{"id":29326,"date":"2026-03-06T18:36:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T02:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/?p=29326"},"modified":"2026-03-06T18:36:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T02:36:50","slug":"bro-saglia-sdb-a-life-traveling-the-world-telling-the-story-of-salesian-missions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/2026\/03\/06\/bro-saglia-sdb-a-life-traveling-the-world-telling-the-story-of-salesian-missions\/","title":{"rendered":"Bro. Saglia, SDB: A Life Traveling the World \u2013 Telling the Story of Salesian Missions"},"content":{"rendered":"

(ANS \u2013 Turin<\/strong>) \u2013 Guatemala<\/strong>? Yes. Papua New Guinea<\/strong>? Also. Sudan<\/strong>? The same. \u201cIt is easier to list the countries where I have not been,\u201d smiles Bro. Antonio Saglia<\/strong>, speaking from his office in Valdocco<\/strong>. A Salesian Brother<\/strong>, professed in 1957<\/strong> and formerly a teacher of graphic arts<\/strong>, he is now 87 years old<\/strong> and has traveled the world documenting life in Salesian missions<\/strong> inspired by Don Bosco<\/strong>. His \u201ccareer\u201d began almost by chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was 1970<\/strong>,\u201d he recalls. \u201cA Salesian living in Brazil<\/strong> knew about my passion for cameras and asked me to go and document the missions in the Amazon<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Adventure in the Amazon<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The adventure began under very challenging conditions. \u201cAfter landing in Manaus<\/strong>, I boarded a boat where they handed me a roll I had never seen before: it was a hammock,\u201d he recounts. At night, he unrolled it to sleep on board. \u201cFor lunch and dinner we ate whatever was caught, even turtles,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Antonio carried a Paillard spring-driven camera<\/strong> with three optical lenses, which he used to film the life of the Yanomami<\/strong> people. \u201cThey lived almost completely naked in huts in the forest. At first they ran away from the camera, but then I took some Polaroids<\/strong> and showed them to the children\u2014they were fascinated and kept touching them in disbelief.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Amazon, he also experienced one of the most unusual moments of his life. \u201cI was ill and they gave me a traditional drink served in a coconut shell,\u201d he recalls. \u201cLater I discovered that among the ingredients were powdered bones of a deceased Yanomami<\/strong> and banana.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the Leper Colonies of India<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

At first, he traveled only during the summer, when school was closed. Later, in the mid-1990s, after retiring, Antonio<\/strong> visited even more missions. \u201cI must have made about seventy documentaries,\u201d he says. Most have been digitized and are now preserved at the Experimental Center of Cinematography \u2013 National Archive of Industrial Cinema<\/strong> in Ivrea<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He traveled throughout Africa<\/strong>, \u201cwithout ever contracting malaria,\u201d and was captivated by the tribal dances of peoples in brightly colored clothing. Yet the most powerful experience came in India<\/strong>, when he entered leper colonies. \u201cSeeing those looks and those disfigured faces was terrible. Perhaps the most moving scene of all my journeys.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shipwreck in Papua New Guinea<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There is hardly a corner of the planet, however remote, where Bro. Saglia<\/strong> has not been. He even ventured into towns controlled by drug traffickers in Colombia<\/strong>. \u201cThe soldiers warned us not to go, but missionaries were respected even by criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his travels, he witnessed breathtaking natural landscapes: \u201cAbove all, crossing the Strait of Magellan<\/strong> in Tierra del Fuego<\/strong> between Chile<\/strong> y Argentina<\/strong>. But also the island of the lemurs in Madagascar<\/strong>\u2014I have never seen such crystal-clear waters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, in forty-five years of travel there were also misadventures. One of the most dramatic occurred in Papua New Guinea<\/strong>. \u201cThe engine of the boat broke down and we had no phones to send an alarm. After a night drifting at sea, some Papuans rescued us, but they could not find our island. We reached it many hours later, after quite a bit of anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unexpected Romantic Advances<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Like all Salesian coadjutor brothers<\/strong>\u2014the lay Salesians desired by Don Bosco<\/strong>\u2014Antonio Saglia<\/strong> made vows of chastity and poverty. This did not prevent him from receiving romantic advances during his travels, which he always declined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boldest occurred in Bel\u00e9m<\/strong>, in the Brazilian Amazon<\/strong>, when a young woman near a river smiled at him and said: \u201cI would really like to have a child with you.\u201d In South Korea<\/strong>, courtship came during a traditional dance. \u201cA young woman slipped a music box with her photo inside my jacket pocket,\u201d he recalls with a smile. Later, the Korean girl began writing him letters that he translated: \u201cBetween the paragraphs there was often the word \u2018Censored,\u2019\u201d he adds jokingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Last Journey and the Lesson Learned<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In 2015<\/strong>, forty-five years after his first mission trip, his final journey took place: a tour of several missions in Africa<\/strong>. In those lands, he learned optimism and still treasures the smiles of children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey have nothing and yet they are happy, while we lose ourselves in a thousand trivial things, always looking down at our smartphones.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: La Stampa<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(ANS \u2013 Turin) \u2013 Guatemala? Yes. Papua New Guinea? Also. Sudan? The same. \u201cIt is easier to list the countries where I have not been,\u201d smiles Bro. Antonio Saglia, speaking from his office in Valdocco. A Salesian Brother, professed in 1957 and formerly a teacher of graphic arts, he is now 87 years old and has traveled the world documenting life in Salesian missions inspired … Continuar leyendo Bro. Saglia, SDB: A Life Traveling the World \u2013 Telling the Story of Salesian Missions<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":10336596,"featured_media":29329,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","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":[30135006,516714022],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-salesian-missions","category-salesian-world-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/salesianbulletin.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2026-03-06-BroSaglia-feature.jpg?fit=1600%2C875&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p59ePG-7D0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29326","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=29326"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29330,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29326\/revisions\/29330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}