Don_Bosco_with_God


Don_Bosco_with_God



1 Pages 1-10

▲back to top


1.1 Page 1

▲back to top


DON BOSCO WITH GOD
E. CERIA sc.

1.2 Page 2

▲back to top


AUTHOR'S DEDICATION
To Very Reverend
FATHER PHILIP RINALDI
Third Successor of
BLESSED JOHN BOSCO
in the year of Beatication
TRANSLATOR'S DEDICATION
To the Novices of 1942 in the hope that this Treatise on our Father's Union With God
may be of use to them.
(H. McG, s.c.)
2

1.3 Page 3

▲back to top


Contents
Introduction
4
I. AURORA CONSURGENS
8
Chapter 1 At home
9
Chapter 2 at School
13
Chapter 3 At the Seminary
19
II. SOL IN MERIDIE
25
Chapter 1 In the beginning ofhis mission
26
Chapter 2 The second stage of his mission
29
Chapter 3 In his xed home
34
Chapter 4 The time of his great foundations
41
Chapter 5 In life's troubles
53
Chapter 6 In various misfortunes
59
Chapter 7 Confessor, preacher, writer
66
III. LUCIS ANTE TERMINUM
79
Chapter 1 The gift of counsel
80
Chapter 2 Dreams, visions, ecstasies
90
Chapter 3 The gift of prayer
98
3

1.4 Page 4

▲back to top


INTRODUCTION
To simple-minded people a saint is a man of ecstasies, prophecies, and miracles. These,
however, are charismatic gifts (not essential to sanctity) graciously bestowed by God
from the beginning in order to be a lasting testimony of the Divine power of the Church
and in order to awaken, reawaken, and keep awake the thoughts of things eternal in the
minds of men. A saint is a man of God, wholly of God; a man who according to St Paul
(Gal. 2:19) lives entirely unto God; a man therefore, who in God seeks the beginning
and places the end of all his thoughts, his desires, his actions. Those who have been
regenerated in the waters of Baptism have received the elements of this supernatural
life in the grace bestowed upon them by God's innite goodness; but practically there
are very few Christians who by perfect correspondence to Divine inspiration and urgings
have reached such a state as to apply to themselves in all its extension that saying of the
same Apostle:I live, or rather not I, but it is Christ that lives in me. (Gal. 2: 20.)
Now a saint is shown to us as one who does live the supernatural life to the full, in the
measure, that is, possible for a human creature; so that habitually his citizenship is in
heaven. His abode is on earth but he is a citizen of Heaven, with his heart ever turned
there where he knows the source of all his good to be.
Herein we have the spirit of prayer understood chiey as an ascension, an elevation, a
loving dart of the soul towards God1 so that nothing on earth is able to distract her from
the supreme object of her love. It is the apprenticeship here below of the heavenly life
which will be the direct, the loving, and the eternal vision of God. With this in mind it
needs courage to confess that not all the biographies of the saints that appear nowadays
on all sides of us really contain the lives of the saints. Certainly saints have accomplished
missions also that must be placed within the framework of events contemporary to them.
In the part they took in certain currents of thought the Catholic can see, so to speak,
the hand of Divine Providence which raises up heroes at the opportune moment and in
the right place t to carry on missions of the greatest importance in the religious and
civil spheres.
Under this aspect, modern hagiographv, we shall not deny it, has swept away those
inveterate prejudices that made the saints look somewhat like wandering moon-men
having nothing to do with earth, if not monomaniacs whom people loved to call mystics.,
This was a nickname coined on account of the ignorance of mysticism and also scornfully
applied to persons privileged with experiences of the highest spiritual order. Yes, it
is a good thing to give honour to the disciples of the historical method, if the gures
of the saints can in certain places be presented nowadays without resurrecting former
antipathies. Yet, it is undeniable that in this way their true personality runs the risk of
1In the general sense, Prayer
Mentis ad Deum aectuosa
iinstfeonrtiSot..
John
Damascene
Ascensus
in
Deum;
and
for
St.
Augustine
4

1.5 Page 5

▲back to top


Contents
fading away, since the aureola that made them what they are and that ought to show
them as they really were would be cast aside. The two aspects should be distinguishable
without separating them.
How can we overlook sanctity when we study the saints? Sanctity is a reality over
which positive science whether historical or psychological might pass lightly, but which
is never neglected by men who are trained in the study of facts appertaining to a higher
order where the human meets and becomes intimately united to the Divine. This is the
reason the idea or a saint is falsied by those writers who think it a waste of time or an
indierent thing to look upon him as a man in union with God.
At this point we shall do well to add another observation. Often have we heard and
read that Don Bosco is a modern saint. Such an assertion requires prudent treatment;
it is to be understood with a grain of salt, or else the doubt may arise that sanctity like
most human things must be modernized with the passage of time. Far from us be the
idea that there exist two kinds of sanctity: the rst, good for a past era; the second,
especially made for our own days! The action of Divine grace that moulds saints changes
not with the wandering years as do the myriad activities of man which need changing in
order to be adaptable to time and circumstances; nor is there a dierence between the
co-operation a man gives to the sanctifying action of grace in these days and that given
by a man long ago. The perfect love for love, the essential element in sanctity, is like
to the sun in this that from the rst day of creation it has delighted the world, always
bathing it in the splendour of its light and heat in the same manner. We do not hereby
say that the above assertion cannot be reasonably interpreted, provided that it is taken
in the sense that a Saint is a man of his times and that thus while he fulls a mission
of doing good in a certain historical period he assumes certain accidental attitudes that
in other times would be put down as anachronistic. Notwithstanding this, the method
of procedure itself, if once we have established the identity of the guiding principle, the
strengthening source, and the ideal of every holy undertaking, never clothes itself with
the characteristics of such conspicuous fashions as to give rise to a saying such as this
So many generations, so many sanctities.
There is gross misunderstanding to be avoided in a particular manner when we proclaim
Don Bosco as the modern saint. In these days of feverish activity such a sobriquet is
displayed for the purpose of setting him up as the saint of action. It would seem from this
that the Church from the time of St Paul right down to the present day never had such
phenomena as Saints of action; and that a Saint of action in these days of ours must not
and cannot be a man of prayer as well. There is no sanctity without the interior life and
no interior life without the spirit of prayer. Such is genuine spiritualityyesterday, today,
alwaysaction and prayer, blended, saturated indivisible as on the day of Pentecost.
One2 who has studied deeply and knows St Paul well gives a sketch of him describing
him in the exercise of the Apostolate, which sketch seems to nd its exact copy in Don
Bosco.
With a facility unequalled the Apostle combines the most sublime mysticism with the
most practical ascetism; his eyes pierce the Heavens, yet his feet remain in contact with
2Prat: Theologie de S. Paul. Vol. II. I. VI, 3, 5. Beauchesne
5

1.6 Page 6

▲back to top


Contents
the earth. Nothing is above him, nothing below. He is declaring himself crucied to
the world and living the life of Christ itself. Yet in that same moment he knows how to
speak to his children words that ravish by their joy and grace, and how to particularize
by prescribing details such as veils for women, orderly arrangement of meetings duty of
manual labour, care of an ailing stomach. For this reason his spirituality oers an ever
tasty food to the hearts of the lowly, and an inexhaustible mine of profound thoughts for
elect souls.
Passing from the dawn of Christianity into the Middle Ages we see confronting us a
St Bonaventure whose recent biographer3 has this observation to make which also seems
to have been written for Don Bosco: Times of struggle need men of great heart who
because they stand beyond party factions, can succeed in pacifying their fellowmen; men
of clear vision who know their wants and who unswervingly make for their goal; men of
prayer that their own souls may be at peace and that light and strength may drop into
them from on high.
You see then how the spirituality of the saints always old and always new never un-
dergoes any change of nature in the passing, of years or in the changing of customs.
However, Apostolic men and Christians versed in the sacred sciences, when they have
to give an opinion on spiritual things, are easily deceived into believing themselves to be
that which they lecture on. But it is one thing to say, another to do: a man can very
well expound the complexities of the spiritual life and yet not live spiritually.
In the pages that follow, priests devoted in a special way to the Sacred Ministry will
nd, please God, through the merit of Don Bosco, some light and urge that will help
them to preserve the facere et docere, so that practice may precede, accompany, and
follow theory. St Bernard4 would wish us to be not only canals but also reservoirs. The
laity, then, who do not lose sight of the soul's interests amid the turmoil of material
cares, will read with prot the examples set by a tireless worker whose genius on this
earth lay in his way of transforming manual work into prayer and thus carrying out with
wonderful naturalness the Gospel's command semper orare et non decere. (Lk. 18:1).
We do not address ourselves to religious, for these with their knowledge of spiritual
things can see in the little set out here much more than our poor eyes could do.
The spirit of prayer is the atmosphere in which a Christian lives. I shall diuse the
spirit of grace and prayer over the house of David and the people of Jerusalem and they
shall turn to me says the Lord. (Zk 12:10).
The diusion of this spirit begun in the great day of Pentecost, has continued, con-
tinues, and will continue ever fresh in the Church, essential to Christians as the air they
breathe. The saints have always breathed it pure, uninterruptedly and deeply. By this
salutary respiration they, quickened and virtute corroborati in interiorem hominem (Eph.
3:13) gradually cast aside the works of the body listed by St Paul in his epistle to the
Galatians and instead begin to take up the fruits of the Holy spirit enumerated by the
same Apostle: Caritas, gaudium, pax, patientia, benignitas, longanimitas, mansuetudo,
des, modestia, continentia castitas. (Gal 5:19-25). This is what he calls living ac-
34LInemCmanetn.sS:erVPitVaIdIiI.S3.,Bonaventura P. XIV. Soc, " Vita e Pensiero " Milano (1921),
6

1.7 Page 7

▲back to top


Contents
cording to the spirit and walking in the spirit. This is what he means when he says
lled with the fulness of God. Would that we could understand well all these things
cum omnibus Sanctis but here on earth with Don Bosco and at his school!
For the division of the matter we shall adopt the idea from a splendid Biblical image.
The way of the just is likened by the Holy Spirit to the light that begins to shine, that
advances and increases until it attains full day. (Prov. 4:18.). True sons of light, the
saints are the lamps upon earth growing more and more in virtue up to perfection and
in their ascension they attain to heights where they shine like the sun before the Lord.
(Jn 12:36., Lk 16:8, Phil 2:15, 2 Cor 3:18., Mt 13:43).
We shall distinguish then in Don Bosco's life three phases or periods which we can
designate as the dawn, the noonday, and the glorious sunset or better the immediate be-
ginning of the passage from the rmament of the Church militant to the Caeli Caelorum,
to the highest heaven of the Church triumphant. (3 Kg 8:27).
In the meantime our hearts overow with joy as we think that now our dearest Father
seated in the company of the Blessed not only will enlighten with the light of his word
and example the paths our exile feet must tread, but he will also make himself our potent
advocate before God so that one day we too may reach the bliss of the Eternal Kingdom.
7

1.8 Page 8

▲back to top


Part I.
AURORA CONSURGENS
8

1.9 Page 9

▲back to top


Chapter 1 At Home
There are eeting moments of grace in the spiritual life when the soul receives sudden,
rapid, and salutary intuitions. These inspirations are sudden in regard to the act in
itself of the knowing faculty. Although the Spirit breathes where it will yet, generally
speaking, this perception (in things of such a nature) so sure and so immediate usually
requires as a necessary condition an interior preparation. This preparation, more or less
long and conscious, principally consists in faithful correspondence to supernatural gifts.
Little John Bosco, a child of eleven years, had one of these revealing ashes from
on high. A mysterious inclination of his young heart made him very much attached
to a worthy priest. Having placed himself with childlike condence in such hands, he
brought away a precious teaching from this school, so short in its duration. He began to
understand that making a short daily meditation benetted his soul, and in doing this
he framed two fruitful mottoes; to taste what the spiritual life is; not to act any more
like a machine which does a thing without knowing the reason why. He himself writes
in such a strain in his unpublished Memoirs compiled at the command of Pius IX for
the benet of his sons: At rst I acted rather materially. We cannot aord to pass
over one particular word in this sentence which escaped from his pen. It is worth noting
that rather weakens the meaning of the nearby adverb materially. Thus there was
something in this rst idea of spirituality, in the little boy, vague and undetermined as
much as you will, yet distinct from what is merely material in activity. What actually
astonishes us is to see in one of so tender an age that form of piety which was to become
his own and that of his children, namely the harmony between Ora et labora or prayer
the soul of action.
From the very beginning of his life he learnt from his mother the love of prayer. In
those good old days of country life in Piedmont, despite foreign inltrations, Christian
customs and traditions were perpetuated peacefully from generation to generation. These
hard working and honest folk, around the blazing country hearth, which witnessed the
intimate joys of family life, would close the day with common prayer. They recited the
rosary before an image of the Blessed Virgin, the Comforter of the aicted. The home
deserved the name of a homely shrine.
In such a healthy environment, a high-souled woman, as John's mother was, was the
incomparable mistress of religion. This was more so when, as in the case of John's
mother, the educative force of good example was supported by the ecacy of speech.
From John's infancy we know that that spontaneity proper to the speech of a mother
instilled in him the living sentiment of God's presence, a pure admiration of His works
in creation, gratitude for His benets, and together with conformity to His Will the fear
of oending Him. Never before perhaps did the teaching of a mother meet with a more
lial, docile nature in the reception of maternal advice. In this way the child from his
9

1.10 Page 10

▲back to top


humble family home began to ascend to the house of the Lord and the childish accents
of his little heart assumed the form of newer outbursts for heavenly things. The tracing
out of Don Bosco's life will readily make us apply to him the words of Ecclesiaticus:
When I was young, before I wandered about, I sought for wisdom openly in my prayer.
I prayed for her in the temple and unto the very end will I seek after her as she ourished
as a grape soon ripe.
On feast days he went with joy to the Divine services. As he assisted with great
devotion this inspired him with such fervour that its sweet impression vibrated in his
soul for the remainder of the week. There are abundant testimonies of persons who knew
him as a child. Such testimonies declare that he would often burst into prayer as he
did his tasks in the elds which he had already done since his tenderest years. With his
silvery voice he would make the solitary hills re-echo with sacred hymns. He would (as
other children do) erect little altars and adorn the image of his Madonna with owers
and green leaves. As other children seldom do, however, he would call to his little altar
as many of his little friends as he could to pray, to sing, and even to repeat devoutly the
ceremonies they had seen in the church.
The word of God attracted him. While listening to sermons or attending catechism
class he never allowed a single syllable to go astray. Any occasion was good to gather
people around him. Barefooted and ragged he would step upon a bench and redeliver
with case the curate's Sunday sermons word for word. Some times he would relate an
edifying fact learned and particularly reserved for that moment. His programme was
always interspersed with prayers and if it were the time the crowd of villagers was made
to recite its evening devotions. Such zeal in doing good was enkindled and kept alive by
the growing spirit of union with God.
The fathers of the spiritual life considered mortication (which means death to oneself
in order to live the life of Jesus Christ and of God) as an ecacious means towards
this union. Souls who are more magnetically drawn towards God give themselves to
mortication as by an irresistible instinct of love. The world, ignorant as it is, when
it looks upon saints rejoicing amidst voluntary privations and suerings, astonishingly
asks:
Ut quid perditio haec? For what reason are so many comforts, so much good ruthlessly
scattered? The answer is as old as the question. St Paul gave it long ago: And they
that are Christ's have crucied their esh.
Those who with Christ have risen to the life of the spirit sacrice their esh with joy
in order to live a life according to the spirit. Experience teaches that so the spirit of
prayer develops as from it proceeds the fruit of one's actions. Even before little John
had encountered; the priest who taught him how to meditate he had spontaneously
understood this great truth of Christian perfection. In his above-mentioned memories he
writes: Among other things he at once forbade me to carry out a penance which I was
accustomed to do and which was not according to my age and condition.
His priestly benefactor encouraged him to frequent instead the Sacraments of penance
and of the Eucharist.
Just one year before he met this worthy priest, he had made his rst Holy Communion.
He was then ten years old. To the rigid custom of not permitting children under twelve
10

2 Pages 11-20

▲back to top


2.1 Page 11

▲back to top


or fourteen years to Communion this was a violence. But here the communicant stood
at the Holy Table so well prepared that the Parish priest resolutely closed an eye, non
obstantibus quibuscumque. Don Bosco writes:
There seems to have been some improvement in my life from that day.
Unfortunately, however, the time so fruitfully spent with this good minister of God
who introduced him so gently into piety and knowledge was shattered by death. Dicult
trials then awaited Margaret's little son. In the end he had to abandon his maternal home
and place himself under a master to work as a farm-hand. Cleverly talented and still
more with a tenacious memory. John was constrained to waste his promising qualities
in crude peasant work. God wished it. He wanted to erect an edice of solid virtue on
the rm foundation of humility. Prayer was the food and comfort of John. To prayer
there is to be added something. Every Saturday evening he would ask his master's leave
to betake himself the following morning to a village an hour's distance away. There he
would hear a very early Mass. But why such hurry when he could have easily heard a
later one together with other functions? He went there so early in order to make his
confession and to receive Holy Communion. He persevered in this practice for two entire
years. In the days of rigid Jansenism this was a great thing! Greater still was it for a
child so far away from home and in such conditions of life, where he was not animated
by the example and encouragement of others.
Such great love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is a clear sign or an uncommon
advancement in the spirit of prayer. The spirit of prayer excites in a soul internal dis-
positions which easily reveal themselves in his external conduct, his deportment, and
conversation. In the process of Don Bosco's Beatication and Canonisation the proofs
proered by the surviving members of the family with which John Bosco served his time
as a farmhand leave little doubt in this regard. They never had seen or did they imagine
a servant boy so obedient so hardworking, so exemplary. At home the duties of a good
Christian were carried out with that characteristic regularity of deep-rooted domestic
customs which are ever tenacious in country families and which were in those days of
wholesome country life very tenacious. Therefore, John the servant boy prayed on his
knees, prayed more often than others, and prayed for a long time. Outside the house
while looking after the cows in the meadow he was often found either in prayer or read-
ing his catechism which was his book of meditation. The old master of the house was
returning one day tired from the elds. He found John peacefully saying the Angelus.
He was oended and complained of John as if he were neglecting his work in order to
think (as he put it) of heaven. John nished his prayer and respectfully approached the
master.
You know perfectly if I spare myself or not. Anyhow more is gained by prayer than
by work. With prayer four ears of corn will grow from two grains: with work two ears
are got from four gains.
If John was penetrated with such sentiments, what wonder is there if eye-witnesses
tell us that in him they found calmness of manner and equalness of humour, that they
observed in him good judgment, reserve in his dealings with others, quiet behaviour,
and absolute abhorrence not only of what blemishes the candour of the soul but also
anything that might be unbecoming to a sincere Christian youth. While he was there
11

2.2 Page 12

▲back to top


at the Moglia farm he never neglected his work for the children. He amused them with
games and other past times. He taught them catechism and induced them to pray. The
priest to whom he confessed on a Sunday wept with consolation at seeing the piety of
the children, the elect of his ock, ourishing. This was entirely due to John the farmer's
boy and the fact remains that long after he had departed the good pastor had only to
continue the children's gatherings in order to create a useful festive oratory.
John went away from there, as the continual thought of his studies troubled him. The
Via Crucis was still long and sorrowful. In discouragements, intermingled with hope and
delusion, he experienced more than ever the ecacy of St Bernard's words:
Be devout to Mary.
Gradually as he delved deep into the knowledge of Divine things he felt how sweet this
devotion was when comprising complete condence g and lial love: a devotion so widely
preached and practised by the saints and cherished so much by pious hearts.
On the hill overlooking Castelnuovo there is a solitary little church dedicated to our
Lady. For John it became the goal of frequent visits. He went there either alone or more
often in the company of his companions. The remembrance of these pilgrimages made in
his youth to this sanctuary of Mary was so indelibly impressed on Don Bosco's memory
that in his declining years the very thought of them was enough to move him to tears.
It seems opportune to open a brief parenthesis here before proceeding deeper into the
study of Don Bosco, a parenthesis that will x clearly the fundamental concept of prayer.
In the Christian life prayer is extremely important. No one will reasonably doubt that
St. Paul writing to Timothy recommended it before everything else:
Primum omnium.
Prayer then is a state and an act. As a state it is continuous as the same apostle
wished when he said:
Sine intermissione orate.
No one can remain xed in God but one can always remain in the disposition of prayer
through habitual charity. The soul of the just since it possesses sanctifying grace has in
itself the required conditions in order that it may verify the words of our Lord:
We shall come to him and make our abode in him.
The soul of the just thus receives from the Blessed Trinity the communication of its
life, so that there is prayer without interruption. Besides the ordinary and common
state of prayer so understood there are other states most elevated and mystical, the pure
privilege of a few. Prayer, as an act, has four forms pointed out by St. Paul when he
teaches Timothy:
Obsecrationes, orationes, postulationes, gratiarum actiones that is, supplications for
ourselves, prayers of adoration, petitions on behalf of others, and thanksgiving for benets
received. In substance this is the theology of prayer. To come in contact with it, as the
saints have lived it, is a spectacle that edies and enraptures.
12

2.3 Page 13

▲back to top


Chapter 2 At School
The life of John Bosco underwent an abrupt change when forced to leave his native elds
he went to Chieri: from a country boy he became a student and a town-boy all of a
sudden. Chieri was not Turin but everything is relative in this world. There were the
usual dangerous novelties that accompany a more rened ambient: there was freedom
there was youth. Suppose we take a countryman's son. Always has he been under the
gaze of his parents and has never been far from his nest; unskilled he is save in farm work
and rustic pleasures, never has he moved in society beyond that of humble folk. This boy
thrown suddenly into a so called civilized and populous centre, into habits and customs.
Then would we have all the requirements of a Hercules' Choice. Let us suppose that
he has reached the fullness of his boyhood, has a rare intellect and a lively spirit. This
boy arrives fresh from the elds in order to plunge into an unbridled gang of pupils in
the school.
John was fortunate for he was forewarned against such perils because of his holy
intention and humble poverty and an enlighten piety which acts as a shield whereon
enemy attacks are broken. This piety protable in all things since it shows everything
in its true light, that is in the Divine light, guided his rst steps which usually are the
most critical, and led him to make his rst acquaintances and watched over him in his
dealings with companions. He himself lets us know how.
The rst person I knew was a priest dear to and honoured by me. He gave me
good advice on how to hold myself far from dangers. He used to invite me to serve
his Mass which invitations gave him a good opportunity for saying a good word to me.
He introduced me to the head of the school and to the other teachers. In my mind I
had divided companions into three lists: viz.; good, indierent, and bad. These last I
avoided absolutely and always as soon as I came to know them; the indierent boys were
to be treated courteously and only when necessity wanted; the good I would be friendly
with, though familiar with the best, when they proved themselves so. This was my rm
resolution. Nevertheless, I had to struggle not a little with those I did not know very
well. I freed myself from the company of the wicked by eeing from the least contact
with them whenever I succeeded in discovering them.
When he had thus found his standpoint in these most indispensable relations his piety
well directed him in his search for things he most desired. In fact, he writes:
My greatest fortune was the choice of a xed confessor who was a canon of a collegiate
church. He welcomed me always with great kindness every time I went to visit him: nay,
he encouraged me to go to Confession and Communion more frequently. It was a very
rare thing in those days to nd anyone encouraging frequency of the sacraments. He
who would go often, that is more than once a month, would be considered very virtuous:
many confessors did not allow it. On my part I felt myself indebted to this my confessor
13

2.4 Page 14

▲back to top


that I was not dragged by my companions to certain disorders which inexperienced boys
have much to grieve for during their time at big schools.
Not only did companions not drag him into disorders, but he attracted and preserved
many of them on the right path. A pious youth who is rst in his class is frank and does
not make show of his knowledge, easily gains the heart of his school-fellows. So, John
gained in a short time such an esteem and aection among his companions at Chieri that
he succeeded in founding a club under the title The Mirth Club. The rules of this club
were two only: rst, to avoid any word or action which is unbecoming to a Christian;
second, to accomplish faithfully the duties of their religion and school. Every member
was obliged to look for and initiate games that would keep their companions cheerful,
everything that would cause melancholy especially if it were forbidden by the law of God,
was taboo'd. Every feast the members of the club used to go to catechism class in the
Jesuit church. During the week they would gather in the house of one or other of them
without barring anyone who wished from taking part. Here they would pass their time
in pleasant recreation, in good conferences, in reading, in prayer, in giving one another
good advice, and in pointing out personal defects which they had observed or heard of.
Besides these friendly gatherings (writes Don Bosco) they used to go for Confession and
Communion, and to hear sermons. Thus, did they all seek cheerfulness as a means for
serving the Lord. (Ps. 99:1).
It is not our task to be rhetorical, as our aim above all is edication: but facts generate
admiration. Thanks be to God, there are many pious lads; but it is dicult to nd some
of such an active piety that, not satised with keeping beside God (Gen. 5:24), they feel
a goading to carry Him into the souls of others in order that they may be led nearer Him.
John Bosco had in him a piety like unto goodness which is said to be diusive by its
own nature. To see a person and to think at once of rendering him a service or making
him better in the Christian sense of the word had to be the programme of his Sacerdotal
life one day. We have seen him among his contemporaries and school-fellows, yet if we
were to give a more detailed study of him we would be obliged to repeat ourselves too
frequently. Since however this is not a biography we feel it convenient to set forth in
relief a foreshadowing of what would be the characteristic of his spirituality.
At this point some dident reader, perhaps, may note that John Bosco had an incli-
nation to show himself in public and may call to mind his reputed skill in games and
in acrobatic feats and may be tempted to pass remarks on the moving force of these
external signs. Would this reader come to the conclusion that his vampings of popularity
and theatrical tastes are too incompatible with demands of the interior life, with the
dislike of noise, the desire of being unknown, which are the tenets of the ascetical code?
To dispel such doubts we must weigh the purposes, the circumstances, the means, and
the eects. Let us pass over this and come rather to another fact. When he treats with
persons of various ranks his encouraging spirit is always the same; it is the zeal of a
pious soul that is always preoccupied about the spiritual welfare of others. The son of
the mistress of the house was a rst-class scamp, the despair of all. John aectionately
gained him, slowly attracted him to religious practices; he made of him an excellent boy
instead. While he frequented the cathedral he made friends with the sacristan, a man
advanced in age, of little learning, slow in intelligence, taken up with his duties, and yet
14

2.5 Page 15

▲back to top


a man who was desirous of becoming a priest. John without expecting any reward and
with heroic charity oered himself to teach him every day. This lasted Tor two years
until he had prepared him for his clerical clothing. John became the friend of a Jew, a
boy of eighteen: he led him to desire Baptism, privately did he instruct him, gradually
he overcame the opposition of the boy s people and co-religionists, and nally had the
happiness of seeing him washed at the Holy Font.
The proverb:
Tell me your friends and I shall tell you who you are helps our argument, if we apply
it to the friendship John had with a holy student. Such was the fame that had preceded
Louis Comollo to Chieri. Hardly had John got to know of it than he desired to get
acquainted with Comollo: when he knew him then did he want him as his friend: he
succeeded in this and found that the actuality far surpassed all expectation. We glean
the following from his Memoirs.
He was always my dear friend. I fully conded in him and he in me. I let him guide
me where and how he wished. We used to go together to Confession, Communion, to
make our meditation, spiritual reading, the visit to the Blessed Sacrament, to serve Holy
Mass.
This hint about meditation assures us that he never omitted to refresh and enrich
daily his interior life with this very helpful exercise. And what about their conversation?
From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
They used to talk about spiritual things. Don Bosco writes:
It was always a great comfort for him to treat of and speak about this subject. He
talked with fervour of the immense love of God in giving Himself as food to us in Holy
Communion. When he spoke of our Lady he was full of tenderness, and after he had
narrated or heard narrated anything, for example an external favour bestowed by Mary,
his face would light up and would soon be bathed in tears.
If Mary, (he would exclaim) bestows such a great favour on this miserable body what
will she not pour on the soul of him who invokes her? Oh, if all men were really devoted
to Mary, what happiness would we experience in the world!
In saying this Don Bosco makes himself out to be a hearer, yet he was not always
a dumb hearer. Anyhow, outbursts of this nature are practically impossible, especially
since they must last a long time, unless there is a mutual understanding and appreciation.
The four years of his high school were crowned with great success. Splendid, were
the results of the examinations, great the esteem shown by the teachers, hearty the
admiration of his companions, and general his popularity among the townsfolk. There
were present in him all the signs of the dawn that foretells a ne day. But how many
anxieties, diculties, dangers, privations had he to undergo! His courage did not fail
him and this because through prayer he found refuge in the God of all consolations.
Providence so disposed things that he was able to comfort those in sorrow.
He was ever calm and never perturbed "by the dry wind that evaporates sad want:
but in the second year he was troubled by the lowering of a cloud. We shall call it, in
this age of boyhood crises, the crisis of vocation.
That John desired to become a priest right from his young days is a fact incontestable;
so attracted was he to it that it seemed he was born for nothing else.. In the second year
15

