Francesco Bodratto

Francesco Bodratto or Bodrato SDB (born October 18, 1823 in Mornese , † August 4, 1880 in Buenos Aires ) was an Italian teacher , religious priest and missionary in Argentina .

Life

Bodratto initially had a family with two children and was a retailer. After his wife died, he met Don Domenico Pestarino , who advised him to give up retail and finish his studies as a primary school teacher. After getting to know Don Bosco , he left his village in 1864 to go to Valdocco as a teacher . There he also decided to become a Salesian of Don Bosco . He founded various oratorios and institutions for vocational education and training in Europe.

After he was ordained a priest in 1869 as a late caller , Don Bosco made him general economist of the congregation. On November 7, 1876, he finally led the second missionary expedition with 22 Salesians from Don Bosco to Buenos Aires. There he replaced Giovanni Cagliero , who returned to Italy in 1877 and did not return until 1884 as Vicar Apostolic for Patagonia. Bodratto was initially a pastor for the Italian emigrants in the parish of Della Misericordia and director of the Ospizio San Vicente . In 1877 he took over the parish of San Giovanni Evangelista in Boca . In 1878 he founded a vocational school Collegio Pio IX for craft professions in Almagro , of which he became director himself. In the same year he became the first Provincial of the American Province of his religious community and looked after the parish of San Carlo , in which the burial was also carried out.

His letters, published in 1988, the majority of which were written between 1876 and 1880, give a good impression of the life of a missionary in Argentina.

Works

• Epistolario (1853-1880). Rome 1988.

literature

• Diccionario Biográfico Italo-Argentino (Spanish; PDF; 339 kB)