“A feast that touches our hearts” is how Mother Lucia Bortolomasi, Superior General of the Consolata Missionaries, defined the celebration of the first feast of Saint Joseph Allamano after his canonization. The Holy Mass took place on the morning of February 16, 2025 in the Church and Sanctuary dedicated to him in the Mother House of the Consolata Missionaries.
By Michelangelo Piovano and Stefania Raspo *
A family celebration among missionaries, lay people, friends, benefactors and faithful who attend Mass in this church every Sunday. The two General Councils, missionaries from the communities of Turin and the surrounding area, young people in formation and novices who animated the celebration with songs in several languages were present.
The Mass was presided over by Father James Lengarin, Superior General of the Consolata Missionaries, who in his homily led us to look at the Word announced by Jesus in the Synagogue of Nazareth as a Word that comes alive and becomes action in his life, ministry and mission. A Word that becomes closeness and attention to everyone and in particular to the poorest and most forgotten. In this Word we also read the invitation for every missionary to live our specific vocation to the mission in the sign of consolation.
This was the life of Saint Joseph Allamano, lived in constant tension towards the sanctity that he achieved in the daily fulfillment of his duty, in doing ordinary things in an extraordinary way and always with a profound spirit of humility. Today’s celebration also wanted to start the journey that will lead us to the celebration of the centenary of his birth in heaven and that we will celebrate on February 16, 2026. A journey that wants to involve everyone and that will be marked by moments of reflection that must first of all transform our personal life and that of our communities.
At the end of the celebration, Mother Lucia Bortolomasi thanked for the gift of the missionary heart of Saint Joseph Allamano, who also invites us to live and act, opening our hearts to welcome everyone. Sister Simona Brambilla, Prefect for the Dicastery of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, was also present at the celebration. In her thanksgiving, starting from the words of Paul in the letter to the Thessalonians, in which he says that he became loving among them, as a mother takes care of her children, so we too, looking at the life and example of Allamano, are called to have this paternal and above all maternal loving-kindness towards everyone.
Father Oscar Clavijo, superior of the Mother House, also thanked everyone for the beautiful participation and for the Consolata and Allamano Family gathered there on this festive day.
The celebration concluded at the tomb of Saint Joseph Allamano with the prayer of the two General Councils together with all the participants, presenting to him the life of our Institutes, the requests entrusted to us and the realities of the countries in which we work.
Then followed the festive family lunch with all the missionaries present at the celebration, in the dining hall there was room for everyone and thus the sharing and communion continued that make alive that spirit that Allamano so desired and invited to live in our Institutes.
At the Shrine of Our Lady Consolata
The place where Saint Joseph Allamano lived his priestly service, the place he embellished and enlarged, making it an important center of Marian devotion, the place where the project of the Missionary Institutes matured, in dialogue and prayer with the Madonna, is the Shrine of Our Lady Consolata.
The Diocese of Turin wanted to commemorate the liturgical feast of the new Saint of Turin with a celebration presided over by Cardinal Roberto Repole. Referring to the Sunday Gospel on the Beatitudes according to the Gospel of Luke, which reveal the gaze and presence of Jesus in even the most painful situations of life, Cardinal Repole presented Saint Joseph Allamano as the man who knew how to place his trust in God: the great missionary dream of Allamano, which is fulfilled to this day, was born from the intuition that this gaze of Christ could continue to be our gaze. He felt the fervor of the mission because he felt the need for so many men and women to encounter Christ, his gaze.
At the end of the celebration, the Cardinal blessed the new altarpiece dedicated to Saint Joseph Allamano, in which the Holy Priest is surrounded by Blessed Leonella Sgorbati and Irene Stefani, Canon Camisassa and Blessed Boccardo, his collaborators, and Saint Joseph Cafasso. In presenting the work, Monsignor Giacomo Maria Martinacci, rector of the Consolata Shrine, emphasized that Allamano always worked together with other people in his tireless ecclesial work, which is why he is also surrounded by many significant people in the votive painting. At the top, the Consolata, “his” Madonna. And in the lower part of the painting there is a large group of people from many different cultures, representing the peoples who welcomed the missionary work begun by Saint Joseph Allamano.
Castelnuovo Don Bosco
The Consolata Shrine and the Mother House are two important places in the life of Saint Joseph Allamano, where the liturgical feast was solemnized today. But also in Castelnuovo Don Bosco, his hometown, the anniversary was celebrated, preceded by a triduum animated by the Consolata Missionaries, Fathers and Sisters. The people of Castelnuovo welcomed with joy and pride their fourth saint, after Saint Joseph Cafasso, Saint John Bosco and Saint Dominic Savio. In prayer, we reflected on holiness as a calling for everyone, even today.
* Father Michelangelo Piovano, IMC, and Sister Stefania Raspo, MC.
