One day in 1847, Don Bosco called into a barber's shop. He got into conversation with an 11-year-old assistant whose father had died and ended up asking the barber to let the lad Carlo Gastini have a go at shaving him. It was an ordeal for Carlo and Don Bosco!
Then one day ... on 24 June 1870, feast of John the Baptist, when the Oratory was celebrating Don Bosco's 'name-day' Carlo, by now 34 years old, has prepared a surprise for his beloved Don Bosco. He brings along a group of former pupils of the Oratory. He has a speech ready. He explains that 'the old boys of the Oratory' have formed themselves into a group and have come to him, on his name-day to present him with a gift as a 'sign of affection for our father Don Bosco' and their appreciation for the education he had given them.
As a sign of their undying affection they have brought him a set of coffee cups - not an expensive gift, but one of great sentimental value. The exchange embodied what the Past Pupils' movement came to signify: appreciation for the education received; repaying their efforts by living as song of Don Bosco, showing the world they could at the same time be, as Don Bosco wanted, good Christians and honest citizens.
From that first group considered to be the 'mother' association, a vast movement of Past Pupils of Don Bosco arose and is today world-wide.
[Extract from the article, 'It began with a set of coffee cups!' in The Salesian Bulletin of the Province of Ireland, October - December 2019 Issue, p. 6.]
Not much later, Carlo's mother died and, remembering Don Bosco's kindness to him, Carlo wen to Don Bosco who welcomed him with open arms. He took up book binding, and ran the workshop for a number of years and only left the Oratory when he was able to support himself. Now and then he would return to Valdocco to greet Don Bosco and receive an encouraging word from him.
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| Carlo Gastini in the workshop amidst the boys |
As a sign of their undying affection they have brought him a set of coffee cups - not an expensive gift, but one of great sentimental value. The exchange embodied what the Past Pupils' movement came to signify: appreciation for the education received; repaying their efforts by living as song of Don Bosco, showing the world they could at the same time be, as Don Bosco wanted, good Christians and honest citizens.
From that first group considered to be the 'mother' association, a vast movement of Past Pupils of Don Bosco arose and is today world-wide.
[Extract from the article, 'It began with a set of coffee cups!' in The Salesian Bulletin of the Province of Ireland, October - December 2019 Issue, p. 6.]
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