Don Bosco’s relics leave Asia after year-long tour

(December 02, 2011) The relics of St John Bosco or Don Bosco, the founder of the society of Salesians of Don Bosco, ended a year-long tour of Asia on Wednesday in Sri Lanka before moving on to Africa. Thousands of local Catholics, Buddhists and Hindus lined the roads to catch a glimpse of the near-life size statue as it finished a 13-day tour of the country. According to Father Nihal Liyanage, Provincial superior of Don Bosco Fathers, thousands of people, both Catholics and Hindus, attended the services or queued in the heat to see the statue. “People prayed for permanent peace,” he said. The relics arrived in Asia on November 1, 2010 and visited South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong, Myanmar and India in preparation for the bicentenary in 2015 of Don Bosco’s birth.