ASC Central Salesian Archive

Basilica of Mary Help of Christiansabove: the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians and Valdocco in Turin in the early 20th century, with the market square

Don Bosco cared about the punctual and orderly documentation of what happened at the Oratory of St Francis de Sales in Turin-Valdocco. The papers, notes, chronicles, the personal registers of students and artisans, the Memoirs of the Oratory, etc. show that the Central Salesian Archive was born with the very beginning of Salesian life at Valdocco. See, in this regard, what is noted in the Alphabetical Repertory of the Biographical Memoirs of St John Bosco (Turin, SEI, 1983, p. 29) under the entry Archive, and in particular the words of Fr Michele Rua to Fr Giuseppe Vespignani: “Do you not know that every little writing of Don Bosco is jealously preserved in the archives?” (MB XII, 380).

Periodisation

The Central Salesian Archive essentially preserves documentation later than 1815, the year in which the founder St John Bosco was born. 1859 is the reference year for the foundation of the Salesian Society; the decree of approval is from 1869 and the approval of the Constitutions by the Holy See from 1874. It may be useful to recall the Bibliofilo cattolico (1875), later the Bollettino Salesiano (1878). The Biographical Memoirs of Fr Giovanni Bosco (1898–1948) are a further reference, as are the Annals of Fr E. Ceria.

Secretaries General

The ASC is currently headed by the Secretary of the General Council (initially called the Superior Chapter and later the Superior Council), who, from the beginnings of the Congregation, deals directly with the archival collections, together with the Director, who works in close collaboration.

We recall the members particularly associated with matters of secretariat and archives, and the Secretaries General:

  • Fr Gioachino Berto, secretary of Don Bosco (1847–1914) [1880–1885] (read profile). This was 1862. He was not a technical archivist. As Don Bosco’s secretary he began to collect, keep and arrange correspondence, manuscripts, documents, notes… He used an empirical, primitive, personal ordering. He then left Don Bosco’s secretariat. This was 1882. He died in 1914. (His collaborators were Fr Rua, Fr Lago, Fr Lazzero, Fr Dalmazzo, Fr Schlapfer.)

  • Fr Carlo Ghivarello, secretary and general bursar (1835–1913) (read profile)

  • Fr Giulio Barberis (1847–1927) (read profile)

  • Fr Giovanni Battista Lemoyne, secretary of the council (1839–1916) [1885–1909] (read profile)

  • Fr Giuseppe Rinetti, secretary of Fr Rua (1854–1937) (read profile)

  • Fr Calogero Gusmano, secretary (1872–1935) [1910–1935] (read profile)

  • Fr Salvatore Puddu (1874–1964) [1936–1961] (read profile)

  • Fr Tiburzio Lupo (1901–2001) [1962–1971] (read profile)

  • Fr Domenico Britschu (1932–2020) [1972–1984] (read profile)

  • Fr Francesco Maraccani (1936–2020) (1984–2002) (read profile)

  • Fr Marian Stempel [2002–15]

  • Fr Stefano Vanoli [2015–22]

  • Fr Guido Garino [2022–…]

From 1961 (cf. General List SDB 1961), alongside the Secretary of the General Council (then called the Superior Chapter), a Salesian was appointed as Head of Office of the Secretariat of the Superior Chapter, specifically responsible for the personal records of the Salesians, the statistics of the Congregation and the preservation of the archive papers: in that year this was Fr Tomás Bordas (1889–1968) (read profile). Thus the figure of the Director of the Central Salesian Archive gradually took shape: reporting to the Secretary General, he directly manages the administration of the Archive and coordinates the work of the staff.

The archival material of the Congregation, as can be seen in the General Lists of the Society of St Francis de Sales, was kept from the beginning in the Mother House of Valdocco (Direzione Generale Opere Don Bosco) until 1972, when, with the transfer of the Rector Major Fr Luigi Ricceri, his Council and the Salesian members involved in the councillors’ work, from Turin-Valdocco to Rome in Via della Pisana 1111 (the new seat of the Direzione Generale Opere Don Bosco and of the General House), all of the said material was brought to this new residence.

Subsequently, that is, at the end of the 1980s, work began — with the help of the new equipment — to code the archival material according to a methodology conforming to the criteria of the archival discipline and to the Classification Scheme of the Central Salesian Archive, starting with the Don Bosco fonds. This work has already produced satisfactory results in numerous studies and research and continues with criteria that can be improved.

