The Salesians of Don Bosco Kolkata Province

Bashing leather and pushing an awl
In Autumn 1853 Don Bosco came to a decision. He begun shoemaking and tailoring shops in the Oratory at Valdocco. The shoemaking shop was located in a very narrow place near the bell-tower of the church. There Don Bosco sat at a cobbler's bench and in front of four little boys he pounded away at a leather sole. Then he taught them how to manage an awl and packthread. After these shops for shoemakers and tailors, Don Bosco built other shops aimed at training bookbinders, carpenters, printers and mechanics; six shops in which the privileged place was reserved for orphans, the poor and totally abandoned boys. Similar shops were very soon built in other Salesian houses outside Turin. To take care of these shops Don Bosco invented a new type of religious: the Coadjutors or Salesian Brothers. The Salesian Brothers have the same dignity and rights as the Salesian Priests and clerics, but they have specialised training for work in professional schools. (At the time of Don Bosco's death, the Salesian professional schools numbered 14 in Italy, France, Spain and Argentina. The number later would grow to 200 across the world).

I have done nothing
Working almost to exhaustion in the following years, Don Bosco accomplished many imposing works. Besides the Salesians, he founded the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and the Salesian Cooperators. He built the Sanctuary of Mary Help of Christians at Valdocco and founded 59 Salesian houses in six nations. He started the Salesian Missions in Latin America sending Salesian Priests, Brothers and Sisters there. He published a series of popular books for ordinary Christians and for boys. He invented a System of Education founded on three values: Reason, Religion and Loving-kindness. Very soon people saw in it an ideal system to educate the young. When somebody would tell Don Bosco the list of the works he performed, he would interrupt the person and immediately say: "I have done nothing by myself. It is the Virgin Mary who has done everything." She had traced out his road in the famous dream he had when he was nine.

Don Bosco died on 31 January 1888, at dawn. To the Salesians who were keeping vigil around his bed he said in a whisper these last words: "Love each other as brothers. Do good to all and evil to none... Tell my boys that I wait for them all in Paradise."