The International Conference on the History of Salesian Works organized by ACSSA in collaboration with the Salesian Historical Institute in Turin from 28 October to 1 November 2015 tried to answer this question. The Acts of the Conference have just arrived thanks to the hard work of the two editors, Sr Grazia Loparco FMA and Fr Stanislaw Zimniak SDB.
The book "Perception of Don Bosco outside Salesian Circles 1879-1965" (Rome, LAS, 2016, 909 p.) is a collection of 36 articles in various languages covering 18 countries on four continents. It is divided into three sections: a first reading of Don Bosco which covers mainly the period until his canonization in 1934; Don Bosco in print, which allows interesting comparisons between different geographical areas; and the name of Don Bosco in the streets, place names, monuments, churches, laws, oral memory and anything else found in different countries up until recent years.
The results of the large survey are interesting. They are summarized in the conclusion which, in a unique composite "original" volume like this, should be read immediately after the Introduction. Suffice to say that the figure of Don Bosco reached and became well known not only in the religious and civil environments around him, in his country, but also in places, people, distant contexts of history, culture, values, religion, race, and geography.
This is a volume of international history that poses a lot of interesting questions to readers in each country and offers some answers. It invites reflection and opens prospects for any reader who might wish to be inspired by Don Bosco. It is a volume to be savoured, not simply thumbed through hastily.
