(ANS – Vysne Nemecke) – On Thursday, April 11, the Casket with a relic of Don Bosco arrived in Slovakia. In this small central European country, Don Bosco’s Casket is going to 19 towns and cities. Thousands of young people are attending the events.

When the Casket arrived from Ukraine, Fr. Karol Maník, the Provincial of Salesians, Sister Janka Kurkinova, the Provincial of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and Julo Tomaštík , a member of the Provincial council of Salesian Co-operators, as well as many other members of the Slovak Salesian Family welcomed the relic in Vysne Nemecke, which is on the Slovak border with Ukraine. The Slovak staff of the border-check-point assisted with the welcome, too.

“This relic is a part of Don Bosco’s right hand. That means a lot to us. This is the hand which has worked, has touched and has blessed. This hand has come to us today and through this hand, the blessing comes to us… This relic of Saint John Bosco is to remind us the life of this great Italian priest, his work and his big dream to help and to educate the young people… We want to turn back to his passion, to his ideas, to his wishes and his work for young people. Don Bosco, welcome among us”, said the Provincial of the Salesians in Slovakia, Fr. Karol Manik, when he welcomed the relic at the border.

On the day of his arrival many media – many of them very secular and often reporting negatively about the Church – reported positively about the arrival of the relic of Don Bosco. So, shortly before the arrival in Humenné, on Thursday, April 11, the Police car stopped after recognizing the car containing the relic of Don Bosco: the Policemen said they saw the news about the relic the night before on television and they wanted to see Don Bosco, too. The driver opened the car for them so they could have their private moment with Don Bosco.

In Humenné, the Salesian Family formed a procession with the relic through the downtown to the parish church. Teenage boys spontaneously gathered around the relic for the procession. The people were coming and going to the church all night long. “Faithful from parishes around the town of Humenné have come with their parish priests, by buses, to see Don Bosco and to pray at his relic. The members of the Salesian Family in Humenné took turns all night at the reading from Memoirs of the Oratory, written by the same Don Bosco.

The third stop of the relic was in Prešov, where the presence of the Salesian Co-operators is very strong ever since the underground pastoral during the communist era. The advertising for the relic was put on the Prešov transport system days before. “In the morning hours, more than five thousand people came to pray at Don Bosco’s relic,” said the rector of the local Salesian community, Fr. Stanislav Seman. A presentation of Salesian history through the present days was displayed in the halls of the center, next to the church.

The second largest city of Slovakia, Košice, welcomed the relic on Sunday, April 14. The archbishop Mons. Bernard Bober celebrated the Mass in the presence of Don Bosco’s relic in the Church of the Resurrected Lord, in the Romany quarter Luník IX, in the city of Košice. The Romany young people presented many personal prayers to Don Bosco. During the Mass, one young girl presented the Bishop with her request to become a consecrated virgin and to dedicate her life to the Romany in Košice.

“Don Bosco draws many, Don Bosco unites, his sanctity fascinates,” stated Fr Maník, the Provincial of Salesians in Slovakia.

Published 16/04/2013