an
account of D. Albera’s conferences to FMA at St. Teresa’s Institute, Chieri, see: B0320105 (12-
15 Oct 1899).

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252 Joseph Boenzi
D. Albera’s continuing practice to look for new sources for his personal
spiritual nourishment brought him into contact with another Carmelite
woman of growing stature. He read the Story of a Soul by the young Thérèse
Martin, known by her religious name, Theresa of the Child Jesus. D. Albera
was impressed by the “simplicity, candour and sincerity in this girl!” re-
flecting, “What lesson for me! I have to learn very much from this
reading”233.
8.4 Monastic and Conventual Traditions that help define the Superior’s Role
At the other end of the spectrum, we have many bibliographical indica-
tions in the last retreat of D. Albera’s years as Spiritual Director General. This
was the eight-day retreat that preceded the eleventh general chapter of the
Salesian Society in August 1910. D. Albera preached the instructions, thereby
fulfilling D. Rua’s wish and command. One of the most important topics for
those retreat instructions, as far as D. Albera was concerned, was the role of
the superior. To develop this theme – one he had approached in earlier retreats
for directors – D. Albera drew extensively from monastic and conventual
sources, beginning with the maxims of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-
1153).
Saint Bernard’s main ministry was to train monks, and most of his writ-
ings carry a formative tone. Over the course of the centuries, many authors
who wrote about religious life reproduced the saint’s sayings. It is not clear
that D. Albera had direct access to the works of Saint Bernard, other than
short pamphlets or readings from his breviary. He draws repeatedly from De
consideratione234. This treatise on pastoral authority took the form of a letter
to his former pupil, Pope Eugene III, and along with his 86 sermons on the
“Song of Songs”235, has figured among Bernard’s most often-quoted works.
233 ASC B0320109 (22 Jan 1911); cf THÉRÈSE DE L’ENFANTE JÉSUS ET DE LA SAINTE FACE,
Histoire d’une Âme, écrite par elle-même. Lettres & Poésies, Lisieux, Carmel de Lisieux 1910.
The volume in question was the spiritual autobiography of Thérèse Martin (1873-1897), who
followed her sisters into the Carmelite monastery in Lisieux at age 15. She died at 24. The
book, which became an immediate bestseller, revealed her extraordinary personality and depth.
Thérèse became the inspiration for many young adults seeking spiritual union with God at the
turn of the twentieth century. She was canonized in 1925.
234 Cf ASC B0480139, pp. 29-30; B0480137, pp. 109, 130.
235 BERNARD DE CLAIRVAUX, Sermones super Cantica canticorum, in S. Bernardi Opera.
Vol. 1/2: Sermones super Cantica canticorum. Critical edition by Jean Leclerc, Charles H.
Talbot, and Henri Rochais, Roma, Editiones Cistercienses 1957. We find two explicit refer-
ences to this work in D. Albera; cf B0480130, enclosed U, p. 4; ASC B0320110 (summer
1913): conference outlines.

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 253
Even here, however, it is likely that D. Albera gathered the great abbot’s
words from secondary sources, especially from manuals on religious life236.
D. Albera dabbled briefly with Dominican sources. For example, in
1896 he studied the Tertiarian handbook’s treatment of purity while preparing
a retreat for ordinands in Avigliana237. He shows familiarity with the cele-
brated preachers and orators such as Frs. Lacordaire238 and Ravignan239, and
lived in an era that was rediscovering the philosophical and spiritual teach-
ings of Thomas Aquinas240. Even though D. Albera was able to share some
Dominican lore with his listeners241, he actually spent less time in the Do-
minican camp than he did among the sons of Saint Francis of Assisi.
Many little anecdotes and edifying “fioretti” wove their way into D. Al-
bera’s instructions. The poor man of Assisi was another of his favorite
saints242, and he presented the figure of Saint Francis, particularly Francis the
founder, to novices and provincials alike243. His most authoritative and sys-
tematic Franciscan source, however, was Saint Bonaventure (1217-1274),
whose writings were just beginning to appear in critical editions. These edi-
tions, known as the “Quaracchi folios”, appeared in print between 1882 and
1902. This event sparked renewed interest in “Seraphic” Doctor’s writings
236 For passages where D. Albera cites quotations or anecdotes from the life and works of
S. Bernard in his retreats, see: ASC B0480111, pp. 57, 70, 86, 91, 95; B0480112, pp. 54, 58,
81; B0480114, pp. 15, 30; B0480115, p. 79; B0480127, p. 14; B0480139, pp. 14, 29-30, 34;
B0480137, pp. 5, 24, 46, 49, 57, 63, 65; B0480137, p. 130; B0480138, p. 17; B0480130, en-
closed R, p. 3; B0480130, enclosed U, pp. 3-4.
237 Cf ASC B0320102 (1 Mar 1896).
238 Henri-Dominique Lacordaire (1802-1861) was responsible for the refoundation of the
Dominican Order in France after they had been suppressed by the Revolution. His masterful
Advent and Lenten conferences at the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris brought many of France’s
urban population back to the Catholic faith. Cf ASC B0480115, p. 17; B0480137, p. 117.
239 Gustave-Xavier Lacroix de Ravignan, SJ (1795-1858), shared the “chair” of Notre-
Dame with Fr. Lacordaire, with whom he alternated (one taking Advent, the other Lent) until
1846. His first Easter Retreat, preached in 1841, became a paradigm of general missions and
retreats for the next half-century. Cf ASC B0480127, p. 27; B0480137, p. 117.
240 Pope Leo XIII relaunched the study of Thomistic thought with the publication of his
1879 encyclical “on the restoration of Christian philosophy” [see: LEO XIII, Aeterni Patris.
Epistola Encyclica de philosophia christiana ad mentem S. Thomae Aquinatae in scholis
catholicis instauranda (9 August 1879), in “Acta Santae Sedis” 12 (1879) 97-115. Among D.
Albera’s authors, those who drew most deeply from S. Thomas (1225-1274) included Jesuits
Jean-Baptiste Saint-Jure and François Xavier Gautrelet, Sulplician Charles Sauvé, Canon
Léopold Beaudenom, Bishop James Bellord, and Belgian’s Cardinal Desiré-Joseph Mercier.
241 Cf ASC B0480115, pp. 26-27; B0480112, p. 61; B0480137, pp. 36-37.
242 D. Albera loved Francis of Assisi for his deep devotion to Christ (cf B0320101 [4 Oct
1894]), and set him up as a model whom he personally tried to imitate (cf ASC B0320105 [4
Oct 1899]).
243 Cf ASC B0480111, p. 58; B0480112, pp. 60-61, 62, 85-86, 90, 122; B0400113, p. 45;
B0480114, p. 71; B0480115, pp. 25, 34; B0480137, pp. 24, 38, 46; B0480138, p. 5.

