History of the Association
Early Efforts
A Confraternity of Mary Help of Christians was founded by Capuchin Friars at Munich, Germany, in 1627. It was approved by Pope Urban VIII. The first Italian center was erected in Turin in 1657 and had its own chapel at the church of Saint Francesco di Paolo. In the first fifty years of Don Bosco's lifetime there were 10,000 members enrolled at San Francesco di Paolo alone. Over 30,000 Masses were celebrated for deceased members every year, and booklets that ran to several editions spread the prayers, novenas, and regulations of the Confraternity. Bishops and the Royal Family were among its members, with the House of Savoy as pathfinder.
One of the most significant locations was Bruino, where there was a well-known shrine to Mary Help of Christians and where the Confraternity especially flourished. The parish priest there was no less than Father Calosso, Don Bosco's own mentor, who had been assigned this pastoral field just prior to his retirement in 1829.
Don Bosco's Association
When he came to write his six booklets on L'Ausiliatrice in the 1860's, Don Bosco would borrow wholesale from the earlier booklets of the Confraternity. Soon after the consecration of the Church of Mary Help of Christians in Turin, Italy, Don Bosco founded the Association of the Devotees of Mary Help of Christians in order to spread devotion to our Lady under that title. The Association was officially approved by the Archbishop of Turin on April 18, 1869. Pope Pius IX gave his approval on April 5, 1870. On July 5, 1989, the Rector Major and the General Council of the Salesians declared officially that the Association was a member of the Salesian family.
What moved Don Bosco to found the Association was the firm conviction that "good people had to unite in doing good." He often repeated: "We Christians must be united in these difficult times," and "When many people do good they encourage one another without even knowing it."
The headquarters of the Association remains the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians, built by Don Bosco in Turin, Italy (pictured above).