Dear Readers,
An April assortment of Italian Connections for you: Antonio Stradivarius (1644-1737) Italian maker of violins was a pupil of Amati, who taught him the art, which Antonio perfected. Although Antonio created beautiful violins he was not much of a toot-your-own-horn player.
In the late 1600s the finest instruments originated from three rural families whose workshops were side by side in the Italian village of Cremona. First were the Amatis, and outside their shop hung a sign: “The best violins in all Italy.” Not to be outdone, their next door neighbors, the family Guarnerius, hung a bolder sign proclaiming: “The best violins in all the world!”
At the end of the street was the workshop of Antonio Stradivarius and on its front door was a simple notice which read: “The best violins on the via (street).” Antonio’s violins are still recognized over three centuries later, as the finest ever made. Some of his more famous instruments, still in existence are the Viotti, Ernst, and Alard violins, the Paganini viola, and the Piatti violoncello. His two sons, Francesco (1671-17430 and Omobono (1679-1742), succeeded him as violin makers.
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Angela Maria Leone, or “Mama Leone” as she was fondly known, was one of early San Francisco’s most colorful Italian restaurateurs. Although she died long after the restaurant she once ran with her husband closed, many still remembered her past kindness when she died in April 1994 at age 97 and was entombed at the Italian Cemetery in Colma, California.
With her husband Antonio, Mrs. Leone started Leone’s Restaurant in North Beach in the mid-1930s, and she rapidly gained a reputation for her lasagna and chicken. By the time Leone’s was sold (and ultimately closed) in the mid-60s, it was considered one of San Francisco’s most popular Italian eateries, where politicians and movie stars rubbed shoulders with business executives, cops and construction workers.
The restaurant also served as a de facto service center for newly arrived immigrants from Northern Italy, who knew they could count on the Leones for a meal, a loan or a job. “Mama Leone” had immigrated to the United States from Varese, Italy in 1909. She originally moved to Willits in Mendocino County, where family members ran the Hotel Lombardo. She moved to San Francisco in 1914, where she met her husband-to-be.
The couple was married in the basement of Sts. Peter and Paul’s Church in 1916, as the interior of the church was not completed at the time. The couple moved to Bakersfield, where Mr. Leone labored laying railroad track. Mrs. Leone worked in the railroad camps feeding the crews and perfected her culinary skills. The couple moved back to San Francisco in the 1920s and in the mid 1930s Leone’s Ristorante opened its doors.
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April 1934, John Bosco, founder of the Salesians, was proclaimed a saint. Today in over 100 nations, Salesians are working primarily with the young, in over 3,000 schools, technical colleges and youth centers. In San Francisco alone via Sts. Peter and Paul’s Church thousands of young Italian Americans lives have been positively impacted by the Salesians.
The followers of Don Bosco, now number over 40,000 priests, brothers and sisters, making the order he founded the third largest in the Catholic Church. St. John Bosco was born in 1815 on a small farm near Becchi, a few miles from the town of Castelnuovo in the province of Asti in the Piedmontese Region of Northwestern Italy.
Don Bosco’s childhood was spent in this land of lush meadows covered with small farms where cattle were raised, fruit trees and grapes grown and where inhabitants have strong family and religious ties. As a youth he said “I want to be a priest… I want to look after neglected children.”
Priests in those days were difficult to know or to talk to, and thus he said as a student: “If ever I become a priest, I would not behave like that. I would talk to the boys and say a good word, and give them good advice.” Born on a farm of peasant stock, he had to do the wood chopping, clean the cowshed, collect the olives and fruits, cut the corn, feed the cows, do the digging, weeding and plowing. Not being satisfied with this, he taught himself to become proficient as a tailor, baker, carpenter, printer and furniture maker.
He was a skilled acrobat, musician, juggler, tightrope walker, pool player, and an athlete skilled in sports. He later became an actor, a mime, a playwright, a historian, and writer of over 150 books and pamphlets. In short, this comedian, this storyteller, this artist, this educator, and above all, this great priest, who loved his fellow human beings with all of their foibles, was to become one of the great Saints of the Roman Catholic Church, perhaps the greatest of our modern day saints.
He was destined for the priesthood and eventually ended up in Turin, which at the time was a hotbed of political intrigue and religious controversy. Don Bosco was appalled at the way the youth were being treated in Turin, particularly those who needed help the most, namely the poor and unwanted youth.
The boys who followed him were collected from the worst slums of aristocratic Turin: the dirty, the poor, the neglected, the disabled, the orphans. Such was the political and religious climate of his time. It took him over four years to find a shed for his boys and was constantly being evicted due to lack of money. He began with one boy, then fifty, and when he finally opened the doors of the first oratory in Turin, had over 500 under his wings.
By 1897 the first Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB) arrived in the United States by boat. After landing in New York they took a train to Chicago, and then continued to Oakland, California where by ferryboat they crossed the Bay to San Francisco and were met at the dock by Fr. Franco De Carolis, Pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul’s Church.
Don Bosco had a magnetism that attracted youngsters, a jocundity about him, a vivid imagination, creative wit, and above all, a practical knowledge of human nature inherited from his hardy Piedmontese stock.
His theories about education and raising boys are still in practice: “Give your boys confidence… to this end you must make yourself loved… make yourself one of them… join in the life of your pupils. Watch them, by all means, but with the supervision of a father, not of a censor… don’t wait for evil to happen; stop it from happening; prevention is better than punishment; join freely in their games; … do as I do; above all, never keep aloof.
“Stop at once any quarrel or dispute. Punishments are sometimes necessary, but put them off as long as possible and make them reasonable. The boy must be brought to admit his fault, and for this you must speak to his heart. Never humiliate him as this can give rise to resentment.
“Avoid even just anger. Do not make use of cold words or harsh expressions. Just say to the guilty child, ‘I am not pleased with you’ and in nine cases out of ten that will be enough. Don’t make a fetish out of order. Allow as much freedom as possible. Discipline is a means, not an end, so don’t make use of discipline for the sake of discipline. Discipline mortifies, destroys enthusiasm, and curbs spontaneity.
Try to keep the balance between freedom and a true discipline. It is all a matter of tact. Create around the boy a family spirit. “Praying is a joy; the boys must feel that this is so. Make yourself grow in this joy, and your boys will do likewise. This is the way of love.
There is no confidence without affection; without confidence there is no education. The first principle of authority is this: make yourself loved if you wish to be obeyed.” He insisted on his boys engaging in sports, for it was his belief that physical exercise not only kept the boys active and out of trouble but was beneficial for their spiritual well being.
Don Bosco died on January 31, 1888 in the small church of St. Frances of Sales in Turin surrounded by his disciples. His last words on earth were “Tell my boys I expect to see them in heaven.”
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