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254 Joseph Boenzi
during the same period that Paolo Albera’s duties as Spiritual Director put
him on the look-out for formation resources.
One of Bonaventure’s popular writings among religious superiors was
the short booklet: De sex alis seraphim244. It is precisely this work that D. Al-
bera quotes when preaching the retreat to provincials and delegates in the
days the eleventh general chapter of the Salesian Society. We find ten explicit
references to De sex alis seraphim in D. Albera’s conference notes, and much
of the content in the mid-week instructions mirrors Saint Bonaventure’s ad-
vice to superiors245. Furthermore, as retreat preacher, D. Albera urged Sale-
sian superiors to put Bonaventure’s book on their own “must read” list246.
Another book from the Bonaventure corpus was Speculum disciplinae.
Until the end of the nineteenth century this work was ascribed to the Seraphic
Doctor. The editors of the Quaracchi folios, however, determined that this was
actually written by the saint’s secretary, Bernard de Besse247. The purpose of this
treatise was to teach with “precision, firmness and sweetness” the way a novice
must behave in order to learn to form good habits, both interiorly and exterior-
ly. He does not encourage beginners to engage in mystical prayer, but offers
them a step-by-step approach to spirituality with plenty of concrete advice.
Though Speculum disciplinae was written for specifically Franciscan
novices, it quickly proved “useful to all who have embarked on the path of
perfection”. It appears to have created a popular following in formation cir-
cles248 and among “other spiritual persons desirous of learning perfect reli-
gious practice”249. When the Quaracchi folios appeared, the editors, Frs.
Fedele di Fanna and Ignatius Jeiler, published the Speculum disciplinae
among the “doubtful writings” in the final section of the collection250. Yet, by
popular demand it was included in a “hand size” edition of Bonaventure’s
Franciscan works published later that same year. That edition was specially
244 S. BONAVENTURE, De sex alis seraphim. Quaracchi, Typ. Collegii S. Bonaventurae 1902.
245 Cf ASC B0480137, pp. 128, 130, 131; B0480138, pp. 2, 3, 4, 13, 26, 45; B0480138,
enclosed S, p. 2. D. Albera had also cited S. Bonaventure in an earlier retreat for directors; see,
e.g.: B0480139, pp. 7, 10, 26-27, 45, 46; B0480137, pp. 4, 17.
246 Cf ASC B0480137, p. 130.
247 Friar Bernard de Besse was born in Acquitaine and served many years as secretary
and traveling companion to S. Bonaventure. He spent his later years as guardian of the Fran-
ciscan friary in Cahors. It was there that he died sometime between 1300 and 1304.
248 Cf JEAN DE DIEU, Bernard de Besse, in Dictionnaire de spiritualite ascetique et mys-
tique, doctrine et histoire. Vol. 1, Paris, G. Beauchesne 1937, cols. 1504-1505.
249 Thus the subtitle of an early Italian version; see: S. BONAVENTURE, Specchio di disci-
plina del serafico dottore S. Bonaventura per l’amaestramento de nouitij, e d’ogni altra per-
sona spirituale che desidera imparare perfetti costumi religiosi. Roma, Mascardi ad istanza di
F. Giuliani al Griffo 1638 (frontispiece).

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 255
designed for formation communities. In the prologue, the editors explain that,
though it was clear that the “Mirror of Discipline” was not written by
Bonaventure, so many readers were asking for copies in a workable format,
and tradition had long associated it with the Seraphic Doctor, it seemed op-
portune to include it in a book destined for daily rather than scholarly use in
houses of formation251. It is possible that D. Albera made use of this edition
when citing Latin dictums from the Speculum disciplinae during his instruc-
tions to directors252.
9. Treatises and Conferences on Priesthood
Records show that D. Albera continued to preach retreats, reflection
days and prepared conferences to seminarians and ordinands throughout his
years as Spiritual Director General. The topic of priesthood thus remained
central to his preaching ministry. At the same time, D. Albera found shifts in
his own ministry that made it imperative that he continue to reflect on priestly
ministry as part of his own vocational journey. D. Albera made his meditation
from books designed for clergy; he studied guidelines for confessors as well
as manuals for seminarians throughout these years.
9.1. Priestly Renewal
In 1893 and again in 1895, D. Albera dedicated several months to
reading the retreat meditations and instructions for priests preached by
250 [BERNARD DE BESSE], Speculum Disciplinae, in Opera omnia Sancti Bonaventurae.
Edita studio et cura a PP. Collegii S. Bonaventurae ad plurimos condices mss. emendata. Anec-
dotis aucta prolegomenis scholiis notisque illustrata, Quaracchi, Typ. Coll. S. Bonaventurae
1898, vol. 8, p. 583-622.
251 Fedele DI FANNA, and Ignatius JEILER, Prefatio, in Selecta pro instruendis fratribus
ord. min. scripta S. Bonaventurae una cum libello Speculum disciplinae. edita a PP. Collegii S.
Bonaventurae, Quaracchi, Typ. Collegii S. Bonaventurae 1898, pp. v-vi. Speculum Disciplinae
is found on pp. 285-418.
252 Cf ASC B0480139, pp. 45-46; BERNARD DE BESSE, Speculum Disciplinae, in Selecta
pro instruendis fratribus ord. min. scripta S. Bonaventurae, p. 312. The OFM published an
Italian version alongside the Latin text. This helped renew the tract’s popularity, including
among Salesians. One of D. Albera’s closest associates, D. Giulio Barberis quoted abundantly
from Speculum Disciplinae in his handbook for novices. Cf Specchio della disciplina.
Istruzione e regola de’ novizi, di S. Bonaventura. Quaracchi, Tip. del Collegio di S. Bonaven-
tura 1898; Giulio BARBERIS, Il vade mecum dei giovani salesiani. Ammaestramenti consigli ed
esempi esposti agli ascritti ed agli studenti della Pia Società di S. Francesco di Sales. 2nd ed.,
S. Benigno Canavese, Scuola Tipografica Salesiana 1906, vol. 2, pp. 411-422, 431-436.

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256 Joseph Boenzi
Turin’s own Giuseppe Cafasso253. These conferences, dictated in the 1850s,
were first published in 1892 and 1893. In the sense that his preaching had just
been published, this was fresh material when D. Albera picked up his re-
treats254. Reading these sources would have given D. Albera a sense of con-
nection with his Salesian origins, for he was aware of Don Bosco’s own at-
tachment to D. Cafasso, his director and mentor255. The saintly moralist
would also have put D. Albera in contact with the most significant currents of
apostolic spirituality in Catholic Turin, for besides Don Bosco, other great
members of Turinese clergy received their formation at the hands of D.
Cafasso – figures such as Canons Luigi Nasi, Giovanni Battista Giordano,
Bishop Giovanni Bertagna (1828-1905), and the “theologian” Leonardo
Murialdo (1828-1900). D. Cafasso’s legacy was continued by his nephew and
editor, Canon Giuseppe Allamano (1851-1926), whom D. Albera knew and
admired. Thus, D. Cafasso’s texts held special, personal significance for D.
Albera, as a priest of Turin and a son of Don Bosco, and D. Cafasso’s world
view would certainly impact or confirm D. Albera’s own understanding.
D. Cafasso’s retreat meditations followed the Ignatian categories of the
Last Things and the call to conversion, in the tradition of the classic retreat
masters. These themes took on added weight when addressed to priests, how-
ever. D. Albera modeled some of his own talks on D. Cafasso’s instructions,
as when in 1909 he spoke to Salesians ordinands about “delicacy of con-
253 S. Joseph Cafasso (1811-1860), a native of Castelnuovo d’Asti, was Turin’s great
spiritual guide and formator of the clergy. In spite of a very fragile constitution, D. Cafasso
was noted as a hard worker and a cheerful, approachable person from his youth. He was among
the first to attend the regional seminary in Chieri. He was ordained in 1833, after which he en-
tered Turin’s Convitto Ecclesiastico, located at the church of S. Francesco d’Assisi. At the end
of his two year pastoral course, the rector and founder of the Convitto Ecclesiastico, Theolo-
gian Luigi Guala, invited him to join the staff. He began as an assistant lecturer, and soon took
over the classes in moral theology. He eventually succeeded D. Guala as rector. A dedicated in-
structor, fervent preacher, able confessor and guide, D. Cafasso became mentor and friend of
Turin’s young clergy and an advocate on behalf of Piedmont’s poor and imprisoned. Pius XI,
who beatified D. Cafasso in 1925, called him the “pearl of the Italian clergy”, Pope Pius XII
canonized him on 22 June 1947.
254 Giuseppe CAFASSO, Meditazioni per esercizi spirituali al clero. Torino, Canonica
1892, 2 vols.; ID., Istruzioni per esercizi spirituali al clero. Torino, Canonica 1893; cf ASC
B0320101 (15, 17 Jul 1893, 18 Oct, 8 Dec 1895).
255 D. Bosco always acknowledged that D. Cafasso guided him spiritually and profes-
sionally from before he entered the seminary, right through the first two decades of his priest-
hood; cf Giovanni BOSCO, Memorie dell’Oratorio di S. Francesco di Sales. Introduzione, note
ed edizione critica di Antonio Da Silva Ferreira, Roma, LAS 1991, pp. 105, 108, 109, 119,
127-128; Giovanni BOSCO, Biografia del sacerdote Giuseppe Caffasso esposta in due ragiona-
menti funebri. Torino, Tip. G. B. Paravia 1860, pp. 3, 6-7.