2.6 Page 16

▲back to top


before the end of school two fears raised, their ugly heads and caused him the more to
be perplexed the more he advanced to the decisive moment. On the one hand he better
understood the sublimity of the priestly state, yet felt too unworthy of it on account of
his meagre virtue; on the other hand, he was not ignorant of the rocks that strew the
world and feared he would shipwreck were he to be a cleric in the world. This spiritual
battle that racked his soul appears in his Memoirs written years afterwards:
Oh, if at that time I had had a guide, one who would have looked after my soul, I
certainly would have been favoured indeed: unfortunately this treasure was denied me.
His confessor, even, who took such great care to make him a good Catholic refrained
from touching the vital point of vocation. Constrained to decide for himself he consulted
books that treated about career. It seemed that a ray of light fell upon his soul.
If I remain a cleric in the world, he said to himself, my vocation will be in danger.
I shall embrace the ecclesiastical state, renounce the world, enter the cloister, and there
employ my time in studying and meditating. Thus in solitude I shall easily combat my
passions, especially pride which is deeply rooted in my heart.
He therefore asked to be admitted among the Franciscans who accepted him the more
willingly the more they came to know his talents and piety. But his mind was not at
peace. His diculties increased when some kind and grave persons to whom he had
opened his heart endeavoured by all means to turn him away from his resolution of
becoming a friar, arid warmly exhorted him to enter the seminary. So his anxieties grew.
It was in the way of providence that he was led at length to consult Blessed Joseph
Cafasso who was then a young priest but who had already a reputation for possessing in
great measure the gift of counsel. Father Cafasso listened attentively to him and told him
to go on with his studies and to enter the seminary. During all these interior anxieties
his exterior life went on as if nothing was happening: he carried on his studies, pious
exercises, works of zeal, and manual labour in order to gain his livelihood. And no one
saw the disturbed depths below this supercial calm.
When the thought of God dominates a man's mind it makes him master of himself
and helps him to remain habitually calm in his exterior life in spite of an interior racked
by trouble. The authority of Fr Cafasso cleared his doubts for the moment, but later on
while reading new books on the choice of a state of life he was again plunged into his
former sadness. He would have returned to the Franciscans had not something unknown
happened and brought him to his nal decision: he tells us that since the obstacles were
increasing he decided to put the whole aair before Comollo. It seems a strange thing
the length of time he took to decide to allow his friend to play a role in this his interior
drama. But intimate friendship is not a guarantee of capacity in dealing with such
delicate matters. John on the other hand, enriched as he was with ideas and the ease of
communicating them, was anything but talkative. Both the friends prayed and received
the Sacraments together; both wrote to consult a zealous priest, Comollo's uncle. This
priest just on the last day of the novena to our Blessed Lady replied to his nephew:
I have meditated well on the points you wrote about and I would advise your friend
to put o his entrance into an Order. Let him take the clerical habit and while he is
carrying on his studies he will come to know the way the Lord had ordained for him. Let
him not have fear of losing his vocation, for prayer and devout exercises will overcome
16

2.7 Page 17

▲back to top


all obstacles.
Study, prayer, piety: were not these already the components of his life in Chieri? Like
Fr Cafasso, the parish priest too counselled him to enter the Seminary and set aside the
resolution ox entering a religious community until a later date.
I seriously gave myself up to things, he writes when the horizon was. brightening,
that were a preparation for my clerical clothing.
John did not look upon this reception of the cassock as a mere ceremony. He had well
prepared his soul for it and understood its sacredness, on account of that recollection
and prayer he knew so thoroughly. There was no need for him to isolate himself from
men in order to practice his contemplative life: in fact, he would not have been able to
be alone, for he was a born leader of a gang of fty boys who loved and obeyed him like
a father. The expressions we nd in his Memoirs are those his heart felt during the
ceremony.
When the celebrating priest told me to remove my secular clothes with the words:
`Exuat to Dominus veterem hominem cum actibus suis ' I said in my heart.
`Oh, what old rags I need to cast away! My God, destroy all evil habits in me!'
When he gave me the Roman collar and said:
`Induat te Dominus novum hominem qui secundum Deum creatus est in justitia et
sanctitate veritatis '
I felt so moved that I said to myself: `Yes, O my God, grant that from this moment I
may begin a new life totally based on. Thy Divine desires and that justice and sanctity
may be the constant object of my thoughts, words, deeds. Amen. O Mary, be thou my
salvation!'
As a crowning point he wrote and rewrote a cleric's rule of life with seven articles. The
sixth was thus worded:
Besides the ordinary practices of piety I shall never omit a daily meditation and
spiritual reading.
He did not want this rule to be a dead letter, so with great solemnity did he kneel
before an image of the Madonna and read the seven articles. He prayed fervently and
made a formal promise to the heavenly Queen to observe this rule no matter the cost.
The reader can easily note that the spirit of prayer and piety alternated in such a way
that they seemed but one thing. For the clarication of ideas it would be well to observe
that the spirit of prayer is usually explained in the complexity of acts which honour God
and which go by the general name of piety: thus, the former comes to mean the same
thing as the latter or if we do wish to perceive any deferences we can say that the spirit
of prayer is deep, habitual and conscious piety. Let us add a farther useful observation,
since we are on this argument. Since we direct our devotion to one xed point more
than another, so too will our piety be designated by dierent qualications. It is under
this aspect that we can classify the religious orders; for example, the Benedictine piety is
called liturgical, that of the Franciscans aectionate, that of the Dominicans dogmatic,
that of the Redemptorists the piety of the Eternal Truths. With this criterion before us
how can we, after the journey we have so far taken, describe the future Salesian piety?
Does it not seem that the rst tricklings are seen to arise from a piety that would later
17

2.8 Page 18

▲back to top


be called Sacramental, on account of the sovereign part confession and Communion took
in it?
Thanks to these two Sacraments which he received regularly, the founder of the Sale-
sians poured upon his undertakings the cataract of grace.
18

2.9 Page 19

▲back to top


Chapter 3 At the Seminary
The seminary of the archdiocese of Turin was then at Chieri and Don Bosco went there on
30th October 1835 when he was twenty years old. As he was a ready and keen observer the
young cleric very soon had an exact idea of his duties. The practices of piety were always
his earnest inquiry. Here every arrangement was all right for daily Mass, meditation,
and rosary, and even for weekly confession. But however arrangements were not quite
satisfactory for Communion which could only be received on Sundays and special feast
days. To go at any other time during the week one had to commit an act of disobedience.
During the breakfast hour cleric Bosco had to make his way to a nearby church and when
his thanksgiving was over, there was just sucient time left to join his companions in
going to study and class. On these occasions therefore he had to remain fasting until
dinner time. The infraction of the rule could have been justly prohibited. The superiors
however gave their tacit consent. They knew very well that such a thing was going on
and very often they saw him, but they said nothing. In this way he was able to frequent
the Holy Communion whenever he liked and this, he declared, was the ; most ecacious
instrument for his vocation.
Nourished by this Bread of Angels John's ecclesiastical spirit was formed under the
sweet inuence of his devotion to the Blessed Virgin. The last words of his mother
before he had entered the seminary were deeply etched in his mind and heart. Although
she was an illiterate woman she possessed in an eminent degree that sensus Christi
which wisdom infused from above, and that aptitude for discerning divine things which
is found in simple souls. This may be surprising to profane minds but not so to those
who know what the gifts of the Holy Ghost are. John received from his mother this great
admonition:
When you were born I consecrated you to the Blessed Virgin; when you began your
studies I recommended you devotion to Mary our heavenly Mother. Now I beg you to
be totally hers, love your fellow students who are devout to her and if you ever become
a priest, spread around you devotion to Mary.
He never forgot this fond advice: he always endeavoured to associate with companions
who were clients of Mary and lovers of study and piety. Several of his companions who
survived him on this earth attest to his irresistible invitations to follow him to church in
order to recite there the Vespers of the Madonna or other prayers in her honour; some of
these friends testify to his fervour in translating and exemplifying the liturgical hymns
of our Lady and to the amiable manner of his singing her glories and relating edifying
stories during the hours of recreation. Whilst still a student of Philosophy he esteemed
it a privilege to mount the pulpit and give a sermon on our Lady of the Rosary. This
was the beginning of these numerous Marian discourses which were his delight right up
to his death.
19

2.10 Page 20

▲back to top


Many times after this John Bosco, as a simple cleric, went into the pulpit. Seeing his
absolute frankness people used to come to him in times of need and during the summer
vacation. It was never necessary to petition him: he was never put out on these occasions.
An old saying has it:
"Every man is eloquent in the things he knows."
But this pectus disertos facit has no relation with another aphorism no less ancient
than the preceding:
True eloquence comes from the heart.
Both are right and in fact both were complementary in the young cleric John Bosco.
Among the resolutions taken on his clothing day there was one which ran:
As in the past I have served the world with profane literature, so in the future I
will strive to serve God by devoting myself to the reading of religious books. During
his later years of school life he read with avidity the Italian and Latin classics for the
embellishment of his profane or literary culture. This culture was directed from that high
sense whence is inspired an intelligence such as his towards everything ideally beautiful
and great. In the seminary however he employed his time in reading large volumes
on ecclesiastical history, catechism, or apologetics. With his tenacious memory it was
enough for him to read anything once to retain it. So much reading not only helped
him to procure a solid and rm education but it helped him also to serve God. His soul
was a furnace of divine love and the things he read and brought in contact with it were
converted into the life-giving heat of faith and zeal. Whence the science of religion and
that of holiness drew in him double advantages from such benets. This is why when
the occasion presented itself he was never at a loss to be able to stand up and deliver
the sermon. A few moments of recollection and prayer were enough to make him really
prepared. John Bosco was continually preaching. Is not every sower of good words a
preacher (if we abstract from the solemn meaning that we have of the verb to preach
that is, a public gathering round the chair of truth, and conne ourselves to the essential
element in its meaning, that is, to announce the word of God)? In the sense here the
cleric Bosco in the seminary of Chieri was a capable and an untiring preacher. Let us
observe this in him: on Thursday many young men of the town would come to visit him.
As usual he would be merry with them. He would speak to them of class, study, and the
Sacraments. He would not allow them to leave without rst bringing them to the church
to pray. To those companions who saw this and one day would recall it he used to say:
We must also introduce into our conversation some thought of supernatural things.
It is a seed that in time will bear fruit. With thoughts of this kind he would mix other
thoughts on vocation to the ecclesiastical state. To teach catechism to children was his
passion. He never let slip an opportunity of doing so. In fact, he endeavoured to make
as much use of these occasions as he could.
In the seminary itself he was a sower of the good word. During the longer recreations
the clerics of better conduct held scholastic circles. This custom pleased him very much
because besides being a help to study it was also, as he experienced it, a much greater
help to piety. He gathered round him a group of intimate friends who stood rm in the
observation of the rules and in serious application to their books, and who lled one an-
other with fervour in the spiritual life. Even apart from these meetings his conversations
20

3 Pages 21-30

▲back to top


3.1 Page 21

▲back to top


always ended on his favourite topic.
"Let your speech be always in grace, seasoned with salt. One of the students bears wit-
ness that John Bosco spoke willingly of spiritual matters. Then he had an inexhaustible
fount of stories which charmed his hearers. A grey-headed friend attests:
He never once failed during those ve years when we were fellow students to full a
resolution he took of narrating every day an example culled from church history, from
the lives of the saints, or from the glories of Mary.
This resolution was part of the programme of his clerical life, as we have seen. To
speak constantly of God in such a way, the heart must indeed be lled with Him.
Among those who visited the cleric Bosco in the rst year of seminary life the most
constant and most desired was Aloysius Comollo who was then in his nal year of Hu-
manities. They were both worthy of each other: between them no secret existed. Loving
God, as they did, they communicated to each other, their own plans for a life entirely
consecrated to the salvation of souls. It is easy to picture what good company they were
when they were both at the seminary and information on this point is not wanting. Thus
we can keep close to our two mends and can thus inquire into the life of John Bosco at
the seminary. The regular uniformity of such a life makes one day resemble another very
much: individual tendencies are therefore more clearly noticed. If we take into consider-
ation what one of his old teachers said the cleric Bosco made notable progress in study
and piety without appearing to do so on account of that mirth which was the character-
istic of his life. Because of this his life at the seminary was appreciated by many. Later
developments were necessary in order that they, in recalling to mind remote happenings,
would understand what they had not understood before and would say, as one of John's
professors did say of him:
I remember when he was my pupil ... he was pious, diligent, and exemplary. Certainly
no one would have thought that he would become what he has become. Yet, I must say,
that his dignied behaviour, the exactitude with which he fullled his religious and
scholastic duties were exemplary.
Time that waits for no man has either lessened the number of precious testimonies or
has weakened the memory of those days. We are fortunate however in having one reliable
source (of which we will take mil advantage) which is concerning the friendship between
him and Comollo.
These two clerics agreed perfectly in all things appertaining to study, piety, school and
religion. In youths of sterling qualities, piety is threatened in three ways by their love of
study.
(1) Mental activity domineers the spirit, peoples it with ideas whose association leads
to distraction during the practices of piety.
(2) Good results in examinations promote youthful vanity which if left unhindered
undermines little by little the unction of grace.
(3) Those who have a passion for study easily yield to the temptation of cutting short
the time set apart for prayer: they seek whenever possible pretenses to be excused. They
think that time not employed in study is time lost.
In religious congregations clerics pass to study after a period of sound spiritual prepa-
ration which teaches them to put piety at the head of all. Seminarians however the very
21

3.2 Page 22

▲back to top


day after their donning the ecclesiastical habit carry on the life of a student. If they are
absorbed by books and professors they have hardly place in their mind for the church and
practices of piety. The cleric Bosco had greater mental vigour than his friend, Comollo.
Theirs was a mutual understanding in their desire for study and piety. They regarded
study as a duty not forgetting however that among all duties that to God comes rst.
They understood that for ecclesiastics study was a means and not an end, a very sec-
ondary means at that! Sanctity of life had to take precedence. In consequence of this
they were very very far from subordinating the spirit of prayer to the love of knowledge;
they assisted each other to make progress in the interior lire.
I was always intimate with him, writes Don Bosco as long as God kept him in life.
I looked upon him as a saint. I loved him for his rare virtue and whenever I was with
him I was constrained to imitate him in something: he loved me for the help I gave him,
in studies.
In one single instance, immaterial and yet enlightening, John Bosco kept to his own
way of thinking. Comollo was very devout to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and as
he approached the Holy Table he would break into sighs of emotion. When he returned
he seemed to be out of himself and prayed while he sobbed and cried aloud. He did
not recover from these transports until the Mass was over. John would have preferred
Comollo to control himself in order to avoid drawing attention: but Comollo told him
that he would probably have suocated if he had not found a vent for the expression of his
aections. John while he respected this ardent devotion had an aversion for everything
that was singular or that would attract attention. His own piety which was none the less
ardent had an entirely dierent aspect. There was nothing exceptional in the manner
in which he approached the Holy Table. During his thanksgiving v he was motionless,
with body erect, head slightly bent, his hands joined on his breast. There was no sign
of emotion. Now and again his lips trembled as he whispered some silent ejaculation.
However his whole countenance revealed the depth of his Faith.
While at home during the holidays the two friends corresponded with each other and
paid visits to each other. The subject of their letters and talks was spiritual. A biography
of Comollo (who died young, during his second year of theology) is perhaps the most
important thing in revealing their holy relations Don Bosco who wrote it hid himself
under the title of An Intimate Friend. The author therefore will be very reserved in
speaking about the intimate friend but will shed the full glory on Comollo. John Bosco
and Comollo were bosom friends, that is a certainty their souls were knit into one. Pare
cum paribus.
A little above we mentioned holidays. Concerning them Don Bosco writes:
Holidays are always a danger to clerics particularly in those times when they lasted
for four and a half months. However he made up his mind to sanctify them and to try
to keep intact the fervour of seminary life. His rst-year holidays were spent with the
Jesuits at Montaldo where he taught some lessons of Greek and was an assistant in one
of the dormitories. In other years, according to testimony and authentic writings, the
way he spent his vacation could be summed up in one sentence: I will shun all idleness
and attend to my religious duties. In order not to be idle he divided his time between
study and manual labour according as his bodily health allowed him. At every hour of
22

3.3 Page 23

▲back to top


the day students came from all around to ask help in revising their lessons and preparing
themselves for another year's work. Gladly did he work for them, and one who later on
became a professor has left us this testimony:
The rst lesson he taught was love of God and obedience to His commandments. He
would never end his class without exhorting us to prayer, to the fear of God, to the
avoidance of sin and its occasions. There was nothing extraordinary in. his practices
of piety. He was faithful in those particular to clerics, namely, meditation, spiritual
reading, rosary, Visits to the Blessed Sacrament, daily Mass, frequent Confession and
Communion. He was ever ready to take part in any sacred function. On Sundays he
taught catechism to the boys of the parish and was ever present at parochial sermons.
Whenever he heard the tinkle of the bell announcing Viaticum he would go and take a
surplice and an umbrella and accompany the Holy Eucharist. He was well aware that to
do good he must give good example. Consequently, his conduct at all times and with
everybody was so irreproachable that those around him held him in great esteem.
There are many characteristic episodes which adorn his biography that illustrate the
strengthening of his ecclesiastical spirit or his interior and exterior sanctity of life. It
would be out of place to refer to them here in detail. Let us examine instead the dispo-
sitions with which he received Holy Orders.
Towards the end of his life Don Bosco said something about that decisive step in the
life of a priest; ordination to the subdiaconate. In the words he used he revealed his soul
in such a way that we scarcely can know what to admire in him, whether his extreme
delicacy of conscience or his deep esteem for the ecclesiastical state.
Now that I know the necessary virtues that this important step requires I am convinced
that I was unprepared. I had no one to take direct care of my vocation. I went to Fr
Cafasso for advice and he told me to go ahead and have condence. During the ten days'
retreat which I spent in `Casa della Missione' in Turin, I made a general confession in
order that I did not want to take a denite resolution without having the opportunity of
someone to advise me. I wanted indeed to complete my studies, but I trembled at the
thought of binding myself for the nest of my life. It was for this that I did not want to
take a denite resolution. Without having the full consent of my confessor. From then
onwards I did my best to carry out what Fr. Borel told me:
A vocation is kept and perfected by frequent Communion and retirement!
This was the answer that this good Turin priest gave to the question of the cleric Bosco
during one of the spiritual retreats he preached in the seminary.
Facts, for which we must thank an intimate friend of our saint and who later on became
his confessor until his death, run along side by side with the above expressions. This
intimate friend says with regard to the retreat made by the deacon Bosco in preparation
for the priesthood:
The way in which he made this retreat was edifying. He understood the word of
God that came to him through sermons and understood particularly those expressions
which pointed out the sublime dignity so soon to be conferred on him. As an everlasting
souvenir of that retreat he wrote down in a notebook nine resolutions. The second last
of these resolutions was:
I will make a daily meditation and spiritual reading. During the day I will make a
23

3.4 Page 24

▲back to top


short visit to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament or at least a prayer. I will employ at least
a quarter of an hour for and another quarter in thanksgiving after Holy Mass.
There is no essential dierence between this second programme of his life and the rst
which we have already cited. It merely introduced certain modications brought about
by circumstances. Don Bosco was not now groping about like one in darkness, not even in
the early days of life. If we are allowed to indulge in a little humour so much appreciated
by Don Bosco, we would declare that his wisdom-tooth was not long in appearing. In
fact, from the moment the light of his reason shone forth he saw what was the right
path for him to take and went straight along it. And in doing so he used ways and
means which his own natural judgement, strengthened by Divine grace, told him were
best. Both programmes had four supports upon which would be raised Don Bosco's
sanctity; namely, work, prayer, internal and external mortication, and that to which he
would afterwards modestly refer to as the beautiful virtue. In his new programme he
particularly outlined the part given to action. Tenacious to his resolutions Father John
Bosco will never go for a walk except for a grave reason or to visit the sick. He will
rigorously employ his time. He will suer, do, humiliate himself in, everything in order
to save a soul. His rest at night will never be more than ve hours. During the day,
especially after dinner, he will not lie down except in the case of illness. Work will never
be unaccompanied by prayer. Meditation, as always, will have its place in the day's
time-table. From daily meditation the priest in the midst of occupations will draw that
spirit of recollection and prayer which are necessary to keep his faith alive, to keep him
ever united to the High Priest Jesus Christ of Whom he is the minister, and to receive
abundant graces in the exercise of his Sacred Ministry. In the priestly life of Saint John
Bosco, Martha was never without Mary: Martha now at prayer, Mary now at work:
Martha at prayer as long as the activity of life remains, and towards the end of that life
Mary in action.
24

3.5 Page 25

▲back to top


Part II.
SOL IN MERIDIE
25

3.6 Page 26

▲back to top


CHAPTER I In the beginning of his
mission
Astronomers use a wonderful method when they wish to nd out the constitution of a
star. They allow the rays of light from the star to pass through a prism; the band of rays
is thus broken up into a line of colours, a spectrum, that falls on a white screen behind.
Through the analysis of spectra scientists can examine stars even at large distances. In
Don Bosco, a soul full of God, the spirit of prayer had no manifestations such as gave
immediate insight of his nature and intensity: to know his character therefore and to
measure his rank we must of necessity scrutinize the acts of his ordinary life. Few men
have been so extraordinary under so ordinary an appearance. In great things as in small
there was always that same naturalness that showed him from the rst more than a good
priest.
In the beginning only he who took it upon himself in his leisure time to observe Don
Bosco's command of himself at all timesin company, in trial, in any undertakingand
who had a keen eye for discerning the eciency of his actions, only he who possessed the
dicult genius that readily distinguishes man from manas, for example, our venerated
Ponti Pius XIcould think of Don Bosco in terms of the honour he deserved. What
wonder, then, if some people did not understand him at once and if others even misun-
derstood him or understood the opposite of what was? These last were few and within
the passing of time they have been less, until recently their number was nil; yet there
used to be some such.
And in order to keep to our task we shall say that when he was at the zenith of his
activities not everyone saw what a man of prayer Don Bosco was; nay, we dare to add
that not even his biographers were able at times to penetrate to the depths of his inmost
spirit of prayer so preoccupied were they in narrating his great deeds. However, the
biographical material passed on to us is an excellent mine for the exploration of him
who sets about observing his interior life. It is the attempt in which we shall modestly
insist in these pages. As soon as Don Bosco was ordained a priest the rst supernatural
overow of his soul was seen in the festive Oratory. He did not create the thing entirely,
he did not coin the word at a stroke. There were Sunday catechism classes to boys in
every parish; there existed oratories of St. Phillip Neri and St. Charles Borromeo. It was
the condition of the times, when so many boys had forgotten long ago what parish they
belonged to, that made Don Bosco organize interparochial oratories for these wandering
sheep. For such Sunday School gatherings he arranged a programme that spread over
the whole day of the Lord. Because of his great love for God Don Bosco felt within him
a lively feeling for the sinite parvulos of the Gospel, so much so that he saw snares of
every kind at every nook and corner lying in wait for youths. My delight, he wrote
26

3.7 Page 27

▲back to top


concerning his rst years as a priest was to teach boys their catechism, to talk to them
and to be with them. It seemed too that the youngsters instinctively felt the fascination
of his salutary love, for he tells us that when he was living in Turin crowds of boys would
readily follow me through the streets and squares. Thus it was less fatiguing for him to
gather them together than nd a shelter for them.
His zeal strove for only one endto unite them to God by obedience to the Divine
Commands and to the laws of the Church. Hence he made it a point rst of all to have
them fullling the precept of hearing Mass on Sundays and Holidays; of teaching them
to say morning and night prayers; of preparing them lastly to confess their sins well
and to receive Jesus in Holy Communion. Meanwhile he gave them gradually religious
instruction by means of Catechism classes and of sermons adapted to their capacities.
Alongside of all this he invented a myriad of games which were intended to attract more
and more boys and to keep them near him; and yet the centre of all the attractions was
certainly he himself with his boundless goodness. So the holiday could in all truthfulness
be called a holy day, dies sancticatus. (2 Ex 8:9.) These gatherings on feast days he
christened with the name of Oratory, the name he preferred before many others because
of its nearness to his ideal. The term, now very popular in Italy, awaits a place in the
dictionary for its new meaning besides its venerable ancestora small building destined
for prayer. Small building! The oratory of Don Bosco is domus spiritualis on viventibus
saxis (1 Peter 2:5.)hundreds of boys, youths, and young men who ock where there is
someone to call them together on the day of the Lord to adore God and to learn how to
adore him for all their lives.
How the piety of Don Bosco permeated the entire oratory! He began on December 8th
1841 with just one boy. And before the lesson started the rst lesson of Catechismhe
fell to his knees and recited a Hail Mary to Our Lady in order that she might help him
to save the soul of that poor lad. Surely, that was a prayer heartfelt and fruitful! On
December 8th 1885 as he spoke to his Cooperators on what had then been done and
on the conditions of the work forty-ve years previously, he declared that it was all the
work of Mary Help of Christians on account of that Hail Mary said with fervour and
earnestness. The rst eects of it were not long in manifesting themselves.
The following Sunday Don Bosco's lone pupil returned but not alone, for he brought
with him a crowd of pals, poor street-urchins like himself, who were received and treated
by Don Bosco in his enchanting manner. As Sunday followed Sunday the number of boys
grew and with the number grew goodness and mirth too. At Christmas a few of them
were able to make their First Communion. On the two feasts of our Lady that next
came round the Purication and the Annunciation, the praises of the august Mother
of God were sung by youthful voices trained by the able Don Bosco into choirs; and
besides, scores of the more instructed boys approached the sacraments. Don Bosco was
thoroughly happy.
These boisterous gatherings were held in a place of quiet, if not cloistral, at least, broken
only at stated times and with moderation. That place of quiet was the Ecclesiastical
College of Turin where the nishing touches of sacerdotal formation were put to the
newly-ordained Piedmontese priests, by means of a deeper study of moral and pastoral
theology and by exercising the sacred ministry under the guidance of capable men Fr
27

3.8 Page 28

▲back to top


Joseph Cafasso among them. The zealous apostle of youth could have found no better
place for preparing himself for his mission. The three years spent there helped immensely
to form his spirit in a very denite manner. The grace which Divine Providence bestowed
on him by placing him alongside that holy moulder of priestly souls did not remain
fruitless. At the School of Blessed Cafasso Don Bosco avidly imbibed that piety, which
by supernatural intuition he had already foretasted in spite of the customs of the day,
that piety that meant unlimited trust in God's goodness and love for us. He learned,
too, from the holy man's theological conferences and spiritual direction how to hear
confessions our saint heard insistently repeated that the pulpit was not a stage for
showing o one's talents, but rather for telling the world `there is a Heaven; observe the
Commandments: pray; be devout to Mary; frequent the Sacraments; ee from idleness,
bad company, and dangerous occasions; love your neighbour; be patient in aiction ',
and that no sermon should end without referring to the Eternal Maxims. Don Bosco
used to go with him as assistant chaplain of the prisoners: often, too, he was his fellow-
preacher in Spiritual Retreats these were precious opportunities to enkindle his piety
more and more. In daily conversations also Don Bosco took for himself titbits of wisdom
on the manner of living in society, of dealing with the world without becoming its slave,
of becoming true priests equipped with the necessary virtues, ministers able to render to
Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's.
But Caesar's wants must not be satised by subtracting from God's. The perpetual
being on the move to do good can in the long run be fatal by leading one to suppose
that prodigies of charity may dispense with diligent and interior converse with God. It
is about this time that Don Bosco added a codicil (let us call it this) to the programme
of his priestly life, which was probably dictated to him by that master of wisdomfor
those who know how to understand itnamely, experience. We transcribe it such as it
is in one of his manuscripts:
Breviary and confession. I shall strive to recite the Breviary devoutly and in church
if possible, so that it may also serve as a visit to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Every
week I shall go to confession and I shall do my best to put into practice the resolutions I
take there. When I am earnestly begged to hear confession of someone I shall interrupt
the Oce and even shorten the thanksgiving after Mass in order to exercise this sacred
ministry.
The spirit of prayer when it has become a habit gives a man an atmosphere of calm
composure and a delicate sense of right discernment which readily strike the eye of not too
casual observers. At the College could often be seen businessmen, politicians, noblemen,
big men of the world, who used to come to Blessed Cafasso for spiritual direction. Yet
men of this type, not at all inexperienced men, were attracted by Don Bosco and even at
that time they knew him as a man totally God's whom they held in great veneration
as his biographer reports from some of these same gentlemen.
28

