(ANS – Madrid) – On 31 January the day on which the Church celebrates the feast of the founder of the Salesian Family, the name of “San Juan Bosco” was among the 10 most used by Spanish users of Twitter. The same phenomenon occurred in Latin Amercan countries.

Each day Twitter, the short-message network on which 65% of Spanish browsers are enrolled indicates the terms most used in the course of the day. These are called the “Trend Topics” (TT), for the day. The list is active and constantly changes on the  basis of the messages put on the net. Normally they are terms referring to political events, to sport, to entertainment...

Nonetheless on the morning of 31 January between 8 and 12, the name “San Juan Bosco” joined the top ten TT throughout the country. In the course of the day the term joined the list of those most used also in other Spanish-speaking countries such as the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, as well as in Brazil. In these last two countries the saint from Piedmont was even present with two terms in the top-ten, as San Juan Bosco/São João Bosco and as Don Bosco/Dom Bosco.

This shows that among all the messages sent that day on the microblogging network, hundreds of them were dedicated to Don Bosco. Many Past Pupils spoke about the years spent in Salesian schools and sent their greetings to former companions and to the Salesians, with expressions a such as: “I miss being at school on a day like this”; “a great day for all of us who feel ourselves Salesian! #Don Bosco is always with us! I miss the Salesian atmosphere”; “Greetings to all my companions and friends of the  #Salesians! Today, Saint John Bosco’s Day, is a great day for us! #Don Bosco”, “I don’t think I’m religious, but I studied in a Salesian school and I have friends who today   are celebrating the feast of Saint John Bosco, Auguri!”; “Happy Feast of Don Bosco to everyone, on a day like today it’s natural to remember the good times  we had at the Salesians #donbosco”.

Some Twitter users were surprised to find “San Juan Bosco” among the most used words and made a comment about it on their profiles. For example user @yisu88 wrote: “Today is Saint John Bosco’s Day! And also TT. You won’t believe it but it made me very happy! What memories... :D”; or, Noemí said, using the classic youth  abbreviations: “San Juan Bosco, I hadn’t even remembered until I saw it ON TWITTER! Vivaa don boscooo XD”.

In addition many young people who attend Salesian centres described on Twitter the activities organised there. Conjurers and tricksters also use the net to  celebrate the day of their patron; Jelboro even used Twitter to arrange with his friends to meet up for Mass in honour of Don Bosco.

Published 03/02/2012