Peru – 120th anniversary of the Salesian Province of Peru

26 January 2022

(ANS - Lima) - Since the time of Don Bosco, the Salesian world has been organized in Provinces. Today there are several dozen, but at the time of the founder's death in 1888, there were only five: three in Europe and two in the Americas.

When the Salesians arrived in Peru in 1891 and founded the house in Lima (located on the Rímac), they did not immediately create a Province. In the early years, Salesian houses belonged to Provinces based in other countries in the region, such as Argentina, Chile, and Ecuador. At first, they depended on Msgr. Giovanni Cagliero, Vicar of Rector Major Fr Rua in Latin America, who was resident in Argentina. Then, in 1893, they were annexed to the newly founded Province of St. Gabriel the Archangel, with headquarters in Chile. In 1894 they became dependent on the Ecuadorian province and then, after the expulsion of the Salesians from Ecuador, they returned administratively to the Chilean province.

As time passed, the number of Salesian houses in Peru increased. The first house in Rimac, moved to Breña in 1897, was joined by those in Arequipa and Callao, as well as a short-lived presence at the Hacienda Hoja Redonda in Ica. The Salesians then received invitations to settle in other Peruvian cities, a sign that the expansion would continue in the following years. It was in this context that on January 20, 1902, 120 years ago, the Salesian Province of Peru (PER) was created, with headquarters in Lima-Breña and placed under the patronage of Saint Rose of Lima, still the patroness of PER today. The Salesian houses of Bolivia were also annexed to it.

The first Provincial of this new circumscription was Fr Ciriaco Santinelli, under whose mandate the Salesian houses of Cusco and Piura were created.

The history of the province can be divided into two major phases, roughly 60 years each. The first, from 1902 to 1963, covers the period in which it was a two-nation province as it included the houses of Peru and Bolivia. During this period the Salesian work in Peru expanded to Cusco (1905), Piura (1906), Huancayo (1923), Magdalena del Mar (1923), Ayacucho (1942), Chosica (1954), as well as to other fronts that have now disappeared, such as Puno (1928).

The second period began in 1963 when the Salesian houses in Bolivia became independent and formed their own Province. Fr Carlos Cordero, the first Peruvian to hold this position, was named the first Provincial of this new stage, in which Salesian work reached remote places such as Monte Salvado (1985), Pucallpa (2009), and San Lorenzo (2001), among others.

120 years after the canonical establishment of the "Santa Rosa of Lima" province, it is possible to see how Fr Rua's desire to make this province the great engine for the construction of Don Bosco's dream in Peru is being fulfilled.

To mark the anniversary, the PER province has also made a commemorative video.

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ANS - “Agenzia iNfo Salesiana” is a on-line almost daily publication, the communication agency of the Salesian Congregation enrolled in the Press Register of the Tibunal of Rome as n 153/2007.

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