3.9 Page 29

▲back to top


CHAPTER 2 The second stage of his
mission
In his seminary days John Bosco had struck up a friendship that was to give good fruit
in after years. Fr Borel, a Turin priest, had come to the seminary to preach a spiritual
retreat.
He came into the sacristy, writes Don Bosco with cheerful words and merry dispo-
sition, but always avoured with moral thoughts.
It is said that the rst impression is true: this however does not hold in every case,
since often an impression has too much of what is subjective in it; but that of our saint
was the best and truest. For so it turned out. The priest is seen as a priest in those
things that appertain to God; therein he is known whether he is a man of piety or a
man of routine. The cleric Bosco, when he had seen Fr. Borel's preparation for and
thanksgiving after Mass, his comportment, his fervour in celebrating he at once felt
there was a worthy minister of God. Note the at once: it reminds us of a word to the
wise. In what appertained to piety John Bosco had quick insight for apprehending and
comprehending in no time. When he heard Fr. Borel preach he immediately put him
down as a saint; consequently he wished to have a talk with him about the things of
the soul.
Willingly he wanted to introduce himself, not only to make his confession as was his
wont, but also to talk, to hold important tete-a-tete about the soul's needs that is, about
the needs of the spiritual life. The memory of that retreat remained deeply etched in the
heart of Don Bosco and so in his three years at the Ecclesiastical College he thought it a
golden opportunity whenever he could have a word with the exemplary priest. Fr. Borel
knew Don Bosco well and would often invite him to serve in the sacred functions, to hear
confessions, and to preach with him. It was there that frequent invitations added to the
proverbial activity of his zeal, which gained for him so many laurels, did so much to earn
for him among his colleagues the sobriquet of champion of Holy Church.
Here were two souls born to understand each other.
Don Bosco was already on intimate terms with Fr Borel and the latter's home when
it was suggested that the young priest should take up his abode with the older. This
suggestion was brought forth at the end of the three years passed in the College. The
originator of the idea or better the inspiration was the holy priest Fr Joseph Cafasso
whose sole desire then was to keep Don Bosco in Turin. Fr Borel lived at the so-called
Refugea name used in order to convey to the people a group of buildings founded
by the benevolent Marchioness Barolo for the welfare of poor women and girls. Fr Borel
was its rector and spiritual director.
With the holy docility of a son to the guide of his soul Don Bosco followed Fr Cafasso's
29

3.10 Page 30

▲back to top


advice as the will of God in his regard and went to the Refuge. He had put aside all
other oers and posts and together with his little Oratory (a capital from now on) he
continued his work in these new headquarters. The word headquarters would have been
a misnomer had it been applied to the narrow apartments allotted to him, but not so
when we remember that for three years therein was the chief command of a grand army
of boys. To carry on the military metaphor we shall say also that its general sta was
founded on charity around which blossomed the crown of virtues spoken of by St Paul
in his famous thirteenth chapter of the rst Epistle to the Corinthians.
More often than all else there kept creeping up before his path occasions that forced
him to remember charity is patient. His three hundred or so little street-arabs frayed
the matron's nerves so much so that one ne day she lost her patience and turning them
out closed the door on them. Don Bosco lost his work too through his unwillingness to
leave the boys alone. New meeting-places were found for the gang but since the boys
disturbed the peace or ran foul of exaggerated pretensions those places endured for a
short time. The civil and political authorities grew so suspicious of the central gure of
it all, Don Bosco, that police eyes followed him from place to place as though he were a
hardened criminal, a menace to social order. Old fashioned parochial customs suered
a blow by Don Bosco's boys and speculations on the consequences of this novelty were
the order of the day. Finally, because he and his boys were a check to evil-minded men
who desired to hinder him, Don Bosco was forced to hold his meetings in a eld on the
outskirts of the city.
Anxious but not depressed, hurt but immovable, he always met daily troubles with that
heroic fortitude of soul which is a gift of the Holy Ghost. Fortitude from such a source
makes a man ready for anything, intrepid in the lace of all, scornful of every ostentation,
just as we note in Don Bosco. Indeed, there was certainly no enjoyment, humanly
speaking, in passing whole Sundays among coarse, noisy, quarrelsome, unmannerly, and
rough boys; no delight either in teaching, as Don Bosco did, dull, stubborn, or easy-
going youths. Today boys from very poor families present themselves on festive days so
neat and tidy that they look like little lords; but in those days what an unlettered and
unkempt youth roamed the highways and bye ways of Turin! Don Bosco should have
been praised, or helped, or at least left in peace among his ragamuns whose leader he
styled himself; but the works of God sprout and grow under taunts from friend and foe.
He bore it all calmly with his eyes raised up to Heaven whence alone he expected comfort
and help, and he found easy and sweet to him what was most strenuous and repugnant
to nature. The fortitude of the Saints far surpasses that hard and obstinate fortitude of
the Stoics; for they steadfast in the supernatural union of grace pray, bear, and conquer.
Philosophic fortitude ends in the egotistical satisfaction of self-love from which it takes its
rise and guidance: Christian fortitude ever sharpens the wits to devise new, humble, and
sometimes humiliating means for the sole purpose of reaching its desired end, without
any ambition save the glory of God and the good of souls.
The rst Oratory boys never grew tired of Don Bosco but always lived with him or
near him. They kept in their hearts the memory of those heroic days with the vivid
picture of a lather good and dear to them, dear because of his goodness, but good with
the same goodness the young man read in Jesus' face when he asked:
30

4 Pages 31-40

▲back to top


4.1 Page 31

▲back to top


Good Master, what shall I do that I may receive life-everlasting?
In a man so complex and complete as Don Bosco goodness had nothing of that sensi-
bility that easily degenerates into weakness. The goodness of Don Bosco, illumined by
intellect and faith and enkindled by his habitual union with God, led up to a supernat-
ural goodness, one with all, inspiring for all. Here then is the reason why in the midst of
uctuating fortune (whose sorrowful blows to his heart were seen almost at once, though
later on understood well, by his rst pupils) he was. always calm and serene; he was
preparing himself to be all to all in the expansion of a love so operative and spiritual.
He so won the hearts of boys that wherever he went to hear confessions the youngsters
wanted him and him alone. They crowded round him happy and condent. And that is
why when he had no place but a meadow to gather them in they followed him faithfully
and stayed with him till sunset, eating the slice of bread each had brought with him in
his pocket, not caring for the chill winds of Winter. When the rst Oratorians grew to
manhood they could only exclaim as the memory of those days was recalled:
There was an angel among us!
This opinion carries us back to the protomartyr St Stephen who in spite of the accu-
sations heaped on him, held himself with such calm dignity, the external sign of a soul
lled with grace and strength, that those around saw his face as though it were the face
of an angel, The admirable demeanour of Don Bosco among armies of tribulations had
no other origin. The churches of Our Lady on the outskirts of the city of Turin knew
him, for thither did he often head in pilgrimage crowds of boys that they might go to the
Sacraments and pray for the blessings of God; the church of La Consolata knew him for
he and his boys received frequently heavenly help before the miraculous picture there; Fr
Borel and other worthy priests knew him for they were witness of the religious fervour
dropped by this zealous apostle into the restless hearts of the young; certain boys knew
him for he saw their leaning to greater holiness and so treated them apart, kept them
united to him in prayer, and guided them along the road to higher perfection. These are
facts we want to recall if we are to understand fully those words of his memoirs:
It was surprising thing how this crowd of boys so little known to me allowed itself
to be led, a crowd to whom I could truthfully apply the words `like a horse and mule
without intellect'. I must add that in spite of such great ignorance I always had to admire
a great respect for the things pertaining to the church and priests, and an enthusiasm to
learn the dogmas and precepts of the Faith.
After all it was not so bad for such horses and mules. The tamer or master had
within him enough of intelligence which, lacking in them before, he gradually put into
them. Now we can explain more easily why Blessed Cafasso, opposing all accusations
which were being piled high on the head of Don Bosco, always wound up by saying:
Leave him to do what he wants.
Sunday however was one day in the week: what about the other six? Let it not be
believed that the true festive Oratory has only Sunday to attend to. As Don Bosco had
conceived it the Oratory is the seat of a paternal authority that captivates the hearts of
boys and follows them everywhereat home, in the workshop, on the streetwhere it can
exercise a salutary inuence on their conduct. And then besides the Refuge Don Bosco
had religious institutions, colleges, public and private schools, reformatories, hospitals,
31

4.2 Page 32

▲back to top


evening schools, sermons, studies, booksa eld of labour that knew no bounds. Such
activity naturally brought him into contact with people of every kind, many of whom in
need of his work and word would hunt him whenever he went to say mass. Apropos of
this we nd the following resolution written by him in 1845; we mention it here, not as
if we wish to pose as his biographer, but because it helps towards our object.
Since on reaching the sacristy I am generally asked to hear confessions or give some
advice, I shall try before leaving my room to make a brief preparation for Holy Mass.
A very signicant and precious document that shows how Don Bosco, without any
scruples of conscience as is evidenced by that word brief , preferred to anticipate the
preparation required, rather than to screen himself o by the leaving God for God.
To this time belongs certain strips of paper which he used as bookmarks for forty years
in his breviary; he had written on them thoughts he wished to know by heart. Eleven
biblical quotations put before his mind:
• the providence of God,
• ight from evil occasions,
• detachment from the goods of earth,
• the joy of a clean conscience,
• the liberality of God with the kind-hearted,
• the duty of reecting before speaking,
• the Divine Tribunal,
• the love of the poor,
• honour due to superiors,
• forgetting oences,
• trust in God.
Five maxims from the Fathers helped him to remember frequent examen of conscience,
• humble and complete acquiescence in the teachings of the Church,
• strict guard over secrets,
• the ecacy of good example,
• zeal for one's soul and the souls of others.
• three thoughts of Dante taken from the end of each canto raised his mind to higher
things.
32

4.3 Page 33

▲back to top


Lastly, come four lines from Silvio Pellico that are worthy of citation not because they
are rare but because they seem to reveal to us what politics this man of God had to have
in a period red hot with public disturbances: the politics, that is, of an Italy one in faith,
hope, and charity.
In virtue great
Ad ogni alta virtu
may Italy believe,
Italo creda,
And from her God may hope all grace;
Ogni grazia da Dio lo Stato speri,
In faith and hope may love and walk,
E credendo e sperando ami e proceda
God's truths resplendent in her face.
Alla conquista degli eterni veri.
Pellico and Don Bosco were close friends. The poet who had written at Don Bosco's
request the beautiful little hymn Angioletto del mio Dio, was greatly attached to him.
Since he was the secretary of the Marchioness Barolo, Pellico came to know about the
letter the good lady had written to the Rector of the Refuge concerning Don Bosco with
its plain and simple aut...auteither leave the Refuge or leave the boys. This long letter
that bears the signature of the noble lady but the amiable style of her secretary is dear
to our hearts on account of these few lines, the brilliant point in it:
Don Bosco pleased me from the rst moment and I have found in him that atmosphere
of recollection and simplicity common to holy souls.
Pellico neatly worded what others thought and what we think.
33

4.4 Page 34

▲back to top


CHAPTER 3 In his xed home
To say the word Oratory nowadays is to name an institution so common in Italy that
it seems as if it had always been so, and no need is felt of trying to nd out whom we
must thank; but the name of Don Bosco is ever coupled with one Oratory, the Oratory
par excellence, the Oratory at Valdocco. Not without the mysterious designs of God has
it come about that the throbbing centre of Don Bosco's work should be called a name
that custom is wont to apply to a place of prayer. We name a place by what it is .there
for; so if a place of so much activity is called a place of prayer this goes to tell us that in
Don Bosco's works, the rst place is for prayer, the second for action. Don Bosco's own
words conrm this. From the very rst there were well-intentioned people who found
fault with the frequent sacred services and devotions as often as these were introduced:
but Don Bosco stopped all objections by merely saying:
I gave the name of Oratory to this house to show clearly that prayer is the only
strength on which we must place our work.
And piety is breathed like air in the Oratory; it is seen in the boys' faces; it lives in
all.
The above, however, does not come into our plan: we merely cite it to point out that
there was the reection of the priestly soul of Don Bosco. A priest with a great spirit of
initiative but without a like spirit of prayer would be able to do much in organizing from
the dust of the earth, but not much in instilling the breath of life; which organization, if
not remedied by others, would whither away. For Don Bosco God was the beginning and
end of all. The multitude of labours left him few long hours to dedicate to prayer; yet
his mother whose bedroom was next to her son's tells us that from certain indications
he spent the best part of the night in prayer. At the entrance to his room a piece of
cardboard invited him
Praise be to Jesus Christ. Inside, another card reminded him:
One thing is necessary, save your soul.
And still another brought back to him the motto beloved of St. Francis de Sales,
adopted afterwards by our Saint:
Give me souls, take away the rest.
He was familiar with these aspirationsexpressions of the desire of his own salvation,
omens of the salvation of others. And what shall we say of those frequent manifestations
of an intimately deep piety which showed his respect, love and esteem for every expression
of worship, every devotion encouraged, approved, and recommended by the Church? Such
as, for example, the use of sacramentals, assisting at church services, saying the rosary
in common, the Angelus, saying grace at meals, sodalities, the way of the Cross.
How great was his devotion to the mysteries of Christ's passion and death! He medi-
tated on them with such heartfelt sorrow that those listening to him could not restrain
34

4.5 Page 35

▲back to top


their tears, while he himself could hardly say what he wanted to say so full of emotion
was he. With regard to sodalities we have to say that within a short time of his settling
in Valdocco he was enrolled a member of the third order of St. Francis with novitiate and
profession. For the rest, namely, that he was a priest of exemplary piety any observer
could easily have seen how wrapped up he was in spiritual things whenever he prayed
even audible in his characteristically clear and harmonious voice. So, the humble poet
who wrote a poem in honour of Don Bosco's return from a long convalescence clothed in
verse what was the unanimous opinion :
A man of wisdom and sanctity With virtues gaily adorn'd.
And to this hymn of praise are joined the voices of present-day millions who, although
they have never seen the Saint, base themselves on trustworthy witnesses.
Troublesome years followed on for Don Boscoto make the Oratory of one hundred
boys progress, to erect and direct two new ones in Turin, to establish and set on foot a
hospice, to nd place in the already crowded house for clerics expelled from their seminar-
ies by the government, to answer the question of daily bread, to work out the foundation
of the future congregation, to share the sorrows of his sorely-tried Bishop throughout the
public upheavals that grieved the heart of the Church authorities troubles so tiresome
that we would be led to suppose that from morning to night he was always feverishly at
work and capable of thinking of nothing else beside. But this is far from the truth. A
venerable priest who spent years beside the Saint tells us that his face was a clear sign of
his union with God and that anyone observing him recalled at once those words of the
Apostle:
Our conversation is in heaven.
Everywhere even in the refectory and in his room one could see the calmness of his
actions, recollection in his eyes, a slight bending of his head like someone who was in the
presence of some great personage or of the Blessed Sacrament. Through the thoroughfares
of the town he used to go wrapped in thought, but, it was easily seen to be the thought
of God. At times, too, someone would ask him for spiritual advice when he was busy
with other duties and yet he always answered in the words of one totally immersed in
contemplation. One who had lived in the Oratory in the rst years watching him during
the prayers in common tells us that Don Bosco said the words Our Father Who art in
Heaven with exquisite relish and that his voice was distinguishable above all others by
an indescribable timbre that moved those who heard him. Although there was nothing
extraordinary in his demeanour, yet a watcher could not help but notice that Don Bosco
in the sacristy or in the church never had the custom of leaning his elbows on the prie-
dieu or bench; instead he would rest his wrists on the edge and keep his hands joined
unless he was holding a book. Even the celebrated moralist, Mgr. Bertagna, could never
forget the appearance of him at prayer; and, asked to portray Don Bosco in a few words,
he said that he prayed like an angel.
Let us not leave this point of Don Bosco's exterior aspect without adding some obser-
vation that will help us to gain a more complete understanding of his spirit of prayer.
Writers and painters amuse themselves too much at times over the childishness of the
exterior gure of God's servants; there are some who want Don Bosco to be, let us say,
sugar-coated. We who have seen him will never admit a conventional Don Bosco, much
35

4.6 Page 36

▲back to top


less shall we nd him in truth under such appearances. A great man who may be also
a great saint knows how to smile, not however that xed and insignicant or merely
instinctive smile, but a smile expressive of the mind, directed to an end and withdrawn
after its object is attained. In the saint sweet and amiable kindness is not separated from
calm and serene dignity. This kindness and dignity make up a double element that is as
a sign, nearly like a seal, of the Creator on the creature. Hence, his look when he is in
the act of inspiring trust raises to the heights and makes one meditate.5
Regarding Don Bosco some talk of good-heartedness, but never of weakness: but since
the latter is the brother of the former, we must conclude, that the good-heartedness of
Don Bosco needs explanation without referring to the dictionary. Let us call it evangelical
simplicity, the simplicity of the yes, yes! and no, no! founded on kindness, and
breathing strength. This is it. The man who communes interiorly with God imprints a
peaceful seriousness on his features and gure. This appears in Don Bosco to those who
study him through the genuine expressions of his personality.
His speech was like his deportment. He spoke calmly and slowly; he disliked profane
subjects, manners that were too lively, resentful and angry expressions. He measured
every word. Here are the words of one who lived long in the family and familiarity of
Don Bosco, Fr John Francesia:
Often we would say among our groups: `How pleasant it is to go near Don Bosco. If
you talk to him for even a minute you feel within yourself a wave of fervour'.
But we have another witness of greater value, namely, Fr. Rua when he spoke in the
process for the Beatication and Canonization. I have lived he said "for thirty-seven
years beside Don Bosco and the impression I received as I observed his every action, even
the smallest, was more than as if I had read or meditated on a devotional book.
We beg the readers to be patient for another digression which we think reasonable
to make. We wish to mention a quotation that gives us to understand how legitimate
and sure is the method of judging his interior by observing his exterior. Besides if there
were another way for Don Bosco we would certainly follow it. Here are the words of St.
Vincent de Paul when he spoke to his missioners in one of his admirable sermons:
Even if you say no words you will touch hearts by your presence alone, provided you
are united with God. Servants of God are easily distinguishable from men of the world; a
certain external attitude humble, meditative, and devout penetrates the soul of him who
watches. There are some people so full of God that I cannot look at them without being
impressed. Those who draw pictures of the saints always represent them surrounded
by rays of light: and in fact the just, those who live holily here on earth, radiate from
themselves a light all their own.
The celebrated biographer of St. Bonaventure, Lemmens, after noting that there were
no documents by which we could know his progress m prayer and the sublime gift of
contemplation passes on to the consideration of the fruits of his interior life and of his
5Wtwsbaeeuhtktaeetnghnhreeetarhehweeitamybhyyassemthflraftiolhbwmeeitatumsotahwytlehsoirtreeniicctrssoptnlidolreeoiicctgtanhibroobruntyot.ulaoFrrunasr,gthFhhtirhe.saraTnftaichtcseeemsbiiitaimnlhedwepssrrapietitosrhesiseliot:omfnbay"ttsoDhnaeodotynhgpegBueetrothssaioocnwnous.tg"ihnhcehtfuiarosnefigndtethsicmheneaoDectriifevausilnlnwieneisetPshoriefnGstteoohndeocietirsh.fenarScosoet,
36

4.7 Page 37

▲back to top


continuous union with God, and here he says:
He had imprinted on his countenance that ineable peace and holy grace that thrilled
those who saw him.
In conrmation of this he brings forth the testimony of a contemporary who in de-
scribing the Council of Lyons where the saint sent out the last rays of his seraphic light
wrote:
The Lord gave him this grace that all may admire him and become attached to him.
Change the name and you have Don Bosco.
The saint of Retreats for priests and ecclesiastical students is a reminder to us how
greatly Don Bosco esteemed the excellent Ignatian practice. Don Bosco loved retreats;
he loved them for himself, he loved them for others. A precursor too in this he began
in 1847 closed retreats for young workers. He introduced too into Salesian schools the
custom of making an Easter Retreatwell-prepared, carried on excellently, and ended
in holy cheerfulness. In his own congregation he was not far behind other founders. He
was a keen advocate of retreats but at the same time he made them for his own good.
He used to go yearly to the little sanctuary of St. Ignatius outside the city in order that
he might pray and meditate on the eternal truths in the peace and quiet of the hills
undisturbed by the worries of daily life.
On a sheet of paper carefully preserved by him we read with a feeling of emotion the
resolutions taken in a retreat of 1847.
Every day, a visit to the Blessed Sacrament.
Every week, a mortication; confession.
Every month, to read the prayers for the exercise for a happy death. Lord, give me
what thou commandest and command what Thou wilt. The priest is the thurible of the
Divinity. (Theodotus) The soldier of Christ. (St. John Chrysostom)
Prayer to a priest is like water to a sh, air to a bird, fountains to a deer.
He who prays is like one who stands before his king.
We have twice already quoted resolutions of Don Bosco that refer to the life of prayer
without, however, forgetting that between the word and the act lies a chasm. We must
then view the character of Don Bosco. Don Bosco was not a day dreamer neither was he
emotional but he was a man of will content with clear ideas and pure aections. Such
characters are rm and persevering; when they wish, they will. Not so are speculative
men whose resolutions are easily blown away by the breeze. Not so are passionate men
who resolve and resolve, but get no further, because impressions are as lasting in them
as a ake of snow. Don Bosco had a will of iron.
A problem of another nature rather springs up here. If we admit that self-control is
proper to strong wills, how can you explain why Don Bosco was sometimes seen to weep?
He would weep while celebrating Mass, distributing Holy Communion, merely blessing
the congregation after the Divine Sacrice, speaking to his boys after night prayers,
giving a conference to his Salesians, proposing the memento of the Retreats, touching
on sin, scandal, or immodesty in sermons, or on the ingratitude of men towards the love
of Jesus for us, or expressing fear for the uncertainty of someone's eternal salvation. A
witness thus writes about the Carnival-time pleasures:
37

4.8 Page 38

▲back to top


By way of reparation for so many disorders he would beg us to receive Holy Commu-
nion and to pass an hour before the tabernacle. And while he spoke he would weep and
make us weep on account of the insults ung at our Lord especially in those days.
A witness of the rst class, Cardinal Cagliero, thus writes:
While Don Bosco was speaking on the love of God, the loss of souls, the Passion of
Jesus on Good Friday, on the Holy Eucharist, a happy death, and the hope of Heaven,
I often saw him and even my companions, saw him shed tears of love, or sorrow, or joy,
and of holy ecstasy when he spoke of the Blessed virgin, of her Goodness and immaculate
purity.
The same thing would happen in public churches. In the church of the Consolata he
was seen to burst into tears while preaching on the General Judgment and describing
the separation of the good and the bad. Another witness observed him often so weeping
especially when treating of everlasting life that even obstinate sinners were moved to go
to confession to him after the sermon. Finally the conscientious biographer of the Saint,
Fr. Lemoyne, S.C., (Vol. IV. 3678) writes:
We who write these pages have been testimony with many others of the Divine gift
given to Don Bosco, even before his founding the Oratory, up to his death.
The question could form itself around this, namely, whether we here really deal with
a mystic gift, and, if so, whether we have any right to assert that Don Bosco had the
grace of passive prayer. We shall return to this argument later on; in the meantime let
us limit ourselves noticing that in the circumstances cited above the tears of Don Bosco
were proof of his great union with God: and since union with God is prayer we see that
in the growing intensity of his work a sublime spirit of prayer must have animated him.
In the asceticism of Don Bosco a major part was given to the Blessed Sacrament,
his life-long love, his unceasing priestly campaign. Thus he experienced indescribable
joy when the King of Heaven took up lodgings in the Oratory after the erection of the
Church of St. Francis de Sales, 1852. From that day this church became the object of his
aections No pen can describe his happiness when he broke the news to his boys. Here,
too, he would adore our Divine Lord whenever he needed some respite; the face of him
was more seraphic than human. Whatsoever regarded sacred worship that he held always
in the greatest importance; ever solicitous in exacting neatness and order in the sacred
vessels and vestments; ever attentive to the continuous burning of the Sanctuary lamp;
ever ready to recommend to all how well they should genuect before Him Who came
to dwell in the tabernacle; ever ready to dust the altars, free the church from cobwebs,
sweep the oor, and wash the predella. Nothing that was necessary for the decorum of
the services escaped him, on the major feasts he disliked profane musicians because being
accustomed to conduct themselves in church they would lose their respect for the Real
Presence of Jesus. The best of authority, his biographer, Fr. Lemoyne, tells us that in
church his faith and love for the Real Presence shone in his face.
Such was he as a common worshipper what must be have been as the celebrating priest?
He said his Mass calmly, devoutly, exactly, recollectedly; he pronounced the words with
clearness and relish; he loved to distribute the Sacred Species, with his face showing that
he was not able to hide the fervour of his soul. No aectation was there; but unhurriedly
and not too slowly he accomplished the service with calmness and naturalness in every
38

4.9 Page 39

▲back to top


movement from beginning to end. Those people who had never seen him before were
deeply impressed; others when they knew where he was to say Mass ocked to assist at
it; families privileged with a domestic altar always disputed to see who would get him
to say Mass. How often would he repair to the Church of his First Mass, St. Francis of
Assisi beside the Ecclesiastical College, and on bended knee renew the resolutions taken
then! We still preserve his book of the Mass Rubrics which he always carried with him
and which became worn by use. Often he would beg his friends to observe him saying
Mass and to see if he committed any mistake. In the morning while going from his room
to the church arm anyone met him, greeted him, or kissed his hand, he smiled but spoke
not; so absorbed was he in the thought of his Mass. On journeys he would never miss
celebrating the Sacred Mysteries but would rather cut short his rest and celebrate them
very early or put himself to such inconvenience to celebrate them very late. This is how
the rst Salesians had seen him, this is the way the late-comers saw him.
The heart of Don Bosco formed as it was in the spiritual life by a strong and constant
love for the Eucharist was naturally t or rather providently prepared to beat in the
breast of the apostle of frequent Communion. How brilliantly did his seraphic soul shine
forth in this holy mission! Jansenism still blackened Piedmont. The Ecclesiastical College
taught some moral doctrines destined to hunt out the erroneous clouds from the minds
of men: but the sadness caused by the zealous heretic would have gone on creeping over
the land had not the powerful example of Don Bosco come to pull it away. He preferred
to act and not launch himself into discussions.
By himself he had long ago solved the question of frequent Communion; hence he
faced the priesthood with clear and ordered ideas on the subject. In these days we are
impressed when we read again this extract from his Memoirs:
At the beginning of my second year of philosophy I went to pay a visit to the Blessed
Sacrament. As I had no book I took the Imitation of Christ and read a few chapters on
the Eucharist.
He who expounded the great truths with sublimity of thought and a method clear,
orderly, and eloquent, found so much delight in the golden book that he had made it one
of his favourites. Now, reading and rereading the part devoted entirely to the Sacrament
of the Altar his attention must have been arrested at the second versicle of chapter ten
where the pious writer observes how the devil, knowing full well the great and excellent
fruits resulting from Holy Communion strives his utmost to prevent faithful and devout
souls from receiving It, not only simple souls but also pious souls consecrated to God.
An old scourge in the Church! the thoughtful reader will exclaim to himself, An old
plague this insinuation of Satan!
Much more zealously must Don Bosco have drunk the sweet nectar of this wonderful
book and changed it to sap and blood, as he longed for the day when he would become
the herald of Holy Communion among the boys of the world. Yes, among the boys of
the world for in order not to build hastily on sandy ground he had to take boys and lead
them soon to the Eucharistic Table, lead them in ocks, lead them over and over again,
lead them that men's eyes grow accustomed to such sights.
Thus, he did.
Here and there he received observations but lost no time in discussions. He would
39

