University of the Third Age at Mazzarelli

Mornese (Italy). The local branch of the University of the Third Age – UNITRE was established in Mornese on the initiative of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians who since 1872 have spent their lives in Education at the service of young people in the FMA Institute.

The Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians was founded on 5 August 1872 by St. John Bosco and St. Mary Domenica Mazzarello. The Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, consecrated to God, dedicate their lives to the human, Christian, and Salesian Education of young people. Don Bosco chose for them Mary, the Help of Christians, who knew how to embody and live the pedagogy of caring, which makes their educational passion for young people concrete and makes them women who generate life in the heart of Contemporaneity.

The initiative was carried out thanks to the work of the Community of the College of St. Mary D. Mazzarello of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Salesians of Don Bosco in Mornese, in the Piedmont Province of Mary Help of Christians – IPI, supported by the Municipality of Mornese and other realities of the territory, such as the Union Montana Dal Tobbio at Colma and the Management Body of the Protected Areas of the Piedmont Apennines, of which Mornese is a member.

It is the first University of the Third Age of Ovada, a reference point for Mornese and for another twenty-one municipalities: Casaleggio Boiro, Lerma, Tagliolo Monferrato, Belforte Monferrato, Montaldeo, Castelletto d’Orba, Silvano d’Orba, Ovada, Molare, Carpeneto , Predosa, Fresonara, Montaldo Bormida, Bosio, Gavi, Carrosio, Voltaggio, Fraconalto, Parodi Ligure, San Cristoforo.

As evidence of the heterogeneity of the territory represented, the board consists of: the President, Mrs. Cristina Pietrapiana, Municipal Councilor of Mornese; Vice President, Danilo Repetto of Casaleggio Boiro, former President of the Protected Areas of the Piedmontese Apennines; Treasurer, Mario Carrea of Mornese. The Director of the courses will be Sr. Gianna Guido of the FMA Community of Mornese, and the Secretary, Giampaolo Paravidino of Belforte.

The courses will be held at the Shrine dedicated to St. Mary Domenica Mazzarello in the Mazzarelli hamlet. There are many courses and workshops already planned for the 2021-2022 academic year: courses in Italian Literature, Languages, Journalists’ Experiences, Walking in the memory of the past and in the green, Digital culture and New technologies, Psychology of age development, Medicine, Politics and Law, Music, Rediscovery of Mornese places and Mother Mazzarello, Theology of beauty, Travel reportage, Missionary experiences, and cooking, embroidery, computer science, theater, and crafts workshops.

There will be conferences open to all, held by qualified speakers and experts to promote local cultures and open up to new cultural horizons.

The rooms are adequately structured, in compliance with health regulations, in presence and, if necessary, online and streaming organization of the various initiatives will be guaranteed.

The courses will start in September 2021 and will end in June 2022.

For the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Formation holds a place of priority in continuous and dynamic fidelity to the Founders,
St John Bosco and St Mary Domenica Mazzarello, 
and in the openness to changes and cultural challenges of the historical context from which new formative needs emerge.