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 257
science”, and asked his retreatants to read D. Cafasso’s book for them-
selves256. In reading Giuseppe Cafasso’s biography, D. Albera was struck by
“his piety, his spirit of prayer”, and exclaimed, “What example!”257.
Biographies of noted 19th-century priests developed the same lines of
apostolic spirituality as the more serious meditations that were becoming in-
creasingly available, but took a popular and practical approach. Judging from
comments in his journal, D. Albera found certain priestly biographies re-
freshing. He strove to imitate the pastoral zeal of Bruno Lanteri258. He ad-
mired the florid style in which Cardinal Alfonso Capecelatro wrote the life of
Franciscan Lodovico da Casoria, a contemporary and acquaintance of Don
Bosco, but he was even more impressed by the holy friar’s virtues259. He rel-
ished the biography of the Curé of Ars260 as recounted by Turin’s Archbishop
256 Cf ASC B0480137, p. 132; G. CAFASSO, Istruzioni, pp. 107-127.
257 ASC B0320109 (5 Sep 1912). D. Albera does not identify the biography he was
reading, but the earliest biography of S. Cafasso had long been part of the Salesian collection
in Valdocco and had been one of D. Lemoyne’s sources when compiling MB [cf MB 2:191].
This may well have been D. Albera’s choice for his reading in 1912: cf Giacomo COLOMBERO,
Vita del Servo di Dio D. Giuseppe Cafasso, con cenni storici sul Convitto ecclesiastico di
Torino. Torino, Canonica 1895.
258 Cf ASC B0320106 (12 Apr 1905). Servant of God Pio Brunone Lanteri (1759-1830)
had been active in formation of laity and clergy through the movement known as the “Amicizie
Cattoliche” during the years of the French imperial occupation of northern Italy. He founded
the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, and was instrumental in establishing the Convitto Ecclesiastico
in Turin where Saints Joseph Cafasso, John Bosco, Leonard Murialdo and many other zealous
Turinese priests received their pastoral training.
259 Alfonso CAPECELATRO, La vita del p. Lodovico da Casoria, in Opere di Alfonso
Capecelatro, Arcivescovo di Capua e Cardinale di S.ta Chiesa. Vol. 16, Roma, Desclée-
Lefebvre 1893, 772 pp.; cf ASC B0320105 (29 Oct 1899). Alfonso Capecelatro (1824-1912)
was a priest of the Oratory in Naples, whose leadership made the Oratory a center of spiritu-
ality and scholarship. Fr. Capecelatro was a popular preacher and a prolific writer. He pub-
lished numerous literary, exegetical, historical, apologetical and biographical works. Pope Leo
XIII appointed him archbishop of Capua in 1880, and elevated him to the college of cardinals
in 1886. The subject of this biography, Naples’ beloved Fra Lodovico, was born in Casoria
(province of Naples) Arcangelo Palmentieri (1811-1885) entered the Franciscans in 1832, and
it was then that he received the name Lodovico. He worked with the destitute and, attracting
help from many fervent people, mobilized Third Order Franciscans into apostolic action
groups. He founded two religious communities: the Franciscan Brothers of Charity and the
Franciscan Sisters of St. Elizabeth. He corresponded with D. Bosco before and after the two
met in 1880. Lodovico of Casoria was beatified by John Paul II on 18 April 1993.
260 Cf ASC B0320106 (17 Mar 1905). D. Albera bibliographic indications here are
meager. He cites Alfred MONNIN, Esprit du curé d’Ars M. Vianney dans ses catéchismes, ses
homelies et sa conversation. 8th ed., Paris, Ch. Douniol et C.e 1875. Jean-Marie Vianney
(1786-1859) became curate of Ars in 1818. A man of utter simplicity, Fr. Jean Vianney was es-
pecially effective as a confessor and spiritual guide. His personal holiness and pastoral zeal
won many people back to Catholic practice. He was canonized by Pius XI in 1925.

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258 Joseph Boenzi
Lorenzo Gastaldi261, and transcribed some striking images from the writings of
the English Cardinal Henry Edward Manning262, particularly from the prelate’s
best known work, Eternal Priesthood, which he read in translation263.
From Canon Henri Dubois of Coutances, D. Albera outlines key con-
cepts regarding priestly zeal264. And who better than a venerable Sulpician in
the guise of Louis Branchereau to tap for meditations on priestly spirituality
and discipleship? D. Albera makes no comment on Fr. Branchereau’s books,
but it seems that he returned to these volumes quite often during the mid-
1890s265.
Another Sulpician that captured D. Albera’s attention was André
Hamon, often called “the curate of St. Sulpice”266. Abbé Hamon offered med-
itation material that concentrated on spiritual life from the perspective of
priesthood and religious life, and D. Albera was so impressed by the Sulpi-
261 Cf ASC B0480126, pp. 5-11. See: Lorenzo GASTALDI, Cenni storici sulla vita del sac-
erdote Giovanni Maria Vianney, paroco d’Ars. Torino, Tip. dell’Orat. di S. Franc. de Sales
1863, 192 pp. Lorenzo Gastaldi (1815-1883) had been a close friend of D. Bosco before be-
coming Archbishop of Turin in 1871. Disagreement over ecclesiological principles and matters
of jurisdiction brought about a painful estrangement. See: Arthur LENTI, Don Bosco, His Pope
and His Bishop: The Trials of a Founder. Roma, LAS 2006, pp. 115-117, 118-122, 125-147,
149-237; ID., Don Bosco History and Spirit; volume 6: Expansion of the Salesian Work in the
New World and Ecclesiological Confrontation at Home. Edited by Aldo Giraudo. Roma, LAS
2009, pp. 276-374.
262 Henry Edward Cardinal Manning (1808-1892) was educated at Harrow and Baliol
College, Oxford, and ordained in the Anglican Church. He entered the Roman Church in 1851,
and was ordained to the priesthood shortly afterwards. In 1865, Pius IX appointed him arch-
bishop of Westminster.
263 Cf ASC B0480126, pp. 1-2. See: Henry Edward MANNING, L’eterno sacerdozio.
Roma, F. Pustet 1884.
264 Henri-Marie DUBOIS, Pratica dello zelo ecclesiastico, ossia mezzi per rendere il mini-
stero sacerdotale onorevole e fruttuos. Torino, G. Marietti 1864; cf ASC B0480126, p. 23.
Henri-Marie Dubois (1801-1859) served as a missionary, then as a parish priest, and eventually
became superior of the major seminary in Coutances.
265 Louis BRANCHEREAU, Méditations à l’usage des élèves des grands séminaires et des
prêtres. Paris, Vic & Amat 1891, 3 vols.; cf ASC B0320101 (4 Jan 1895). Fr. Louis
Branchereau (1819-1913), Sulpician, taught philosophy at seminary in Clérmont before di-
recting seminaries in Nantes and Orléans. He brought his scholarship and experience to his
ministry of formation of French clergy. He was often called to preach retreats and recollection
days for priests and seminarians; the meditations he prepared for these occasions were col-
lected for publication.
266 André-Jean-Marie Hamon, SS (1795-1874) became parish priest at St. Sulpice in
Paris in 1851, after 31 years as professor of systematic and moral theology. His pastoral zeal
and love for the poor became a byword throughout Paris, and he drew from his theological
background to offer adult classes for laity and clergy alike. “The curate of St. Sulpice” refused
several nominations to the episcopacy. Instead, he expanded his parish outreach by preaching
retreats and through numerous publications in spirituality for clergy, religious and laity. Abbé
Hamon died in Paris at the age of 79.

