Carabinieri police on Thursday
recovered a St John Bosco (Don Bosco) relic stolen from a church
in Castelnuovo near Asti on June 2 and arrested a 42-year-old
criminal born near Cuneo but resident at Pinerolo near Turin.
The man stole the reliquary containing the saint's brain from
the Basilica of Colle Don Bosco in the Piedmont town because he
was banking on making a lot of money fencing it, in the belief
that it was solid gold, judicial sources said.
The relic's recovery "is a relief for the Salesians, for the
Church of Turin and for the many friends of Don Bosco around the
worlds who copiously showed, in this period, their support,"
said Father Enrico Stasi, inspector of the Salesians of Piedmont
and Val d'Aosta, thanking the "judiciary, the Carabinieri and
all those who contributed to the positive resolution of this
unpleasant affair".
Saint John Bosco (Giovanni Melchiorre Bosco 1815-1888),
popularly known as Don Bosco, was an Italian Roman Catholic
priest, educator and writer of the 19th century.
While working in Turin, where the population suffered many of
the 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.
A follower of the spirituality and philosophy of Saint
Francis de Sales, Bosco was an ardent Marian devotee of the
Blessed Virgin Mary under the title Mary Help of Christians.
He later dedicated his works to De Sales when he founded the
Salesians of Don Bosco, based in Turin.
Together with Maria Domenica Mazzarello, he also founded the
Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, a
religious congregation of nuns dedicated to the care and
education of poor girls.
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