In 1985 the Rector Major Fr Egidio Viganò promulgated, on an experimental basis, the Regulations of the Central Salesian Archive, currently in force, which consist of 39 articles and determine the rules concerning the governance and administration of the Archive, the archivists, consultation and organisation (cf. Acts of the General Council no. 314 – 1985). The text of some particularly significant articles of the Regulations indicates that: the Central Salesian Archive collects, in a suitably equipped room, all the acts and documents concerning the central government of the Salesian Society of St John Bosco. It is administered by a dedicated Office, under the responsibility of the Secretary General of the Salesian Society (Art. 1). The Salesian archival staff is chosen by the Rector Major, having consulted the Secretary General and the Director of the Archive. External staff is hired by the General Bursar, having consulted the same (Art. 9). Scholars who apply to the Director of the Archive on the appropriate form and present a letter of recommendation from their religious or academic Superior (if they do not themselves hold such or an analogous role) or from a person in an official position who can offer a guarantee of trust are admitted to consult the documentation. The validity period of the letter of recommendation is determined by those who sign it; in any case it is never longer than one year (Art. 20).

Deserving in preserving

(cf. (BS 1979/04) (BS 1981/04))

The Salesian archive has a curious history.

“Some of those who lived alongside Don Bosco — Fr Torras recounts — filled notebooks with the events that happened before their eyes.” One of those first Salesians was Fr Domenico Ruffino (read profile), who began to note down Don Bosco’s sayings and deeds from 1859, when he was still a cleric. Another was Fr Giovanni Bonetti (read profile), who later became the first editor of the Bollettino Salesiano and published in instalments in his magazine the book “Cinque lustri di storia dell’Oratorio salesiano”. But the figure of Don Bosco appeared to his sons so remarkable that in 1861 they committed to taking note of everything, and set up a commission that would meet quite frequently (at least two or three times a month) to review what had been written. There were 14 on the commission, and among them illustrious names such as Fr Rua, Fr Barberis, Fr Cagliero, besides the members already mentioned. Today’s Salesians owe much gratitude to these chroniclers, who enriched them with their first-hand documents. Suffice it to say that some 500 pages each survive from Fr Bonetti and Fr Ruffino, a thousand from Fr Viglietti, and as many as 8,000 from Fr Barberis. While Don Bosco was still alive, two other Salesians rendered themselves deserving in preserving and enriching the documentary material now held in the Salesian archive: Fr Giovanni Battista Lemoyne and Fr Gioachino Berto. Fr Lemoyne would become the historian of Don Bosco (to him are due the first 9 of the 19 volumes that make up the monumental biography “Biographical Memoirs of Don Bosco”).

In 1883 Don Bosco had called him to his side as his personal secretary; then, a few days later, he asked him with his usual delicacy: “How long do you intend to stay with Don Bosco at the Oratory?”; and Fr Lemoyne replied: “Until the end of time.” As for Fr Berto, he had previously served as secretary, beginning already as a cleric, and accompanied Don Bosco on long journeys through Italy and elsewhere; he remained at his side until his poor health forced him to leave the delicate task to others. But he remained for the rest of his life the faithful guardian of Don Bosco’s memoirs.

In the 1930s Fr Tomás Bordas began the reordering of all the material collected until then, introducing a complex decimal classification system that has remained in use to this day. Fr Bordas was not a technical archivist. He began working with Fr Schlapfer (read profile) as early as 1926. From 1948 he began to classify the old documentary material (Fr Berto, Fr Schlapfer…). Around 1950 he compiled the Classification Scheme, which was applied only to the new material entering the archive from that year. In 1953 he published the contribution “La Clasificación Decimal aplicada a la Congregación Salesiana para sus bibliotecas y archivos”, in the “Boletín Oficial de Archivos, Museos y Bibliotecas”, Madrid, II, no. 14 (1953) pp. 13–16. (Among his collaborators: Mr G. Balestra, Fr A. Cicuta, Mr Panetta, Mr Curto, Fr U. Bisi, Fr L. Tavano, Fr G. Birkenbihil, Fr A. Borio, Fr S. Gallo.)

The work was completed between 1961 and 1965 by Fr Pietro Stella, an eminent historian and professor at the Salesian Pontifical Athenaeum, who had studied Archival Science. He prepared an index based on the cards of Section 1 of the decimal classification made by Fr Bordas.