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 259
cian’s meditations that he recommended them as a text for common medita-
tion to all the Salesian directors in a circular letter written for January
1899267. Meanwhile, he himself took to reading Canon Planus, a diocesan
priest from Paris whose retreats for priests were just being published during
the 1890s. These provided D. Albera with a mine of ideas for his own min-
istry to priests and young confreres in formation throughout the coming
decade268.
9.2. Priestly Mission
D. Albera pursued the topic of apostolic spirituality through a prolonged
study of Cardinal James Gibbons’ book on the priesthood entitled Ambas-
sador of Christ. This was a best seller in America and across the English-
speaking Catholic world. D. Albera first refers to this text in 1905, and re-
turns to it in subsequent years when preparing retreats for priests and major
seminarians269. Among the many topics he explored, he stressed the following
as essential considerations for priests: the marks of a divine vocation, truth
and sincerity of character, self-respect and human respect, hindrances to
charity, the spirit of poverty, sacerdotal chastity, humility, learning and a stu-
dious life, persevering labor, the key to knowledge, sources of discourage-
ment in the pursuit of knowledge, study of Holy Scripture and Patristics, the
preparation of sermons and extemporaneous preaching270.
While preparing conferences on the priesthood for ordinands and direc-
tors alike, D. Albera often turned to published series of retreats for priests and
seminarians. He found the conferences of the Canadian preacher René Gen-
dron useful for educators271, and drew from Canon Léopold Beaudenom’s
267 Cf ASC B0320105 (14 Jan 1899); B0320106 (26 Dec 1903, 23 Jan 1905); see also:
ASC B0330310, Dalle circolari mensili, outline notes by Domenico Garneri, ms aut., p. 2.
268 Louis Planus published a trilogy of meditations on the priesthood that included 2
complete retreats and 1 volume of conferences called: Louis PLANUS, Le prêtre. Paris, C.
Poussielgue 1898-1899, which became one of D. Albera’s staples when preparing conferences
for ordinands; cf ASC B0320105 (4, 8, 21 Jan, 15 Dec 1899); B0320106 (24 Apr, 12 May
1905); B0320107 (20 Jun 1908); B0320108 (27 Feb, 2, 12, 18, 25 Mar, 31 Aug 1909). See also
topical notes in ASC B0480134 and B0480135.
269 ASC B0320108 (1909).
270 Cf James GIBBONS, The ambassador of Christ. Baltimore, John Murphy Company
1896; ASC B0320106, 12 May 1905; B0480137, pp. 93-94.
271 René GENDRON, Retraites de séminaires, in Œuvres oratoirs de M. l’abbé Gendron.
Edited by Joseph Turmel, Paris, G. Beauchesne 1906; ASC B0320106 (5, 22 Dec 1906). Abbé
René Gendron, a Canadian preacher and ascetical writer, was active at the end of the nine-
teenth century.

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260 Joseph Boenzi
manual for confessors as a way of grounding his instructions to ordinands’ in
the practical demands of ministry272. For D. Albera, however, the minister
himself must grow in holiness, and he found Beaudenom’s Dalla tiepidezza
al fervore helpful for his meditation as well as instructive for others273.
Another retreat master that D. Albera studied for ideas on the priesthood
was Jean-Baptiste Caussette274. Fr. Caussette composed a two volume direc-
tory for priests, Manrèze du prêtre275, which presented the figure of the priest
as a key player in the revitalization of the world. Renewal, wrote Fr. Caus-
sette, begins with the Church but must extend to civil society. It is social, po-
litical, and spiritual. For the believer and especially for the zealous priest, so-
cial virtues are the flower, the apex of charity276.
While preparing for the ordinands’ retreats of 1897 and 1909, D. Albera
picked up a book by Jean-Baptiste Berthier277 “on the priesthood”278. This
volume, like several of Fr. Berthier’s other books, is a collection of stories
designed for use by those who would preach missions, catechetical instruc-
tions, sermons on the sacraments, Church doctrine, and similar topics279. In
Le sacerdoce, Fr. Berthier covers the main themes of priesthood through a se-
ries of anecdotes, stories and examples. By and large, his examples came
from the lives of the saints, from the writings of the masters of the French
272 [Léopold BEAUDENOM], Pratica progressiva della confessione e della direzione spiri-
tuale secondo il metodo di S. Ignazio di Loyola e lo spirito di S. Francesco di Sales. 2d ed., Pa-
rigi, P. Lethelleux 1899, 2 vols.; cf ASC B0320108 (3 Jun 1909). Educator and “director of
souls”, Canon Léopold Beaudenom (1840-1916) was not an original theologian, but one who
attempted to make the rich spiritual tradition of the Church accessible to the faithful, both lay
and religious.
273 Cf ASC B0320108 (8, 13, 28 Feb, 6 Apr, 14 Jul 1909); [BEAUDENOM], Pratica pro-
gressiva della confessione e della direzione spirituale. Vol. 1: Dalla tiepidezza al fervore. 2d
ed., Parigi, P. Lethelleux, 1899.
274 Ultramontane in his ecclesiology, Pére Jean-Baptiste Caussette (1819-1880) was one
of the most eloquent preachers of mid-19-century France. He was a priest of the Society of the
Holy Cross, and later served as vicar general of the archdiocese of Toulouse.
275 Jean-Baptiste CAUSSETTE, Manrèze du prêtre. 5th ed., Paris, Libraire Victor Palmé
1890, 2 vols. We find numerous references in D. Albera’s notes: cf ASC B0480134, address-
book entries “B, C, P, M, S”,
276 Cf J-B. CAUSSETTE, Manrèze du Prêtre, vol. 2, pp. 460-461; ASC B0480134, address-
book entries “S”,
277 Jean-Baptiste Berthier (1840-1908) was a popular preacher and writer. He founded
the Missionaries of the Holy Family, a congregation whose purpose is to promote missionary
vocations.
278 Jean-Baptiste BERTHIER, La sacerdoce, son excellence, ses obligations, ses droits, ses
privilèges. Paris, Delhomme et Briguet 1898.
279 See, e.g., Jean-Baptiste BERTHIER, Paroles et traits historiques les plus remarquables.
New, enl. ed., Paris, Haton 1898; ID., Le prêtre dans le ministère de la prédication, ou direc-
toire du prédicateur en chaire et au saint tribunal et recueil de sermons. Paris, Haton 1900.

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 261
School280, and from French history. He wrote for popular consumption and
made no attempt to identify his sources. Still, he aimed to offer a “seriously
useful” instrument to preachers and seminarians alike281.
Throughout his tenure, D. Albera remained concerned about the forma-
tion of candidates for the priesthood. He looked for material that would help
him to highlight the spiritual and human values appropriate to those in min-
istry. The writings of French seminary rector Auguste Texier fit into this cate-
gory. Fr. Texier282 published collected essays that imitated evening confer-
ences that he once was in the habit of giving to the minor seminarians of
Mortmorillon. This is the literary device he uses, for he really directs his col-
loquial but systematic essays to major seminarians. D. Albera found his first
book, La piété chez les jeunes, quite useful for Salesian clerics in philos-
ophy283. He was so enthusiastic, as a matter of fact, that he invested in Fr.
Texier’s second book, La charitè chez les jeunes. He described this volume as
“very good”, and exclaimed, “What I learn in this reading!”284.
His interest in providing a solid groundwork for young Salesians in for-
mation prompted him to study Cardinal Desiré Mercier’s conferences to the
seminarians of the archdiocese of Malines, collected in a volume entitled
simply À mes séminaristes285.
An important pontifical document issued August 1908 influenced D. Al-
bera’s reflection. To mark his Golden Anniversary of priestly ordination, Pope
280 The “French School” refers to a group of spiritual masters active in France during the
seventeenth century. The personality that gave rise to this movement was Cardinal Pierre de
Bérulle (1575-1629); his main concern was the sanctification of priest through a Christocentric
and incarnational asceticism. For a description of the movement and a sample of the most in-
fluential writings by its leading figures, see: William M. THOMPSON, An introduction to the
French School, in Bérulle and the French School. Selected writings. Mahwah, Paulist Press
1989, 3-101.
281 Cf J-B. BERTHIER, La sacerdoce, p. 847.
282 Auguste Texier was a priest of the diocese of Poitiers. He taught in the minor and
major seminaries of his diocese in the beginning of the twentieth century.
283 Auguste TEXIER, La piété chez les jeunes. Conférences. Paris, P. Téqui 1904; cf ASC
B0320107 (7 Aug 1907).
284 Auguste TEXIER, La charitè chez les jeunes. Paris, P. Téqui 1907; cf ASC B0320109
(13 Feb, 8 Mar 1910).
285 Desiré-Joseph MERCIER, A mes séminaristes. Bruxelles, Albert Dewit 1908; cf ASC
B0320107 (25 Apr 1908). Desiré Mercier (1851-1926) was a priest of the diocese of Malines
and professor of philosophy at the University of Louvain. An articulate scholar, he was one of
the first to implement Pope Leo XIII’s call to revive Thomistic philosophy. Pius X named him
archbishop of Malines and primate of Belgium in 1906, and gave him the red hat on 15 April
1907. During World War I he remained an outspoken critic of the German occupation and
championed Belgium independence. After the war, Cardinal Mercier worked for Christian
Unity.

