(ANS – Rome) – On Tuesday, July 7, 2026, with the consent of the members of the General Council, the Rector Major, Fr Fabio Attard, appointed Fr Aldo Giraudo as the new Director of the Salesian Historical Institute (ISS), with a term of office of indefinite duration (ad nutum superioris), as provided for in the ISS Regulations (Art. 30). Fr Giraudo succeeds Fr Thomas Anchukandam, who has led the ISS since 2015.
Aldo Giraudo was born in Cuneo, Piedmont, on April 13, 1950, and entered the Salesians at the novitiate in Bagnolo Piemonte on August 15, 1967. A professed Salesian since 1968, he made his perpetual vows on September 14, 1974, and was ordained a priest on September 9, 1978.
After obtaining a licentiate in spiritual theology, specializing in Salesian Studies (June 1982), he was assigned to the Turin Section of the Faculty of Theology at the Pontifical Salesian University (UPS), where he served as a lecturer in Salesian History and Spirituality, a pastoral animator for theology students, and a formator for young people at the local oratory and university residence.
On October 30, 1991, he was awarded a doctorate under the supervision of Prof. Fr Pietro Stella, with a thesis entitled The Church and the Turin Clergy during the Restoration Period: The Case of the Chieri Seminary (1829–1848).
In 1992, he was appointed an associate member of the Salesian Historical Institute.
In January 2001, he was transferred from Crocetta in Turin to the Rome campus of the Pontifical Salesian University (UPS), where he became professor of the History of Modern and Contemporary Spirituality and the History and Spirituality of St John Bosco. He continued his teaching and research there until 2025.
Over the past five years, he also served as Director of the University’s Historical Archives.
From 2002 to 2020, he was a visiting lecturer at the Institute of Spirituality of the Auxilium Faculty of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, where he taught a course on the history and spirituality of Don Bosco.
He was the first Secretary-General of ACSSA from its foundation until 2000.
Since 2012, he has been a member of the Executive Council of the Salesian Historical Institute (ISS). For several years, he has been working on the critical edition of Don Bosco’s manuscripts and works.