4.10 Page 40

▲back to top


prepare groups of boys for their First Communion, would multiply general Communions,
would establish clubs and sodalities with the intention of accustoming their members
to frequent and daily Communion, would remain for hours in the confessional hearing
the confessions of those who would want to go to Communion. God alone knows what
sacrices Don Bosco imposed on himself in order to promote frequent Communion among
the boys; but neighbours beheld in his face the sincere joy he felt in his soul while watching
lines and lines of boys approaching the Holy Table. What better thing could be desire
whose soul was ever turned to Jesus in the Eucharist?
We cannot end this chapter without referring to the way, Don Bosco made use of
confession during these years. In the spiritual life the choice of a good director is an
ordinary condition for making true progress. St Bernard alludes to it with that famous
saying:
He who makes himself his own teacher, has a fool for a pupil. This was written by
the holy Doctor not for a novice in life but Tor an experienced priest; and in the same
letter he conrms his teaching with a proof of his own.
I don't know, he says, what others think of themselves on this point: I speak from
experience and say that as for me I nd it easier and better to command others than
guide myself.
Don Bosco, as soon as he went to Turin, chose Blessed Cafasso as his spiritual director
to whom he opened his conscience every week. He found him in the Church of St. Francis
d'Assisi in his confessional with crowds of penitents awaiting their turn to confess. Don
Bosco would kneel down near a pillar to prepare himself; the confessor seeing him would
beckon him to come, so as not to have him lose much time. Don Bosco would approach
very devoutly, kneel on a prie-dieu that in those days in Turin was at the door of the
confessional and make his confession to the edication of all present. A holy pupil, a
holy master!
40

5 Pages 41-50

▲back to top


5.1 Page 41

▲back to top


CHAPTER 4 The time of his great
foundations
During this period of his life Don Bosco gradually lled the whole world with his name.
Newspapers of every kind, illustrated pamphlets, photographs distributed widely, lec-
tureseverything, in ne, that would spread the news of his work was used. No Apostle
had ever at his service so many means of publicity. Fortunate success that crowned his
arduous undertaking helped to convince some people that he was a great saint, others
that he was a great man. It must be said that he himself in making a universal appeal
for charity broadcast his mission to the four corners of the globe, writing polylingual
letters to men of every rank and station. A hidden modesty rejoiced in these methods.
Certainly some people were scandalized, but it was with a mean scandal; often even his
censurers followed his example. The Blessed Cafasso in 1853 gave an opinion of Don
Bosco that straightens out matters for talented ecclesiastics who murmur a little at Don
Bosco: It is an opinion that far surpasses the petty circumstances in which it was said.
Here are the words of Don Bosco's spiritual director:
Do you know well who Don Bosco is? As for me the more I study him the less I
understand him! I see him simple and extraordinary, humble and great, poor and busy
with vast schemes which appear unattainable and yet which, in spite of opposition and
lack of means, have come out triumphantly in his hands. For me Don Bosco is a mystery!
I am certain, however, he works for God's glory, that God alone is his guide, and that
God only is the end of all his actions.
The Blessed Cafasso's prudent reserve was easily understood then; but when people
looked upon Don Bosco as a saint there was no more barrier to hide it. But while it
echoes afar fame is not always admired at home in the little every day things. A proverb
says on this point:
Familiarity breeds contempt, or as the French picturesquely say:
Pas de grand homme pour son valet de chambre.
But notice the peculiarity in Don Bosco's case: everyone who was familiar with him
testies that the more he knew him the more he was convinced Don Bosco was a saint.
And those who were in his company for years and had every opportunity of scrutinizing
his daily life felt an extraordinary veneration for him. This familiarity, far from melting
the charm of the unknown by reducing the voice of universal fame to more modest
proportions, only served to amplify it. Now, anyone who has something to do with
the spiritual life knows two things: namely, an opinion of holiness cannot be formed
and cannot endure if no spirit of prayer is seen in the supposed saint; and to deprecate
holiness in such a person all that is needed is for him to make the sign of the cross badly.
Don Bosco lived all his life under the gaze of many people so much so that his actions
41

5.2 Page 42

▲back to top


could easily be criticized by discreet and indiscreet onlookers: and then his true piety
was well known within the precincts v of the Oratory. To Don Bosco the spirit of prayer
was what the spirit of marching men is to a good ocer, the spirit of observation to an
artist or scientist: an habitual disposition of soul characterized by ease, constancy, and
visible delight.
Among those who had grown up at the school of Don Bosco special mention must be
made of those who, formed slowly by his hands, became subsequently the foundations
of the Salesian Society. We have known those men so dierent in ability and culture,
so unequal in disposition: but in all there were certain common traits that seemed to
belong to a common source. Calm serenity in act and word; a fatherly way of manners and
expressions; but especially a piety that, they were convinced, was to be the ubi consistam,
the pivot of the Salesian life. They prayed much, they prayed well; they could not say
four words publicly or privately, it seemed, without touching on the subject of prayer.
And yet, not even excepting Fr Michael Rua whose ascetical and, at times, mystical
aspect attracted men's attention, those men did not show any external manifestation of
internal extraordinary grace of prayerfulness; in fact, we see them carrying on with a
wonderful simplicity nothing more than the practices demanded by our customs. But
how diligent was their way of treating with God! How naturally they would introduce
into profane subjects thoughts of faith ! They had lived a long time with Don Bosco
and this had left in them indelible marks. With benet could we quote that which St.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians (2 Cor 3:2). Those who want to know the Spirit of prayer
of Don Bosco have only to look at his disciples; an authentic document (so to speak)
wherein he himself speaks.
The absence of great external signs, then, that generally are common in the prayers
of the saints, is no ground for letting pass by unnoticed Don Bosco's spirit of prayer
even in the years most laborious in his life when troubles of all kinds sought his time
and thought and when his indefatigable energy was at its zenith. Deeply etched in his
soul was the thought of the presence of God, so much so that crowding aairs could not
hinder his internal and perpetual union with Him; nay, the feeling of God's presence
while keeping him watchful and attentive to his only end of serving Him alone, was also
an everlasting spring of mirth in the sea of his occupations: in everything he sought
naught else beyond the perfect accomplishment of the Divine Will. For this reason when
he wrote to a virtuous priest asking him to come and help in the discipline and running
of his already overcrowded institute he used a witty turn of thought, conformed however
to the style of the saints:
Come and help me to say my breviary. To pass from occupation to occupation was
for Don Bosco the passing from the singing of one psalm to the singing of another, since
in all that he did he gave praise to God. The book that the priest handles daily for his
prayer tells him that he must also carry out his daily occupations in the presence of God.
A similar exhortation in the writings of St. Augustine (in Ps 146:2) is found where he,
desiring the Christian to convert his whole life into one long hymn of praise, thinks of
David's lyre and says:
Don't sing to the Lord with your tongue only but also take up the psalter of good
works.
42

5.3 Page 43

▲back to top


This point had I reached in the chapter when His Holiness the Pope spoke on 19th
March for the decree of Don Bosco's miracles. In the Pope's speech there is a personal
note that just ts in here. His Holiness said that while spending a few days with Don
Bosco under the same roof and at the same table and enjoying the pleasure of being with
a saint although he was busy, he had noted one of his most impressive characteristics:
A great calmness, a master of time, in listening to all those who came to him with
such tranquillity that it seemed he had nothing else to do.
A large book would barely suce wherein to keep record of facts and testimonies that
second the justice of this observation. It is applicable not only to his control of time
but also to his control of unexpected happenings: for this same calm and serenity were
invariable with him Tn meeting obstacles, in diculties, in misfortunes which, no matter
their gravity, never upset him. Still fresh in our memories is a saying often told us by
Don Bosco's rst successor, Fr Rua, that whenever our father appeared gayer and more
contented than usual, his Salesians falling back ' on experience would whisper to one
another:
Don Bosco is suering something great today, for he looks merrier than usual !
In these circumstances, the same Fr Rua said in the Process of Don Bosco's Beati-
cation and Canonization, prayer was his strength.
Surely, even if we overlook so authentic a source as this, nothing else would explain the
fact. The pious writer of the Imitation (III. 34.) makes it a point to give perfect peace
and serenity of the spirit one sole origin, namely, abandonment in God, the life spent in
close union with Him.
You, the soul speaks to her Beloved, make my heart tranquil and bestow upon it
great peace and festive joy.
To speak with ease and with sentiment of God is a good proof of habitual union with
Him. Don Bosco's sons knew well how easily he punctuated his talks with favourite
expressions like the following:
How good is the Lord and what care He takes of us!
God is a good Father Who does not permit us to be tempted above our strength.
God is a good Master Who will reward even a glass of water given for His love.
Let us love God! Let us love Him! Do you not see how good He has been to us? He
created everything for us; He instituted the Eucharist that He might remain always with
us; every moment He showers down blessings.
When it is a question of serving this kind Master we must be ready for any sacrice.
Remember that faith without good works is dead.
Let us do all we can for the greater glory of God.
All for the Lord, all for His glory!
Even the most material occupations did not remove this facility.
Sometimes, Fr Rua says, when we were retiring at a late hour he would stop to gaze
at the starry heavens and in spite of his fatigue would speak to us of the immensity,
omnipotence, and wisdom of God. At other times when in the country, he would praise
the beauty of the elds and meadows, the abundance and wealth of fruits, and so led
the conversation around to the goodness and providence of God, in such a way that his
43

5.4 Page 44

▲back to top


companions would often exclaim with the disciples of Emmaus: `Was not our heart
burning within us while he spoke on the way? '
A similar easiness he showed with strangers at home or outside, whether they were
poor or rich people, clergy or laity. At Marseilles in the house of a great friend he plucked
a heartsease and turning to the friend said :
Look, I give you a remembrance, the remembrance of Eternity. With or without
owers he never forgot to leave good thoughts for those near him. One of his favourites
was:
The priest should never deal with anyone without leaving some good thought.
A still more lustrous proof of habitual union with God is the ease to speak with feeling
of Heaven.
Don Bosco, Cardinal Cagliero arms spoke of Paradise with such feeling, delight,
and eloquence that he thrilled those who heard him. He spoke of it as a son speaks of
his father's house: the desire to possess God burned in him more than the reward He
promised.
If he heard any of his Salesians lamenting over trials, work, or duties, he would en-
courage them thus:
Remember that you suer or work for a kind Master, God. Work and suer for the
love of Jesus Who worked and suered so much for you. A piece of heaven puts everything
right.
To those who reported diculties or unpleasant acts he would say:
There are none of these things in heaven! The suerings of this life are momentary,
the joys of Paradise eternal.
To a very wealthy and incredulous man who was charmed by the saint's words and
who went to him for curiosity's sake he said:
Look, you with your wealth and I with my poverty can be together in heaven.
When he heard anyone mention the autumn holidays he was wont to say:
We'll have our holidays in heaven.
Often he returned to the Oratory very tired and on being asked to rest a little before
sitting down at his desk or going into the confessional he would say with sweetness:
I'll rest in heaven.
He usually concluded long discussions with the words:
There'll be none of these disputes in heaven; all of us will be of one mind.
A few of his most frequent exclamations were:
What joy we'll nd when we're in heaven! Only be good and fear not.
What do you think God has created heaven for? To leave it empty? But remember
that it costs sacrices.
A well-to-do priest, though somewhat stingy, heard Don Bosco speaking of heaven
with such emotion that he ran to his desk, took as many golden coins as his two hands
could hold, and gave them to the saint gracefully and courteously.
One day he was dining with some priests. The conversation turned on the beauty
and goodness of the fruits on the table; Don Bosco maneuvered it so as to speak about
heaven, the which he did with so much force that the others left o eating and listened
to the words that fell from his lips.
44

5.5 Page 45

▲back to top


If anyone, says a friend of our saint, had asked him on the spur of the moment where
he was going, he would have answered `To heaven'.
According to St. Augustine (Ep. CXXX. 19.) the continuous desire for heaven is
continuous prayer.
Again, the ease of always being able to say a good word is a potent proof of one's
habitual union with God. His second successor used to say that whether taken unawares
or immersed in work Don Bosco seemed to interrupt his talks with God in order to
listen to those who came to him and from his Lord he drew those inspired thoughts and
encouragement that lled his conversation. Many are the examples that show forth this
his facility of talking about God at any time; but leaving them to larger books we shall
merely quote one of the most familiar. Often priests of the Oratory particularly superiors
would go for confession to him just when he was given over to answering his thousands
of letters and to treating of temporal things. Yet, he spoke to the penitent with such
thought and feeling that it looked as if he had just that moment returned from the altar.
His acts were like his words. The latter were vibrant with the tone of a man accustomed
to be with God; the former had the mark of a zealous priest. Zeal means fervour of
soul; in the language of the Christian, St. Ambrose thus translates it dei vapor and
devotionis fervor. Zeal then is an external radiation of an internal faith; it is the outburst
of piety towards God which not being able to control itself boils over, as it were, in heat
and growing energy. Zeal is not therefore an enthuasiastic moment, an extraordinary
exultation that soon fades away; zeal, guided from" above, goes with continuous and
progressive steps in spite of opposition from man or thing. The zeal of Don Bosco was
modelled on that of Jesusa burning love for the glory of God by means of the salvation
of souls and war on sin, and a gracefulness of manners to gain the hearts of small and
great. The Oratory boys were attracted to him; they used to use a phrase that also
revealed the faith and piety of the place, for it was:
Don Bosco looks like our Lord.
We read here how Don Bosco went and came with his feet on earth and hands at work
but with his eyes sparkling with the light that comes from above, that illumines the mind
of man, and that lights up his path. He who wants to nd Don Bosco, must rst go to
his institutions.
St Bonaventure distinguishes three kinds of prayer, namely, common, private, and
continuous, and he recommends this last to superiors who are much occupied. It exacts
three things, namely,
1. the thought must be turned to God in every action;
2. the soul must seek the honour of God always;
3. the will must from time to time secretly recollect itself in prayer.
In this sense, from the sign of the cross to the holy Mass, from the familiar text to the
sermon, from the small things to the great, Don Bosco's actions were lled with prayer:
in the greatest undertakings this spirit compelled him to be a brave knight seeking to
promote the glory of God. Before he took up any activity whatsoever, even if this were
45

5.6 Page 46

▲back to top


the totting up of accounts to see whether there were sucient material means or not, he
would view the problem from a viewpoint unknown to purely human prudence.
I hold this norm, he said in all I undertake. I rst nd out whether the work will be
for the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls: if so, I carry on with surety for
the Lord will not forget to help me; if it is not what I imagine or, better, what I believe,
it may go up in smoke for I am equally contented.
When he had put into eect a plan of his he tells us how he considered it (if we wish
to know) by the answer he gave to Fr Felix Giordano of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate
who was rather curious to know how the saint could carry on his works colossal as they
were.
You know, Don Bosco said, that I have nothing to do with it at all. Our Lord does
everything: when He wants a work to be done, He makes use of the most inadequate
instrument. This is my case. If He had found a priest poorer and more wretched than
me, He would have used that priest as the one to do His work and would have left aside
poor Don Bosco to follow his natural vocation, a country parish priest.
The world spoke of his activities; he spoke of them to the world. He let people have
their say.
We are now dealing, he would say, with God's glory, not man's. How many more
marvels would He have done, had Don Bosco proved himself to have more faith.
Whenever,the activities he did were spoken about, he would naturally attribute the
glory to Him, even through new methods of publicity: in this he followed a practical
criterion.
It is but just that those who give alms should know where that charity goes to. We
live in such material times that the world wants to see and to touch with its hand: so it
is more than ever necessary that our good works be known that God may be gloried.
In the apostolic process, many and upright witnesses who had heard him speak of his
own aairs had all one common point; namely, they said that Don Bosco looked beyond
his own self by far when on this topic. The utter conviction that he was Providence's
humble tool upheld him in moments of great trouble: for God had said that men do
not always judge well at rst sight things done. The supreme authority itself in the
diocese who recognizing the saint's good work too late, had even been convinced that it
was honouring God by attacking it with an enduring zeal that was worthy of a better
cause. What a bitter chalice Don Bosco, had to drink? And yet the only lamentation
that fell from his lips or from his pen during that heart-rending trial was that such
annoyance and obstacles made him lose so much time in which he could have done more
for God's glory. This was always the nal object of this saint. Some day the amount
of his correspondence will prove beyond doubt his great eagerness in promoting the
glory of God and in enkindling it in the secular and regular clergy alike with whom he
corresponded by letter and in enkindling it especially in his sons. These latter hold in
high esteem this particular advice from among the many zealously and piously guarded
by them.
If you speak of spiritual things let the topics be always developed in such a way as to
redound to God's greater glory. Promises, whims, revenge, self-love, reasons, ideals, and
even honour must be sacriced in this case.
46

5.7 Page 47

▲back to top


Here is the language of a man among men whose mind was ever xed on God!
The Apostle ( 1 Cor 10:31) imposes it as a duty on all Christians to seek the glory
of God each according to his own state and therefore the priest, the minister of God,
cannot be distinct from the mission of Christ Himself, that is, the salvation of souls.
For the Son of man came to seek and save that which was lost.
Don Bosco from the day of his holy ordination wanted nothing else than to be a priest,
than to do only those works proper to the priest: he wished for no title to his name save
that of the priest, no decoration on his person save those of the priest. He thought of no
other way of giving glory to God outside the priesthood, that way which Pseudodionisius
places rst among the works that go to glorify God, "the most divine among Divine
things", namely co-operating with God in saving souls. On this the Salesians retain a
masterful word of Don Bosco himself that is now part of their traditional inheritance.
A priest, says he, is always a priest and such he ought to show himself in his every
word. Now to be a priest means to have the continuous duty of striving for the interests
of God, that is, the salvation of souls. A priest should never allow anyone to approach
him without letting fall from his priestly lips a word that manifests his desire for the
eternal salvation of souls.
Hence, he prefaced his great foundations, beginning with his rst, by setting up this
scope for all to see:
Remember that the Oratory was founded by our Blessed Lady for one end only, to
save souls.
That is why the Salesian coat-of-arms bears the words:
Give me souls ... words that formed the motto of his life. It would not be possible to
follow him step by step along this long road but for the instruction and edication of his
fellow priests others will glean the vast eld ox his hie and will narrate the work done
by him, will describe the troubles he encountered will enumerate his heroic sacrices,
will reverently collect together his tears, his sighs, his prayers. His prayers especially,
without which he would never have had the strength to sow in tears or the comfort to
reap abundant fruit. In fact, one of the most recent theologians, Tanquerey, writes:
Where the interior is wanting the exterior act has poor results because the grace of
God ows not to the minister who has almost no place for prayer: hence, the necessity
of vivifying external works with the spirit of prayer.
Sin is the great enemy of God that drives away souls and the great enemy of souls
that pushes them to hell: Don Bosco; throughout his whole life was at war with it. One
night he could not sleep because he knew that one of his boys had committed a sin; next
night when he said a few words to the boys for the Goodnight, he looked the picture of
misery. At the thought of mortal sin in his Salesians his very spirit stirred within him,
he became grieved like the apostle of the Gentiles who saw the Athenians adoring idols.
When he preached on the gravity of mortal sin the sorrow he felt almost choked him
and sometimes the words died on his lips and he perforce had to interrupt his sermon.
Even when he was conversing the mere mention of oences against God would make his
face grow serious; the tone of his voice and often his silence suciently expressed his
sorrow. He also suered physically when he saw sinful acts or when he had to hear the
confession of very grave sins: thus, on hearing a blasphemy he would feel like fainting,
47

5.8 Page 48

▲back to top


and on listening to boys confessing things impure he would feel like vomiting or would
sense unbearable smells or would suer the beginnings of asphyxia. One day the revered
Fr Francesia saw his eyes very red as though from some illness or other and with lial
condence asked him if he had worked too much the previous night. The good Father
told him that he had gone to hear confessions in the jails and since he could not give
much penance he had oered to do it in place of the penitents. Sinful actions caused him
a real martyrdom that could hardly be imagined; but in the meantime his daring was
increased a hundredfold, so much so ,that if had an army opposed him, it would never
have cowered him. Whenever he read of a sin committed, especially if it were one of
scandal he would shiver and exclaim:
What a dreadful misfortune! What a dreadful misfortune! The very thought of sin
upset him and made him predict that his Oratory and all his houses would fall into ruins
and into nothingness if they did not correspond to their duty of preventing sin. One of
the few declarations with regard to himself was this:
Don Bosco is the best of men. Jump about, play, shout as much as you like Don Bosco
will know how to sympathise, because you are boys; but don't give scandal, don't ruin
souls, your own or of anyone else's by sin, for then Don Bosco will become inexorable.
The man of prayer has his own sudden ways of stopping oences to God which other
people would little dream of using opportunely. Once in the house of a certain family a
little boy of ve years accidentally overturned his toy cart and in a t of anger let fall
the Name of our Lord disrespectfully. At once Don Bosco called the boy and very kindly
asked:
Why did you say our Lord's Name so badly?
Because my cart is no good.
But don't you know that you must never say God's Holy Name without respect and
love? Now, do you know the Commandments?
Yes, Father.
Then, let's have them.
The boy began to sing o the Ten Commandments: but Don Bosco stopped him at
the second and asked:
Do you know it means to take the Name of God in vain? It means, my child, that
we shouldn't call on God Who is so good to us, without sucient reason and respect:
otherwise we commit a sin, we displease God, especially when we are angry, just as you
were a moment ago.
But papa does the same always, said the little one.
Well, from now onwards he won't do it. interposed the father not a little mortied.
Another time Don Bosco as he was awaiting the departure of the train heard the little
son of the refreshment-room proprietor lisp at intervals:
Kist! Kist! He called the child to him and said:
Would you like me to teach you how to pronounce your words well? Now, stand
straight, raise your cap, and say Christ not Kist. That is the way it must be done, look!
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen ... Jesus Christ
be praised! Be careful, not Kist but Christ.
48

5.9 Page 49

▲back to top


In the May of 1860 he had the unpleasant surprise of a personal search. Whilst Don
Bosco was opening a door one of the ocials laughingly read the words written above it;
namely, praised forever be the names of Jesus and Mary. Don Bosco at once turned and
said:
Praised forever be the Holy NameGentlemen, raise your hats!
Not one obeyed. He continued:
You have begun this business in a most rude manner; but you will end it with necessary
respect. I command you to remove your hats! The tone of the saintly man was not to
be mistaken. Each obeyed. And Don Bosco concluded :
the Holy Name of Jesus the Word Incarnate.
These are words and deeds that explain many other things: for example, the long weary
hours spent in clearing away sins; images of Dominic Savio with the legend DEATH
RATHER THAN SIN; the educative method directed to the prevention of sin. They
explain, too, how a holy dread of sin venial as well as mortal dominated everybody; how
there existed the spirit of reparation that moved so many of the boys to make amends
for the sins of others, not by prayer alone but also self-sacrice; how, above all, there
was always a keen watchfulness in the best boys that made them stand on the alert to
prevent the entrance of sin or its nesting among their companions. It must have been
a sure thing indeed that brought to the fore in the canonical processes the unanimity
with which those ecclesiastics and laymen who had already lived in that atmosphere
described this branch of Don Bosco's activity, not with the tongue of one delving into
past memories but with the enthusiasm of one profoundly and lovingly impressed.
St. Thomas has a beautiful passage that comes like a lucent beam.
The love of friendship is precisely this that it seeks the good of the one beloved. For
this reason itself ardent love moves him who is enkindled with it to oppose all that stands
in the way of the friend's good; in this sense anyone is called a zealous lover when he
strives to prevent in word and indeed whatever may be harmful to the interests of his
friend. Equally is he called a zealot of God who gives himself to opposing to his utmost
anything contrary to the honour or the will of God; we say he is eaten up with holy zeal
who does his best to remedy evil committed or to tolerate it with tears if nothing else
can be done.
This then is the reason why Don Bosco was so much hurt at sin; he burned with Divine
love and in each sin he felt the insult that was hurled at his God. Often was he heard
giving vent to his thoughts in words like these:
How is it possible that any sensible person who believes in God can let himself oend
Him? Why does he treat our Lord so badly? And look how good God is! He showers
His blessings on us day by day. How can we ever hurt Him? Certainly, we must say that
he who oends God is beside himself.
Such like expressions often were on his lips; but who can describe for us the expression
of his soul so seraphically enraptured with love for God?
At Becchi beside the home of Don Bosco's birth a little chapel is built. It is a symbol.
The good Father had it put up in 1848 for the convenience of himself and his boys when,
alone or accompanied by some of the Oratorians, he would go there to repose a little in
his native air. The chapel is in the same state as it was then. Beside the right hand
49

5.10 Page 50

▲back to top


wall as you enter there is an old armchair where he used to sit and hear confessions: in
the centre of the altar stands a tabernacle undecorated but solid wherein the Blessed
Sacrament is kept: overhead hangs a picture of our Lady. Here we have the greatest
means of sanctication Don Bosco ever used, applied to his sons, and proposed to them.
Namely, frequent confession, frequent Communion, devotion to Mary, Mary most holy
who calls to Jesus by means of the sacrament of pardon and reconciliation. In a letter
to Pius IX dated 13th February 1863, Don Bosco wrote:
Your Holiness may put into eect the sublime thought with which the Lord has in-
spired your heart, by promulgating wherever it is possible veneration for the Blessed
Sacrament and devotion to our Lady, the two pillars of salvation for poor humanity.
During the years of his greater foundations he sought to instil into those around him
and to spread to the furthermost parts of the earth the loving devotion to the Blessed
Virgin, yet all he did would have had no sucient reason had he not had within him a
burning love for the Mother of God: in fact, it was this love that contributed in great
part to the spiritual formation and the development of his interior life.
He whom the Church holds as the master of masters in the devotion to Mary thus
exhorts us:
Think of Mary ! Invoke Mary !
The thought of Mary, the invoking of Mary was never silent in the heart and on the
lips of Don Bosco; in the which his piety was bound to the uninterrupted thread of
genuine Catholic tradition in spite of the age-old Jansenistic vestiges still existing in his
days. He frequently spoke of our Lady's glories ancient and modern in his endeavours to
imbue others with that lial condence his own heartfelt towards her; continuously his
lips uttered childlike invocations to this heavenly guide; often did he promote public acts
of thanksgiving in recognition of the greatness of her help.
How good Mary is! he exclaimed tenderly many times. When people praised him for
the works he had done he suered indeed and quickly rectied the wrong opinion:
These good people don't know Don Bosco at all; it is Mary Help of Christians who
does everything.
When he preached of Mary's greatness he would become moved almost to tears. He
insisted that he had taken no step without having had recourse to Mary. For guidance in
decisive moments he would pilgrimage at least three times to the famous shrine of Oropa
at Biella. In his letters we nd frequently appearing phrases like this:
May Mary the holy Virgin watch over your dear ones always. After relating a sweet
little story from some author we do not know he wrote with his own hand on the press
proofs (that are still preserved) this ardent exhortation which owed more from the
depths of his heart than from his pen:
Reader, wherever you are, whatever you do you can have recourse to Mary with a
prayer. But invoke her with faith for she is a merciful mother who desires and can
benet her children. Pray to her with your heart, pray to her with perseverance, and
rest assured she will be for you a real providence, a prompt aid in all your needs spiritual
and temporal.
Elsewhere he described the apparition of Mary to St. Stanislaus Kostka when the holy
youth received the command of entering into the Society of Jesus; on the press proofs
50

6 Pages 51-60

▲back to top


6.1 Page 51

▲back to top


Don Bosco wrote:
Christians, you who like to be dear to Mary, pray to her with your whole heart that
she obtain for you the beautiful grace of consecrating yourselves wholly to God. Tell
her to remove you from the great dangers of the world: to command you as she did St.
StanislausShe who can do all things and you will be most ready to obey her. The
venerable Fr Hyacinth from his boyhood asked Mary for the grace of being called to the
religious life and he obtained it.
Here are two expressions that ow directly from his lively love for our Lady.
We have no scruple in prolonging this sweet theme. As the heart of Don Bosco was
dilated with the thought of Mary, so our soul rejoices to gather together the eusions of
it: and this the more zealously in proportion to the dislike he felt in admitting others to
partake of his interior movements. But there are times when emotion breaks through even
characters much reserved. There is a letter of Don Bosco, dated August 6th 1863, from
Oropa addressed to my dearest student-sons which truly has something lyrical about it.
The good Father calls them all to share in spirit the blissful ecstasies in which his soul
is enwrapped in that Marian atmosphere, in that palatial dwelling of the holy Mother of
God.
The grand devotion of the place enters into his meditative soul, the joy caused by that
sight of so much piety towards the heavenly Queen so inundates him that on taking up
his pen he feels rst of all the need of making this same emotion vibrate in his sons.
If you, my dear children, were to nd yourselves upon this mountain you certainly
would feel moved in your soul. A large building in the centre of which is a devotional
church forms what is commonly called the Sanctuary of Oropa. Many many people
continuously come here; some thank our Lady for favours received from her, others pray
that she free them from a temporal or spiritual evil, others beg her to give them the gift of
persevering in good, others request her to obtain a happy death for them. Young and old,
rich and poor, nobles and peasants, knights, counts, marquises, labourers, merchants,
men, women, shepherds, and students of every description continually come here and
approach the Sacraments of Penance and Communion and then go to the foot of Mary's
wonderful statue to implore her heavenly aid.
But his joy is soon turned to sadness for he sees that he is not surrounded by his sons
as in the Oratory that he might lead them to give loving homage to this blessed Mother.
But amidst so many people I feel an ache at my heart. Why? Because I do not see my
dear pupils. Ah, yes! Because I cannot have my children here to bring them to Mary's
feet, to oer them to her, to put them under her powerful protection, and to make them
like Dominic Savio or St. Aloysius.
For this displeasure, however, which he felt in not being able to honour Mary in the
most solemn way with the participation of his boys, he nds comfort in a promise and
in a prayer.
In order to give consolation to my poor heart I went before the wonderful altar and
I promised this good Mother that when I return to Turin I shall do my best to foster
devotion to her in your hearts. And recommending myself to her I have asked those
special graces for you. Mary, I said, bless all our house, drive far from the heart of our
boys even the shadow of sin; be the guide of the students, be the seat of wisdom for
51

