Already last year, UPS sponsored a symposium to commemorate and present the figure of this illustrious Salesian, especially using the testimonies of people who knew him closely and people he had been close to in the last years of his life.
This year it was decided to explore his "life of study in the service of youth". The opening speech by Professor Carlo Nanni, former Rector Magnificus of the UPS, presented the figure of Don Braido as Professor of Philosophy and Educational Epistemology, History of Pedagogy and Catechesis, an eminent scholar of the Preventive System, educator of the young, priest and spiritual guide. In particular, he highlighted the role of Don Braido in the development of the Faculty of Education, of which he served several terms as Dean, and in the renewal of the University. As Rector (1974-1977), he oversaw the consequences of the change from the Salesian Pontifical Athenaeum to the Salesian Pontifical University which took place in 1973.
Other talks recalled Don Braido as a careful scholar and educator who nurtured the practice of perspectives and values that were deeply and rigorously studied, motivated or justified. What emerged was the figure of the Salesian scholar in all his versatility: as a historian of Education and Pedagogy (by Professor Chiosso, University of Turin); Historian of Catechesis (by Professor Giuseppe Biancardi); Expert in Educational Sciences (Professor Rachele Lanfranchi from the Faculty of Auxilium); and Philosopher of Education (Professor Sira Serenella Macchietti, University of Arezzo).
Finally the spotlight was on the activity of Don Braido as a scholar and organizer of studies on Don Bosco (Professor Francesco Motto), and on the founding and structure of the Don Bosco Study Centre at the UPS and the Salesian Historical Institute; and as an expert on the preventive system (Professor Michal Vojtas), through an analysis of his various works on the subject from 1955 to over 2000.