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262 Joseph Boenzi
Pius X addressed a letter, Haerent animo, to diocesan and religious priests
throughout the world286. D. Rua sent copies of this apostolic exhortation to
every Salesian priest287. With a sense of duty and commitment, D. Albera
prayerfully read the document and drew material from it for the ordinands’ re-
treat that he preached the following summer288.
9.3. Practical Resources: Mixing Work and Research
Practical responsibilities dictated Paolo Albera’s choice in pastoral
reading. For instance, in May 1910, he was asked to preview a book of retreat
instructions for clergy by the Salesian priest Albino Carmagnola289. He began
to read the galley proofs on 18 May 1910, and allowed the “nihil obstat” on
20 May 1910290. During this same period of time, D. Carmagnola had come
to Valdocco to preach the novena for the feast of Mary Help of Christians in
the church of Maria Ausiliatrice at Valdocco. D. Albera was impressed by D.
Carmagnola’s preaching and by his book. As his journal entries indicate, D.
Albera transformed his reviewer’s task into a spiritual exercise. He described
this book, not in academic terms, but as something he found helpful for his
own spiritual life. “I continue to read the book of D. Carmagnola with enthu-
siasm. It is very useful for me”, he wrote, and concluded: “I hope that it will
be read by numerous priests who desire to do some good to the souls”291.
10. Biblical Resources
As the years went by, D. Albera made greater use of the Bible for his
own spiritual and apostolic reflection. He noted significant scriptural pas-
sages in his spiritual journal and drew Scripture into his conferences and in-
structions. References in his journal occur at a moderate ratio during the
1890s, but nearly double during the next decade292.
286 PIUS X, Haerent Animo, in “Acta Sanctae Sedis” 41 (1908) 9, 555-577.
287 RUA, Lettere Circolari, p. 406.
288 Cf ASC B0320108 (24 Jan, 28 Jul 1909).
289 Albino Carmagnola, SDB (1860-1927) was a gifted preacher; he traveled throughout
Italy conducting retreats and missions. Most of his published works reproduce his sermons and
conferences.
290 Cf Albino CARMAGNOLA, Istruzioni per gli esercizi spirituali al clero secondo la
mente di Pio X. Torino, SAID “Buona Stampa” 1910, p. 327.
291 ASC B0320109 (19 May 1910); cf entries for 16, 18 May 1910.
292 D. Albera cited the Scriptures 24 times in journal entries between 1893 and 1899, 40
times between 1904 and 1910.

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 263
We know from his spiritual journal that D. Albera had made a personal
resolution to read the Scriptures daily. He wrote this resolution after reading
Cardinal Gibbons: “I read with relish the Ambassador of Christ. I learn al-
ways better that I have not the zeal which becomes to the priest. I promise to
read every day some pages of the Holy Scriptures”293.
D. Albera demonstrated a rich knowledge of Scripture before this pe-
riod, it is true294, but his 1905 reflections point to the Scripture as a school for
zeal, a training ground for priestly spirituality, a guide to developing an as-
cetic lifestyle295. No doubt he found Cardinal Gibbons’ arguments persuasive:
The Bible is the only book of study that is absolutely indispensable to a priest,
and hence it is appropriately called by St. Ambrose, “Liber sacerdotalis”. He
might be familiar with the whole range of ancient and modern literature, and yet
his sermons would be lamentably cold and defective, if he happened to be ill-in-
structed in the Sacred Volume. On the other hand, if he is well versed in the Holy
Scriptures, though a comparative stranger to human science, he will preach with
edification and profit. The clergyman that draws his inspiration from the Sacred
Text, is easily recognized by the sweet unction that flows from his lips296.
Reading the Sacred Scriptures was a concrete way of imitating Christ,
Cardinal Gibbons went on to affirm: “The Bible is the only book that our
Saviour is known ever to have read or quoted in the whole course of his
public ministry. He makes no allusion whatever to the classic literature of
Athens or Rome that flourished in His day”297. Thus, Gibbons made Jesus’
own example the most persuasive element in his argument that priests be con-
versant with Scripture if they are to be effective ministers.
Reference to the example of “our Saviour” would be particularly
striking to D. Albera, a disciple of De imitatione Christi, and schooled by
Don Bosco, who presented Jesus not only as Redeemer and Savior, but also
as Divine Teacher and Exemplar. Don Bosco had formed young people to
recognize how Jesus not only spoke about, but modeled salvation in his own
behavior. This active Christ was the model for Don Bosco’s Salesians, and it
seems that Paolo Albera made this approach his own298.
293 ASC B0320106 (12 May 1905).
294 Already in the 1890s, D. Albera would take the Bible in hand for his meditation or for
personal spiritual reading; cf ASC B0320102 (25 Sep, 25, 29 1896); B0320103 (5 Dec 1897).
295 Cf ASC B0320107 (20 Jun 1907).
296 James GIBBONS, The ambassador of Christ. Baltimore, John Murphy Company 1896,
pp. 226-227.
297 J. GIBBONS, The ambassador of Christ, p. 230.
298 For an historical presentation of D. Bosco’s understanding of Jesus as “Model”, see:
Pietro STELLA, Don Bosco nella storia della religiosità cattolica. Vol. 2: Mentalità religiosa e
spiritualità. Roma, LAS 1981, pp. 110-113.

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264 Joseph Boenzi
There was yet another reason for D. Albera to value a personal study of
the Scriptures. Prayer allows the creature to lift mind and heart to God, but
the Sacred Scriptures show us a God who opens his heart and mind to his
creatures. This concept was expressed by Fr. Jean-Baptiste Caussette in a pas-
sage that D. Albera transcribed into his own notes:
Before everything else, a spirit that has devoured the book of Sacred Scripture
will never go without good pasture. Yesterday I encouraged you to pray, and
prayer is our speaking to God. In the Scripture, it is God who speaks to us.
Now, nothing is more worthy of veneration, says a certain Father of the Church,
than an intellect that through the assiduous reading of the two Testaments is
transformed into a library of Christ: “The heart of whoever reads assiduously
becomes a library of Christ”. When I see a priest who nourishes himself on God
through the Gospels, and feeds on God in the Eucharist, divinized in his spirit,
divinized in his soul, I venerate in him the ideal of intellectual greatness in the
context of moral greatness299.
The effects of early Catholic biblical scholarship had made an impact on
Paolo Albera’s retreat ministry. While he prepared his 1910 retreat, he seri-
ously consulted the writings of his contemporary, Louis Claude Fillion, a
French Scripture scholar and consultor of the Pontifical Biblical Commis-
sion300. D. Albera used Fr. Fillion’s commentary on the Gospel of Matthew to
penetrate the deeper meaning of certain Scripture passages. One example is
that he turned to Fillion as a resource when explaining how Christians must
“learn of Jesus, meek and humble of heart”301.
The young Paolo Albera would comb the Bible and baroque histories
akin the Annales ecclesiatici of Cardinal Baronio for interesting anecdotes –
299 J-B. CAUSSETTE, Manrèze du prêtre, vol. 1, pp. 188-189: “Après tout, un esprit qui a
le livre des Écritures à dévorer n’est pas sans pâture. Je vous recommandais, hier, la prière,
nous parlons à Dieu; dans l’Écriture, c’est Dieu qui nous parle. Or, rien de plus vénérable, dit
un Père, qu’une intelligence convertie par la lecture assidue des deux Testaments en une biblio-
thèque du Christ: Qui lectione assiduâ, pectus suum fecit bibliothecam Christi (S. Greg. Past.);
et quand je vois un prêtre nourri de Dieu par l’Évangile, nourri de Dieu par l’Eucharistie, di-
vinisé dans son esprit, divinisé dans son âme, je vénère en lui l’idéal de la grandeur intel-
lectuelle dans la grandeur morale”.
300 French exegete and author Louis-Claude Fillion (1843-1927) joined the Sulpicians
after his ordination in 1867. From 1871 to 1903, he taught Sacred Scripture in Rheims, Lyons
and at the Institut Catholique of Paris. In 1903, Fr. Fillion was invited to Rome to serve as a
consultant on the newly-formed Pontifical Biblical Commission. He remained at this post for
three years, then retired to the Sulpician seminary in Issy, where he devoted himself to writing.
301 Louis Claude FILLION, La Sainte Bible. Évangile selon S. Matthieu. Paris, P.
Lethielleux 1925, pp. 233-234, note on Mt 11, 29; cf B0480130, enclosed U, pp. 2-3; ALBERA,
Lettere circolari, p. 286.

