ALBERA, PAOLO

ALBERA, PAOLO. — A Salesian and the second successor to Giovanni Bosco, born at None on 6 June 1845, died at Turin on 30 October 1921. He was among the «very first» to give his name to the Pious Society of the Salesians. After several years of teaching at the college of Mirabello, he was ordained a priest in 1871 and immediately sent to open the new house in Genoa; within a year that institution had grown so much that it had to move to larger premises at Sampierdarena. His industriousness, prudence, and religious spirit led to his appointment in 1881 as inspector of the Salesian houses in France, and later, following the death of don Bosco, as general spiritual director, a position he held for 18 years. He thus had to visit nearly all the houses in Europe, Africa, and America, bringing and strengthening that interior spirit and dynamic zeal which he had learned from the founder. At the death of don M. Rua (1910), he was appointed rector major. This high office displayed even more clearly his greatness of spirit and tireless enterprise. The Pious Society of the Salesians and the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians grew considerably in number; the houses multiplied, including in the missions; and the institute was strengthened in its organization. The times did not spare him hardships; but his charity gained from them in scope. Hence his initiatives on behalf of war orphans (1916), the children of Italians expelled from Turkey (1912), and the poor children of central Europe who were victims of the earthquake. The most consoling event for him was to see himself surrounded, not long before his death, by a group of young people from nearly all the nations of America and Europe, who had gathered in Turin to prepare for their future mission as apostles, fulfilling the rector major’s most cherished design.