(ANS - Rome) - With no fewer than 4 examples of Salesian holiness, the month of October offers a variety of inspiring models.

5 October: Blessed Albert Marvelli
A Christian layman, who grew up in the Salesian oratory in Rimini, Albert developed his faith with a decisive choice: "My programme is summed up in one word: holy."  He lived his Christian faith especially in political and social work, understood as service of the common good: "With the Lord's help I desire and I resolve to be always an example to my colleagues and to defend my faith in all circumstances without human respect, and with my mind always directed to the greater glory of God." (May 1936) .

13 October: Blessed Alessandrina Maria da Costa
The memory of Blessed Alexandrina Maria da Costa this year coincides with the celebration of the Marian Day for the Year of Faith, when Pope Francis will renew the consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This was an ardent desire of Blessed Alessandrina da Costa, Salesian Cooperator beatified by Pope John Paul II. She asked the Holy Father for this consecration, first in 1936, by order of Jesus, and with the help of Fr. Pinho, a Jesuit who was her first spiritual director.  The request was repeated several times and finally the consecration was made by Pius XII in Rome on 31 October, 1942.

24 October: St. Louis Guanella
Raised in the school of Don Bosco and St Joseph Cottolengo, Louis Guanella was a champion of faith and charity. A deeply spiritual person, he offered his whole humanity to God, through his personal moral integrity and his witness to the presence of God among the poor of this world, in a way that was original and heroic. "Take away the sense of despair and bring all people to God," sums up the work of Fr Luigi Guanella, a man who dedicated his life to the homeless and elderly, and to young people with mental disorder, physical difficulty, or other moral issues.

29 October: Blessed Michael Rua
" Don Rua was the most faithful, and therefore the most humble and the most valiant of the sons of Don Bosco. (...) Successor of Don Bosco: son, disciple , imitator ... He made ​​the example of Saint a school, his life a history, his rule a spirit, his holiness a type, a model. He made the source, a stream, a river." With these words on 29 October 1972, Pope Paul VI delineated forever the human and spiritual figure of Don Rua. Fr Rua’s road to holiness was marked by devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist and to Mary Help of Christians, the three vows and total fidelity to Don Bosco. His heroic example is a perfect testimony to Salesian holiness.

Published 04/10/2013