The Salesian past pupils

On January 31 this year, the Half a Century Ago column read thus: "There was plenty of hand-shaking and reminiscing at St Patrick's School yesterday morning, 31st January 1954. A large number of old boys, including some who left the school 20 years ago, turned up for the rally which is to pave way for the formation of the St Patrick's Old Boys' Association". This was repeated last Saturday, this time to celebrate 50 years of friendship, assistance, sporting activities and participation in international events of the association.

The Salesian past pupils movement knows its beginning on the feast of St John the Baptist, June 24, 1870. On that day, Carlo Gastini, who in 1847 was a pupil of Don Bosco at Valdocco, Turin and later in 1870 taught book-binding at the same oratory, got the idea of bringing together some of his former companions, bought six cups and saucers and presented them to Don Bosco on his feast day as a sign of appreciation and thanks for the education received.

This was repeated year after year during Don Bosco's lifetime. In one of these encounters, Don Bosco made the following speech, which has been considered since as the identity card of the past pupils of Salesian schools. He said: "I see that quite a number of you have lost your hair, in others it has turned grey and your foreheads have become wrinkled. You are no longer the boys I once loved so much but I feel an even greater love for you now than I did then because your presence here today tells me that you still have firmly rooted in your heart those principles of our holy religion that I taught you and that they still guide you in your life. You were once only a little group but now the group has grown and will grow greater. You will be a light shining in the midst of the world and by your example you will teach others how they must do good and detest and avoid evil. I am sure you will continue to be Don Bosco's consolation".

As Don Bosco predicted, the movement has grown worldwide. Each Salesian school has its own past pupils movement. The idea of forming this association at St Patrick's took concrete steps when, in 1945, the late Robbie Farrugia got together some of his contemporary students of St Patrick's, the likes of Oscar Lucas, Busietta, Edward Frendo Cumbo, Paul Calleja and Andrew Farrugia, and set the ball rolling to form a committee.

The idea behind the past pupils movement is stated in its statute which says that they "intend to consolidate the bond of friendship which binds them to their educators and unites them among themselves and to preserve and develop the principles which were at the foundation of their formation so as to express them in authentic life commitments".

In 1946, since the association at the time had no official premises, they used to meet in a small room hired at the Alhambra Buildings, in Sliema. The first football team was made up of players like D. Cosby, J. Pisani, A. Abela, J. Gatt, P. Falzon and u A. Farrugia.

In remembering the beginnings of the past pupils movement at St Patrick's one cannot leave out the great amount of help given by Dr J. Pace, Carmelo Cassar, owner of Marsovin, and Fr John McKean to see the movement flourishing.

Today, the Salesian past pupils movement of St Patrick's is still going strong thanks to the enthusiasm and dynamism of the committees that have been elected over the years. The movement is affiliated to the worldwide movement and often participates in international meetings like Eurobosco and the World Assembly of Past Pupils. As expected the gathering which took place at St Patrick's last Saturday was a repetition of what happened 50 years ago where there was a lot of hand-shaking and reminiscing among the past pupils some of whom have not seen each other since the day they left school.

Congratulations and ad multos annos.