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Paolo Albera | |
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| 2nd Successor of Don Bosco | |
| In office 1910–1921 | |
| Succeeded by | Philip Rinaldi |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 6 June 1845 None,Piedmont,Italy |
| Died | 24 October 1921 (aged 76) Turin |
| Profession | Priest |
Paul Albera (in Italian Paolo Albera) 6 June 1845 - 29 October 1921) was a Catholic Roman Priest of the Salesians of Don Bosco,who served as Rector Major of that Congregation between 1910 and 1921. [1]
Albera was the sixth child of a farmer family of None,a town between Turin and Pinerolo. He knew Don Bosco when he was 13 at the church of his town. On 18 October 1858 he joined the Don Bosco's youth center in Valdocco. He was among the first 22 Salesians to make religious vows. In 1863 Don Bosco sent him as assistant and teacher to the newly opened boarding school of Mirabello Monferrato, [2] where one of his pupils was Luigi Lasagna,future Salesian missionary and bishop in Brazil. He was ordained as a priest on 2 August 1868 in Casale Monferrato. [2] Don Bosco chose him to begin a new Salesian work in Marassi in 1871,and one year later,in 1872,the entire school and youth center was moved to Sampierdarena near Genoa in 1872. In 1875 Don Bosco opened a house for late vocations in Sampierdarena with Albera as director. It was the first place in the vocation of Philip Rinaldi who would become a good friend of Albera for the rest of his life. In 1881 he was designated superior of the Salesians for France. In 1891 he returned to Turin as a member of the general council,in the position of Catechist General (or spiritual director general). In 1900, he was Don Rua's special representative to the Salesian Houses of the Western Hemisphere. [2]
After Don Rua was called back to Turin in 1910, [3] the General Chapter elected Albera as the second successor of Don Bosco. He continued the policies of Don Rua to increase the number of Salesian houses in the world. But he would face a difficult time with the World War I,when many young Salesians were brought to the armies,many of them into enemy troops of the time. One of those young Salesians was Renato Ziggiotti,his future successor.
In 1913 he opened a Salesian presence in Hungary [2] and visited the houses of Austria,Poland, Yugoslavia,United Kingdom and Belgium. During WWI many Salesian schools were converted into fittings or hospitals. Albera began to write letters to the military units around Europe where he knew there were Salesians. But the European war did not stop the growing of the Salesian order in other continents. In 1914 he approved the opening of missions in Rio Negro (Brazil),Germany and China. In 1915 Pope Benedict XV elevated the first Salesian cardinal:Giovanni Cagliero. In 1920 the Salesians arrived to Gran Chaco in Paraguay and to Assam in India as well as Central America and Cuba. [2]
On 29 October 1921 Paolo Albera died in Turin,having been Rector Major of the Salesian Society for 11 years. Don Filippo Rinaldi became Rector Major in 1922. [3]
In 2021,on the 100th anniversary of his death,his book A Lamp Resplendent was published. [4]
The Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB),formally known as the Society of Saint Francis de Sales,is a religious congregation of men in the Catholic Church,founded in 1859 by the Italian priest John Bosco to help poor and migrant youngsters during the Industrial Revolution. The congregation was named after Francis de Sales,a 17th-century bishop of Geneva.
John Melchior Bosco,SDB,popularly known as Don Bosco,was an Italian Catholic priest,educator,writer,and saint of the 19th century. While working in Turin,where the population suffered many of the ill effects of industrialization and urbanization,he dedicated his life to the betterment and education of street children,juvenile delinquents,and other disadvantaged youth. He developed teaching methods based on love rather than punishment,a method that became known as the Salesian Preventive System.
The Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco,formally known as the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians are a female religious institute formed by Saint Maria Domenica Mazzarello in 1872. They were founded to work alongside Saint John Bosco and his Salesians of Don Bosco in his teaching projects in Turin. They continue to be a teaching order worldwide.
Don Bosco Technical Institute in Tarlac City,or simply Don Bosco Tarlac,is a private Catholic school for pre-school,grade school and junior high school boys. In 2016,it opened its co-educational senior high school department. The first Don Bosco school in the Philippines,it is the only academic-technical school in Tarlac. Its campus is located in Sto. Cristo,Tarlac City,Philippines.
Michele Rua was an Italian Catholic priest and professed member of the Salesians of Don Bosco. Rua was a student under Don Bosco and was also the latter's first collaborator in the order's founding as well as one of his closest friends. He served as the first Rector Major of the Salesians following Bosco's death in 1888. He was responsible for the expansion of the Salesians and the order had grown to a significant degree around the world at the time he died. Rua served as a noted spiritual director and leader for the Salesians known for his austerities and rigid adherence to the rule. It was for this reason that he was nicknamed "the living rule".
Sacro Cuore di Gesùal Castro Pretorio is a Roman Catholic parish and titular church in Rome,Italy.
Don Bosco Formation Center (DBFC),formerly known as Don Bosco Missionary Seminary (DBMS),is a Salesian House run by the Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB) in Lawaan III Talisay City,Cebu,Philippines. It was established to provide salesian formation for the candidates to the priestly and religious life of the Salesian Province of Mary Help of Christians (FIS) in the Philippines.
