The Oratory in 1842
All my efforts that winter were concentrated on getting the little Oratory established. My aim was to bring together only those children who were in greatest danger, ex-prisoners by preference. Nevertheless, as a foundation on which to build discipline and morality, I invited some other boys of good character who had already been taught. These helped me maintain order, and they read and sang hymns. From the very beginning I realised that without song books and suitable reading matter, these festive gatherings would have been like a body without a soul. In those days, the feast of the Purification, the 2nd February, was still a holy day of obligation. On that day in 1842, I already had about twenty children with whom we were able to sing for the first time, Sing Praises to Mary, Oh Tongues of the Faithful.
By the feast of the Annunciation to the Virgin, our numbers had risen to thirty. On that day we had a small celebration. In the morning, the pupils went to the holy sacraments. In the evening we sang a hymn, and after catechism we had a story by way of a sermon. Because the side chapel we had been meeting in could no longer contain our numbers, we moved into the sacristy chapel, which was nearby.
Our Oratory programme ran along these lines. On every feast day, the boys were given a chance to receive the holy sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion. But one Saturday and Sunday each month was set aside for fulfilling this religious duty. We came together in the evening at a fixed time, sang a hymn, had a catechism lesson followed by a story, and then the distribution of something, sometimes to all, sometimes by lot.
Amongst the boys who came to the Oratory in its earliest days I would like to single out Joseph Buzzetti, who came regularly and gave good example. He had such an affection for the Oratory and that feast day gathering that he refused to go home to his family (at Caronno Ghiringhello), which the others, his brothers and friends, used to do. His three brothers, Charles, Angelo, and Joshua, were also outstanding. John Gariboldi and his brother were then only lads, and now they are master bricklayers.
As a rule the Oratory boys included stonecutters, bricklayers, stuccoers, road pavers, plasterers, and others who came from distant villages. They were not churchgoers, and had few friends; so they were exposed to the dangers of perversion, especially on feast days.
Good Doctor Guala and Fr Cafasso enjoyed these assemblies of the children. They gladly supplied me with holy pictures, leaflets, pamphlets, medals, small crucifixes to give as gifts. At times they provided me with the means to clothe some of those in greater need, and to feed others for weeks at a time until they were able to support themselves by their work. Moreover, as the boys’ numbers grew they sometimes gave me permission to gather my little army in the adjoining courtyard for recreation. If space had allowed, we would have been a hundred; but we had to restrict ourselves to about eighty.
When the boys were preparing for the holy sacraments, Dr Guala or Fr Cafasso would always come along for a visit and tell some edifying story. Dr Guala wanted to make a special feast in honour of St Anne, the feast of the bricklayers; after the morning ceremonies he invited all of them to breakfast with him. Almost a hundred gathered in the big conference hall. There all were provided with ample provisions of coffee, milk, chocolate, pastries, cakes, semolina, and other sweet dainties much loved by children. The noisy excitement of that feast can be imagined, and the numbers that could have come if we had had the room!
On feast days, I gave all my time to my youngsters. During the week I would go to visit them at their work in factories or workshops. Not only the youngsters were happy to see a friend taking care of them; their employers were pleased, gladly retaining youngsters who were helped during the week, and even more on feast days, when they are in greater danger.
On Saturdays, my pockets stuffed sometimes with tobacco, sometimes with fruit, sometimes with rolls, I used to go to the prisons. My object always was to meet the youngsters who had the misfortune to find themselves behind bars, help them, make friends with them, and thus encourage them to come to the Oratory when they had the good fortune of leaving that place of punishment.