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 265
stories with a moral302. By the turn of the twentieth century, he mulled over
the Sacred Scriptures as inspired and inspiring Word of God. And while he re-
turned to favorite passages in his preaching, his personal reflections show a
greater variety. Of 64 scriptural references in his journal, only six passages
are ever repeated in all the years he kept his journal. D. Albera recognized the
hand of God who “exaltavit humiles” when reflecting on the lives of Don
Bosco and D. Rua303. Overwhelmed by the demands of his ministry, but re-
solving not to let himself be shaken by criticism, he repeated with his name-
sake Saint Paul that God alone was his judge: “Qui autem iudicat me,
Dominus est”304. When he needed to drum up courage to confront his suffer-
ings and fears, D. Albera recalled the words of the Sermon on the Mount to
take each day one at a time without worrying about the future, for “sufficit
diei malitia sua”. He cited this passage twice in the same week when con-
fronted by an increasingly painful stomach disorder305. As his health deterio-
rated, he sighed with the psalmist, “In te, Domine, speravi, non confundar in
aeternum”306, and on the vigil of a painful stomach operation in 1905, he
prayed, “Quando veniam et apparebo ante faciem Dei?” D. Albera modified
the verse to make it a prayer when thinking of his deceased brother and sister:
“My God, quando veniam? quando apparebo ante faciem tuam?”307. When D.
Albera feared he was stalling in his spiritual life, he exclaimed with the apos-
tles, “Domine, salva nos: perimus!” – a prayer he repeated for the victims of
the 1908 Messina earthquake, particularly his Salesian brothers308.
302 Cesare Baronio (1538-1607) received spiritual direction from S. Philip Neri as a teen;
after ordination he entered S. Philip’s Oratory. In addition to a very active life as preacher and
administrator, he found time to teach and gather materials for a universal Church history. He
served as Philip Neri’s vicar and successor until Clement VIII named him cardinal in 1596. At
the time of his death, the cardinal completed 12 “in-folio” tomes of his Annales Ecclesiastici;
but had only reached the eleventh century. The Capuchin Antonio Pagi annotated and com-
pleted the chronicle up to the seventeenth century (Cesare BARONIO, Annales Ecclesiastici, una
cum critica historico-chronologica P. Antonii Pagii. Lucae, Leonardi Venturini 1738-1746, 19
tomes). D. Albera refers to Baronio’s comments on the ministry of Saints Paul and Barnabas,
which were featured in tome 1. However, given the antiquated text found in what can be de-
scribed as bulky tomes, it seems reasonable to guess that D. Albera quoted Baronio from sec-
ondary sources.
303 Lc 1, 52, in ASC B0320104 (18 Sep 1898); B0320109 (8 Apr 1910).
304 1Cor 4, 4 , in ASC B0320105 (7 Feb 1899); B0320107 (9 Jul 1907).
305 Mt 6, 34, in ASC B0320106 (24, 28 Mar 1905).
306 Sal 31, 2, in ASC B0320106 (27 May, 25 Aug 1905).
307 Sal 42, 2, in ASC B0320106 (25 Aug 1905); B0320108 (19 Jul 1909).
308 Mt 8, 25, in ASC B0320106 (31 Jul 1904); B0320108 (3 Jan 1909).

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266 Joseph Boenzi
11. Salesianity
11.1. Francis de Sales
D. Albera’s early retreat conferences contain many anecdotes from the
life of Francis de Sales. Most were culled from the celebrated spiritual biog-
raphy, L’esprit du bienheureux François de Sales, by Jean-Pierre Camus309. It
is not clear whether D. Albera made use of an Italian edition or worked from
notes he had begun to develop during his stay in France. No matter: he deter-
mined he would offer his confreres solid, Salesian content, portraying Francis
de Sales not simply as patron, but as the model for all Salesian apostles and
religious310.
In his own preaching, D. Albera also quoted from the conferences, cor-
respondence and testimony of Saint Jane Frances de Chantal311. She was the
faithful interpreter of Francis de Sales’ spirit, and continued to apply his in-
sights into the changing circumstances of daily life. D. Albera presents
Mother de Chantal as one who mastered the Salesian spirit and mentored
others in the same312.
D. Albera studied a number of his contemporaries who popularized the
309 The Paris-born Burgundian Jean-Pierre Camus (1584-1652) was appointed Bishop of
Belley by King Henry IV of France, and was ordained bishop by Francis de Sales on 30 Aug
1609. His diocese bordered that of Geneva, and he became close friends with the saint, whom
he considered his spiritual master. In 1629 he resigned his see, and eventually moved back to
Paris where he became chaplain at the Hospital of the Incurables. He wrote over 200 books, of
which L’Esprit du Bienheureux François de Sales is the best known.
310 Cf ASC B0480112, pp. 101, 102, 106; B0400113, pp. 57, 59.
311 Jeanne-Françoise (Jane) Frémyot, born 23 January 1572, Christophe II, Baron
Rabutin de Chantal married on 28 December 1592. Theirs was a happy and fruitful marriage,
but Christofphe’s death in 1601 left Jane with four young children. She met Francis de Sales in
1604 and became his spiritual directee; it was through their spiritual dialogue that Francis de
Sales was able to articulate what has come to be known as the Salesian spirit. Together they
founded the Order of the Visitation in 1610. Mother de Chantal survived Francis de Sales by
19 years, during which time she continued his legacy, articulating and developing many as-
pects of Salesian spirituality. She died on 13 December 1641, and was canonized on 21 August
1767 by Clement XIII. For some insight into Jane de Chantal’s contribution to the Salesian
spirit, see: Elizabeth STOPP, Madame de Chantal, Portrait of a Saint. 2nd ed. Stella Niagara,
Desales Resource Center, 2006, pp. 205-230; Joseph BOENZI, Saint Francis de Sales, Life and
Spirit. Stella Niagara, Desales Resource Center, 2013, pp. 131-138.
312 It is not clear which editions D. Albera consulted. Much of what he cites can be found
in Mother de Chantal’s epistolary and transcriptions of the depositions she made for Francis de
Sales’ beatification. This material is available in the modern American translation: S. Jeanne-
Françoise DE CHANTAL, Saint Francis de Sales. A Testimony by St. Chantal. Hyattsville, Insti-
tute of Salesian Studies 1967; cf ASC B0480112, pp. 80, 88, 98; B0480114, p. 39; B0480137,
p. 11; B0480138, p. 8.

