(ANS – Rome) – December 18 is remembered throughout the Salesian world as the “birth certificate” of the Salesian Congregation. On this date in 1859, in the modest room at Valdocco, Don Bosco and a small group of 17 young collaborators freely chose to found the “Pious Society of St Francis de Sales,” giving juridical and spiritual form to a charism already alive in the daily experience of the Oratory.

That Sunday evening, after a full feast day among hundreds of boys, Don Bosco gathered the young men who had decided to share his life and mission. Around 9 p.m., the group met in his room, prayed together, invoked the Holy Spirit, and unanimously resolved “to form a Society or Congregation for the glory of God and the salvation of souls, especially those most in danger of neglect.” Their names—18 in total, with an average age of about twenty—were written in a simple notebook of 24 sewn sheets, still preserved today in the Casa Don Bosco Museum.

Salesian tradition considers this moment the foundational act of the Congregation because, for the first time, Don Bosco’s educational and pastoral activity assumed the form of a stable religious society capable of extending beyond his lifetime. In an Italy marked by the tensions of the Risorgimento and strong anticlerical currents, Don Bosco understood that only an organized congregation could guarantee continuity to the oratories, workshops, and schools that were multiplying around him.

The minutes of that meeting already reveal the essential traits of Salesian identity: the primacy of God’s glory and the salvation of poor and at‑risk youth; the fraternal and family‑style atmosphere embodied in the very setting of Don Bosco’s room; and the choice of St Francis de Sales as patron, a sign of the gentle, pastoral spirit that would characterize the new Society. Small in number and poor in means, the group nevertheless carried within it the seeds of an apostolic project with universal horizons.

From that humble beginning—a handful of young men, a modest room, and a few lines written by hand—the Congregation grew rapidly, spreading within decades to hundreds of houses around the world. Today, Salesians are present in more than 137 countries, dedicated to education, evangelization, and the promotion of youth, especially the poorest and most vulnerable.

For the Salesian Family, 18 December remains both memory and mission: memory of a concrete act of foundation rooted in simplicity and faith, and mission as a prophetic call to continue Don Bosco’s dream with creativity, courage, and hope in every corner of the world.