(ANS - Rome) - Yesterday, Tuesday 11 November, Fr Peter Braido, SDB, passed away. He was a scholar, and teacher of Salesian pedagogy. The Rector Major and the General Council and the community of the Generalate of the Salesian Congregation "share the pain of the Vice-Province, the Salesian Pontifical University and the Salesian Family around the world at the death of our dear confrere." The funeral will take place at 11.30 a.m. on Thursday 13 November at the Salesian Pontifical University.
The obituary published by the Rector Major says of Fr Braido: "He is remembered with affection and respect as a Salesian admirer and student of Don Bosco and his Preventive System, a distinguished professor of education and of the history of catechesis, Dean of the Faculty of Education, Rector Magnificus of the Salesian Pontifical University and later Director of the Historical Institute of the Salesian Congregation. Fr Braido was dedicated to the service of culture and at the same time as spiritual guide to many young people, students, teachers and families. He put his life totally at the service of young people, the Church and the Salesian Family."
Fr Braido was ninety-five years of age, a professed Salesian for seventy-eight years and a priest for sixty-seven. He was born in Conegliano Veneto in 1919, made his first religious profession in Este on 22 August 1936 and bound himself for ever to the Salesian Congregation by his perpetual profession at Villa Moglia on 16 August 1942. He was ordained priest in Turin on 6 July 1947.
His name is closely linked to Don Bosco, especially Don Bosco the educator. There are many masterpieces that have come from the fertile mind of Fr Braido, dedicated especially to the understanding of Don Bosco's pedagogy, as well as his spirituality.
The name of Fr Braido is also closely associated with the Salesian Pontifical University. He was one of the pioneers, along with Fr Carlos Leôncio da Silva, of the Institute of Education created in 1940 within the Faculty of Philosophy at Rebaudengo in Turin. From the beginning of the 50s, the Institute grew in quality and siza, thanks mainly to Fr Braido who coordinated a group of young Salesian professors such as Fr Luigi Calonghi, Fr Vincenzo Sinistrero, Fr Gino Corallo, Fr Peter Gianola, Fr Pier Giorgio Grasso and other professors and staff who continued the work until it became the Faculty of the Sciences of Education which formed many Salesians and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians around the world.
Fr Braido was also the originator of the magazine Orientamenti Pedagogici which celebrated its sixtieth anniversary in October with a conference which took its name Educare è orientare (Education is guidance) from the first editorial in the magazine written by Fr Braido.
The Faculty was transferred in 1965 to its current home at the UPS in Rome and Fr Braido continued to bring honour to the institution with serious fruitful research, recognized both inside and outside the congregation and in the world of academics nationally and internationally. His academic service took on a new form when he assumed the responsibility of Rector Magnificus of the UPS from 1974 to 1977. He was four times Dean of the Faculty of Sciences of Education (a record of service unequalled) and Director of the Salesian Historical Institute from 1981 to 1992. He was also Rector of the St. Francis de Sales community from 1992 to 1995.
Fr Braido’s death marks the passing of a Salesian scholar and teacher of extraordinary quality.
Among his publications are:
HISTORY OF EDUCATION
SALESIAN EDUCATION AND HISTORY
Published 12/11/2014
