| Rector Major of the Salesians |
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| Formation | 1874 |
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| First holder | John Bosco |
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The Rector Major of the Salesians (also known as successor of Don Bosco) is the head of all institutes and superior general of the Salesians of Don Bosco worldwide (over 130 countries and 15000 institutions). 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).
According to the Constitutions and Regulations of the Salesians of Don Bosco, the highest superior is the Supreme Pontiff to whom "They welcome his magisterium with docility and help the faithful, especially the young, to accept his teaching" (Art. 125) [1] In the Salesian Constitutions of 1942, the Pope is mentioned as "arbitrator and Supreme Superior" even bound to vow of obedience (Art 49). [2]
Then the Salesians have the Rector Major as the "superior of the Salesian Society" who is the "successor of Don Bosco, the father and center of unity of the Salesian Family" (Art. 126) [1] The functions and responsibilities of the Rector Major are described in the chapter dedicated to the service of authority in the world community of the Salesians.
Election
The election of the Rector Major is done by the General Council from a Salesian priest for a period of six years without possibility for reelection, according to the latest rules of the Salesians. The Rector Major cannot resign his position without the approval of the Holy See (Art. 128 and 129). [1] After the end of the government period of the Rector Major, he called on a General Chapter in which every Salesian Province of the world sends its representatives, mainly the Provincial and other co-workers. The General Chapter meets every six months at the Salesian General House (Pissana in Rome), with the purpose to review and update the Salesian charisma and to elect the new Rector Major and his General Council. The election is also observed by representatives of the Holy See and other religious congregations.
The ones who attend the General Chapter are the reigning Rector Major, the former living Rector Majors (called emeritus), the members of the reigning General Council, the secretary general, the procurator general, a moderator, the provincials, vice-provincials and delegates per province. The election of the new Rector Major must be done with the absolute majority and to assure it, there can be several rounds (Art. 153). [1]
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 and writer 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.
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".
Raffaele Farina SDB is an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was Archivist of the Vatican Secret Archives, Librarian of the Vatican Library, and president of Scuola Vaticana di Paleografia, Diplomatica e Archivistica. Farina was elevated to the cardinalate in 2007.
Marco Tasca, O.F.M. Conv. is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church, a member of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual who served as the 119th Minister General of the Order from 2007 to 2019. He was appointed the Metropolitan Archbishop of Genoa on 8 May 2020.
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.
Ángel Fernández Artime, S.D.B. is a Spanish Catholic archbishop who was Rector Major of the Salesians from 2014 to 2024, the first Spaniard to hold that office. He was previously provincial superior of the Salesian Province of Leon from 2000 to 2006 and of the Southern Argentina Province from 2009 to 2014.
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 Roman Catholic priest of the Salesians of Don Bosco, who was the 8th Rector Major of that order between 20 March 1996 and 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 served in the Italian military in World War I. 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 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.
Paul 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.
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.
Bronisław Markiewicz, SDB was a Polish Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Salesians of Don Bosco. Markiewicz established the Congregation of Saint Michael the Archangel that devoted itself to the principles and teachings of John Bosco under the patronage of Saint Michael the Archangel.
Oreste Marengo was an Italian Roman Catholic prelate and professed member from the Salesians of Don Bosco. He served as the Bishop of Diburugarh from 1951 until his transferral in 1964 to Tezpur where he served until 1969. From that point until 1979 he served as the apostolic administrator for the new Tura see. He was dedicated since his childhood to joining the missions and in his late adolescence was permitted to go to the missions in India. Marengo often trekked on foot to remote villages where he evangelized to the people and provided for their educational needs as best he could. He was reluctant to accept his episcopal nomination but did not cease his catechizing and evangelizing in his dioceses. His time spent in India saw him learn prior to his ordination under Stefano Ferrando and the Costantino Vendrame.
Giuseppe Cognata was an Italian Catholic bishop and member of the Salesians of Don Bosco. He was the founder of the Salesian Oblates of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a female religious institute of pontifical right. Due to accusations that were proved false many years after, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith condemned Mgr. Cognata to be dismissed of his condition of Bishop on 20 December 1939. Monsignor Giuseppe Cognata in Easter 1962 was reinstated by Pope John XXIII in the Episcopate, after the true came out. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith announced on 17 February 2020 that Pope Francis has given consent to open the Cause of Beatification of Mons. Giuseppe Cognata, S.D.B.
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.