6.2 Page 52

▲back to top


them. May they all be yours, completely yours, look upon them always as your children
and keep them among your devoted servants forever! I believe that Mary will hear me
and I hope that you will stand to the fore in order that all of us may correspond to her
voice, to the grace of our Lord.
Finally, Don Bosco's heart is at peace and resting in a feeling of rm hope as though
he saw our Lady having given ear to his prayers bending from the lovely hills of Oropa
and raising her right hand in benediction over his dear Oratory at Valdocco with her
mantle of protection spread over all its inmates.
May our Lady bless me, bless all the priests, clerics, and all those working in our
house; may she bless you all. May she bless us from her throne in Heaven. And we, let
us exert ourselves to the utmost to merit her holy protection in life and in death. Amen.
When he left the sacred spot Don Bosco must have murmured with his lips tenderly
and trustfully, as his mind was piercing the future:
I have raised my eyes unto the mountains whence will come HELP to me.
It was just at that time when he was proposing to build a church to Mary Help of
Christians. For this same church Don Bosco had worked out a prodigious picture in his
mind. In the centre raised on high our Lady was to stand surrounded by angels; near and
around her were to be the Apostles, then martyrs, prophets, virgins, confessors; below
emblems of her victories, and the people of the earth in supplication. So eloquently did
he describe his idea with words and particulars that it seemed to portray a scene really
seen by him. Truly, the painter explained the rules of art to the saint and showed him
the impossibility of grouping so many gures in so limited a space: yet the magnicent
idea of Don Bosco and his way of expressing it were a t subject for meditation that
should become familiar to Mary's clients and a promoter of her glories.
52

6.3 Page 53

▲back to top


CHAPTER 5 In life's troubles
All who are pleasing to the Lord will pass through many tribulations, keeping them
faithful. Looking from a distance would not anyone have believed that Don Bosco trod
onwards on a path of roses? Yet his life was from rst to last strewn with sharp thorns.
Thorns in the family circle: poverty and contrarieties that lay around his early years
pursued him and made rough the road of his priesthood obliging him to undergo hard
and humiliating labours. Thorns in founding the Oratory: on all sides private people,
priests, municipal authorities, men of politics, men of the schools, all spoke ill of him.
Thorns and worse things on account of protestants; his monthly issue of the Catholic
Readings always touched them to the quick, hence their anger. Thorns by the score
because of lack of funds; he had so many boys and so many works and the duty of caring
for them day by day. Thorns from his own self; sacrices made for his personal formation;
painful desertions. Thorns and trials from the diocesan authority; misunderstandings,
oppositions, annoyance without end. The foundation of the Salesian Congregation was
a calvary indeed. Don Bosco wrote at the end:
The work is done; but how many diculties met with! How many troubles borne! If
I had to begin the same road again, I do not know if I would have sucient courage to
accept.
A prolonged martyrdom were those physical suerings. To sustain oneself among such
an array of trials and to reach the goal with calm security are things possible to those
alone who (according to St Paul's teaching Heb. 12:2) have their eyes xed on the
Author and Finisher of faith, Jesus, and who aiming at happiness bear their cross in
spite of tribulations. Herein in fact, we see how these are triumphs reserved for interior
souls.
Let us stay near Don Bosco to observe him in some very critical moments of his life.
St Augustine after saying that the psalmist betook himself to prayer in the midst of
sorrows caused by bad men, orat multa patiens, exhorts us too to pray like him when we
nd ourselves surrounded by trials, ut communicata tribulatione conjungamus orationem.
This is the great lesson the saints give us, and they are the only true masters (after Jesus)
in the art of suering well.
Although Huysmans in his ne but short Sketch of Don Bosco found it necessary to
omit very many, things, yet he did not seem to think it superuous to set apart one full
page for the description of Palm Sunday 1846. A day it was of real agony for Don Bosco!
Hunted and chased away from every part of the city but followed faithfully by his ever
growing ock Don Bosco was reduced to carry out the programme he had hitherto done
in the churches. Even there the hour of dispersion had sounded! No concession of time
was given him; no glimmer of hope; no realization of his searches. The rumours that
spread about concerning him made people close their doors in his face wherever he went.
53

6.4 Page 54

▲back to top


His heart was broken. He heard the confessions of his ragamuns on the edge of the
meadow; then he led them in pilgrimage to the chapel of our Lady of the Field one and
one-quarter miles away. How fervent were the hymns, the prayers, the Holy Communion.
The celebration of Holy Mass strengthened him; but there gnawed at his heart the grief
of seeing the simple faith of his boys, near as they were to dispersion in spite of the
numberless sacrices he had made to gather and keep them close to him. In his little
talk he likened them to birds whose nest was cast to the ground: he begged them to pray,
to pray much to the Madonna that she have prepared for them another more secure and
better. In the afternoon, recreation was going on apace in the meadow; but Don Bosco
was lled with sorrow. Evening came and nothing had turned up: the boys sought to
draw him out of his gloom but in vain. Then nature had to have her rightsDon Bosco
felt a strong movement to weep. Oppressed by aiction he withdrew to a place apart
and with eyes brimming with tears he sent his prayer on high. The biggest boys who
knew his ways were not satised at all at seeing him so sad: they followed him and heard
him murmuring his prayer of sorrow and of hope:
My God, my God, Thy will be done: let not these little ones stand in need of a home.
That prayer was not said in vain, in fact it seemed to have an immediate answer. The
next Sunday they celebrated Easter with joy.
Among the brave lads who stood by Don Bosco in the hour of his desolation there
was one who in the history of the Oratory has left his name for a kind remembrance,
Joseph Brosio, right hand man for the good Father on many occasions. In his simple
style he leaves us the following account. One Sunday when service was over Don Bosco
was not found in the playground among the boys. This unusual absence was not passed
unnoticed. The aectionate Brosio set out to seek him and found him in his room very
sad and almost in tears. To the boy's insistent questions Don Bosco who liked Brosio
very much answered that one of the Oratorians had oended him so much as to cause
him great displeasure.
For myself, he added, I don't care; but I am sorry that the ungrateful boy is on the
way to perdition.
Brosio's blood boiled within him and he could hardly control himself with the anger of
an enraged mob he wanted to go out and give that companion a lesson to be remembered.
Don Bosco stopped him quickly and said calmly:
You want to punish Don Bosco's oender; you are right. We shall take revenge
together. Will that be all right?
Yes was the angry boy's answer.
Don Bosco very sweetly took the youngster's hand, led him to church where he put
him kneeling beside him, and remained long in prayer. He must have prayed too for
Brosio for in the twinkling of an eye the boy's anger passed from him and love entered
into his heart. Outside, Don Bosco said in a fatherly way:
You see, my dear lad, the revenge a Christian takes is to pardon and to pray for the
oender.
Many were the occasions, to some of them, that presented themselves to the man of
God for his own practising of this advice! From 1848 to 1854 his life was attempted many
times. A rie ball red at him as he taught catechism pierced the sleeve of his left arm,
54

6.5 Page 55

▲back to top


and grazed his chest. Two assassins were in hiding in a corner of Castello Square, for the
purpose of stabbing him; but their attempt was frustrated. Twice he was called to the
deathbed of simulates and twice with his presence of mind turned the tables on those
who diabolically tried to poison or stab him. Thrice he had to escape the fury of a paid
cut-throat. In his own room he was threatened with a pistol, but was rescued by the
entrance of one who suspecting danger, was mounting guard at the door. In Moncalieri
Road a blow of a formidable cudgel would have smashed his head had not the would-be
murderer in preparing himself for the ordeal accidently made his presence known. And
what about the four terrible times when he was saved by the mysterious dog? The
wretches, criminals of the rst order, lay in ambush in the darkness. They were armed
with weapons to kill him, since he would not lay down his pen in the war against sin but
was steadfastly remaining loyal to Pope and Church especially by his Catholic Readings.
So many and such ugly attempts that would have made men of courage shiver, did not
even rue the calmness of his ordinary occupations, so that few in the house knew even
little about his adventures. The ideal that animated him in his arduous task is revealed
by himself. In 1853 two men who were courteously received by him began to menace him
in a cruel manner in order to force him to give up the publication of his periodical. He
said to them clearly and frankly:
When I became a priest I consecrated myself to the good of the Catholic Church and
to the salvation of souls, particularly of boys. You, gentlemen, do not know the Catholic
priests, otherwise you would not lower yourselves to such threats. You should know that
Catholic priests work voluntarily for God as long as they live, that if they die in the
accomplishment of their duty, they look upon death as the greatest fortune and highest
glory.
We must say that he would never have opposed violence with violence, for the strength
of the priest lies in patience and in forgiveness. In fact, anyone seeking Don Bosco after
such like encounters would have found him thanking God and our Lady, praying for the
miserable persecutors, thinking in God's presence how to return good for evil, and calling
his soul back again to its union with God.
These armed assaults were interspersed with others more prosaic but more numerous;
namely, the visits of creditors and proprietors of shops. Don Bosco was often reduced to
extreme necessity as he continued his works of religion and charity, yet such conditions
did not take away from him his deep faith, that necessary food for holy cheerfulness and
peace.
God is a good Father, he used to say, He looks after the birds of the air and will
certainly care for us too.
As regards himself and his mission he thus thought:
I am only the humble tool of this work: the workman is God. It lies with the workman
and not with the tool to supply the means of carrying out the work and doing it well.
He will do this, when and how He judges best; it rests with me to show myself docile
and pliable in His hands.
This his habit of referring things to heaven used to make him say in the Goodnight:
Pray; and those who can do so should oer their Holy Communion for my intention.
I assure you that I pray too: nay, I pray more than you! I nd there are diculties in
55

6.6 Page 56

▲back to top


my way and I need a grace from God. Afterward I shall tell you of it.
A few evenings later he would keep his word by recounting (for example) how a rich
gentleman had come to him with the sum of money he had needed: Don Bosco would
add:
You see, our Blessed Lady just today has obtained a great favour for us. Let us thank
her wholeheartedly. Meanwhile, continue praying: our Lord will not abandon us. But if
sin should enter the house, ah! then, miserable we shall be! Our Lord would be kind to
us no more! Be careful then to shun the wiles of Satan and to approach the Sacraments
often.
These are jottings of Don Bosco's words zealously noted down day by day by boarders
of the Oratory and now jealously reserved in the Salesian Archives as a true echo of our
Father's voice and authentic document of the truth he himself uttered publicly one day
in 1876:
We have no human means: but we are wont to raise our eyes to heaven.
The great proof that a man rivets his heart continually in God and has God in his
heart lies in that renewal of strength (Isaiah 40:31), that perpetual taking on of new
force, just when everything seems plotting to overwhelm him: steadfastness, an intimate
participation of the Divine changelessness.
Through thirty-ve years, Cardinal Cagliero asserts, I don't remember having seen
him even once discouraged, upset, and bored in looking after his boys.
To the rigours of hard journeys, to the annoyance of daily worries we must add sad
facts that hurt the dearest aections of his heart. One example will do for all and this
happened in the centenary of St. Peter. The Papacy was always one of Don Bosco's
great loves. In those times most perilous for the Pope, the saint showed every aection
and zeal for the cause of the Holy Father, and, tried very hard as it was, this zeal was
noticed by both parties. Oend Don Bosco in his love for the Pope and you wound him
in the apple of his eye. Yet God allowed him to be tested here too. For the solemn world
wide rendering of homage he had given to the press a supplement of Catholic Readings
dealing with the Prince of the Apostles, a work that was welcomed by many people.
But what a blow awaited him! What a bolt from the blue! It was brought to his notice
that his booklet had been denounced to the Sacred Congregation for Condemned Books!
Then came the report from one of the consuitors; a demand weighty, severe, and even
rude towards the person of the author, as though he had tried to undermine the Ponti 's
authority by erroneous teaching. Don Bosco prayed much, much counsel did he seek;
then he wrote out a respectful answer. The night before he sent it to Rome he called
one of his Salesians to transcribe it in fair copy: this move of his has resulted fortunately
in this fact that now we know what otherwise would have been buried in the sepulchre
of those dark hours. In the silence of the night that Salesian heard, coming from Don
Bosco's room next door to his, heartrending sighs and abrupt phrases, nothing more
than earnest prayers. At midnight the Father sweetly opened the door and inspected the
other's work.
Have you seen now? he asked.
Yes, I have seen how they treat Don Bosco!
Then the saint casting his eyes on the crucix exclaimed:
56

6.7 Page 57

▲back to top


Yet, my Jesus, You know that I wrote the book with a good intention ! Ah! My soul
is sorrowful even unto death! Thy will be done! I don't know how I'll pass tonight. O
Jesus, help me!
How Don Bosco passed that night God alone knows; all we know is that at ve o'clock
the secretary (who had stayed to nish the work of copying) saw Don Bosco all calm and
serene and in his usual way going down to hear confessions and celebrate Holy Mass. He
seemed a new man after that for a merry twinkle was in his eye. The defence was set
on foot but Pius IX himself stopped it. In the meantime when the aair was gone over
again he was asked to retouch two points in a future edition. What a mountain from
such a small molehill! But it was a wicked stab at Don Bosco. The prayer with which he
had heartened himself in those sorrowful days was turned into an act of thanks to Mary
as soon as the clouds rolled by.
But what is a lull of four months when set side by side with a trial prolonged, relentless,
obstinate, unchanging for a period of well-nigh ten years? The wind may scatter every
harsh word; polemics go much against the character of this work. History will do its
duty, nay, even now it has begun. The heroic sanctity of Don Bosco has made giant
strides these last ten years. It would be a serious neglect for us when speaking of Don
Bosco's union with God in trials to pass over in silence that trial which was for him the
most piercing and most felt. In the archdiocese, then, we have on the one hand Don
Bosco striving daily to smooth out dissensions, and on the other some people who took
an Interest in creating distortions and causing trouble. For ten years these Sorrowful
oppositions were prolonged and they needed the patience of Job. Yet our good Father
who was always gentle when forced to speak of the trying situation had but one lament,
one sole desire, and this we nd in a letter written by him to Cardinal Nina.
I have never asked and never will ask for more than peace and tranquility in order
that I may work as a priest for the good of souls hedged in by countless dangers:
Nothing existed for Don Bosco except souls: everything good name, fame, inuence,
counted as naught. What could he do then in this torrent of bitterness? To betake
himself to prayer (says the Psalmist) is the consolation of the persecuted saint. And St.
Paul adds that to unite to patience constancy in prayer when tribulation befalls is the
way of the saints. Anyone searching among the ins and outs of the Acts of the Processes
will come across three lines that ably describe that unhappy time.
It was the crucible that puried his virtue from every base alloy and brought him
more eminently into the spirit of faith and into union with God.
Regarding the perpetrators of the troubles, Fr. Rua writes, I know that he was not
content to forgive, them merely but he prayed for them and had prayers said for them.
There was one thing that Don Bosco never prayed for and that was cure from the
illnesses that attacked him: he allowed others to pray as an act of charity. Physical
suerings borne with such a perfect agreement to God's will are acts of a great divine
love and voluntary penance: however, we must see to what degree. The illnesses that
Don Bosco had to undergo during his life were neither few nor of no consequence. It
would not be hyperbole to say that his body had no rest. Spitting blood was of periodic
occurrence beginning with the days he was a young priest. From 1843 he had a burning
eye trouble that resulted in the complete loss of sight in his right eye. From 1846 his
57

6.8 Page 58

▲back to top


legs and feet became swollen increasing year by year, so that he was forced to use elastic
stockings because the abby skin used to fall over the rim of the boots, as was seen by
him who helped the saint to dress. God knows how he kept on his feet at all! This
swelling he called his daily cross. Again, he suered splitting headaches that seemed to
rend his head. Racking neuralgic pains shot through his gums for weeks on end. Too
often he suered obstinate attacks of insomnia; chronic spells of indigestion; palpitation,
that at times it seemed a rib had broken. In the last fteen years of his life he had to
bear periodic fevers together with skin troubles: then on his sacral bone grew a tumour
as big as a nut that made it a martyrdom for him to sit down or lie in bed. For motives
easily understood he never breathed a word to anyone about this, not even to the doctor
who with a small cutting would have relieved him. To his intimates when they would
ask him to make himself comfortable he would reply:
It's all right for me to stand or walk: sitting tires me.
Another cross that he had never revealed completely but which v as discovered after
his death. He had it from June 1845. In that year there broke out in the Cottolengo
Institute an epidemic of spotted fever and Don Bosco, a frequent angel of charity there,
caught the illness the marks of which he bore to the end of his life. The custodian of the
saint's remains saw something that would cause a stir among the faithful: namely, a kind
of herpes spread over the whole body, particularly on the shoulders. A sharper hairshirt
would have been less cruel! In his last ve years his spine was infected and this made him
stoop his shoulders a little beneath the burden of his crosses and call to his aid the strong
and loving arms of his sons. A famous French doctor who visited Don Bosco in 1880 at
Marseilles declared that Don Bosco's body was a threadbare coat worn day and night,
that had gone beyond repair and that needed rest if it were to be preserved as it was.
And yet, in spite of this list of suerings, he never uttered a complaint, never showed
a movement of impatience; instead, he worked away at his desk, heard confessions for
hours, preached and journeyed as though he was in perfect health; nay, more his happy
character shed sunshine from his face and encouragement from his words. He was asked
to pray to God for mitigation in these trials, but he replied:
Even if I knew that one little prayer would be enough to cure me, I wouldn't say it.
He who commended his inconveniences to the One Who sent them found himself more
loving the more painful they were. This is one fact alone that reveals to us the depths
of spirit; a fact we could hardly believe had we not known how amiable God is in His
saints. It oers us an opportunity of recalling a well-founded teaching of Tauler. The
Sublime Doctor says:
Of all the prayers Jesus said in His mortal life the most excellent is the one He
addressed to His Father when He said: My Father, not my will but thine be done! The
prayer that gloried the Father most of all and was most acceptable to Him, the prayer
most benecial to men and most terrible to demons. Thanks to the resignation of the
human will of Jesus, all of us can save ourselves. Behold why the greatest and most
perfect joy of men truly humble is in doing the Will of God exactly.
And behold therefore a prayer Don Bosco knew how to oer perfectly throughout the
sorely tried years of his life!
58

6.9 Page 59

▲back to top


CHAPTER 6 In various misfortunes
Two dangers seriously menace men of action. Jesus pointed them out when He reproved
Martha: Thou art solicitous and thou art troubled; that is, preoccupation of thoughts
and inquietude of sentiments. These two things are common to people wont to spend
their activity about many things. In order not to walk into the trap we need the "one
thing necessary" chosen by Mary, namely, union with God. The ship laden with its
cargo ploughs the waves straight and sure as long as its centre of gravity is correct; she
has also a stability not only of balance but also of energy, so to speak, to return to the
level each time that she dips into the troughs of the waves. The centre of gravity of the
active life is precisely this union with God that preserves from sinking and regulates the
balance. How many waves unexpectedly batter against our frail craft! Not to suer in
like contrarieties even the smallest shock is a privilege rare indeed for men so united to
God by being one in soul with Him. That Don Bosco was one of these privileged men we
are given to believe by his actions and words in the presence of unforeseen and wearisome
accidents which in spite of their hard contradiction and surprise never as much as shook
his accustomed calmness: a possibility only to him who is always and everywhere in his
proper centre.
Don Bosco had big troubles through the unexpected falling of some walls. One night
in 1852 a part of a new building collapsed and God alone knows with what amount
of sacrice it had been built. The boys were rudely awakened and hastened out of the
dormitory: they ran to Don Bosco and he gathering them around him led them to church
to thank God and our Lady who had saved them all from greater perils. A few hours
afterwards during recreation the remainder of the building crumpled up and pillars and
walls fell in a huge heap of masonry into the playground. Don Bosco was astonished
though he held himself serene at this new misfortune that deed all means and hopes of
a speedy repair, yet he said jokingly:
It seems we have been playing at making toy houses! Then he continued with his
fatherly tone of voice and peacefulness:
Sicut Domino placuit; sit nomen Domini benedictum ! We receive everything from the
hands of God: He will take note of our resignation. Rather, let us thank our Lord and
our Lady because throughout the miseries that oppress men in these days we have always
a benign Hand that guides us.
One of his letters penned three days afterwards reveals to us the holy peace that reigned
in his soul.
I have suered a reverse of fortune: the new building in course of construction tumbled
to the ground in ruins just when it was nearly roofed. There were only three serious
accidents, nobody dead. And I? A fear, consternation possess me. Sic Domino placuit.
One midnight in 1861 a mighty rumbling shook the Oratory to its very foundations. A
59

6.10 Page 60

▲back to top


thunderbolt fell into the room of Don Bosco, threw him into the middle of it unconscious,
and left the place disorderly. His rst thought on coming to was for his boys who slept
on the oor above. He prayed to Mary for them; and there was need of his prayers.
The electric discharge had passed through the dormitory, wrecked the roof, and lled
the boys with so much fear, that their panic would have complemented the work of the
thunderbolt. In the babel of cries, shouts, weeping and darkness the sweet and smiling
gure of Don Bosco appeared holding a lamp before him and standing on a pile of bricks
and mortar.
Fear not! he called in a reassuring tone, We have a good Father and a good Mother
in Heaven watching over us!
As God willed, the confusion subsided. The father ascertained whether all were safe
and having seen he uttered a Thanks be to God! that came straight from his heart.
Let us thank ... ! he continued, Let us thank our Lord and our Blessed Lady! They
have preserved us from a grave danger. Woe to us if the house had also caught re! Who
of us would have been saved then?
Not so much occupied was he in that moment as to forget to make all there and then
kneel before an image of our Lady and recite the Litany in her honour. Later on the
clerics came to visit him and ask him if he had suered any injuries. It was the third
time that a thunderbolt had played havoc on the Oratory but this last time far surpassed
the other two. Don Bosco nevertheless said:
We have obtained one of the best favours of Mary; let us thank her from the bottom
of our hearts! '
In fact later investigation showed clearly that nothing was wanting to turn the accident
into a hecatomb. He was told to put up a lightning conductor.
Yes, he replied, up there we shall set a statue of Mary. Mary saved us so wonderfully
from the lightning that it would be rank ingratitude to trust any other.
The little statue, the true protection of the pioneer Oratory still stands there a token
of the lial love of Don Bosco for the Queen of Heaven. Before the end of that year the
Oratory was again frightened, this time by the sinking of a vault beneath a new building.
Don Bosco calmed them all by his example
The devil, he remarked tranquilly, wanted to put his tail in again! But never fear;
onward is the word!
He was already an old man when a misfortune like the preceding brought out that
same abandonment into the hands of God. Twenty-four years afterwards a re broke out
in the workshop of the bookbinders just at the moment of a farewell dinner to a band
of missionaries. The luggage of the travellers was piled up at no great distance from
the re. Everybody well knows the commotion that happens under such circumstances:
a house is soon turned into a bedlam. Don Bosco although by no means indierent in
this event, never moved from the refectory but sat there in silence and recollection. At
intervals he would ask if anyone was hurt and hearing that on one was so, he entered into
his recollection again. He was told that the damage amounted to a hundred thousand
lire.
It is a large sum, he said, but the Lord gave and the Lord taketh away. He is
master.
60

7 Pages 61-70

▲back to top


7.1 Page 61

▲back to top


When giving any oce of responsibility to a Salesian he would use an advice of St.
Teresa:
Let nothing upset you!
But sometimes it came in useful for himself in certain unexpected events which in
themselves were not very inconvenient but which nevertheless make a great impression
on one who had the habit of always thinking that no leaf falls without God willing it.
Imperturbability is rare in such disappointments the more so in proportion to a natural
nervousness: whence the perpetual self-control and sweet calmness are prerogatives of
one totally steeped in God. Who is there (by way of example) who on a journey has not
at some point come up against the unpleasant experience of having gone o his course?
It is a trivial fact; but it is like a word insignicant in itself, a `perhaps' of some sort
that escapes the tongue at a certain time and reveals a wide vista. One day Don Bosco
stepped from the train unto the platform at Asti. He delayed in the station over some
business or other and missed the coach that was to take him to Montemagno: so he had
to stay there for some hours. He was not at all put out. He got busy with a gang of
boys and before long he had them making their confessions at once in a nearby shop.
Another time he missed the train from Trofarello to Villastellone and so without more
ado he took some printer's proofs from his pocket and did the journey on foot correcting
as he went along. When he reached his destination he raised his eyes from the papers
and remarked to his companion:
It's true that misfortunes can be utilised in some way. Not even at home would I have
had so much time for this amount of work. Thanks to the accident!
One morning he had arranged to go to a certain place not very far from Turin in order
to say Mass. Just as he came out of his room he met a cleric who had a word to say to
him: Don Bosco stopped and listened. He went down the stairs and there was another
who wanted a word: Don Bosco calmly heard him. He made to cross the porticoes and at
once he was surrounded by priests and clerics to whom one and all he gave satisfaction.
Finally he was on his way to the station but a boy came shouting after him: he stopped
and answered the lad's questions. But the train was not waiting for him: he got to the
platform just in time to see it o. Don Bosco turned back, said his Mass in the city, and
caught the next train. To make more conspicuous the sympathetic and amiable Superior
in this last case requires an habitual intercourse with God. St Bonaventure says: Only
He Who is the ocean of goodness dropped into his prayer that sweetness through which
he became all to all.
The worst trials to Don Bosco were from his fellow men, from those in humble station,
those of some consequence, those in authority. There was a humble lay brother destined
for the house at Santa Cruz in the Argentine but he could not bear the discomforts. He
left the Society and obtained work in a colonist's business. Don Bosco was deeply hurt
by this news and he commanded the man to return to Italy. Someone mentioned the
great expense for the journey but Don Bosco answered calmly and rmly:
Expenses count for naught when it is a question of saving a soul.
The cook of the Oratory was of humble rank too. One evening Don Bosco returned
very late from his confessional and had to sit down to a cold dish of badly cooked rice-
soup. The server who knew by experience that Don Bosco would not utter a word of
61

7.2 Page 62

▲back to top


complaint took it upon himself to upbraid the cook. The latter was a little o form when
the server said:
What stu is this for Don Bosco?
And who is Don Bosco? asked he cook, He's one like the others.
The server either through anger or to acquit himself reported the cook's words verbatim
to the saint. Don Bosco just as he carried the spoon to his mouth said nonchalantly:
The cook is right.
Of humble station also was the refectorian who was rebuked by Don Bosco for not
having changed the soiled tablecloth in time. He could not take the fatherly rebuke in
good part but wrote a strong letter to the saint mentioning even that that was the rst
time he had seen Don Bosco serious. The servant of God without the slightest shade
of anger met him and referring to the expression the refectorian had used said with his
usual meekness:
Do you not know that Don Bosco is a man like the others?
From St Paul down to ourselves each man must look upon himself as a debtor to all
(Rom 1:14), to the unwise no less than to the wise. And again St. Bonaventure tells us
that it is our relations with God that render the superior's heart humble.
Devotio cor humiliat.
A notable person was Abbot Amedeo Peyron, Philologist and Orientalist of no mean
standing, and professor of the Regia University of Turin. He was presiding over a meeting
of priests for the discussion of what interested their ministry. The conversation turned
upon the necessity of multiplying educational publications suitable for the people. Don
Bosco caught this opportunity and recommended his Catholic Readings. He could not
have done worse! The President seeming to have waited for this chance let fall a torrent
of words that railed against the defects of language, grammar, and style frequent in such
books. The authority of the man, the ow of his words, the biting of some of his phrases
made the audience gape. The servant of God Leonard Murialdo was among the listeners
and it hurt him very much to see the humiliating of his friend. He knew how some of the
others were not at all friendly with Don Bosco and so he waited trembling to hear the
reply. He was not ignorant either of the way authors feel when their work is criticised, if
not put on the rack. At the end of the tirade Don Bosco rose and said:
I am here precisely for help and counsel. I recommend myself to you all: I would like
you to mention anything I should correct and willingly will I abide by your advice. Nay,
it would give me great pleasure if others more versatile than myself would undertake the
revision of each folio.
Fr Murialdo breathed easily. In 1896 when recalling the dramatic episode, he had felt
since then that Don Bosco was a saint.
With other noteworthy ecclesiastics also Don Bosco had many hard rubs not through
any malice of theirs but just through the prejudice of preconceived ideas. Under these
conditions he showed clearly that total self-detachment which is the fruit of the unin-
terrupted union with God Whose peace reigns supreme in the thoughts and sentiments.
Where God is, disturbance is not. In a famous town outside Italy a new school was
opened by Don Bosco. He went to visit an important religious institute while there, but
62

