What do Roman Catholic editors, youth, school children, students, magicians, apprentices and young workers have in common? They have St. John Bosco as their patron saint.{{more}}
On Thursday, Dece. 9, they will all have a chance to get close to the relic of their patron saint as it arrives from the Diocese of Kabankalan at 9 a.m., according to a press release from St. Paul University of Dumaguete.
The Educative Pastoral Community of St. Louis School-Don Bosco, with some students of different schools around Dumaguete City, are set to hold a grand welcome of the relic with a convoy starting from Sibulan up to the Dumaguete Cathedral Church for a holy mass at 10 a.m.
The public viewing is scheduled for that afternoon starting from 1p.m.
The relic will then be brought to the SLS-Don Bosco Chapel with a grand candlelight procession at 6 p.m., where public viewing for pilgrims and special activities dedicated to St. John Bosco’s relic will continue on December 10-11 at SLS — Don Bosco Chapel and school complex.
The arrival of St. John Bosco’s relic here in Dumaguete and other parts of the Philippines is part of its world tour which started from Valdocco, Italy on April 25, 2009.
The relic consists of his right hand carefully preserved inside a special case. This in turn is then placed inside a lifelike wax replica of the saint resting in a special urn for veneration. This urn is especially transported in a light truck custom built to transport the relic to its host country driven by Italian chauffeurs who have vowed never to leave the wheel and remain near the sacred relic on the entire worldwide jourmey.
St. John Bosco’s relic has been scheduled to visit five continents starting in South America and following the route of the Salesian regions in the world. The visit to East Asia and Oceania, including the Philippines will run until April 2011. The Philippine visit will be from Dec. 5 to Jan. 14 starting in Bacolod, Victorias, and Kabankalan, then going northward to Dumaguete and Cebu and areas of Luzon (Makati, Tondo, Mandaluyong, Alabang, Laguna, Tarlac, Pampanga, and Parañaque) where the presence of the Order founded by St. John Bosco in 1859 — the Salesians of Don Bosco — is very much alive today, the press release said.