Table of Contents

FOREWORD

  1. Fidelity to Don Bosco in an Age of Novelty

  2. Two Pillars of Salesian Holiness

  3. The Basis of Salesian Spirituality

INTRODUCTION

Memoirs of the Oratory

  1. My Early Life

  2. A Dream

The First Decade – 1825 - 1835

  3. The Young Acrobat

  4. A Providential Meeting

  5. Hopes Dashed

  6. School at Castelnuovo

  7. School at Chieri

  8. The Society of Joy

  9. Life at School

  10. Louis Comollo

  11. Various Events

  12. A Jewish Friend

  13. Black Magic

  14. Champion Acrobat

  15. Hunger for Books

  16. Vocational Decision

The Second Decade – 1835 - 1845

  17. Taking the Cassock

  18. Mother’s Farewell

  19. Seminary Life

  20. Summer Activities

  21. Days in the Country

  22. Louis Comollo’s Death

  23. Dr John Borrelli

  24. Studies

  25. Priestly Ordination

  26. First Priestly Ministry

  27. Learning to Be a Priest

  28. Bartholomew Garelli

  29. The First Days of the Oratory

  30. Move to Valdocco

  31. Another Dream

  32. The Oratory Relocated to the Refuge

  33. The Oratory at St Martin of the Mills

  34. One Day at Saint Peter in Chains

  35. The Oratory at the Moretta House

  36. The Oratory Outdoors

  37. Opposition

  38. An Ultimatum from the Marchioness

  39. Palm Sunday 1846

The Third Decade – 1846 - 1855

  40. A Typical Sunday

  41. The King Saves the Oratory

  42. Beginning the Night School

  43. A Serious Illness

  44. Mama Margaret Moves to Valdocco

  45. The Company of Saint Aloysius

  46. The First Boarder

  47. Another Oratory

  48. The Revolutionary Year 1848

  49. Religious Celebrations

  50. Thirty-three Lire for Pius IX

  51. No Politics

  52. Another Threat to the Oratories

  53. Almost Alone Again

  54. Buying the Pinardi House

  55. A Chapel and a Lottery

  56. Woe to Turin!

  57. The New Building Collapses

  58. Continued Growth

  59. The Catholic Readings

  60. Disputations with the Waldensians

  61. An Attempt on My Life

  62. Further Assaults

  63. Grigio

  Historical Background to the Memoirs

  Endnotes