Salesians of Don Bosco celebrate 150 years of mission

The Salesians of Don Bosco are celebrating 150 years since their founder, St John Bosco, sent the first group of missionaries from Italy to Argentina to continue his work educating poor and marginalised youth.

A large group of people connected to Melbourne’s Salesian congregation gathered over the weekend at the Salesian College in Chadstone to reflect on this milestone as part of their 2025 mission day, the theme of which was ‘give thanks, rethink, relaunch’. Those present included Salesian priests and brothers, and students and teachers from the three schools operated in the Salesian Charism, in Chadstone, Sunbury and Ferntree Gully.

Guest speaker Fr Eric Mairura, who is from Kenya via Rome, where he’s part of the Salesians’ missionary solidarity sector, spoke of the hope that underpins the congregation’s work. His own connection to the Salesians began when he was a young teacher in Kenya. ‘I was working as a teacher when the Salesians visited my school to animate the students,’ he said. ‘I asked if I could join them because I wanted to teach while being part of something bigger.’

After his ordination in 2008, Fr Eric worked in the East African province, which at the time consisted of Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan and South Sudan. His current work in Rome involves assisting new missions like those in Samoa, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, ensuring they have financial support to train brothers and priests locally.

This empowerment of youth is central to the message of Don Bosco, Fr Eric says, adding that it resonates particularly strongly this Jubilee Year—with the Jubilee theme of hope recalling the hope that the first group of missionaries carried in their hearts to Argentina 150 years ago.

Don Bosco, who is at the foundation of our missionary activity, is a man who was strongly anchored in the hope of Christ.

‘Don Bosco is a man who always held hope: hope, even when things were not working very well; hope, even when there were disappointments,’ Fr Eric said, speaking after the event.

‘We have stories of when there was no food in the house for him to give to the young people who are living with him, but he tells them “Go to the church and pray. I will go and beg”. He goes to beg and he brings back food. That is hope.

‘So the Jubilee of Hope and the 150th anniversary remind us that Don Bosco, who is at the foundation of our missionary activity, is a man who was strongly anchored in the hope of Christ.’

Fr Eric takes inspiration from the attitude of the 19th-century saint and the earliest Salesians of never giving up. The missionaries who set off on 11 November 1875 were invited by Argentinian Catholic authorities, but it was nonetheless a pilgrimage into the unknown. Don Bosco had faith that they would be able to reach the poorest youth and offer them both an education and the Good News of the Gospel.

Our mission is to give hope to the young people ... to show these young people that if one thing does not work, that is not the end. We can still build.

‘The message that we have for the Jubilee this year, it coincides very well with the message of Don Bosco, giving hope to the young people, who seemed to despair because of the situation in which they lived,’ he says.

‘But he gave them hope by giving them skills, by empowering them, by bringing them back to Christ—some of them were baptised, but they never went to church because they did not have an opportunity.

‘He tells them, “Come back. God has not forgotten you”. So for me, that’s the connection between the Jubilee of Hope, Pilgrims of Hope, and the 150th anniversary of the first Salesian expedition.

‘For us Salesians, our mission is to give hope to the young people as there are so many challenges that young people face today. Our mission is to show these young people that if one thing does not work, that is not the end. We can still build. So that is the hope that we talk about, and Don Bosco gives us this.’