Hajja Salesjana

Don Bosco’s camerette form the historical and spiritual heart of Museo Casa Don Bosco: four rooms on the top floor of the main Valdocco house where Don Bosco lived from 1853-1887 and where he passed into eternity on January 31, 1888. For twenty- six years after the founder’s death, his first two successors, Blessed Michael Rua and Fr. Paul Albera occupied these rooms. In 1914 that changed: Fr. Albera built a new wing to meet the expanding needs of the Salesian “Superior Counsel” (today’s General Council). The vacated camerette became a treasured sanctuary for veneration of St. John Bosco, to which rivers of devotees flowed. To visit these rooms today is to enter the private space of a mystic in action, his spirit still looming large. This article will present Don Bosco’s first bedroom. The other rooms will be the topic of subsequent articles. In 1853 Don Bosco constructed his first permanent residence for boys, including a wing for a his own bedroom. He lived in this room for eight years, until 1861. To access this second floor bedroom [third floor in North American usage], he had to take the only internal staircase up to the first floor where the stairs ended, exit onto the balcony that runs the length of the house, then climb up an external ladder to the second [third] floor. Alwaysmindful of dedicating maximum space to the needs of his boys, Don Bosco’s bedroom was also his office and his parlour for welcoming his steady stream of visitors. In this room he wrote many of his first popular works as well as the first Salesian Constitutions. Today, in the southeast corner of the room, sixteen original floor tiles bear silent witness to key events in the life of the nascent Oratory. 22 hajja Fr. Mike Pace, SDB, Vice-Director, Casa Don Bosco Museum, Turin Views from Valdocco LE CAMERETTE…DON BOSCO’S BEDROOM April-Ġunju 2023