Spiritual Itineraries

Turin is not just history and beauty; it is also a city of great spirituality. The Holy Shroud is kept in its Cathedral, the image printed on a linen sheet, an icon, for us Christians, of the crucified, dead and risen Lord Jesus. It is also the city where the breath of the Holy Spirit has raised great figures of Saints and Social Prophets, people who saw the needs of the poor of their time and bent down to help them, embodying the evangelical spirit.

Since the beginning of the 19th century, great figures of believers have put their lives at the service of the most needy brothers. We remember, among others, Canon Giuseppe Cottolengo (founder of an order with hospitals in 15 countries around the world), Giulia and Tancredi di Barolo (founders of a Pious Work around which various volunteer associations still gather and operate today), Saint John Bosco (founder of the Salesians, spread throughout the world), Blessed Giuseppe Allamano (founder of the Consolata Missionaries), Saint Giuseppe Cafasso (also known as “the priest of the gallows” for his apostolate among prisoners and those condemned to death). In the early 1900s, we remember the testimony and charitable work of Blessed Piergiorgio Frassati, who is still today a reference for many Catholic youth associations throughout Italy.

This spirit of attention and charity is embodied in our days in the work of numerous associations, among which stand out the Gruppo Abele, founded by Don Luigi Ciotti in 1965, which mainly deals with combating social marginalization, offering support to people in difficulty such as drug addicts, homeless people and victims of trafficking, and Sermig (Youth Missionary Service), founded in 1964 by Ernesto Olivero, which is dedicated to promoting peace, solidarity and aid to those in need, through social, educational and humanitarian projects in Italy and around the world.

With this premise, we thought of inviting participants to share this peculiar “social” spirituality of the city of Turin, proposing five guided itineraries in the footsteps of the saints of charity. Many of the places that will be visited, chosen for their beauty and accessibility, are linked to the life and works of Saint John Bosco, but some of the participants will have the opportunity to get to know Blessed Frassati, Saint Giuseppe Cafasso and Blessed Allamano more closely. All under the merciful gaze of the Mother of God, who in the city of Turin has a history of strong devotion and veneration that is particularly summed up in the image of the “Consolata“.