Rome (Italy). On 18 April 2025, is the celebration of the 156th anniversary of the ADMA Association, the Association of the Devotees of Mary Help of Christians, founded by Don Bosco to promote veneration of the Blessed Sacrament and devotion to Mary Help of Christians, and was canonically erected in the Shrine of Mary Help of Christians in Turin on 18 April 1869, by Blessed Pius IX.
Responding to the urgencies and signs of the times, Don Bosco gave life to various apostolic forces and a vast movement of people who in different ways work for the benefit of young people and the working classes.
This year, the celebration of the 156th anniversary is placed in the heart of the Easter Triduum. Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, Rector Major emeritus of the Salesians, stressed the importance of Eucharistic worship and devotion to the Immaculate Help of Christians as a founding point for the spirituality and life of the Association, recalling the two pillars of the educative system and Salesian spirituality: “The Christ who dominates the existence of Don Bosco is, predominantly, the living Jesus present in the Eucharist, the Bread of life, the Son of Mary, Mother of God and of the Church. Don Bosco lived in their presence. (…) For his path of growth and of the young, there is no way to holiness without the Eucharist”.
And continuing: “Don Bosco willingly insists on the fact that Mary will intervene promptly every time she is invoked with filial affection and one will follow her exhortation concerning Jesus: ‘Do whatever he tells you’ (Jn 2:5); because Mary continuously intervenes in the life of her children. With this certainty, the ‘devotees’ of Mary Help of Christians are called to participate in her queenship in the daily struggle against evil, always keeping the light of hope lit, even in the darkest moments of the history of a family, a community, a people.”
Today, the members of ADMA carry out their mission in communion and fidelity to the Pastors of the Church and in collaboration with other ecclesial groups, especially those of the Salesian Family, in which they emphasize and spread popular Marian devotion as an instrument of evangelization and promotion of the working classes and needy youth.
In today’s world context, Don Bosco’s words come back forcefully: “We Christians must unite in these difficult times. Being among many who do good animates us without our being aware of it” (MB 7, 602).