7.3 Page 63

▲back to top


was received very coldly indeed. On coming out of it Don Bosco's companion showed his
disgust at the way they were treated. But the saint said:
Cheer up! Cheer up! They will be more confused than we for their treatment of us.
At once the shade of the annoyance passed away and Don Bosco talked of other things.
In the same city while he was visiting the school he came in for strong language from
the local parish priest who was giving way to an impulsiveness not uncommon to people
of good will. For a half hour the saint listened and when the tempest abated, he slightly
bowed his head like one asking in a humble way to speak.
Father, he said, you are right to complain: I am sorry I can't fully comply with
your wishes. You are our benefactor and I remember with great gratitude the good you
have done to us. We shall always try to be of service to you. I shall die soon but I have
commissioned my successor to pray for you.
Each word was a healing balm to the inamed outburst of the priest and in the end
he asked pardon of Don Bosco and became his great friend.
Let us cast a glance at the newspapers. We would be building a rare monument were
we to gather together one upon the other all the `bricks' hurled unexpectedly at Don
Bosco and his Oratory by papers of every sort. A person writes of having a personal
remembrance of Don Bosco, indelible though sad. As a boy he rst came across that dear
name of the saint in a cartoon in the political paper La Rana where there was printed
an ugly reptile with a human head topped by a priest's biretta and in the act of biting
a boy. The legend accompanying it read:
Help this ugly monster to feed on tender esh!
But we shall let the dead bury their dead: all the more so since Don Bosco let them
bay at the moon while they lived. He would not tolerate revenge, tit for tat, rancour
against calumniators, and this his works arm. In the face of such like stabs from the
press he would raise his eyes and hands to heaven and say with great faith:
These too will pass! So, have patience! They're good people who want nothing but
to do good; that's why they shout at Don Bosco! Shall we then have to leave o saving
souls? They act so without knowing the work of God and He will easily unravel all
knots!
Much more than the importunate ranters of the papers there is the unfavourable at-
titude of authority that oends the wise and holy. Don Bosco tells us himself that his
character was impetuous and haughty and so he could not bear to see himself passing
an unpleasant fteen minutes every time he saw himself brow beaten and hindered by
representatives of both sides, in spite of the fact that he was seeking alone God's glory
and the salvation of souls! But nature, acted on by the supernatural forces of grace,
made Don Bosco in those moments the most reconcilable and peaceful of men.
In times of public commotion how many times did the State authorities, pushed on by
sectarians, turn upon Don Bosco! And how often did he subdue even the most indisposed
souls and lead them to meeker thoughts! But before entering the lists, he turned to God
in prayer trying to discover how ecacious this would be in moving the heart of those
ocials.
With this means, he was wont to say to his Salesians, if well done, you will obtain
everything you want even from those who don't like you or esteem you. God will touch
63

7.4 Page 64

▲back to top


the man's heart in that moment, so that he may listen willingly to your request.
Here we have the source of his great courage in hard and disconcerting occasions. In
1862 there was talk of his having to close the Oratory schools. The Minister of Education
granted him an audience after two hours of waiting: when he did receive him he was seated
in a pompous armchair: Don Bosco had to stand before him. Before the saint could open
his mouth the dignitary let loose a ood of abuse lasting half an hour and more, against
priests and monks, against the Pope and Don Bosco, against his schools and his books.
Seeing the visitor standing calm, immovable, and without defending himself he called him
a fool and ended his harangue. Don Bosco began to speak. In a grave and polite tone
he pointed out that all the other had said so far had nothing to do with the question of
his coming: then he went on to give the reason why he had come. The Minister who had
never had occasion to deal with men of Don Bosco's type could not believe his eyes or
ears. From that moment he felt a growing esteem and liking towards him whom he had
abused a short time previously. He changed and began to treat Don Bosco with kindness
and from that time he was a friend and protector. In this case as in many others Don
Bosco could (with the necessary changes) have made his own those words of Nehemias:
I have prayed to God in heaven and then I spoke to the king. And the king allowed
all because the helping hand of God was with me.
The spirit of prayer (which the servant of God Contardo Ferrini calls the feast day
of holy thoughts) really has this result that it upholds the soul in thoughts cheerfully
holy and holily cheerful even in embarrassing circumstances. How wearisome for Don
Bosco, faithful and wise servant of Holy Church (as the Pope called him in a speech on
the saint's miracles), for just then troubles were rising with the Ecclesiastical authorities!
But with what cleverness did he know how to correlate the duties of a Subject and the
rights of justice! In God he sought the solution of Gordion knots.
A document in the archives has this note by a strange hand in the margin:
Poor Don Bosco! If God had not been with him he would surely have succumbed.
The document is about an ocial report drawn up and sent to the Sacred Congregation
of Bishops and Regulars by an excellent Monsignor who had a duty from the Holy See
to the Subalpine Government. Herein he depicts the life of Don Bosco's clerics in colours
so dark as to cause the much desired approbation of the Pious Salesian Society to be
deferred indenitely. The good prelate was judging as one who had not apprehended
Don Bosco and his spirit and who was using old criteria and methods which in their
simplicity upset traditional pedagogical ideas. When Don Bosco came to know of this
state of things he saw the great danger he was in. He reported the situation to the
Chapter of the Society, but he used very polite and becoming terms when mentioning
the author of the document. He did more, for he received him into the Oratory with
sincere signs of respect and whenever he could do a good turn he did it with right good
will. Corde magno et animo volenti.
The procedure for the approbation of the Society made the servant of God swallow
many a bitter pill. He already had the written recommendation of many Bishops: but
he was given to understand that he must also have a collective recommendation of the
Ordinaries of the Ecclesiastical province of Turin. The opportune moment came when
His Grace Archbishop Riccardi called together his suragans in view of the forthcoming
64

7.5 Page 65

▲back to top


Vatican Council. Don Bosco then presented his humble petition that it may be read out
to the assembled bishops among whom were many of his good friends. There was no
doubt about the issue. But the placid waters were disturbed: so he had to be content
with a reply as courteous in form as it was eusive in substance. Sadly deluded he
exclaimed:
Patience! All for the love of God and Mary!
During a stay in Rome in connection with this aair of the approbation, a very un-
pleasant surprise awaited him on the eve of his departure. He had been an object of
sympathy from Romans of every rank. While he was paying a farewell visit to the illus-
trious Vitelleschi family, Cardinal Altieri whom Don Bosco had found no time to visit
was announced. It seems that because of this the noble Cardinal held himself aloof from
the saint and when the latter approached respectfully the Cardinal gave him a cold `good
day'. In that house where Don Bosco was much esteemed, the prelate never as much
as paid him a compliment or said a word, or favour him with a glance. The others did
not know what to do or how to eect a peace, for they knew the strong character of the
personage concerned. Don Bosco was the most tranquil of all.
It's nothing! he said, Tomorrow everything will be all right.
In fact the next day he recommended himself to God and asked for an audience with
the Cardinal. In the audience all the frowns were dispersed, which fact gave tangible
proof that nothing was amiss.
Since we are thus dealing with troubles from the princes of the Church why should
we not carry on to the top now that we have started? Don Bosco had a quarrel with
Pius IX. Once he used the inuence he enjoyed at the Vatican to obtain an audience
for the Piedmontese lawyer Tancredi Canonico. The lawyer belonged to that party
of the infatuated followers of the Polish fanatic dreamer Towianski, the forerunner of
modernists. Don Bosco had overlooked these circumstances. When the lawyer was
before the Holy Father he began to reel o phantasms, forgetting where he was and with
whom he was speaking. The venerable Ponti interrupted him and bade him leave the
room, which he did after putting on the table one of his writings containing things which,
he had foreseen, would never have been said before the Vicar of Christ. Don Bosco was
called at once after the lawyer had gone. The Pope said to him:
Either that fellow is a big trickster or Don Bosco is a bit too simple.
The saint smiled and the Pope continued:
Why did you get him here? And do you still laugh at my anger?
I laugh because it is the anger of a loving father was the calm and ready answer.
He told the Holy Father how he got the lawyer the audience and the Pope smiled to
hear it.
One day Don Bosco wrote to a Salesian this word of encouragement and comfort in
certain trials he had:
Joy and courage, and especially let us pray for each other.
Prayer was the secret of the tranquillity and peace of Don Bosco in aictions, according
to the inspired words of St. James:
Is any of you sad? Let him pray.
65

7.6 Page 66

▲back to top


CHAPTER 7 Confessor, preacher, writer
The intimate relationship with God makes a priest not only know but also feel that he
is a sacred person. Without this relationship he could not have xed in his conscience
the lustrous idea of his character whenever he speaks or acts, in public or in private, or
in treating with men of every rank, le, and condition. Then the priestly spirit pervades
the whole life, shedding supernatural energies around that heal and purify souls, that
strengthen them in the right path, that raise them to heavenly things. As in Jesus the
human nature hypostatically joined to the Divinity was instrumental in accomplishing
wonders, so in the priest living the interior life there is no word or act that does not wear
the sacerdotal trademark, that does not serve to cause a salutary reaction in souls. Of
him it may be armed that he scatters about him health-giving virtue for spiritual evils:
virtue went forth from him and healed all. (Lk 6:19). We are now going to see this
while examining the triple activity of Don Bosco in the confessional, in the pulpit, and
in the eld of writing.
1. Confessor
With regard to confession we can understand fully his manner of administering the
Sacrament, only when we take into account his own practice and ordinary teachings.
Don Bosco was attached to confession from his tenderest years and no change of life
was able to weaken his habit of frequently approaching it. In fact, he went with right
good will: even when he had not his mother to accompany him; he went very often
too, a thing rare in those days for the majority of boys and rarer still for youngsters
and those scattered sons of the soil. When he was a pupil at Chieri and therefore free
to do as he willed he thought of choosing a xed confessor who, notwithstanding the
boy's humble birth and rustic manners, predicted a great future for him because of his
diligence and care in approach the holy tribunal. As a Seminarian he was quickly and
always distinguished for punctuality and regularity in approaching confession every week.
As a priest in Turin he confessed weekly to Saint Joseph Cafasso and when This latter
died Don Bosco chose a pious priest, one of his fellow pupils, who was in the habit of
going every Monday to the church of Mary Help of Christians and making his confession
to Don Bosco. Whenever he went on a journey or when his own ordinary confessor was
absent for any reason whatsoever our saint still kept faithful to his practice by going
to one of his Salesians or to any other priest according to circumstances. For example,
during a two month stay at Rome in 1867 he went weekly to Rev. Fr. Vasco of the
Society of Jesus. Sometimes his Salesians would hesitate to hear his confession but he
brushed aside their temerity:
Come along! Do this charity for me and let me confess!
Notable was his way of fullling the sacred duty: we shall but complement what we
66

7.7 Page 67

▲back to top


have elsewhere said. He did not seek for place far away or choose lonely hours like some
evildoer to make his confession, but would rather be in full view of all. Hence his boys and
others were able to observe how from his preparation and thanksgiving he was completely
immersed in the grandeur and holiness of the act. This practice of frequent confession
with such a vivid and enduring aection was for his him like a vigil and an uninterrupted
guard over his heart. This guard helps to keep the heart free from any impediment to
the working of the Holy Spirit, so that He pours into our hearts the abundance of His
heavenly gifts.
The personal practice of Don Bosco regarding confession was reected in his teaching
both oral and written on this subject. Herein is found a note all his own which is
the outstanding tendency not only to attract the faithful but also to attach them to
himself. This was so especially in the case of boys who were the particular object of his
providential mission. The originality of Don Bosco when he wrote of confession was not a
new thing, though what was new was the apostolic ardour shown by him in making loved
a Sacrament he himself loved. In his life of Michael Magone he has made a digression
with which, in words ringing with priestly charity, he addresses himself rst to his boys to
excite them to lial condence in the father of their soul; then, he turns to the confessors
of the boys to beg them to have fatherly goodness in the exercise of their ministry. In
a memorandum destined for the Salesians he desires that the priest, if asked to hear
confessions, should respond with joy in his heart and that no one should at any time
use roughness or ever show himself impatient. He recommended that the boys be taken
very gently and lovingly without ever scolding them or demanding marvels of them
through ignorance or things confessed. In the same work he lays down this norm:
It is an important and useful thing indeed for boys that none of them ever go away
from us discontented.
In the Companion of Youth he sets up an easy guide by following which anyone can
confess with real spiritual satisfaction. In fact, reading those simple and sweet pages even
one who is a boy no longer, even he whose brows are furrowed with care, experiences
a sense of trustful abandonment that moves him to fall before his confessor's feet with
a fervent spirit and calm simplicity like to his younger years. In the regulations for his
oratories, schools, and sodalities, confession holds a place of honour, and always portrayed
deliberately in a tender light.
As in his writings, so in his talk. The great biographer of the servant of God arms
that every phrase of Don Bosco was an incentive to confession. Let us overlook what
may be hyperbolical in the expression taken universally (though it would be right to say
that all hyperbole has good foundation in fact): but as to the real ecacy of his every
exhortation to confession there is nothing to discuss, for reason is valued at naught in
front of facts: since these are rioted so numerously and with so much variety that one
who reads the account gapes in wonder and has to admire the marvels of Divine Grace
in the work of salvation. The fought of the return to God so took irresistible possession
of the mind of those invited by Don Bosco that they forthwith fell at his feet and opened
up their conscience, be they his own or strange boys workmen or professionals, simple
or inuential or good or evil people. Don Bosco's victories in this eld were numberless.
Now, the ease of nding the way to hearts m order to lead them to this act so hard in
67

7.8 Page 68

▲back to top


itself, harder for certain individuals, is not possible unless there is, besides a great faith
in the Sacrament of Penance and a great apostolic frankness, another quality that may
be the soul of the rest. Which is it? Don Bosco himself let slip the revelation of it. In
1862 a good priest of Osimo wanting to nd out Don Bosco's secret for winning souls
asked him to tell it He replied:
I don't know of any secret. If that good priest loves God he will do better in that
aair than I.
We nd in the book of Chautard an excellent commentary on these words to which we
shall do well in referring.
Between natural goodness, the fruit of character, and the supernatural goodness of an
apostle there lies all the dierence between the human and the Divine. The rst can give
birth to respect and even sympathy for the evangelical worker though at times deviating
towards the creature an aection that should go to God: but it can never determine
souls to make the sacrice necessary for turning them to their Creator. This eect can
be obtained only through the goodness arising from union with God.
If Don Bosco did this in isolated cases how much more did he succeed in and prot
by the occasions in the ministry of the word. In teaching catechism he would always
harp back on the dispositions necessary to receive the fruit of the Sacrament of Penance,
showing the pupils the goodness of Jesus in instituting it, and the good it does to souls.
From the love of confession and Communion he made depend the possibility of passing
over without stain the time of passion or that of rising after the rst falls. There were
very few of his talks to his boys, to his Salesians, to people of all kinds, in which he
did not touch upon the theme of Sacramental confession opportunely and inopportunely.
But in doing so, did he not grow tiresome or did he not take care not to oend the
opinions of his audience? No! He who speaks with faith and love speaks with inspiration
that fascinates the hearer. Cardinal Cagliero in fact had heard the saint many many
times and yet he says that that was the favourite theme of Don Bosco about `which he
spoke in new and charming ways.' As for digressing from his subject he never did: since
in any person, in any congregation of persons he had before him, Don Bosco saw not
men but souls. This sentiment stirred two sentiments in his heart: one of desire, the
other of fear; the desire to see all men saved, fear lest any be given to evil ways. Nay,
these two sentiments, blended in Divine Love which was the very reason of the existence
of his works and words, contributed the fundamental tenor to his talks, variating in
multifarious ways. Of these the most ordinary and most deftly introduced was a call to
the Sacrament of mercy.
The grand way Don Bosco administered this Sacrament showed forth how much and
what kind of charity habitually inamed his heart towards God, as was shown when
he wrote or spoke of it. Huysman, a great convert in France, believes that for his
contemporaries who ought suddenly to change their way of living it would truly be a
good and protable thing for them to be comforted and helped as Don Bosco comforted
and helped his penitents in such a way that his way of hearing confessions was an image
of the boundless mercy of Christ. The mere sight of him in this so holy oce generated
reverence and love for this august Sacrament in those who saw him. With this sense of
Divine things peculiar to him, he would approach the confessional with his biretta held
68

7.9 Page 69

▲back to top


before his breast and not on his head; and before he sat down he always said a prayer
and made a devout sign of the cross. Usually he would hear confessions in an armchair
with a prie-dieu on each side of him. His posture was one betting a representative of
God, that is dignied and moving: his knees together, his feet upon a footstool, his body
erect, his head slightly bowed, his face showing forth that absorption in the divinest of
acts and radiant with the spirit of God. Alternately he turned from left to right with
grave and modest movements. It was not his practice to look into the face of a penitent
or to give any sign that he knew him: but, leaning with his elbow on the prie-dieu, he
held his ear near the penitent's mouth hedging it in with his cupped hand. He listened
attentively with an unalterable sweetness of manner and a never changing aspect. What
passed between him and his penitent is not revealed except by some who had him as
their confessor. One of these and one of the most authentic was Cardinal Cagliero, a
penitent of the saint for upwards of thirty years. He says in the Canonical Processes and
elsewhere:
The goodness of Don Bosco with the boys and adults was something wonderful. Al-
most all went to confess to him and to gain by his meekness and benign and patient
charity. He was short, without haste, kind to a dot, and never severe: he always gave
a brief sacramental penance suited to our age, but a penance always salutary. He knew
how to be little with the little and how to give us opportune advice in such a way that
we were led to love virtue and hate vice. An angelical atmosphere rested over his person
and his exhortations.
It was a common thing to see people coming to him without much condence but
going away penetrated with consolation as if full of trust in God's innite mercy. This
method of his instilled great condence, so much so that anyone who experienced it never
more forgot it. His own penitents meeting him again even after the lapse of many years
either manifested to him of their own accord the state of their soul and the time of their
previous confession, or they answered his questions with sincere aection. If any of them
learned of his presence in a certain place they would hasten there from short and long
distances in order to have the pleasure of confessing to him.
We could not possibly satisfy this account of his way of hearing confessions if we did
not add two observations that help us to apprehend better the depths of his interior life.
In the rst place, when he was in the confessional he was a man totally removed from
the things of the world. And what a host of aairs weighed upon his shoulders, and so
important and numerous were they that they would have occupied many people of active
character for quite a long time. Yet, when he was asked to hear a confession, he did not
show himself upset or say he would be ready another time, but from the midst of that sea
of business he would rise and humbly place himself at the service of that soul. Naturally,
then, at the hour of confessions he was sought by everyone: and at that moment nothing
of importance seemed to exist any more. This happened every Saturday, the vigil of
every feast, and every morning before and during the community Mass. There in the
confessional he would remain for hours on end, wholly given up to his duty, without sign
of annoyance, and never omitting it for purely human reasons. Even when exceptional
convenience counselled it he would not postpone it. It is useless to argue, the saints
had no earthly business that could supersede the interests of God. One Sunday morning
69

7.10 Page 70

▲back to top


a very much-desired guest arrived at the Oratory, Marquis Patrizi of Rome. The few
superiors thereDon Bosco was hearing the confessions of the boysgave him as best
a welcome as they could. Someone told Don Bosco and he calmly said:
Good! Tell him I am glad he has come and that I shall be with him in a moment
when I have nished with these boys who want to go to Communion.
That moment lasted an hour and a half !
The second observation was his impassibility by which he bore any inconvenience,
disturbance, or trouble, once he was seated in the confessional. Impassibility to weariness
was seen when after days of great work he remained steadfast hearing the confessions
of those who came, in spite of the fact that he needed rest. Impassibility to changing
temperature was seen when before the days of the Oratory's central heating he had to
face the rigours of Turin's winter up to ten or eleven at night. At Liguria the mosquitoes
attacked him but he let them bite him until his face and hands were swollen. Impassible
was he to things even worse: the poor Oratorians of those days used to bring to the
confessor not only sins but also after confession, sometimes, Don Bosco had a task of
ridding himself of minute aggressors of various kinds: he was aware of these invasions but
he took no heed of them so intent was he on his care for souls. What about confessions
of the prisoners? Prisons then were very unlike those of today in regard to cleanliness
and decency. Though Don Bosco was gifted with a delicate sensitiveness yet when inside
in that foul ambient he seemed to have neither eyes nor nose, so taken up was he with
healing the spiritual wounds of those poor creatures that he had no time to waste on
the susceptibilities of his senses. In short, after all this do we not recall the words of
Pius X written in his encyclical in June 1905, to the Bishops of Italy, where he formally
asserts that, where there is not the help of the interior life, all strength to support the
annoyances attached to one's mission perseveringly is lacking?
2. Preacher
Intimacy with God that was the soul of the confessor was likewise the soul of the preacher.
Not a shadow of self glory followed the word of Don Bosco in the pulpit: the inspiration
of God alone always permeated and illumined it. Yet the desire to show ourselves brings
great temptations to preachers of the Divine Word. It lters so slowly into the cleverness
of thoughts, into new turns of imagination, into catchy ornaments, into, elegance of form,
into the very tone of voice, and into the way of delivering it; after that, attery in the
guise of politeness does the rest for him who has a weakness in this respect. This great
misery, that not a little tickles the self-love of a poor preacher, is cautiously though
vainly cloaked over because it always leaks out despite all precautions, leading supercial
persons astray with thoughts the Word of God was never meant to convey and lling
level-headed people with disgust. It is certainly the adulteration of the Word of God,
according to St Paul's strong expression, and hence it becomes more or less barren. Don
Bosco had attacks of this same temptation when he rst began his preaching, as he tells
us himself. His cleverness, studies, tenacious memory, and an ambient, slightly vitiated,
pushed him into it: but the love of God ought to have taken and did take the upper
hand in his soul. Don Bosco prepared himself humbly for his sermons. Here is one of his
norms:
70

8 Pages 71-80

▲back to top


8.1 Page 71

▲back to top


The sermon that gathers the best fruit is that which is best studied and prepared.
He gave preference to humble prayer. While at Turin he went to confession weekly
and during his apostolic ministry humiliated himself oftener at the Holy Tribunal (he
who had never known what it was to have scruples), for the sole end of making himself
a worthy instrument for the reception of God's grace and for the good of souls. Thus,
wherever he went to announce the Divine Word (and he preached many times in many
places even outside Italy) he conducted himself as a genuine minister of God, sent more
than come to give knowledge of salvation to his people.
In his rst Mass Don Bosco had ardently begged the Lord for the ecacy of word,
that is to say, the power of persuasion to do good to souls. This request was heard in
such a way that he could not have desired better, so much so that at the end of his life
he wrote with all humility and modesty:
It seems that God has listened to my humble prayer.
As regards the words he gave out from the pulpit it is to be understood that his ser-
mons went from beginning to end without brilliant ashes, without ights of thought,
almost without gesture, with a slowness of delivery, with monotony of style, with language
the lowest could understand, and not infrequently with some bits of plain Piedmontese.
Sometimes he would be rather long. Yet, people enjoyed those sermons and listened to
them with relish, so much were sweetness and naturalness present in them. At Saliceto,
Mondovi, for example, the peasants made him preach six hours complete. It is to be un-
derstood besides that his themes were much used and very much reusedthe importance
of saving one's soul;
the end of man;
the shortness of life;
the uncertainty of death;
the enormity of sin;
nal impenitence;
forgiveness of injuries;
restitution of ill-gotten goods;
false shame in confession;
intemperance;
blasphemy;
right use of poverty and of aictions;
sanctication of feasts;
necessity of praying;
frequenting the Sacraments;
Holy Mass;
imitating Christ;
devotion to Mary;
facility in persevering
yet people listened to him without blinking an eyelid. Among that people were noble-
men, clever men, clergy and bishops: all were, I would not say fascinated, for that would
sound as if it were the eect of human suggestion, but rather they were sweetly caught
by the divine re that the disciples of Emmaus had discovered in themselves.
71

8.2 Page 72

▲back to top


Oh, with what truth could that exquisite response be applied to Don Bosco the preacher
which the Trappists say on the feast of S. John the Evangelist:
Supra spectus Domini recumbens Evangelii uenta de ipso sacro Dominici pectoris
fonte portavit et verbi Dei gratiam in toto terrarum orbe diudit.
Leaning upon the breast of the Lord he drew from the sacred fountain itself the waters
of the Gospel and poured the grace of God over the whole world.
Yet all the evangelists were inspired. But how can we deny that power in the eloquence
of St John that comes from the heart and goes to the heart? And whence did he draw it
if not from the same Heart on which he leaned his head at the last Supper? And which
is always the true source of a priest's eloquence? This is the Breast that makes Catholic
priests uent. Not for nothing did Don Bosco bear the name of the beloved disciple of
our Lord. That particularity that says nothing in itself recalls to us the motive of Jesus
in selecting John, according to the thought of St. Jerome (quem des Christi virginem
repererat, virgo permansit, et ideo phis amatur a Domino et recumbit super pectus Jesu ),
and makes us, on the question of Don Bosco's preaching, refer to a proof given us by a
young diarist of the Oratory. Under the date May 29th 1861, this boy writes:
When we came out of the church many of us were astonished and exclaimed one to
another `How many lovely things Don Bosco told us this morning!' I could pass days
and nights listening to him! Oh, how I wish that God will give me when I'm a priest the
grace of inaming the hearts of boys and adults to love this beautiful virtue.
Don Bosco had that morning spoken on purity.
A frequent idea in the sermons of Don Bosco was the necessity of saving the soul. In
this especially we priests are ambassadors for Christ, God as it were exhorting us: We
are the radio of God to souls in things concerning their salvation. This Don Bosco held
as his incumbent duty. Let it suce to say that he would not abstain from this even in
panegyrics, that form of sacred eloquence wherein orators are easily led to y into the
heights, just when people expect or almost exact something new and owery. This is the
reason why Saint Joseph Cafasso had not much care for panegyrics: but in those of Don
Bosco the master did not nd anything condemnable. We shall take one as an example:
it was the panegyric on St Philip given at Alba in 1868. Passing over everything else
Don Bosco went on to develop as his theme the pivot on which the saint practised all the
other virtues, namely, zeal for the salvation of souls. He painted his apostolate in clear
colours: then seeing that some priests were among the congregation he killed two birds
with one stone by bringing in something for them too. He paved the way by supposing
he had heard someone say that St Philip did so many marvels for the safeguard of boys
because he was a saint. Here was his answer to this hypothesis:
I say dierently. St Philip did all this because he was a priest who fell in with the
spirit of his vocation.
He then continued to hammer on the need priests have of imitating the saint in gath-
ering boys together and teaching them catechism, encouraging them to go to confession,
and to hear their confessions. He warned parents, employers, masters, with apostolic
ardour and then said:
What a terrible position for a priest when he will appear before the Throne of God
Who will say `Look down to the world. How many souls walk in the way of sin and
72

