Don Bosco Feast Day Celebrations 2026, Pt. I

Courtesy of Rosina Di Felice, Salesian Cooperator; Julia St. Clair, Province Communications Director; and Fr. Eddie Chincha, SDB, CYM, St. John Bosco Parish

The feast of St. John Bosco took place last Saturday, January 31. Various celebrations were held over the past week, and some are still ongoing. Three communities shared how they celebrated our founder with us. Here’s what they said:

ETOBICOKE

The feast of St. John Bosco was celebrated at St. Benedict Parish at all weekend Masses on Saturday, January 31, and Sunday, February 1.

At the 12:45 p.m. Mass on Sunday, Fr. John Puntino, Salesian director, presided. Concelebrants were Fr. Steve DeMaio, SDB, and Fr. Ondrej Smidriak, an archdiocesan priest and Salesian Cooperator.

At the end of Mass, the Salesian Cooperators renewed their promise in this 150th anniversary year of the founding of the Salesian Cooperators. The Salesian Family, which included SDBs, FMAs, Cooperators, ADMA, past pupils, and other Salesian Family members, gathered for a luncheon after Mass. The day concluded with a presentation and discussion of a video of this year's strenna.

NEW ROCHELLE

The Salesians of New Rochelle held a Mass to celebrate Don Bosco on Friday, January 30, at 10:00 a.m. at the Wiegand Center. Cardinal Timothy Dolan celebrated the Mass and remarked how grateful he was for the Salesians.

“I love the Salesians, and I consider Don Bosco one of my best friends in heaven,” Cardinal Dolan beamed.

Cardinal Dolan shared how he first learned about Don Bosco in the second grade from Sr. Mary Bosco and became fascinated by the father of youth. He reminded the New Rochelle community, which consisted of Salesian High’s students, faculty, staff, and some alumni, as well as staff from Salesian Missions and the Salesian Provincial Center, of Don Bosco’s three ways that Catholics are renowned for being close to Jesus—through Mary, the most Holy Eucharist at Mass, and our Holy Father the Pope.

Cardinal Dolan also expressed his appreciation for Stony Point and the National Shrine of Mary Help of Christians, as well as for Port Chester, where he remarked that he was grateful for seeing Salesian High students help Port Chester’s immigrant and refugee community.

A special highlight was when Cardinal Dolan granted Salesian High School not one, but two days off! This honors the beloved tradition, where a student is selected to ask the bishop for a holiday in honor of Don Bosco’s feast day. The second holiday will honor Cardinal Dolan’s years of service in New York.

PORT CHESTER

St. John Bosco Parish celebrated its patronal feast day this past weekend with a youth rally consisting of 250 young people from the parish, 800 people for a special Mass, and an indoor food festival.

This was a beautiful end to the community's Don Bosco Week, where many activities were offered in the evenings that led up to January 31. One of these activities was the Don Bosco Art Contest, where parish children created drawings and paintings of Don Bosco. The kids were very motivated to participate once they heard that the winner would get to cut Fr. Eddie Chincha’s hair in public. This was part of the skit Fr. Eddie and the children put together about the time Don Bosco gave a barber apprentice boy the chance to cut his hair if the boy would agree to visit the Oratory. Even though he received a bad haircut, Don Bosco showed he really meant it when he said: “da mihi animas, caetera tolle.”

Fr. Eddie remembered that he first saw this skit performed when he attended a retreat in Stony Point as a high school student. He became inspired and excited to live his faith more authentically after that retreat.

“I wanted to share the same experience with others today,” Fr. Eddie exclaimed. “Buzzing off my hair was a small sacrifice compared to the work our staff, volunteers, Salesian Family members, SDB community, and young leaders do on a regular basis.” They had to work extra hard when St. John Bosco Church lost its heat suddenly in the wake of the January 25-26 snowstorm that affected most of the U.S.

“We lost our heating in the church very suddenly and worked on it right away,” Fr. Eddie detailed. “We had almost nobody coming to Mass last weekend because of the snowstorm, but still, we never closed the church doors. We viewed these difficulties as signs indicating that we are doing things right, even though the enemy of human nature wanted to derail us. Suffice to say, we didn’t let it. The important thing was our parish was happy to celebrate Don Bosco, and our young people had a great experience of the festive oratory.”

To show how your community, parish, school, and/or work honored Don Bosco’s feast day this year, please send your stories and accompanying photos to communications@salesians.org, by Monday, February 9, in accordance with the submission guidances.