{"id":27812,"date":"2025-12-19T16:48:44","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T00:48:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/?p=27812"},"modified":"2025-12-19T16:48:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T00:48:44","slug":"december-18-1859-the-humble-beginning-of-a-global-salesian-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/2025\/12\/19\/december-18-1859-the-humble-beginning-of-a-global-salesian-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"December 18, 1859: The Humble Beginning of a Global Salesian Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

(ANS \u2013 Rome) <\/strong>\u2013 December 18 is remembered throughout the Salesian world as the \u201cbirth certificate\u201d 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 \u201cPious Society of St Francis de Sales,\u201d giving juridical and spiritual form to a charism already alive in the daily experience of the Oratory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201cto form a Society or Congregation for the glory of God and the salvation of souls, especially those most in danger of neglect.\u201d Their names\u201418 in total, with an average age of about twenty\u2014were written in a simple notebook of 24 sewn sheets, still preserved today in the Casa Don Bosco Museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salesian tradition considers this moment the foundational act of the Congregation because, for the first time, Don Bosco\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minutes of that meeting already reveal the essential traits of Salesian identity: the primacy of God\u2019s glory and the salvation of poor and at\u2011risk youth; the fraternal and family\u2011style atmosphere embodied in the very setting of Don Bosco\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From that humble beginning\u2014a handful of young men, a modest room, and a few lines written by hand\u2014the 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s dream with creativity, courage, and hope in every corner of the world.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(ANS \u2013 Rome) \u2013 December 18 is remembered throughout the Salesian world as the \u201cbirth certificate\u201d 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 \u201cPious Society of St Francis de Sales,\u201d giving juridical and spiritual form to a charism already alive in the … Continuar leyendo December 18, 1859: The Humble Beginning of a Global Salesian Mission<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":10336596,"featured_media":27816,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[780293845,516714022],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-salesian-history","category-salesian-world-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/salesianbulletin.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Salesian-History-Dec-18-1959-600.jpg?fit=600%2C450&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p59ePG-7eA","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10336596"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27812"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27818,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27812\/revisions\/27818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}