8.3 Page 73

▲back to top


tread the paths of perdition! They are there because of you! You did not devote yourself
to them making them listen to the voice of duty! You did not seek them! You did not
save them! Others through ignorance have gone from sin to sin and are now buried in
Hell. Oh, look what a crowd of them! Those souls cry vengeance against you. Now,
Unfaithful steward, you will serve no more: give me an account of your stewardship.
Give me an account of that precious treasure I conded to, you, the treasure that cost
me my passion, my blood, my death. Let your soul answer for them who through your
fault are now lost. `Erit anima tua pro anima illius '.
Finally, he concluded his speech with encouragement to all to conde in the grace and
mercy of God.
As is seen, Don Bosco the preacher exploited to the full the popularity that surrounded
him. Even in little-liked panegyrics he took no heed of what people said, but wanted and
knew how to get down to practical things. Certain nuns of a famed convent experienced
the same thing when they invited him to preach about their holy patroness, a martyr of
the Church. They were very anxious to hear him for they expected he would say some
delicious things. Don Bosco came to know that there would be present also great men
and women, so he outlined his panegyric. He began by pointing out that for the past
century the eulogy of the holy martyr had been repeated in that convent and therefore
it would be of little value if he retold them things they already knew well. He thought it
better then to change the subject and show them the necessity of tending to perfection
and the salvation of their souls by means of confessions well made. So without caring for
human considerations he forgot himself in the development of his theme intending to kill
several birds at the same time. For the religious he spoke of perfection and for the laity he
spoke on the salvation of the soul; and for all he carried out a good examen of conscience
of their past confessions. Was the change a fruitless one? No, not if we judge from the
devout attention given to his words. Certainly these are things not understandable to
him who does not know that the rst rule of the orator is to forget himself. To blow one's
trumpet in the pulpit is to do the mean role of sounding brass and tinkling cymbal:
whereas from the mouth of him who preaches Christ Jesus comes forth that word of
God which is living and eectual and more penetrating than any two-edged sword and
that reaches into the very bres of a man's being.
There was one great occasion for Don Bosco (the only one in his life) in which a
literary digression in a religious subject would have been not only justiable but also
advisable. In fact, he was prepared for it. The classics were for him, even outside the
classroom, a tasty pasture of day and night reading during a period of ten years. But
that was nothing to him. The occasion is worth mentioning. In 1874 friends of his in
Rome had set his name alongside that of Clistine Cassiopeo in the Arcadia. Two years
afterwards the Academy appointed him to give the usual speech on the passion of Christ
held on Good Friday. The literary character of the Academy, the more than secular
tradition of committing that charge to men of letters or to men of fame, as for example
Monti and Leopardi, the whole tone of literature that pervaded the place, the quality of
those assembled, and the men of letters there were all circumstances Don Bosco did not
overlook or pretend to overlook. He said that he was charged with reading an address for
the occasion and he confessed that the eloquence of tongue and polish of style which
73

8.4 Page 74

▲back to top


usually shone in that hall of knowledge had embarrassed him a great deal: but he
consoled himself with the thought that the versatile pens of others could easily make
up for his insuciency. He, however, wanted to be even there simply a priest as he had
been at other times in other places. In fact, after this presentation of himself as a humble
priest he began his speech purely as a priest. He did not turn to ascetics or to rhetoric
for that was no sermon: he did not turn to erudition or explanations for that was no
school. Who would have expected him to choose for his theme the Seven Words? For a
man of Don Bosco's priestliness it seemed absurd to him that a priest on that day, at
that hour could have given himself over to literature instead of treating with priestlike
zeal the cruel sacrice of the Eternal Priest two thousand years ago. He did not set
aside his wish, even though by carrying it out he would be going against the prevailing
current. Hence when he announced his subject he protested again that the sublimity of
thoughts and poetical ights were not in his line and that he left these to better men.
As for himself he said that the poverty of his speech merited no applause but it would
give his hearers a chance to exercise their kindness.
He nished his introduction! He felt that he had made ecacious excuses, so he began
with peaceful simplicity to speak thus:
After a thousand bruises and torments, subjected to a cruel scourging, crowned with
thorns, and condemned to the ignominious death of the cross, our loving Saviour with
racking pain bore the instrument of His sacrice up to Calvary.
And so on he went with a detailed and objective treatment. The sap of that discourse
he extracted from the Scriptures, the Fathers, St. Thomas, sacred commentators with
a discernment noteworthy and pleasant. He did not express his own sentiments for Don
Bosco was a saint ruled by a spiritual shyness which did not permit him to reveal the
secret movements of grace. My secret for myself ! But well did he reveal his intentions,
the intentions of a priest in order to enlighten souls and to detach them from sin and
unite them with God.
3. Writer
The heart of Don Bosco throbs today in his written words, no less than in his spoken
words of years ago. He took up his pen as a writer in 1844 and left it down no more: thus
he gave much to be printed of which much is extant today. Three helps made it easy for
him to write, in spite of the burden of occupations weighing on him: rst, the old habit
of making use of every crumb of time; second, the vivacity of his mind and memory built
upon an equal vivacity of will-power; third, the rare capacity of accomplishing dierent
things at the same time, even to a simultaneous control of many things. But these alone
do not explain the great number of his publications unless we keep in mind the common
principle he continually put into act for the space of forty years, namely, his burning zeal
for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. We would be therefore much mistaken
were we to judge Don Bosco's works from literary criteria. The good Father with a kind
smile on his lips would soon point out our error to us in words very life those of St.
Francis de Sales:
As for the embellishments of style I never gave them a thought because I had something
else to think about.
74

8.5 Page 75

▲back to top


What inspiration is to the poet, what the prevailing bent of minds is to the thinker,
and, to sum it all up, what are vanity and lightheadedness to the freelance writer was
for Don Bosco the apostolic spirit under the unending impulse of Divine love. This it
was that made him attentive to the topics of the day, that made him haunt libraries and
made him bend over his writing-desk. It is not to be said of him that it was a passion of
his to keep the presses groaning, as the phrase of those times was used to mean full time
work: even to print anything was (he tells us himself ) a cause of fear to him. However, he
thought it a part of his ministry to develop the talents God gave him, even if that meant
his opposing evil publications with good ones or disputing every inch of ground error
was covering. Thus came leaets, booklets, books, strings of periodicals, manuals for
boys and people to help them to acquire solid piety, and opportune religious instruction,
and other publications with salutary maxims strewn among the columns. In short, the
Don Bosco who wrote for the press was the same Don Bosco who was confessing and
preaching. Whatsoever form of activity he turned his hand to was always the same, the
man of God, for whom the Seraphic Doctor had written:
What is spiritual must always and everywhere be preferred. Hence, our drawing
ordinary literary considerations into the question would be a useless work.
In such an amount of spiritual writings it would seem obvious that we would repeatedly
come across places where the author reveals something of himself and his interior life,
which places would be of great importance and interest to us. But we nd none! A Bishop
(Mgr. Galletti) writing about Don Bosco refers to the latter's way of speaking, deliberate
doing and saying. This is a picture of him who watches over his conversation : and a
similar watchfulness marks his writings. It happened in this case that the personality of
the writer appeared not on the stage: those who seek it must look behind the scenes.
Nevertheless, this silence has its own eloquence, for as much as it exalts the writer so
much the more will he remain mute concerning himself. Somebody else expresses his
modesty of feeling joined to the consciousness of Art by penning himself as a worker of
the word; Don Bosco, without saying anything else, shows himself to us as a priest of the
word. A worker of the word is one who carries out his programme with the word both
through taste and wish; a priest of the word, we can say, is one instead who with the
word carries out a ministry, the ministry of the word. This is a new expression of a new
thought with which we mean to signify a holy use of language through the duty of one's
calling and carried on in the name of God and the spiritual welfare of one's fellowmen: a
use therefore wherein a man has nothing to show of himself but has all to show of God.
Such a ministry is fullled in the Church usually by preaching: but it is still enlarged by
means of writing and with much more fruit. In this case the writer who sows the word
of salvation and who hides his own identity, as was Don Bosco's custom, lays bare the
fact that he has a heart unburdened of wretched miseries and vanities, that he has a pen
dipped in the pure love of God.
The inner dispositions of Don Bosco the writer can be better understood if we consider
this his humility as the energetic handmaid of his charity. In those days when the religion
of youth and people was subject to daily outrages he felt moved by the charity of Christ
to combat the poison of error with the antidote of truth and for this end he thought
of forming a large circle of readers. An obstacle presented itself: boys and people as
75

8.6 Page 76

▲back to top


a whole did not understand the language of the books, so he condemned himself to a
great sacrice. The Pope lets us see the grand measure of this sacrice when in his
speech on the heroicity of Don Bosco's virtues he says that Don Bosco gifted as he was
with an uncommonly energetic mind and intelligence, far superior even to the ordinary
and peculiar only to geniuses properly so called, would have succeeded as a professor,
philosopher, or writer. So he used those great faculties for promulgating and not for
creating: it was his rst renunciation. A second follows after. Even in the eld of
spreading ideas a man of his temperament would have done wonders: yet he left aside
high literature and gave himself over to making use of the language of the poorest people.
He surpassed the credible in this: in fact, he would read his work to illiterate people so
that he could bring it down to their level. Sometimes he would give the press proofs to a
poor old gateman and make him repeat what he had read, so that he (Don Bosco) would
be able to put his nger on the adequacy of the matter and the intelligence of the class of
readers chosen by him. When we think of the wonders passed over by the humble charity
and of the heroic priestly soul of him who did it, we see today not without emotion that
the leading Catholic Italian periodical of 1833 (La Civilta Cattolica ) pointed out to its
readers a modest priest ... called Don Bosco, apropos of certain small pamphlets full of
solid instruction adapted to the mind of everyone, and coming at an opportune timea
very dicult matter in those disturbed days.
The modest priest cited by the Roman paper became the Angelic priest of a few
years later in the book of a Florentine writer, A. Alfani. Angelic indeed he was for many
reasons, the chief of which we shall deal with now. Jealous love for the angelic virtue
permeates his writings. The thirty-fth article of the Salesian Rules says:
He who has not a well-grounded hope that he will with the help of God preserve this
virtue of chastity in thought, word, and deed should not seek admission into the Society.
The sixth beatitude of the Gospel that tells us of intimate communings between God
and the clean of heart justies suciently our entrance into this argument which we see
clearly breathed out in the things of our saint. Sometimes it is an insignicant event
that draws out the moral characteristics of a man not less than a long speech would do.
Don Bosco as a young priest prepared the mysteries of the Rosary for printing. When
he was revising the proofs of the third joyful mystery in the presence of a priest friend,
he stopped:
Let us contemplate our Blessed Lady giving birth ... he considered what he read;
No, it doesn't sound well. `Let us contemplate how our Divine Saviour was born of
the Virgin'. No, that won't do either! It's better like this:`Let us contemplate how our
Divine Saviour was born in the town of Bethlehem'.
The candour of his soul shines out from rst to last in his Sacred History which he
compiled with unheard of trials. Never did even the smallest stain blemish the whiteness
of his purity: a boy was not struck by any Biblical particular or any words used by the
writer that would have produced impressions other than what were chaste. To consult
the book saves one from the embarrassment found in some writers who are all out to
express their opinion on many delicate points. It is a masterpiece of Christian reserve in
the education of boys and a monument that speaks of the beautiful and angelic interior
of him who planned it and wrote it. The principal biographer of our saint has written the
76

8.7 Page 77

▲back to top


following sentence that seems to put the nishing touches to what we have been saying
so far and to supply what else we could not insert.
We are thoroughly persuaded that the secret of his greatness, that is, the fact that
God had showered down on him in abundance graces and blessings and has helped him
in great works, was because he kept himself always pure and chaste.
In perusing the pages of his Sacred History we note something else: between the facts
of the Old and New Testaments Don Bosco dexterously conceals a small apologia of
Catholicism that was all the more ecacious the less it seemed intentional. Who before
him had ever thought of using the Bible facts in order to confute the protestants? We
would need the extremely ne sensitiveness of Don Bosco for all that touched the Church.
Of this sensitiveness (which is surely the most perfect feeling with the Church of St.
Ignatius) all Don Bosco's books, from his biographies of boys to his series of almanacs for
Gentlemen, will remain as an undying witness. The doctrinal and hierarchical authority
of the Church ought to stand as the chief among a writer's thoughts whom it makes, in
all that regards it remotely, to rejoice and suer, to act and react, as a result of a legion
of publications printed at short intervals throughout the space of forty years.
The student who going through the works of Don Bosco wants to engrave with lapidary
thoughts the idea formed by the author can put down as his own that short epitaph carved
on the tomb of the great Bishop and Cardinal Mermillod:
"Dilexit Ecclesiam."
And this the more so when we remember that like the glorious bishop of Switzerland
Don Bosco had to suer untold sorrows for the cause he loved. The boldness of the
enemies of Holy Church was so impertinent then in Piedmont that poor Don Bosco
could not nd the revisors required by Canon Law for his books: whence at the beginning
when he needed the necessary revision for his Catholic Readings, the stumbling block
of the sects, he was given approbation without a name signed and afterwards no one
would take the risky responsibility of revising them. Stormed at by menacing letters,
threats, and armed men he conded still in God, mistrusted the Philistines, and carried
on the holy war, without his sensibility degrading into mere animosity as is so easy in
religious polemical disputes. The Spirit of God inamed his zeal and governed his pen.
Yet, seek in all his writings as diligently as possible and you will see nothingneither
treatise, sentence nor word, not even a commathat should be repealed, that betrays
in him, we shall not say secret pleasure, but rather the momentary carelessness felt by
an adversary humiliated after a defeat. Sentences like our Holy Mother the Church,
Our good Mother, sentences common to believer and non-believer when talking of the
Church, reveal his prevalent solicitude, as if it were his dominating passion, of making
men love her; they reveal too his lial love for her, that love that is so much a part of
piety the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Letters form part of Don Bosco's written word. He wrote an incredible number to
every part of the world and on every subject: he wrote to prelates, princes, nobles,
private people, religious communities, workmen, poor women, anPart 3 d children. But
what is more important for us is that these letters reect the soul of the writer. We shall
not however expect any more than what we nd there. The amount of his correspondence
which constrained him to put his thoughts down without much thinking of them or the
77

8.8 Page 78

▲back to top


correct forms to be used, did not lessen his control of his mind or his habit of thinking
holily, so that many revelations of what regarded his interior life escaped him. Certain
introspections that often appear in the letters of holy persons are omitted from Don
Bosco's. The main point is very well understood, but he does not commit himself to
speak of intimate things. We are satised with the inevitable echoes that come from the
movements of his heart ever joined to God: that is, the full submission to the Divine
Will, the glory of the Lord, the salvation of souls, Sacraments, prayer, oences against
God, trust in Divine Providence, invitation to feasts, Scriptural quotations, ejaculations.
He often enclosed holy pictures with legends written by his own hand in order to raise the
mind of the addressee to heavenly things. And then the tone of them. After reading some
we feel within us a sense of calm which is the disposition next to goodness of thoughts,
words, and deeds. Does anyone receive angry and oensive letters? Don Bosco was wont
to say that an immediate answer of sweetness and esteem gains the victory of changing
enemies into friends. How often he himself was put to this test! Finally, his naturalness
is noteworthy when he brings into his letters the names of God, Jesus, and Mary. These
names (writes his biographer) were pronounced by him, while writing them, with fulness
of heart but in a way that no one heard him, for he disliked singularity; he seemed to
print them on The paper with his very breath.
Fra Angelico used to say that he who carries out the things of Christ should stay
always with Christ. The best religious norm absolutely; but there is a much more fun-
damental law for the priest, namely, that he who intends to form Christ in souls should
live habitually with Christ. Don Bosco would be a riddle indeed were he to doubt that
the wonderful ecacy in his priestly ministry was derived from any place except his life
of intense union with Jesus, Whose minister and minister alone he wished to be and
was. In the oce of a minister of another sphere who wanted to draw him into political
maelstroms, Don Bosco spoke out his mind in order that no misunderstanding would
exist:
Your Excellency, you must know that Don Bosco is priest at the altar, in the confes-
sional, in the midst of boys; priest in Florence as he is in Turin; priest in the houses of
the poor as in the palaces of kings and ministers.
Such a concept of one's character reaches the right depth in the priest when he is
really another Christ, the living personication of Him. Not without great reason did
Don Bosco allow one sole and simple title to his name, namely, that of "priest", for it
expressed what he regarded chiey in himself and what he preferred as worthy of other
people's esteem.
78

8.9 Page 79

▲back to top


Part III.
LUCIS ANTE TERMINUM
79

8.10 Page 80

▲back to top


CHAPTER 1 The gift of counsel
The spiritual light of Don Bosco was at its height towards the decline of his life. That
was when his works were well established; when his followers had reached their maturity
by constituting a Society; when his energies of body were fast dwindling away forbidding
him to carry On the old routine. Then did extraordinary charisms that, to speak the
truth, had accompanied him from the age of nine with undimmed refulgence, become so
bright and radiant that his life was passed in the supernatural itself. God knows with
what temerity we approached Don Bosco's soul in the previous two parts of this our
study; and now, since we have left the treatment of his supernatural gifts to this third
part, our temerity is changed into holy fear which approaches that of one nearing the Ark
of the Covenant. Has not mystic theology called it the noble height of sacred science?
And what can be said of mystical experiences, Hot expounded in treatises, but lived in
reality? The famous French Apologist, Augustus Nicolas, a man venerated for his old
age doctrine and sanctity of life, went to visit Don Bosco a few years before the Servant
of God left this world. He knelt before him and wanted to remain like that with hands
joined throughout the whole of the conversation, piously collecting holy words from the
Saint's lips as if they were the mortal sound of the Immortal Word. This is the best
attitude the humble writer felt right to have in the presence of so much greatness.
God truly showered his graces abundantly on Don Bosco in order to make him a tool in
His Divine Hands for the furtherance of His plans. It is in fact in the order of Providence
that one who is called for some special oce is rst of all disposed for it and prepared
to accomplish it. Now among the graces with which God enriched Don Bosco we must
mention the gift of counsel which illumined his interior life and which was joined as
though by concomitance to other excellent privileges in order not to be passed over or
illustrated alone.
By means of the gift of counsel the Holy Spirit renders perfect in the soul the natural
virtue of prudence and gives it a supernatural intuition by which it readily and accurately
forms its judgement as to what it must do, especially in diculties. This gift therefore
has for its object the proper direction of our or another's particular actions according to
the changes of times, places, and individual circumstances. While applying to Don Bosco
in concrete what a great Bishop (Mgr. Landrieux) teaches formally, we shall say that
thanks to such a gift our good Father always possessed the right discernment of his means,
always saw the road to take, that he trod this road fearlessly through trials, weariness,
and disgust which too often arose before him, that he always knew when to await the
opportune moment. The reader who has followed us so far will not seek ulterior proofs
for this statement; almost all the foregoing pages show how he saw clear, very clear in
all that concerned the government of himself. It would then be covering trodden ground
to continue the subject more. Let us preferably study his clearsightedness in governing
80

9 Pages 81-90

▲back to top


9.1 Page 81

▲back to top


others.
It was so universally believed and diused that Don Bosco was a man of counsel not
by virtue of any inborn greatness and the mere; eect of human prudence but by the
grace of superior lights, that from every nation under the sun people wrote or came to
him for his illumined words.
Numberless persons, even of high standing, had recourse to him by letter in questions
of a dierent kind. Few documents of the rst are still extant because letters with
such contents were ordinarily destroyed by him. In the Archives, however, there is an
abundance of counsels about family-life, opportunities for transfer, employment, trade,
or loans, on lawsuits, on the way of regulating one's home or of educating one's son, on
the choice of a state of lifeso great was the condence generally put in the superhuman
wisdom of his advice. Pope Pius IX himself thought of Don Bosco and his superior lights
in an hour of great trouble when, after the taking of Rome, his mind was wavering between
remaining there or betaking himself elsewhere, so he planned out prudent preparations
for the journey, although he was still hesitating. To those insisting that he should not
delay the Pope answered that he had asked advice from Don Bosco and was decided to
follow it no matter what it was. The Servant of God prayed long and then wrote his
answer thus:
The guardian, the Angel of Israel must stand at his post watching over the Rock of
God and the Holy Ark.
The Holy Father took these words of Don Bosco as coming from the mouth of God.
Whoever was able went personally to the Saint, and on account of this the immense
weariness of giving audiences was something unimaginable. The Jesuit, Father Joseph
Oreglia, asserted that even without other penances this alone was sucient to show forth
the heroism of his virtue. People besieged him at home and on the streets, in the city
and outside it, in a measure and insistence that was surely unknown Persons of every
social class and rank came to consult him; ecclesiastic and laymen, princes and paupers,
rich and poor, friends and strangers learned and ignorant, good and badall crowded
into his waiting room Often, too, superiors of orders and of religious houses, directors of
monasteries, and various nuns craved a word with him. Don Bosco in the manner of one
dispatching a duty which was to be done equally toward all, never gazed into anyone's
face: those who came to him were treated with sweet and gentle manners as though they
were sent by God. He listened without interrupting and interested himself in all that was
told him, even were it the endless weary tale of some poor scrupulous person. If while
he was speaking his visitor interrupted him he at once kept silent to listen. Seeming to
have no other thought in the world he never was the rst to end the talk or give a sign
that he wanted it cut short, in spite of the other's repetitions. At Marseilles he, was one
speaking to a mother who did not seem to want to go; he was told three times that many
people were waiting. He whispered to the one who told him:
We must do things as best we can or not do them at all. No time is wasted here at
all and as soon as possible we shall allow others to enter.
In his room at the Oratory there rested the peace of Heaven (writes a witness). But
since that celestial peace emanated from the person of Don Bosco and not from the walls
of the room, then outside visiting or journeying he was always in an ambient of peace.
81

9.2 Page 82

▲back to top


Wherever he went there was soon formed there an atmosphere of calm and condent
expectation, so much so that his words fell like an oracle, like a panacea, like a mystical
star, according to the occasion.
The Spirit of the Lord that spoke through the mouth of Don Bosco showed itself in a
certain exquisite liberality with which, whether asked of not, he gave his salutary counsels
to every type of people. For us who look more to good example, it is natural that we love
to stop and catch some of those moments wherein, inspired by the Sower of Counsel, he
scattered fecund seeds of wholesome and holy thoughts in men's souls without as much
as a glance at human respect.
But of that which remains give alms.
To those rich who were slaves of their riches he similarly gave spiritual alms. A wealthy
Jew had desired to know the Saint and was rewarded by a chance: when he left the
Oratory he said that if there was a Don Bosco in every city the whole world would be
converted. Another wealthy Jew and a Rabbi at that said that he would not return a
third time otherwise he might be forced to stay with him.
He approached cultured persons, too, but without feeling uneasy. In 1884 a stranger,
an advocate of renown, a defender of the Church, discussed for a long time with the Saint
on the right activity for the good cause, when suddenly he was asked:
Sir, and this religion you so honourably uphold do you practise it?
The other was stunned; he winced and changed the topic, but Don Bosco took his
hand between his own and asked again:
But the religion you publicly defend so well do you practise it?
That was God's time for the poor advocate who had even gone so far as to disbelieve
in confession. Don Bosco once on leaving the house f a noble family gave a word of
advice to each one there, except to an army general who was a guest there too. The old
soldier, a man of learning but indierent to things of religion also asked for a word as a
remembrance of their meeting. This is what Don Bosco said to him:
General, pray for me, pray that poor Don Bosco may save his soul. The soldier was
surprised.
I? Pray for You? he replied, Give me some good counsel!!
Don Bosco thought a moment then answered:
General, think that you still have a great battle to ght and if you win fortunate will
you be. The battle is the salvation of your soul.
Those present were amazed, but the soldier declared that only Don Bosco could talk
so frankly to him. There is a moving conversation Don Bosco had with the seventy-year
old Count Cibrario, historian of note and minister of State. Don Bosco said to him:
You know, Count, I am a grand well-wisher of yours and I esteem you very much.
Now, as I hear it said your life can't go on for many more years, so I would like To remind
you that before you die you have something to settle with our Holy Mother the Church.
In Paris Paul Bert, Minister of Education, visited Don Bosco who led the conversation
round to eternity and led him also to a revision of his book on morals over which many
people had used much ink. In Paris, too, what a dramatic talk he had with Victor Hugo!
We have the text of it written immediately afterwards in his presence and corrected by
82

9.3 Page 83

▲back to top


him. The novelist had entered Don Bosco's room with certain ideas and left it with
thoughts about the lot awaiting him beyond the tomb.
Much had our Father to deal with persons in authority. He respected authority but
did not court it. The minister Urban Rattazzi had experience of him when he asked him
whether he had incurred condemnation because of his bills in Parliament. Three days
afterwards he received this reply from the Saint:
I have examined the question, have sought and studied how I could say no; but I must
say I haven't succeeded.
Rattazzi was thankful for these words addressed, as he said, to him, by a man whose
sincerity he knew. One day in 1874 when he was coming out of the oce of the Minister
of the Interior in Rome he condentially mentioned to a friend that he gave the minister
some good advice and with fruit. At Lanzo during the inauguration of the new railway
line the Salesian school was chosen to honour with refreshments the authorities who
came for the occasion. Three famous ministers along with senators and deputies were
present. Don Bosco went there too and during the reception he gradually had all the
conversation to himself. He set about at once to turn the useless talk of those men unto
reections of the sacred truths which they had not heard for quite a long time. Even
for crowned and uncrowned heads Don Bosco did not spare his salutary advice. To the
Royal House of Naples, exiled in Rome, and mindful of the wrongs perpetrated by their
forefathers against the Church he counselled resignation, since the designs of Providence
were against them. Before this his demotion and love for the Kings of Savoy did not
prevent his raising his voice to warn his King of wrong steps. The eect was not what
was desired, there was also some irritation; but later on Victor Emmanuel II told the
Archbishop of Genova that Don Bosco was truly a saint. With the passing of the years
he grew so much in the esteem of the two supreme powers that he was called in on jealous
and thorny aairs: but always he conducted himself in such a way as not to compromise
what was God's with what might be Caesar's.
That the Holy Ghost was in Don Bosco's mouth when giving advice, we see too from
the facility he had in counselling, in giving just the right advice, and in an irresistible
ecacy, even if sometimes a little bitter. Many things daily happened in the Oratory to
priests, clerics, and pupils when they approached him in the playground, in his room, in
the confessional.
The advice given in the playground was called: Word in the ear. Don Bosco took
part as long as he could in the recreations of the boys and even when he could not stay
for long he put in an appearance, for it was then that he saw an opportune time to know
his chicks and drop them individually a grain or two. For this end it is written in the
rules of his houses:
Remember the example of the chickens. Those that stay near the mother hen receive
much more than those who stay by themselves. So also those boys who keep near their
superiors, always receive some advice or particular correction.
In his last years he could not do this any more: when he walked along the balcony
and reached the door of his room he did not enter at once but turned to the boys whose
eyes had lovingly followed his dragging steps. Then he spoke some good word that
was immediately snatched up and applauded by them. How often in other days had he
83

9.4 Page 84

▲back to top


whispered such words to each boy according to his needs! An educator who is forever
giving advice becomes a bore to his pupils who weary of him and, when they see him
appearing scurry away. But the boys of the Oratory loved Don Bosco to advise them
and even asked him for it. Holy Scripture says :
A correction spoken into a docile ear is like an earring and a bright pearl.
This is how he did it: Don Bosco would put his hand on the boy's head, bend down to
his ear, and his other hand shielding it, he spoke the good word, and others did not bear.
It was a question of a few seconds, but the eect was magical! It was sucient to observe
the change on the boy's face and his movements, a sudden smile, a quick seriousness,
a blush, a tear, a yes or no, a thanks followed by a run to the games, an invitation to
church, a whisper into Don Bosco's own ear. Sometimes this phenomena happened that
after a boy had heard the whispered word from Don Bosco he was not able to leave his
side as though he were enraptured by a Divine idea. Other eects materialised later,
such as, approaching the Sacraments, more recollection in prayer, greater care in school
duties, more politeness and charity to companions. The biographer (MB VI. 417) tells us
that there were cases of boys whose names we could mention, who by such simple means
became so fervent in piety that they began to do extraordinary penances so that Don
Bosco had to restrain them: other boys stayed all evening by the Father's door tapping
lightly ever so often that he may come out to them, for they did not want to go to bed
with sin on their soul.
Of these "Words in the ear" the saint's biographer compiles for us a beautiful anthology.
There is missing from these accounts the vividness of expression that came from the tone,
the look, the smile, or the seriousness of him who spoke them; there is missing too the
freshness of reality that came from his condition of soul as he bent over his hearers, he
gure of Don Bosco in the midst of his boys stands out from these few lines written by
an eyewitness:
I still seem to see him smiling, to hear his sweet words, to gaze on his loving face
wherein was clearly etched the beauty of his soul.
Were the advice Don Bosco gave in private to be collected in all its genuine simplicity
recognized from the few maxims remaining and inferred from the real appreciation of
witnesses, what an excellent code of Christian wisdom it would form! He who heard
these counsels willingly remarked upon their value, but kept them jealously reserved for
himself. In the memory of the writer there still remains clear the rst meeting with Don
Bosco within the holy walls of his room. The chief moment was when he heard the good
Father give him a golden word of advice for the spiritual life. Don Bosco expressed it
unexpectedly in precise and simple words, and in a tone more fatherly or authoritatively
it would be hard to say, so that the sound of it still reechoes. In that grand Noah's Ark,
the Oratory, no one, even were he the last of all, was forbidden access to the Father's
room, no one felt timorous when going to talk to him, everyone was always received with
the same ceremony. Don Bosco sat at a modest desk on which were piled letters and
papers that often increased by arrival of the post during the conversation. He never gave
this newly-arrived mail much thought beyond putting it there; his only care was for the
one sitting nearby, as if there was no other to hear and satisfy and as if all his duty was
just there. Naturally the visitors left his room enlightened, encouraged, and happy. The
84

