Filippo Rinaldi

Filippo Rinaldi made his perpetual vows on August 13, 1880, in the hands of Don Bosco. He was ordained a priest at the end of December 1882. Shortly after, he was appointed director of the house in Mathi, which was responsible for the formation of adults aspiring to Salesian life. In 1889, Don Michele Rua, the first successor of Don Bosco, sent him to Spain as director of the house in Sarrià, near Barcelona. In 1892, he became provincial (inspector) for Spain and Portugal. During his twelve years in the Iberian Peninsula, he gave a decisive impetus to the Salesian work, founding sixteen new houses and greatly fostering the development of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (the Salesian Sisters). In 1901, Don Michele Rua recalled him to Turin to occupy the position of Prefect General (Vicar General) of the Salesian Congregation. For twenty years, he deployed immense activity: he watched over vocations, supported the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, and organized the laity. Notably, he founded the World Federations of Past Pupils (men and women) of Don Bosco. It was also during this period that he laid the foundations for a major work. On May 20, 1917, he gathered three young women (Maria Verzotti, Francesca Riccardi, and Luigina Carpanera) who desired to live a consecrated life while remaining in the world. This meeting marked the foundation of the "Zealatrices of Mary Help of Christians," which would later become the Secular Institute of the Volunteers of Don Bosco (VDB). This institute, recognized by pontifical right in 1978, proposes an innovative form of secular consecration, allowing its members to bear witness to the Gospel in their ordinary environment, without a religious habit or common life. In 1922, following the death of Don Paolo Albera, Filippo Rinaldi was elected the third successor of Don Bosco as Rector Major. Under his rectorship, the congregation experienced unprecedented growth, going from 6,000 to 10,000 members, with the opening of more than 250 new houses. He gave an extraordinary impetus to the missions by sending more than 1,800 Salesians throughout the world and obtained from Pope Pius XI the indulgence of "sanctified work."

Exhausted by incessant labor and weakened by a persistent illness, Filippo Rinaldi passed away in Turin on December 5, 1931, at the age of 75. His reputation for holiness, already immense during his lifetime, prompted the Archdiocese of Turin to open his informative process for beatification on November 5, 1947. On January 3, 1987, Pope John Paul II promulgated the decree recognizing the heroic nature of his virtues, thereby declaring him venerable.

The beatification of Filippo Rinaldi was made possible thanks to the recognition of a miracle that occurred in April 1945. Sister Carla De Noni, a 34-year-old nun belonging to the Missionary Institute of the Passion of Jesus Christ, was traveling by tram between Villanova and Mondovì to supply partisans. The convoy was strafed by an Allied aircraft. Sister Carla was seriously wounded: a projectile shattered and carried away a large part of her lower jaw, while other bullets struck her lung and left arm. Transported to the Bosio clinic in Mondovì, she was treated by the surgeon Giuseppe Lamberti, who considered her case hopeless. On April 26, Mother Margherita Lazzari (Virginia Lazzari), founder of the congregation and a former spiritual daughter of Filippo Rinaldi, had her brought back to the convent to die. As the wounded woman entered her agony on April 27, the sisters began a novena of prayers invoking the intercession of Filippo Rinaldi. Sister Carla survived and, at the end of June 1945, she suddenly felt healed. An X-ray taken on July 15, 1945, noted with astonishment that the bone of her jaw, destroyed over several centimeters, had completely and perfectly regenerated. After examining the medical reports, the Medical Consulta of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints declared this healing scientifically inexplicable in June 1989. Pope John Paul II officially approved the miracle on March 3, 1990. Filippo Rinaldi was solemnly beatified by Pope John Paul II on April 29, 1990, in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. His mortal remains are today venerated in the crypt of the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Turin. His liturgical memorial is set for December 5.

Filippo Rinaldi deeply marked the Salesian Family through his gentleness, humility, and spiritual fatherhood, to the point of often being described as a "living image of Don Bosco." He knew how to embody and transmit the essence of Don Bosco's Preventive System, not by mechanically repeating the past, but by boldly adapting it to the challenges of the 20th century. His famous maxim summarizes this vision: "We must not ask ourselves so much what Don Bosco did, but rather what Don Bosco would do today." His most innovative legacy remains the secular Institute of the Volunteers of Don Bosco (VDB), which today counts more than a thousand consecrated laywomen present on every continent, silently and fruitfully extending the Salesian charism at the heart of the world.