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 267
spiritual tradition of Saint Francis de Sales, among whom were Cardinal Ali-
monda313, Abbé Hamon314, Bishop Hedley315 and Cardinal Gibbons316. He
meditated on tracts prepared by a Paris-based association called the “Société
des Prêtres de Saint François de Sales”, taking particular interest in their col-
lection of reflections on the Eucharist, and on the figure of the Bishop of
Geneva as a model worth imitating317. A similar resource was a small paper-
back called Il cuore di S. Francesco di Sales, which contained 30 meditations
and other exercises designed for those who wanted to spend a month with
Saint Francis de Sales. D. Albera took up this booklet when already rector
major, though his busy schedule made it difficult for him to complete these
devotions as he would have liked318.
But Saint Francis de Sales was not simply the subject of meditation; he
was the spiritual master, the originator of the Salesian spirit, Doctor of the
Church who had much to teach about interior and apostolic life. D. Albera
therefore approached the saint’s own writings directly. The saint’s correspon-
dence became a tool for his own meditation. The English edition of the letters
of Francis de Sales became D. Albera’s mainstay during the January of 1905:
he prepared for the patron’s feast on 29 January, but was also passing through
a difficult period of personal uneasiness. He found that the upheaval in his
own heart contrasted with the gentle calmness of Saint Francis de Sales, as
his journal indicates:
313 Cardinal Alimonda frequently drew examples from Francis de Sales into his
preaching, and on the occasion of the saint being declared “Doctor of the Church”, he pub-
lished a panegyric: Gaetano ALIMONDA, S. Francesco di Sales. Panegirico. Genova, Tipografia
della Gioventù 1877.
314 The curé of St.-Sulpice wrote a life of the saint: André Jean Marie HAMON, Vie de
Saint François de Sales. Paris, Victor Lecoffre 1854, 2 vols. Francis de Sales is also one of the
featured saints in Abbé Hamon’s meditations; cf André Jean Marie HAMON, Meditations for all
the days of the year, for the use of priests, religious and the faithful. 3nd ed., New York, Ben-
ziger Brothers 1894, vol. 1, pp. 443-448.
315 The Benedictine Bishop Hedley of Newport had a hand in publishing a popular li-
brary of S. Francis de Sales’ works for the English speaking world. At his direction and with
his assistance, Canon Henry Benedict Mackey, OSB, translated a number of the saint’s works
from the Annecy Editions: Cf Selections from Burns & Oates Catalogue of Publications. No.
1, London, Burns & Oates 1898, pp. 13-14.
316 Cardinal Gibbons presented S. Francis de Sales as a model of apostolic depth; cf e.g.
GIBBONS, The ambassador of Christ, pp. 10, 45, 103, 124-125, 133, 283, 289, 292-293, 304-
305, 340-341.
317 Probation sacerdotal sur le culte de la Sainte Eucharistie. Paris, J. Mersch 1890; cf
ASC B0320103 (9 Nov 1897). Probation sur l’Imitation de Saint François de Sales. Paris, J.
Mersch 1890; cf B0320108 (31 Jan 1909). The “Société des Prêtres de Saint François de
Sales”, was founded by Henri Chaumont (1838-1896) in 1876.
318 Cf ASC B0320109 (23 Jan 1911).

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268 Joseph Boenzi
15th [January 1905]. This day is very improfitable for me. The exercises of piety
are not fervant. I feel that the pride is master of my heart. The reading of the let-
ters of S. Francis of Sales does not suffice to master my spirit. What a weak-
ness!
Let everything be done for love, nothing for fear. Love obedience more than
you fear disobedience. – S. Francis de Sales.
After the storm God will send a calm.
16th [January 1905]. My spirit is not very quiet. I am disturbed especially after
the Mass. nevertheless in the meeting of Chapter I dont show my discontent. I
read every day a few pages of letters of S. Francis de Sales. What a difference
between his spirit and mine!319.
If he drew from Francis de Sales’ letters for spiritual instruction and de-
votional preparation, both before and after the patron’s feast320, D. Paolo also
consulted the saint’s letters in pastoral matters. He spent time with Francis’
letter to André Frémyot, brother of Baroness de Chantal and newly installed
archbishop of Bourges, on the role of the preacher. The letter is akin to a trea-
tise. The preacher must not just instruct, he must move the faithful to love
virtue and flee from vice. Good preaching, therefore, is the most crucial and
core ministry of a pastor, Francis de Sales explained at length to André
Frémyot. This was an opinion that was already dear to the heart of D. Albera
as retreat master and formation counselor321.
As he had done with Francis de Sales’ letters in 1905, D. Albera chose
the English version of the Treatise on the Love of God for spiritual reading in
October 1909. He spent some time each day reading and reflecting on this
second Salesian classic322. However, at that late date it seems improbable that
we are looking at D. Albera’s first exposure to the Treatise on the Love of
God. Earlier conference notes show great familiarity with the saint’s writings.
319 Cf ASC B0320106 (15-16 Jan 1905); FRANÇOIS DE SALES, A selection from the Spiri-
tual Letters of S. Francis de Sales, bishop and prince of Geneva. New ed., London, Rivingtons
1889, p. 52.
320 Cf ASC B0320106 (10, 29 Jan, 23 Mar 1905). D. Albera’s journal shows traces from
St. Francis de Sales’ Spiritual Conferences, especially in the form of maxims that he applies to
himself. See: B0320106 (7 Apr 1906).
321 The letter to Msgr. André Frémyot does not appear in Mrs. Lear’s anthology, which is
the collection that D. Albera quoted above. It is likely that D. Albera found the Frémyot letter
in a pamphlet directed to priests as, for example: FRANCESCO DI SALES, Metodo per ben predi-
care. Lettera a mons. Andrea Frémoit. Milano, Tip. S. Giuseppe 1898, 40 pp.; cf ASC
B0320106 (10 Jan 1905).
322 FRANÇOIS DE SALES, The Treatise on the Love of God. Translated by Henry Benedict
Mackey, London, Burns & Oates 1884; cf ASC B0320108 (5 Oct 1909).

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 269
It is likely that D. Albera read Francis de Sales’ principal works while still
provincial in France, if not earlier.
It is difficult to identify specific source material in D. Albera’s early re-
treat notes. We do, however, find repeated references to the writings and say-
ings of Saint Francis de Sales in conference notes prepared around 1893-1894
for Salesian confreres and novices. In the course of these retreat notes, D. Al-
bera cited the Directoire spirituel as the source for a saying from Saint Francis
de Sales. D. Albera mistakes this reference. The passage he quotes does not
come from the “Spiritual Directory”, which the saint patron had prepared as a
commentary for the Visitation rules. Instead, the passage he employs comes
from the “Spiritual Conferences” which are a collection of Francis de Sales’
monthly conferences with the first group of the Visitation nuns323.
D. Albera died well before the Annecy edition was complete. It is not
clear where he found his favorite passages. Any number of pocket-sized edi-
tions of the saint’s maxims had become plentiful in the years since Pius IX de-
clared him a doctor of the Church. Did D. Albera lift his favorite quotations
from one of these popular collections? Did he pull lines from secondary
sources? It is difficult to say. The point is this: his ample use of the thoughts
and sentiments of the Salesian patron demonstrate his interest in providing a
Salesian framework for the life and mission of the communities and confreres
he guided during his years as Spiritual Director General. Later, as Rector
Major, D. Albera would encourage his confreres to practice the virtues typical
of Francis de Sales. It is not enough to bear his name, he stressed in his cir-
cular letters, Salesians should imitate his “disinterested love” and attachment
to fulfilling his duty in the presence of God. The way to begin is to know his
teachings. In fact, those who do “Salesian work” should make “a more inti-
mate and deep study of his life and writings” the first step toward assimilating
his spirit324.
11.2. John Bosco
D. Albera had first-hand contact with Don Bosco’s thought. It was he,
after all, that collected the founder’s circular letters and prepared them for
323 Cf FRANÇOIS DE SALES, Les vrays Entretiens Spirituels, in Œuvres de Saint François
de Sales. Édition Complète, Tome 6, Annecy, J. Niérat 1895, p. 10; cf ASC B0480112, p. 19.
The critical edition of Francis de Sales’ works, known as the “Annecy editions”, published the
first volume of Francis de Sales letters in 1904, a decade after this retreat; the critical edition of
“Spiritual Directory” was printed in 1930.
324 Cf P. ALBERA, Lettere Circolari, pp. 152, 238, 261-261, 292, 504-505.

