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.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
