(ANS - Rome) - No. 64 (January-June 2015) of Ricerche Storiche Salesiane, the bimonthly magazine of religious and civil history published by the Salesian Historical Institute, was published on Tuesday 9 June.

by Fr Bruno Bordignon, SDB

The section Studi includes the following essays:

• “La presencia italiana en la instalación del catolicismo: la llegada de los salesianos al interior de Las Pampas Argentinas, El caso de Eduardo Castex(1912-1934)”by Mariana Annecchini. It gives the history of the College of St. Francis de Sales in Castex, part of the project of building a Catholic society in the Pampas.
• Epistolario di Don Bosco: lettere inedite nel biennio 1878-1879 (Letters of Don Bosco: unpublished letters from the years 1878-1879) by Fr Francesco Motto SDB. The critical edition of the correspondence of Don Bosco is now in its sixth volume, which includes 422 letters of the years 1878-1879. Of these over a hundred were not included in the preceding collection of letters prepared by Fr Eugenio Ceria. This shows the documentary wealth of the unpublished letters.

The resource section (Fonti) includes the text:

Il panegirico di Don Bosco in onore di San Filippo Neri (1868) (The panegyric of Don Bosco in honour of St. Philip Neri) - critical edition by Fr Aldo Giraudo. In May 1868 Don Bosco was invited by his friend Eugenio Galletti, the Bishop of Alba, to give the panegyric in honour of St. Philip Neri to the clergy of his diocese. He wrote his sermon with great care, focusing on the apostolic zeal, the pastoral method and the formation work of the Saint for the benefit of poor and abandoned children.

In this issue Fr Motto also has a short profile of Fr Pietro Braido, SDB, co-founder and first director of the Salesian Historical Institute, who passed away on 11 November 2014 at the age of ninety-five. Fr Jan Pietrzykowski documents the work of the Salesians to save Polish Jews during World War II. Sergio Giuseppe Todeschini writes about the first years of the Salesians in Varese (1936-1940).

The issue concludes with six reviews, five of them by Father Bordignon:

• Domenico Agasso – Renzo Agasso – Domenico Agasso JR., Don Bosco una storia senza tempo (Don Bosco a timeless story);
• Una vita che irradia luce, (A life that radiates light), facsimile edition.Don Bosco e la Pia Società Salesiana (Don Bosco and the Pious Salesian Society), Albert Du Boÿs [1884], edited by Piera Ruffinatto;
• Un secolo con don Bosco a Cagliari. Cento anni di cammino insieme (A century with Don Bosco in Cagliari. One hundred years walking together);
• Gianni Ghiglione, Don Bosco fu un vero Salesiano? Confronto tra i due Santi in base a 7 parole-chiave della loro spiritualità (Was Don Bosco was a true Salesian? Comparison of the two saints based on seven key words of their spirituality);
• Alejandro León, Papa Francesco e Don Bosco (Pope Francis and Don Bosco).

The last review by Fr Stanislaw Zimniak, deals with the critical edition of the first three volumes of the Chronicle of the Salesian Institute of Oświęcim edited by Don Waldemar Żurek ("The Work of Don Bosco in Auschwitz": Chronicle Volume I - 1898-1907; Chronicle Volume II - 1914-1917; Chronicle Volume III - 1918-1920. Lublin 2013-2014).

Published 11/06/2015