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270 Joseph Boenzi
publication in 1896. He considered the founder’s letters as “a true Salesian
codex”, a sure guide to interpreting Salesian rules and traditions, and felt that
they should be read with the utmost respect and prayerful devotion325. We
have seen that, in addition to these circular letters, D. Albera made explicit
references to the Giovane provveduto326, and can only surmise that Paolo Al-
bera had read Don Bosco’s short writings as they appeared in the monthly
Letture Cattoliche.
When D. Giovanni Battista Lemoyne (1839-1916) began to publish Don
Bosco’s biographical memoirs in 1896, Paolo Albera, designated “censor of
books” for the Salesian Society, proof read each volume carefully as they
were prepared for print. He found Lemoyne’s accounts “very interesting”, re-
flecting how Don Bosco’s life was “very edifying: He was really a holy ser-
vant of God”327. Besides giving his professional “placet” in the form of a
“nihil obstat”, D. Albera relived his years with the unforgettable Don Bosco,
and confided to his journal: “All is edifying in this man!!!”328.
Reading and meditating on the life of his venerable founder seemed to
be a means for examining his own apostolic commitment329. D. Albera nour-
ished his Salesian identity by meditating on Giovanni Bonetti’s history of
Don Bosco and the Oratory. This work collected into one volume a series of
short episodes which Bonetti had published in the Bollettino Salesiano be-
tween January 1879 and August 1886330. The original version – Cinque lustri
di storia dell’Oratorio S. Francesco di Sales – appeared in 1892, shortly after
Bonetti’s death. It is reasonable to assume that D. Albera would have read
Bonetti’s account, both from the Bollettino Salesiano and when it appeared in
book form. The only reference he made to this work in his personal notes,
however, comes from his reading the English translation in 1908: Don
Bosco’s Early Apostolate331.
325 Cf Paolo ALBERA, Ai direttori delle case salesiane, in Lettere circolari di D. Bosco e
di D. Rua ed altri loro scritti ai Salesiani. Torino, Tipografia Salesiana 1896, pp. 4-5.
326 Cf ASC B0320109 (3 Jan 1910).
327 ASC B0320107 (14 Jul 1907); see also 7 Jun 1907.
328 ASC B0320108 (30 Jul 1909); cf 11 Jul 1909. D. Albera previewed each volume of
the MB as written by G. B. Lemoyne, with the exception of vol. 8. The “nihil obstat” for these
volumes are dated as follow: MB 1: 1 May 1898; MB 2: 1 March 1901; MB 3: 19 April 1903;
MB 4: 9 October 1904; MB 5: 1 November 1905; MB 6: 7 October 1907; MB 7: 8 September
1909; MB 8: 12 March 1912 (granted by D. Guilio Barberis); MB 9: 19 March 1917.
329 Cf ASC B0320108 (16 Jan 1909).
330 Cf Antonio da SILVA FERREIRA, Introduzione, in BOSCO, Memorie dell’Oratorio, p. 20.
331 Giovanni BONETTI, Cinque lustri di storia dell’Oratorio S. Francesco di Sales.
Torino, Tip. Salesiana 1892; ID., History of don Bosco’s early apostolate. London, Salesian
Press 1908; cf ASC B0320107 (14, 18, 26 Nov 1908).

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Reconstructing Don Albera’s Reading List 271
One of D. Bonetti’s principal sources had been Don Bosco’s as yet un-
published Memorie dell’Oratorio di S. Francesco di Sales. Reading Bonetti
brought him into indirect contact with the origins as Don Bosco himself re-
layed them332.
12. Conclusion
During the first months after his arrival in Turin as Spiritual Director
General, D. Albera spent much time reading retreat sermons by classic and
contemporary Italian and French preachers. This type of literature was not
new to him. Since boyhood he had been exposed to retreat themes, beginning
with Don Bosco’s meditations reproduced in the Giovane provveduto. Years
later D. Albera still loved to pick up this book and apply Don Bosco’s medita-
tions to his own situation, commenting that Don Bosco was a master in
teaching the Last Things333. Don Bosco’s originality does not concern us here,
but the imagery he employed does. As we have said, D. Albera grew up with
these images. He had absorbed them in his own thinking. His future readings
would either reinforce them, or bring in new dimensions.
With the turn of the twentieth century, D. Albera’s responsibilities and
his reading habits began to change. True, there was a corpus of favorite au-
thors to whom he returned for his own devotion or when preparing special re-
treats. However, he seems to have begun to diversify. Several reasons may
have contributed to this development. First, the trip to the American missions
had made a dramatic impact on D. Albera’s life. His letters to D. Rua note the
need for a stronger formation of Salesian confreres and Daughters of Mary
Help of Christians334. He was especially concerned about the preparation of
leaders, and upon his return he sought practical resources that could help
strengthen this area.
Furthermore, D. Albera seems to have taken positive steps to remain up-
to-date in religious issues, spiritual life, formation and the pastoral praxis of
the Church. If in his earlier days he dedicated much of his time to the classics,
332 Cf A. DA SILVA FERREIRA, Introduzione, pp. 20-21.
333 ASC B0320109 (3 Jan 1910): “I have passed a bad night […] I fall in the staire with a
great danger. I suffer a little during all the day. I done my meditation on the end of man; the
word of D. Bosco is always efficacious”.
334 ASC B051 preserves 10 letters from D. Albera to D. Rua during the American visita-
tion. These letters are actually reports on the Salesian missions in various parts of the conti-
nent, and most deal with formation needs.

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272 Joseph Boenzi
once he returned from America we find him reading many new releases as
soon as they hit the book shops.
A third point is that D. Albera’s pastoral journeys and the canonical
visits he made pushed him to perfect his knowledge of other languages. D.
Gusmano commented that throughout his visit in Latin America, D. Albera
read spiritual works in Spanish. There is little evidence of this in D. Albera’s
later notes, but we do find him giving increased attention to English writings.
This gave him direct access to Catholic thought as it developed in non-Latin,
minority environments such as England, Wales, and the United States. Writ-
ings from these areas offered diverse images of ministry and mission, and D.
Albera seemed to integrate these new offerings into his own presentations.
Thus, changes in D. Albera’s reading patterns grew out of shifts in his
ministry. In the 1890s, D. Albera concentrated on sermons and retreat litera-
ture. After 1900, apologetics, conversion stories, religious life and pastoral
manuals became substantial fare as D. Albera increasingly turned to writers
facing contemporary issues. During the early stages of his ministry D. Albera
steeped himself in the classics; in his mature years he drew many ideas from
contemporary sources.
D. Albera absorbed much from the many authors he read, old and new.
In his own instructions, continually stressed the importance of making a se-
rious retreat. He soberly recognized that he, as a retreat preacher, was not as
adept as others in spiritual matters. He confessed that he felt he would not be
able to fulfill his role at all except for the merciful fact that God habitually
used the weak to strengthen his people335. On more than one occasion, D. Al-
bera used the word “inept” to describe his abilities as a preacher, instructor
and writer336. Still, he did not simply rely on grace to overcome his perceived
inadequacies. He studied, took copious notes, outlined the thoughts of the
great preachers and spiritual writers, and then endeavored to integrate their
insights into his own presentations as a way to help his own listeners in their
search for God and for spiritual growth.
335 Cf ASC B0480111, pp. 4-8, 41-44; B0480115, p. 2; B0480127, pp. 1-2; B0480139,
pp. 4, 26; B0480137, pp. 89, 92, 122.
336 Cf B0400113, pp. 9-10; B0400114, p. 88; P. ALBERA, Mons. Luigi Lasagna, p. 448.