Hajja Salesjana September October 2017

24 In 1858, Don Bosco and Don Rua travelled twice on the Avertino, the big ship that used to sail between France and Valletta, Malta. Peter Paul Galea, the 35 year-old father of Alphonsus Maria, as well as other Maltese, used to travel frequently on that same ship to sell Malta lace and weave in Marseilles, France, as well as to buy draperies from there. In 1870, Don Bosco expressed himself contrary to the proposal that the Pope would settle down in Malta if he had to leave Rome, his rightful place. In 1872, Don Bosco wrote the History of the Church. Annibale Preca, from Lija, translated this Volume into Maltese a few years later and praised Don Bosco very highly. Annibale was the house teacher of 7-year old Alphonsus and accountant of Peter Paul Galea’s business in Valletta. In 1873, Mons. Paul Pullicino, President of the Society of St. Vincent de Paule in Malta, and his Treasurer Fr. Isidoro Formosa, started “L’Eco di Nazareth”, a monthly publication, always full of information about Don Bosco and his works of charity as well as appeals for financial help. In 1875, Fr. Isidoro Formosa was ordained priest. From his early years he used to travel to the north of Italy and to the south of France, both areas where Don Bosco was very well known, to gain experience of how to start religious Congregations. In fact he started the Ursuline Sisters in Sliema. Two years after his ordination, Fr. Isidoro asked for a certificate signed by Don Bosco, as being a Salesian Cooperator, as well as all the issues of the Salesian Bulletin from the start. In 1876, Don Bosco founded the Association of Salesian Cooperators and two years later he started the Salesian Bulletin, immediately diffused also in Malta. Documents show that right from those early years, Maltese people, clerics and lay, particularly in Valletta, were already Salesian Cooperators, Bulletin subscribers, and general benefactors of Don Bosco. In 1857, the 42-year-old Don Bosco wrote the Life of St. Paul in which he dedicated five pages to Malta, its geography, name, faith and history. A research compiled by Fr. Francis Zammit SDB and others History Of The Maltese Salesian Delegation