Relic statue of St John Bosco to tour Australia for Salesians’ centenary

The relic statue of St John Bosco, better known as Don Bosco, will be touring Australia as part of the celebrations of the centenary of the arrival of the Salesians on Australian soil. The Salesians first set foot in Australia at Fremantle, Western Australia, on 30 March 1923.

The wax replica of the saint is contained in a glass casket and comes from the Salesian Province of Hong Kong, where it was made by Gianpiero Zoncu at the time of Don Bosco’s beatification in 1929. A small piece of brain from the saint was removed and placed in this wax replica before being securely concealed in the large glass casket.

John Bosco was born on 16 August 1815 in a farmhouse near a small village east of Turin in northern Italy. From the time of his childhood, he felt a strong desire to help young people in need. Pursuing this mission from God, he was ordained as a priest in Turin in 1841, at the age of 26, and dedicated his entire life to helping young people to become ‘good Christians and upright citizens’. Having worked untiringly with the young for more than 40 years, Don Bosco died on 31 January 1888 in Turin. He was declared a saint by Pope Pius XI on Easter Sunday, 1 April 1934, and is the patron saint of young people.

In Catholic Christianity, a relic is an object of great reverence, helping to remind individuals of the holiness of a saint and the fulfilment of God’s work through their life. A relic can consist of anything from the bones of a saint to an object that the saint came in contact with during his or her lifetime.

The 400-kilogram glass casket containing the wax replica of St John Bosco will be received by the Salesian Province Centre in Ascot Vale, Victoria, at the end of June. It will be on tour and displayed for prayers and homage at various Salesian works in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Hobart and Perth from July to September 2023.

The relic will stay at the Catholic Leadership Centre in East Melbourne during the Salesian Biannual Educational Conference in August. It will also journey with the Salesians and many lay members to the Centenary Retreat in the last week of September at the Foothills Conference Centre in Mooroolbark.

The relic statue of St John Bosco will be farewelled from Australia during the concluding Mass of the centenary celebrations, to be led by Archbishop Peter A Comensoli on Saturday 30 September at St Margaret Mary’s parish in North Brunswick at 11am.