Don Bosco was a man on a mission entrusted to him by God. He knew his mission to help the poor and abandoned young people would include far more youth than merely those in Northern Italy, this was a mission of grand proportions. What was it that drove him to send missionaries out to distant and unknown lands even in the beginning of the youth movement that he founded? Undoubtedly it was Don Bosco’s zeal for the salvation of souls, especially the souls of poor and abandoned boys. What young boys could be more poor and abandoned that those in missionary lands? The heart of Don Bosco ached for the salvation of the souls of poor boys living in far away mission territories in: Asia, Africa and America.
Originally he intended to go to the Missions himself, but his spiritual director gave him a convincing argument against it: “You can’t stand the enclosure of a stagecoach for a short trip over land. You would die getting across the ocean for several weeks in the confinement of the boat trip”. While he accepted the direction humbly, his determination to attend to the evangelization of the “savages” burned brightly within him as waiting for the right moment to make it a reality.
The Salesian Society was approved on April 3, 1874 and the first Salesian Missionary expedition left Italy for Argentina the following year on November 1875, this was the first of eleven expeditions organized by Don Bosco himself. The chronicle or diary of the house records that 80% of the members were ready and open to traveling with the missionaries (the oldest, Frs. Cagliero and Fagnano were 37, the youngest, Alevana was 17).
Don Bosco’s ardent desire to go along to the missions were made clear through both the “Souvenirs” he wrote to accompany them in their initial work of evangelization, and the group photograph taken in which he gives a copy of the Constitutions of the Salesian Society to Fr. Cagliero, the leader of the expedition, signifying, as he expressed it himself, that he was traveling along with them. (Fr. Cagliero is first row first on the left and Don Bosco is to his right)
Two years later the Salesian Sisters joined the second expedition. Mother Mazzarello accompanied her daughters to Genoa. On meeting Don Bosco she said: “How about me, will I also travel to the missions some day?” Don Bosco replied: “that will be when I will travel, myself”. Obviously the missionary soul of both saints was very much alive in them and gives the reason why they were so generous in sending their sons and daughters to the missions.
Submitted by Fr. Javier