From 1965 Fr Fenyö Vendel, a graduate in archival science from the Vatican School, continued the activity with care and dedication. Mr A. Opezzo and Fr G. Homola collaborated with Fr Vendel.

Meanwhile the archive was being enriched with new contributions, original texts or photocopies thereof, from the most diverse sources; most of these documents remain unpublished.

To rediscover unity in Don Bosco

The aims that can be achieved with the new initiative of the 1980s are numerous. For consultation, the cards are offered instead of the original material, and it is thus possible to preserve the latter longer. The placing of the cards (microfiches) themselves in three different locations around the world puts the material in safety, in case of destruction due to fire or war.

Scholars have thus had their access to the material of the Central Archive made easier. By consulting the catalogue they can identify the cards of interest and request them at minimal cost (the 60 pages of a card cost about two thousand lire — in the 1980s — i.e. 33 lire per side of documents). It is no longer necessary to make long journeys to reach the archive; it is as if the archive itself came to their home.

Scholars will thus be able to address the problem, raised in recent years, of the critical foundation of what has been said and written about Don Bosco so far. There was a suspicion in the air that many brushstrokes of his historical portrait were the fruit of sentimental enthusiasm rather than rigorous objective research. The immense mass of material used in the past, and now made accessible to all, is proving the first historians right, and in particular the authors of the “Biographical Memoirs”: they certainly worked driven by a deep love for Don Bosco, but what they wrote seems to rest substantially on serious and reliable documentation.

Fr Torras adds — in the article that appeared in the BS: “Handling this material, one can not only know better the truth of the facts and sayings of Don Bosco, but many times also grasp its psychological moment, his joy, the sufferings of his spirit.” And he explains with an example. In 1867 Don Bosco ran the risk of seeing one of his booklets, entitled “Il centenario di san Pietro”, end up on the index of forbidden books, because of malicious censures that were being relentlessly moved against him from Rome. The matter may astonish today, knowing how much Don Bosco loved the Pope. But it happened. Among the microfilmed cards are also those of the booklet corrected in his own hand by Don Bosco, so that in a second edition the incriminated phrases would be corrected. And the last page bears, written in large letters, not so much a devout ejaculatory prayer as a cry: “Mary Help of Christians, help me!”

In essence, the initiatives carried out by Fr Alfonso Torras on the material of the Central Salesian Archive will make possible a dream and a decision taken by the General Chapter in 1977: “May the Congregation, today spread throughout the world, return to rediscover its unity and authenticity in its founder Don Bosco.”

In the period 1990–92 the archive in Via della Pisana, 1111, in Rome, was upgraded and improved in terms of structures and working equipment. Rooms necessary for the work of the archivists and for the preservation of the archival material were created: the staff working room (a large, bright room provided with suitable equipment and aids); the consultation room, adjacent to the previous one (to welcome scholars and researchers consulting ASC documents for theses, studies or personal or institutional research); and the large deposit room, into which the archival material was transported and where it was kept and guarded in special archival cabinets, divided into about 7,000 containers. The air-conditioned and dehumidified deposit has been kept under control. For this work of arrangement, technical reorganisation and methodological setup, it is natural to express heartfelt gratitude to Fr Tarcisio Valsecchi (read profile) and Fr Vendel Fenyö (director of the ASC from 1968 to 1987) (read profile); from 1985 to Fr Raffaele Farina until 1992; Fr Ugo Santucci 1980–81… There were also the other directors and collaborators who have given and continue to give their contribution: Fr Mieczyslaw Kaczmarzyk (director of the ASC from 1992 to 1999) (read profile), Ms Elena Moretti and Ms Carla Riccioni. The most recent directors of the ASC have been Fr Francisco Hurtado Castellanos (from 1999 to 2008), Fr Luigi Cei (from 2008 to 2019) and Fr Petr Zelinka (from 2019 to 2023).

Since October 2017 the ASC has been in a new location at the Salesian Pontifical University in Piazza dell’Ateneo Salesiano 1 in Rome. The move of all the precious documents was very demanding. Currently (2023) the ASC is in temporary premises, awaiting its arrangement in the new location within the UPS campus area.

A note from the Historical Institute

In 2000, the following informative note appeared in the periodical Ricerche Storiche Salesiane of the Historical Institute (RSS 2000/1/148-168)