Silvio Mantelli (born 22 May 1944) is an Italian Salesian Catholic priest, whose principal ministry is that of a Gospel Magician. His stage name is "Mago Sales".
He was born in Turin. He is currently the Director of Fondazione Mago Sales, an organization dedicated to Gospel Magic. He travels throughout Europe and the Third World to perform magic for children. [1]
He is the world's principal exponent of Gospel Magic, that is, the use of magic for cathetical purposes. Silvio Mantelli presented a magic wand to the Pope John Paul II in 2002 and petitioned the Pope to proclaim St. Don Bosco the Patron of Stage Magicians to which the Pope responded "You'll need a lot of magic wands to change our world; but let's make a start with this one!" [2]
He is a member of the Society of American Magicians, the Catholic Magicians' Guild and London's famed Magic Circle.
Don Silvio invites magicians and other performers from around the world to attend a special Magician's Mass on the St. Don Bosco's feastday (January 31), held in Colle Don Bosco. [1] They are invited to entertain the congregation.
Mantelli also runs a "magic tricks for guns" program entitled A Peaceful Christmas, where any child who turns in a toy gun will receive a magic kit in return. The idea has spread to many Italian cities involving more than 22,000 children. [3]
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 the late 19th century by Italian priest Saint John Bosco to help poor children during the Industrial Revolution and named after Saint Francis de Sales, a 17th-century bishop of Geneva.
Dominic Savio was an Italian adolescent student of Saint John Bosco. He was studying to be a priest when he became ill and died at the age of 14, possibly from pleurisy. He is the only person of his age group who was declared a saint not on the basis of his having been a martyr, but on the basis of having lived what was seen as a holy life. He was noted for his piety and devotion to the Catholic faith, and was eventually canonized.
John Melchior Bosco, popularly known as Don Bosco[ˈdɔm ˈbɔsko, bo-], Italian for "Father", was an Italian Roman 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.
Joseph Cafasso was an Italian Roman Catholic priest who was a significant social reformer in Turin. He was one of the so-called "Social Saints" who emerged during that particular era. He is known as the "Priest of the Gallows" due to his extensive work with those prisoners who were condemned to death. But he was also known for his excessive mortifications despite his frail constitution: he neglected certain foods and conditions to remain as frugal and basic as possible unless a doctor ordered otherwise.
Don Bosco Technical Institute in Tarlac City, or simply Don Bosco Tarlac, is a private Catholic basic education institution run by the Salesians of the Society of Saint John Bosco in Sto. Cristo, Tarlac City, Philippines. Established in 1947, it is the first Salesian school established in the Philippines. Don Bosco is the only academic-technical school in Tarlac.
Michele Rua was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and professed member of the Salesians of Don Bosco. Rua was a student under Giovanni 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'.
Gospel magic is the use of otherwise standard stage magic tricks and illusions to promote Christian messages. Gospel magic does not claim to invoke spirits or paranormal powers. Gospel magic is intended to present the Christian good news through "visual parables"; the trick or illusion is used to present theological points in an entertaining way with the intention that people will remember the message. Gospel magic is generally presented as stage magic or platform magic, but it can be adapted to close-up magic or micromagic situations.
Sacro Cuore di Gesù al Castro Pretorio is a Roman Catholic parish and titular church in Rome, Italy.
A Salesian school is an educational institution run by the Roman Catholic Salesian Congregation of Saint John Bosco, and one that uses his methods. Salesian schools are dedicated to young people in an educational and formative environment. According to promoters, a Salesian school is a home, church, playground, and school where students find a new way of life, and prepare for their future as good citizens of their country, while being faithful to their own religion.
Xavier College is a Catholic co-educational secondary college founded in 1995 in the town of Gawler, approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) north of Adelaide. It operates according to the traditions of the Salesians of Don Bosco. The school enrols approximately 1,000 students in years 7 to 12. Its patron is the priest Saint John Bosco.
The Rector Major of the Salesians is the head of all institutes 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 sexual abuse scandal in the Salesian Order is a major chapter in the series of Catholic sex abuse cases in various Western jurisdictions.
Association of Salesian Cooperators (ASC) is the movement of laity of the Salesian Family of Don Bosco and is the third order of the Salesian Order. 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, without the need to be a priest or a lay religious. According to a 2005's census, there are 26,703 persons affiliated to this movement around the world.
Lorenzo Bartolomé Massa was an Argentine Catholic priest, mostly notable for being one of the main founders of Club San Lorenzo de Almagro and scout group Don Bosco's Argentinian Explorers.
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 Blessed 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.
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.
Paul Albera, born in None, Piedmont, Italy on 6 June 1845 - died in Turin, 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.
Francesco Convertini was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and professed member from the Salesians of Don Bosco. He served in the missions in India since arriving there in the mid-1920s and dedicated his apostolate to tending to children suffering from malnutrition and fostering interreligious dialogue and tolerance. He also dedicated himself to preserving the environmental protection of local communities in waste-ridden areas and travelled to various communities to bring forth the Gospel message to all people.