The podcast, published on the day of the anniversary of St John Bosco on 31 January last, is edited by historian Federico Valle, a member of the CISS, and explores the veneration that the saint from Turin had towards the relic that is preserved in Turin: a veneration aimed at leading the youngsters at his oratory to an understanding and contemplation of the Passion of Christ
As a true son of the Church of Turin, Don Bosco had a sincere affection for the Shroud, which he considered a precious gift from God. He was part of both exhibitions of the Shroud that took place during his life, in 1842 and 1868. And in the second volume of his Biographical Memoirs, speaking of the first of the two exhibitions, it is in fact reported:
"On April 21, 1842, on the occasion of the wedding of the Crown Prince Victor Emmanuel to Marie Adelaide of Lorraine, archduchess of Austria, the Holy Shroud was displayed for the veneration of the faithful from the balcony of Palazza Madama. The immense square and adjacent streets were crowded with people of every class and age, who had eagerly come from all parts of Piedmont to manifest their faith in and veneration of the holy relic, on which are imprinted the Divine Face and the wounds of the hands, feet and side of Our Savior. Among those present were Don Bosco and his boys from the oratory. Don Bosco had a tender devotion to the sufferings of Our Savior and of His Mother, and he availed himself of this moving demonstration to arouse in his boys an implacable hatred of sin as well as an ardent love for Jesus their Redeemer. This he always did whenever he had an opportunity to speak of our Lord's passion and of the sorrows of His Blessed Mother."
While with regard to the second exhibition, it is written in volume IX of the Biographical Memoirs: "The Archbishop had obtained, not without difficulty, that the Holy Shroud be shown to the peoples with the pomp and ceremony of old, inviting the subalpine Bishops, and that the faithful were given opportunity to come to venerate it, leaving it exposed in the Metro for three days. The young people of the Oratory were also led there."
Although on this second occasion the chronicle is more condensed, the chronological difference between the two exhibitions should not be forgotten, which also involved a great difference in the vitality and in the numbers of attendance at Don Bosco's Oratory. For this reason, according to historian Valle, it is not difficult to imagine that behind the short phrase "Even the young people of the Oratory were led there" there were about a thousand young people led on a short pilgrimage from Valdocco to venerate the Sacred Linen.
The bond between Don Bosco and the Shroud was then strengthened thanks to the various Salesians who over the years have deepened, in the footsteps of their founder, the devotion and studies inherent in the Shroud – starting with Fr Giulio Barberis and then continuing with the Venerable Fr Vincent Cimatti, Fr Gaetano Compri and many others... – and was definitively sealed with the special public exhibition of the Shroud in 2015, motivated precisely by the Bicentenary year of the birth of Don Bosco, one of the most illustrious children of the Turin Church.
The podcast "Don Bosco and the Shroud" is available in Italian on Spotify and YouTube.