The Rector Major of the Salesians is the head of all institutes and superior general of the Salesians of Don Bosco worldwide. It is the title of a Catholic priest that is elected as the general superior of the religious institute Salesians of Don Bosco. He is also considered the successor of Saint John Bosco in the top guidance of his Salesian Order. The first general superior of the order was Don Bosco himself from 1874,the year that the order was officially created and its Salesian Constitutions approved by the Holy See,until his death in 1888. Since then,the Salesians have elected their Superior in the General Chapter for a period of six years. Between 1888 and 2014 there have been ten successors of Don Bosco,seven of them of Italian nationality,one Argentine,one Mexican and one Spaniard. Following the Salesian tradition from their Italian origin,the Rector Major is addressed as Don (Father).
The Association of Salesian Cooperators (ASC) is a lay association in the Catholic Church and the third order of the Salesians. It is also one of the three main branches of the Salesian Family founded directly by Don Bosco in 1876. The movement was created with the purpose to share the ideals of the Salesian Preventive System in the education of young people,especially those who are poorest.
The Salesian Bulletin is an official publication of the Salesians that was founded in August 1877 by Don Bosco. It has been published without interruption since then. The purpose of the Salesian Bulletin is the proliferation of the educational works of Don Bosco all over the world. As for 2010,the Bulletin was published in 56 different editions and 29 languages for 135 countries.
Pascual Chávez Villanueva SDB is a Roman Catholic priest of the Salesians of Don Bosco,who was Rector Major of that Order between April 3,2002 and March 25,2014,being the 9th successor of Don Bosco,the first Mexican to get such position and the second Latin American after Argentinian Juan Edmundo Vecchi. During the 26th General Chapter of the Salesians in Rome in 2008 he was confirmed for a second period,being the last Rector Major who could be reelected,because that same Chapter ruled that a Rector Major would not be reelected afterward.
Juan Edmundo Vecchi was a Catholic Roman Priest of the Salesians of Don Bosco,who was the 8th Rector Major of that order between March 20,1996,until his death in 2002. He was the first non-Italian successor of Don Bosco and the first Argentinian to get such position. He was also the nephew of St Artémides Zatti.
Egidio Viganò was a Roman Catholic priest of the Salesians of Don Bosco,who was the 7th Rector Major of that Order from 1977 until his death in 1995. Although he was an Italian,he considered Chile as his second home country because he moved there when he was 19 years old. He was also confessor of Pope John Paul II,a prominent theologian and writer. During the first centenary of the death of Don Bosco (1988),Pope John Paul II dedicated to him the Apostolic Letter Iuvenum Patris:"To our beloved son Egidio Vigano,Rector Major of the Salesian Society on the First Centenary of the death of Saint John Bosco - John Paul II,Supreme Pontiff." He participated also in the Second Vatican Council.
Luis Ricceri was a Catholic Roman priest of the Salesians of Don Bosco,who was the 6th Rector Major of that Order between 1965 and 1977. He was the first Superior of the Salesians after the Second Vatican Council,leading a Special Chapter of the Order to update it to the new regulations of the Church. In this context,he used the sentence "Forward with Don Bosco alive today,in order to respond to the needs of our time and the expectations of the Church" that after would become "With Don Bosco and the times." He transferred the Salesian General Headquarters from its original place in Turin to Rome.
Renato Ziggiotti was a Roman Catholic priest of the Salesians of Don Bosco,who was the fifth Rector Major of that order,serving between 1952 and 1965. Before becoming a Salesian religious,Ziggiotti was in the military. He was the last Salesian Superior before the Second Vatican Council and the first Superior to resign the position in the Salesian history –all his predecessors died incumbent. He was also the first Rector Major to visit all the countries where there were Salesians present in the five continents,at a time when international transport was very limited.
Pietro Ricaldone was a Catholic Roman Priest of the Salesians of Don Bosco,who was the 4th Rector Major of that Order between 1932 and 1951. He was the last Superior of the Salesians that knew Don Bosco alive. He was also the founder of the Salesian Pontifical University.
Filippo Rinaldi was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member from the Salesians of Don Bosco;he served as the third Rector Major for the order from 1922 until his death in 1931. He founded the Secular Institute of Don Bosco Volunteers. Rinaldi was close friends since his childhood to Giovanni Bosco and Paolo Albera and it was Bosco who guided Rinaldi who was torn in his adolescence between the farming life and the religious life. The order held him in high esteem from the outset and noted the potential within him as well as seeing the charism of Bosco encompassed in Rinaldi.
Luigi Variara was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Salesians of Don Bosco. He served for most of his life as part of the missions in Colombia where he worked with lepers and the children of outcast lepers. He was ordained as a priest while serving there and made it his mission to provide both relief and consolation.
Luigi Versiglia,S.D.B. was an Italian Catholic prelate and professed member from the Salesians of Don Bosco who served as the first Apostolic Vicar of Shaoguan from 1920 until his murder. He was also a former novice master noted for his strict austerities and discipline but for his loving and compassionate care of the poor and defenceless. He led the first Salesian expedition to China in 1906 and remained there until his death,functioning for the people in various capacities such as a gardener and barber.
Giovanni Battista Marenco SDB,more often known as Giovanni Marenco was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who worked in the Roman Curia,led an Italian diocese briefly,and then joined the diplomatic service of the Holy See.
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