Hajja Salesjana

Honouring Carlo Gastini and Salesian Past Pupils On October 4, 2024 a bronze high relief by Mauro Baldessari, honouring the Association of Salesian Past Pupils was inaugurated at Museo Casa Don Bosco. Next to Don Bosco, the central figure of the monument is Carlo Gastini, one of the first boys of the Valdocco Oratory and founder of the Past Pupil’s Association. The faces of the Past Pupils surrounding Gastini represent the diverse membership of the Association. The call to Salesian holiness is evoked through these exemplary Past Pupils: St. Luigi Orione, Alberto Marvelli and Blessed Zefferino Namuncurà, Akash Bashir and Salvo D' Acquisto (both servants of God). The presence of Pope Francis, himself a Salesian alumnus, symbolizes the unity between the Salesian Family and the Church. The faces of four women (African, Asian, European and South 22 hajja Fr. Mike Pace, SDB, Vice-Director, Casa Don Bosco Museum, Turin Views from Valdocco American) represent the diversification of the Association. The book commemorates Gastini as Valdocco’s first professional bookbinder and underlines the importance of social communication and the creative arts in Salesian pedagogy and pastoral Carlo Gastini And The Salesian Alumni Association 1. St. John Bosco 2. Charles Gastini 3. Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis) 4. Alberto Marvelli 5. African woman's face 6. North American woman's face 7. James Maffei 8. An Asian woman 9. Bartolomé Blanco Marquez 10. Sean Devereaux 11. A European woman 12. A South American woman 13. St. Louis Orion 14. Akash Bashir 15. Salvo D'Acquisto 16. Zefferino Namancurà Jannar-Marzu 2025