9.5 Page 85

▲back to top


successor of Fr Murialdo in the direction of the artisans has well described the lot of
these who lived near that real sanctuary where the light of counsel so much shone. He
wrote:
You have a great benet in your house that no other house in Turin and no other
religious Community has got. You have a room into which one enters full of sorrow and
comes out full of joy.
And, notes his Biographer (MB VI. 441), thousands of us have proved it so.
Advice in confession brings us near to a point already touched upon.
The only one of Don Bosco's rst disciples (Don Francesia) still living writes of him
as a confessor that three adjectives describe him; namely, loving, wise, and reasonable.
If then one wants to know the why and wherefore, one has no more to do than not put
into practice the old experto crede (believe him who knows) How can anyone know better
than he who has had a long long experience? Personal memories make the venerable
Father Francesia say that to hear a boy's confession, to give him advice, to help him to
persevere, to console him if he had fallen, was for Don Bosco the holiest work he ever
had to do and he did it in such a way as to leave sweet impressions. Identical is the
daily experience spoken of by Cardinal Cagliero.
Drawn by Don Bosco's meekness and kindness we ran to make our confession to him
and afterwards we returned happy, joyful, and satised! How he loved us! What calmness
he brought our souls!
Small things these are, yes, but they illustrate in a magnicent way the triple statement
of that eyewitness who judges from right knowledge Charity. One day in the declining
years of his life Don Bosco spoke thus to a few intimate Salesians:
Last night I dreamed that I wanted to go to confession. In the sacristy there was only
so and so. I looked at him from afar and felt somewhat repugnant. 'He's too strict,' I
said to myself.
The hearers had a hearty laugh as they looked to see the eect the Salesian named by
the Father. He was laughing, too, and said the others:
Who would have imagined it? Don Bosco afraid of me?
The little incident contained a lesson for all. Who could not have understood it at
once? The opportunity even out of time. It was general knowledge that Don Bosco
did not say many words in confession but what. he did say were so well suited to the
circumstances that he imprinted in souls a rm resolution of amendment together with
a great idea of the Sacrament. A boy, a day scholar of the Oratory, was appointed to
sing in a religious role at the Royal Theatre of Turin. It seemed a grand honour for the
house then! But Don Bosco did not think like that; always solicitous for the welfare of the
boys' souls, fee felt pained indeed that a boy should go to the theatre. What would result
from his forbidding such a thing? The superiors anxiously awaited. Sunday morning in
confession Don Bosco spoke and advised: the penitent nodded without a murmur and to
cut short the gossipings of his companions when he met them; he said:
When it is a question of conscience, the confessor it is who always commands.
85

9.6 Page 86

▲back to top


WISDOM
One of the most yearned for ideals Don Bosco had was to get more and more boys for the
ministry of God. The conviction then prevalent that he spoke under God's inspiration
led many and many to him who needed advice about their vocation: a yes or no from
Don Bosco dispersed all doubts even in aairs of great moment. In the course of the
Apostolic processes several witnesses touching this point of Don Bosco's priestly zeal
have unanimously declared that they have never heard of anyone bewailing his following
the advice of Don Bosco whether or not it was for the. ecclesiastical state; or have come
across anyone who had made a mistake in following it.
An unpublished diary preserves for us a little incident that almost dramatizes the
extraordinary eect produced by such charity, opportunity, and wisdom on the. soul of
those boys absolved by Don Bosco. A boy nished his confession but before moving away
he asked Don Bosco for a favour, namely, to kiss his feet. The Servant of God without
the least discomposure said:
There's no need. Kiss my hand as that of the priest. The boy took his right hand,
and kissed it with emotion.
How fortunate I would have been, he cried if I had had opened my eyes before as
you have done for me this evening!
The spirit of God not only supplied tangible assistance to Don Bosco in the zealous
work of good counsel, but He also gave him supernatural insight to discover hidden sins
and deep thoughts in those near him as in those afar. A fact astonishes us with regard
to this heavenly gift, which the saint was rather reticent about. We read in a document
of 1861:
During the ten years I have been at the Oratory I have heard Don Bosco say thousands
of times: Give me a boy I have never seen before and if I look into his face, I shall be
able to reveal his sins to him even from his tenderest year.
A diary notes under the date 23rd. April 1863 the actual words of the goodnight of
the previous day wherein Don Bosco among other things said:
During all these days (Spiritual Retreat) I have seen info the heart of the boys as
though into a book. Clearly and distinctly did I see their sins and perplexities.
The writer of this diary notes under the twenty-fth of the same month:
I asked Don Bosco whether his reading into the heart of the boys was a fact peculiar
only in confession or elsewhere. He replied: `At all hours of the days, even outside
confession'.
This is not to mean that the gift was continuous but that it would have been given to
him at any moment if he had asked for it for the good of souls.
Who can ever know why Don Bosco, although he held locked with seven seals what
passed between God and himself, freely revealed himself on the question of these mystic
communications? It must be a big because or maybe two. In the rst place the
knowledge of a thing so out of the ordinary and impossible to be kept hidden could not
but give occasion for comment in the little world of the Oratory: therefore it would
be prudent to clarify ideas in such a way as to do away in all simple candour, with
every doubt about the origin and nature of this phenomenon. A second reason, however,
weighs more with us. The zealous hunter of souls hunting by means of confession knew
86

9.7 Page 87

▲back to top


what a formidable enemy he had in the dumb devil who has trapped so many souls with
insincerity in confessing their sins. This was always the thorn in his side. A good French
parish priest, a frequent preacher of missions and retreats, was very much alarmed at
seeing so many souls living in sin because of confessions badly made. Fearing that it
was a delusion he wrote to Don Bosco in order to obtain his advice and peace for his
anxieties. Don Bosco replied:
Do you tell me this who have preached in all Italy and have not found it otherwise ?
Once in the beginnings of his priesthood he had been persuaded that his sons had
unlimited condence in him; but he was quick to discern Satan pushing in his tail. We
take the following from our usual diary under the date 18th April, 1851. A cleric was
"surprised to hear, that not a few were in the habit of keeping back sins in confession
even where there was a large choice of confessors. Don Bosco after saying that not all
confessors had ability, experience, and means to scrutinize consciences and dislodge the
wolves that were gnawing into hearts concluded sorrowfully:
There are two big beasts, namely, shame, and fear of dropping down in the confessor's
estimation.
Maybe it is here that we must seek the moving principle that made him come out
of his reserve in this matter. It was good that Don Bosco when he read hearts clearly
discovered there certain little secrets; but when he revealed the penitent's, sins would the
temptor have not prevented the boy by making him keep a malicious silence? He found
it benecial, therefore, to let everyone be warned be forehand that in his confessional the
devil's wiles would all be unveiled. Therefore, did he warn the boys not to be deceived
but rather to prot by this his gift for the good of their souls. And this in fact did
the inmates of the house understand. Many pupils knelt down before him, and then
began their confession by requesting him to say their sins and Don Bosco would do so
with astonishing exactness. So common was this that in one good night he spoke of
it. Fr Lemoyne, the chief biographer of our Saint, read it at the processes from an old
memorandum.
Up to now when you came to confession you said to me: `Speak to me, Father!' and
I did the talking. But really this is the duty of the penitent and not of the confessor. I
am now not able to talk for hours and hours; my stomach suers too much. So from now
onwards you yourselves must do the speaking; if you get entangled I shall come to your
aid.
Even outside the confessional box Don Bosco distinctly saw sins and thoughts.
Inside communities there circulate turns of phrases that make up a kind of local patois
or convention that no dictionary can translate. In the Oratory there was one of these
phrases, namely, to read your forehead, which was said of Don Bosco and meant to nd
out your sins. The thought that when he looked at a boy's forehead he found there
certain telling marks of secret disorders was so common among the boys that had anyone
a conscience not well cleaned, he would not go near the saint, for fear his forehead would
have been read. If such a boy was called by Don Bosco for something or other he quickly
pulled his cap more to the front of his head or else harrowed his hair with his ngers
unto his forehead. We understand that Don Bosco allowed that expression to go about,
for it helped to veil the supernatural character, attached to the fact. For all that, we
87

9.8 Page 88

▲back to top


get instances of impudent little boys,who winked an eye at this and even challenged Don
Bosco to tell their sins publicly if he wanted. Don Bosco tactfully drew this kind of boy
apart and dropped a word or two into their ear with the eect that they were amazed,
they blushed, they wept.
This can similarly be said of thoughts; though in this case the fame was more limited.
Fr Rua attests from personal experience that when someone felt it convenient to hide
from the saint secrets of business which he had a right to know every subterfuge was
in vain because in the conversation he showed that he knew everything in detail. A
cleric was once much troubled by scruples. He was making his examination of conscience
preparatory to confession when he began thinking in this wise :
If Don Bosco turned to me and told me to go to Holy Communion tomorrow without
making my confession, I would know that my mental disturbance was all tomfoolery.
In the evening he felt a hand tapping his shoulder and the voice of Don Bosco say:
Go to Communion tomorrow, it's not necessary to confess.
As we are still on the subject of thoughts we wish to refer to an anecdote that is little
known but that should be known by us all for it shows us once again what was the spirit
of Don Bosco. A cleric, then the co-founder of the Giuseppini, Fr Eugene Reo, went
with his superior, Fr Murialdo, into Don Bosco's room. He remained in one corner while
the two men of God spoke among themselves. The playground outside was a hubbub
of boyish noise helped by the band at practice. The cleric listened and thought within
himself:
My ! I wouldn't allow such a din! 'The Lord is not in the whirlwind! '
Don Bosco interrupted his conversation and came near Fr. Reo.
Oh, yes! he said, Don Bosco is right! Then imitating with his hands the motions
of the cymbals and big drum, he continued:
Ching! Ching! Boom! Boom! That's what the Lord wants. Noise, laughter, uproar,
all in their own time.
Also from distances were such powers exhibited. When Don Bosco wrote to his Sale-
sians from the Oratory,or from somewhere else, he would often bring to the superiors'
notice things that had happened but unknown to them and that could never have came
into his knowledge without revelation from on high. He described names, places, and
circumstances, with such accuracy to the truth that those called by him to answer for
some neglect or other stood really astonished and incapable of giving any excuses During
the usual good night talk when familiarity was so much the chief point,that questions
were asked and answered, Fr Rua, Don Bosco's right-hand man and substitute, went near
the saint and asked how he could know things at a distance. The serio-comic reply was:
By my telegraph I x up communication even to far-away places I see and know then
all that redounds to the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls.
At Barcelona in 1886 there was neither letter nor telegraph! From the Rector of the
house concerned the writer heard the account of the event the authenticity of which
cannot be called into doubt. That Rector saw Don Bosco (who was just then in the
Oratory in Italy) standing at the foot of his bed at midnight. The vision bade the Rector
get up and follow it through the school: the path they trod was all lit up with a kind
of daylight. Don Bosco pointed out some disorders here and there, led the Rector back
88

9.9 Page 89

▲back to top


to his room, gave him some advice, and disappeared leaving Fr Branda standing in the
dark spellbound.
Now, we shall begin to deal more with the supernatural in his life.
89

9.10 Page 90

▲back to top


CHAPTER 2 Dreams, visions, ecstasies
The heading of this chapter was suggested by a saying of St. Isidore as commented on
by St Thomas. The Angelic Doctor writes:
Isidore divides the gift of prophecy according to the manner of prophesying ... Accord-
ing to the. way of impressing the phantasms lie gives three distinctions, dream, vision,
ecstasy.
These are gifts freely bestowed which by themselves are not necessary or expedient
for sanctity, though they frequently accompany it. By means of them God manifests
in supernatural ways hidden things to souls. In Don Bosco's life such things take so
important a place that we cannot overlook them without overlooking an element of vast
importance that helps us to the full knowledge of his intimate union with God. Those
who have come into a Salesian atmosphere have heard of the so called dreams of Don
Bosco, a designation that he himself began and that lives necessity for us to prove that
supernatural dreams do exist: it would be now in all his houses where no comment is
even needed. There is no merely opening an open door. Who would ignore the dreaming
dreams which Joel counts among the gifts that were to gladden by a generous eusion
of the Holy Spirit the latter clays, that is, as St Peter explains, the days of the Messiah?
Let us come to speak of Don Bosco's dreams.
These dreams were myriad for they took place at intervals from the beginning of the
saint's boyhood right up to ripe old age. Some of the* are in his exact words dictated
by him or revised by him in person; others have come down to us from eye witnesses
and men of honour: a few are merely oral traditions here and there: many are either
only vague remembrances or traces of what were. In the rst nine volumes of Don
Bosco's Biographical Memoirs Fr Lemoyne has collected seventy two recorded at length
or mentioned: but that is up to the year 1870. A classication of them would not be very
dicult. That which is described therein turns more or less dramatically on one of these
backgrounds: the Church, the Salesian Society, the Oratory at Valdocco. Concerning the
Church he saw future happenings either for its life in general or for particular nations:
concerning the Society he saw clearly the works he had to do, ways to follow, obstacles
to avoid; concerning his boys he saw the state of their conscience, their calling, the time
of their death. That he was dreaming we can deduct from some of his expressions. So,
speaking of a dream he had on the night between 1867 and 1868 he said:
It was such a dream that I could realize what I was doing, hear what was said to me,
and answer questions put to me.
There was usually a guide by his side to interpret for him whenever necessary; this
guide however was not always the same. Drawing conclusions from what we know we
say that the guides were some deceased pupil, St Francis de Sales, St Joseph, or some
other saint, or angel of God: these were often accompanied by processions or secondary
90

10 Pages 91-100

▲back to top


10.1 Page 91

▲back to top


apparitions.
What did Don Bosco think of his own dreams? Of the rst ones be was slow to put
any trust in them for he believed them to be. the results of imagination: hence when
telling them he would be always afraid, especially when future things came in lest he had
mistaken mole hills for mountains or for having said what should not be taken seriously.
The fact remains however that he distinguished very well between dreams and dreams,
and if some (as really happened) passed over him without making any impression others
etched deeply into his soul lasting impressions. While speaking with his Salesians he
would often repeat at the end of this kind of dream that he had confessed the whole fact
to Fr Cafasso in an ohand manner. Fr Cafasso listened and reected for some time then
said to him:
As long as what you say comes true you can be at case and continue.
Nevertheless he did not think it wise to lay aside all precautions just yet. In one of
the above-mentioned diaries under the date January 1861 are noted these words of Don
Bosco bearing on a dream that spread through three consecutive nights.
On the rst day I did not want to give my, consent, for God forbids us in Holy
Scripture. But during these last three days after making few experiments by taking a
few boys aside, telling them what I had seen in the dream, and hearing them assuring me
that it was true, I cannot doubt any more that this is an extraordinary favor the Lord
is bestowing on the boys of the Oratory. Therefore, I nd myself in duty bound to tell
you that God calls you and makes you hear His voice. Woe betide you if you close your
ears!
Not even this, however, gave him any excuse for setting aside precautions, so humbly
distrustful of himself was he. Therefore, we read under the date 15th of the same month:
I shall repeat what I have already said. When I had that dream I didn't wish to
consent but, on the other hand, I saw that it was so important and so I examined it very
well.
The examination consisted in questioning three boys again whose miserable state had
been revealed in the dream and he found it tallied with the conditions already noted by
him. Seven years afterwards on April 30th, 1868 he spoke thus:
My dear boys, yesterday I told you I had some ugly things to narrate to you. I had a
dream but I was determined not to relate it, maybe because I supposed it was like any
other dream that happens at night or because every time I related something there were
always observations or complaints. But another dream makes me refer to the former.
In this dream that he then related the voice of some personage had asked him:
Why do you not speak?
It cannot be thought that in this as in many other things Don Bosco was lacking in
prudence. In the meanwhile the end we set out for gives us more comprehension of a
condence he shared with Fr Julius Barberis in 1876 with a serious mein and a look of
preoccupation.
When I think of the responsibility the position I am in lays on me I tremble greatly.
The things I see befalling are such that the account I must render will be extraordinary
indeed ... What an account indeed must I give for the good of our Society! It can be
91

10.2 Page 92

▲back to top


said that Don Bosco sees everything and is led onwards by the hand of Mary ... At every
step, in every circumstance she is there.
How did Don Bosco narrate his dreams? It appears from the above quotations how
earnestly he did so: nevertheless there is still something to add. A witness, Canon
Ballesio, informs us that he said what he said "with simplicity, gravity, and aection".
He avoided all that would be defective or suggestive of any idea of self-glory. While
narrating; he would intercalate witty phrases and comic descriptions in order to distract
the hearers' attention from matters of greater singularity. But among these hearers
there were perspicacious men who Understood and remembered. Always with the idea
of cloaking any impression of the extraordinary he would give uninteresting names to
the personage who was wont to accompany him, calling him guide, interpreter, or more
vaguely still, the unknown: sometimes, however, when speaking in private, he would give
less vague indications. Thus he had a good way of setting up what redounded to his own
humiliation. In 1861 he narrated a dream wherein he told the boys of his great sorrow
at their being deaf to his advice and corresponding so ill to his kindness.
Then, he continued, my interpreter began to rebuke me. `Oh! the pride! Look at
the pride! Who are you who imagines to convert souls just because you work Because
you love your boys does it mean that they all fall in with your wishes? Do you believe
yourself more than our Divine Lord in the question of loving, working, and suering for
souls? Do you believe that your word should be more ecacious than that of Jesus?
Do you preach better than He? Do yon think you have more charity towards your boys
than He towards His apostles? You know they lived with Him continuously, they were
moment by moment enriched with all kinds of favours, they heard the precepts of His
doctrine and His warnings day and night, they saw His deeds that should have been a
quickening stimulus to the sanctication of their life. How much did He not do for and
say to them, to Judas too! Yet Judas betrayed Him and died impenitent. Are you better
than the Apostles? Well, they ejected only seven deacons, seven and elected with the
greatest of care, yet one o them proved unfaithful. Are you then astonished that a small
number from out of ve hundred should prove themselves adamant, in spite of your care
for them? Do you think you can carry on without having even one bad, one perverse?
Oh, the pride! '
To reduce to a possible minimum whatever could give rise to an opinion of the super-
natural, it is wholesome to humiliate one's person with such hard rebukes; but still truth
had its rights. For the which he exhorted everyone not to ridicule what they had heard
but rather to do their best in all. Yet these exhortations were also based on evangeli-
cal humility. Another quotation will not be displeasing; it is a little long but it is the
last. The dream of 1861 wherein the foregoing reproach appeared was narrated in three
consecutive evenings. The conclusion was like this:
'Now that 1 have related all these things, you might think perhaps: `Who knows?
Don Bosco is an extraordinary man, a prodigy, saint of course!' My dear boys, in order
to avoid silly judgments about me I leave everyone free to believe these things or not,
to give what importance he likes. I recommend you, however, not to turn any of these
into ridicule with companions or strangers. But I don't hesitate to say that our Lord ha)
many ways of manifesting His will to men. Sometimes He uses the most unsuitable and
92

10.3 Page 93

▲back to top


unworthy of instruments, as for example the ass of Balaam that spoke ... of Balaam, the
false prophet who predicted many things regarding the Messiah. So the same can happen
to me. Therefore I tell you not to look to my works in order to regulate yours. Take
care of what you must do because this, as I hope, will be the Will of God and a benet
for souls. As regards what I do, you should not say: `Don Bosco does it, therefore it is
good!' No. Observe rst of all what I do and if is good then imitate it: if you perchance
see me doing what is wrong, be on your guard and do not imitate it; leave it as ill done.
He never, said in public all that was revealed or said to him in his dreams. Some items
he secretly communicated to those whom they concerned: others he told to him who,
being an intimate of him, asked him in private; still others he kept for himself as things
for himself alone. In fact, one of the diarist informs us that for certain dreams much
was heard by degrees as to double or treble the material, and for others, their detail
would ll many books. As an example we take the dream of 1861 mentioned above Don
Bosco said that he learned more theology in those three nights that he even studied in
his seminary years and that he intended to write those theological questions, omitting,
however, the particular facts of the third night and mentioning only the theory of
the rst two. Hence we conclude that granting his narrations to be for the edication,
comfort, instruction of others or even a warning to someone, he in his public account
wisely choose parts, so that the whole would turn out to the good advantage of his
listeners. A blind man would have easily seen the eect derived from them. The horror
for sin especially grew very much then there was more sorrow at confession, there were
many general confessions, a general frequenting of the Sacraments; there was, in short in
the phrase used by the Saint himself on such occasions Satan's bankruptcy.
The rst characteristic is a psychological element. |n natural dreams the fantasy not
under the reason's control governs or rages. Weariness is the normal condition for the
beginning of the dream. Weariness produces poisoned matter in the brain that will give
rise to a general poisoning: nature has so arranged it that when these reason; have reached
a certain number they react as a check to stop the motor apparatus that consumes most
energy. This check removes the psycho-physical energy necessary for normal activity
away from the nervous centres, removes it in proportion to the individual's need of sleep.
The little remnant of psycho-physical energy in the higher centres suces for the activity
of a dream: but ordinarily it is too little to excite the motor centres in an eective manner
by radiating from sensory centres. Now if we consider that Don Bosco on retiring to bed
had always a great need of sleep we have here a reason already that points to this fact,
namely, so much dream activity in him could not have a human explanation.
But there is something better. The check that isolates the motor apparatus and the
lessening of the psychopathic energy of the central nervous system have an inuence
on the activity of the fantasy causing there two phenomena of irregularity and of quick
changes experienced by all of us in our dreams. The insuciency of psycho-physical
energy makes it impossible to pursue one motive for a long time; it is enough for any
external stimulus to lead that rag of energy onto another path. Thus the image of the
dream fades away. Hence, it is that the activity of the fantasy in dreams is not generally
guided by any positive intention. Therefore we are not wont in natural dreams to verify
either the rational order of arrangement, or the logical chain of thought; there are too
93

10.4 Page 94

▲back to top


many ittings about with numberless unexpected leaps into whims and sudden steppings
into the ridiculous or the extravagant. Totally opposite was that which happened in Don
Bosco's dreams. His are symbolical representations like those given to St. Peter in the
vision of the sheet let down from heaven and lled with clean and unclean beasts. The
web here is either more or less completed and the weaving of it is often long with acts
distinct as in a real play: besides, and here is a peculiarity, he saw always in those images
something that came about in reality, and in the words, he heard or read a signicant
value that forms one sole totality with the images themselves. Each dream turns about
a central, and goes straight for a well-dened, end: the whole action is developed orderly
and progressively as the best dramatic productions. There remains to say that, although
in the symbolism the sensible forms are accepted to the common mentality, yet never are
there introduced elements rude, vulgar, frivolous, on even unpleasant to a holy aim. To
give examples would be a delight, but the economy of our task holds us back.
A second characteristic of Don Bosco's dreams is their prophetic element. Can we
have an inkling of the future from an imagination that in sleep combines and separates
at its own own sweet will uncontrolled by reason? Such a thing does not happen when
we try to divine what is to come even with the fulness of our intellectual powers! By
multiplying observations on facts and phenomena near us we can almost predict eects
more or less distant, but if one prop is missing here and now every attempt to scan the
future is useless: what must it be like during the unconsciousness of sleep ? Yet the
dreams of Don Bosco did not contain vague or sybilline predictions, but clear and exact
revelation of events hidden in the bosom of the days to come. To say the truth, the
prophetic spirit dwelt in him because as many prophecies as he had made of all kinds of
things came about before or after his death in the time and the way he announced. The
often-quoted Canon Ballesio writes:
In Don Bosco this did not seem an instantaneous ash like a momentary rainbow in
the mind, but rather it was the ordinary condition of his mind so that he prophesied
while praying, talking, and joking, and prophesied while he or others round him did not
realize it. And in dreams lie prophesied too, with prophecies which were relevant to, if
not the sum total of, those dreams. How many announcements of death did he not give
beforehand, having come to know them in his dreams! He did not say any names, but
he gave exact dates: the initial letter of a name he would sometimes reveal in public
or sometimes tell a Salesian in private. In the fullment of these dreams the good boys
rejoiced, that is almost everyone, accustomed as they were to gather with veneration the
father's salutary sayings; the dident boys would remain mute, yet these, although a
rare sort of swimmers in a wide sea, vouchsafed then as now for the historicity of the
prophecies in spite of their reticence in believing. We shall not give instances on this
point, otherwise we may seem to be usurping the biographer's place: rather we shall note
two words from the golden writings of Don Bosco himself.
A diarist of the Oratory in those times notes the saint's observation of 17th February,
1861, which alludes to his dream prophecies:
The things which we do and say in our house, singular as they are, are permitted to be
spoken only among ourselves, for if they were told to anyone outside these people would
surely dub them fables. But we have always this as our norm that when something turns
94

10.5 Page 95

▲back to top


out to the good of our souls it certainly comes from God, not from Satan.
But the enemy of God and of souls had a dierent eld of labour wherein to launch
his attacks against Don Bosco. Fr Poulain S.J., an authority on mystical matters, has
this very opportune remark:
We seem to see this result from the lives of the saints that if they suer grave obsessions
this happens mostly when they have a period of ecstasies or even of revelation only and
Divine visions, whether such graces continue or they become suspended for a time. The
extraordinary action of the devil sets itself opposite the extraordinary action of God.
Even for the saints of the militant Church the battleeld is the earth. Of Satan's wars
against Don Bosco we have ocial documents that come down to us from the time of his
rst encounter and that give us. some idea of the three-year campaign which followed.
The devil showed, his capability towards the Servant of God especially by robbing him
of his sleep at night. A loud voice bawling into his ear, a gale of wind shaking him from
head to foot, a general ransacking of his room, a dispersing of his papers, a confusion
among his booksall these were in the order of Satan's ambushes. For some evenings
he left on his table the corrected proofs of his book The Power of Darkness, but when
he got up in the morning the leaves were scattered across the oor or were nowhere
to be found. The dead-out stove would be enveloped in licking ames. As soon as he
was in bed a mysterious hand would pull the bed clothes slowly towards his feet: he
would right them and again they would slip slowly down. When he lit his lamp the
phenomenon would cease, only to continue when the lamp was out. Once the lamp was
extinguished by a powerful and unknown breath of air. Just as he was about to sleep
his pillow would cut capers under his head. The sign of the cross or a prayer would
quieten it, but on composing himself again he would feel the whole bed on the move.
The door would groan as if shaken by a strong wind. Fearful noises from the ceiling
would remind him of thousands of cart wheels in motion: piercing cries would also be
heard above his head. One night the door opened wide and a huge monster with mouth
like a cavern entered as if to devour him: the sign of the Cross put it to ight. A very
daring priest wanted to keep watch in the saint's room, but he ed headlong when he
heard an infernal din at midnight. Two clerics oered to go through the same test and
watch in the adjoining library: the result was like the former Poor Don Bosco sought
some peace in the residence of the Bishop of Ivrea: but again, after the rst night of
calm, the end came and continued his antics worse than before.
The foregoing is sucient to give an idea of the terrible battle of the prince of Darkness.
In 1865 Don Bosco speaking of the subject mentioned that he had nally found a very
eective remedy; but he did not reveal what it was.
Paulo Majora Canamus !
Supernatural dreams appertain to that kind of vision called imaginative by mystics,
because they come about as the result of a superior cause impressing the fantasy through
the imagination; but such visions are produced during wakefulness. Many people indis-
criminately qualify visions of both kinds through Don Bosco's dreams, while in spite of
the strict analogy they dier somewhat among themselves. Thus the imaginary vision
during wakefulness seems incapable of being separated from something of ecstasy, that
is, from an ecstasy in which the abstraction of the senses is more or less. In this way
95

10.6 Page 96

▲back to top


the servant of God saw in 1870 a complex series of public events whose latter part is
befalling in these days. The introduction of the written text Don Bosco dictated seems
to conrm this opinion. He so expresses himself:
On the eve of Epiphany this year 1870 all the material objects of my room disappeared
and I found myself contemplating heavenly things. It was of short duration but I saw very
much indeed. As to form or sensible appearance it would be dicult to communicate it
to others with external and sensible signs. What is following will give an idea. There the
word of God becomes adapted to the word of man.
In the same manner and on many occasions he saw before him the holy youth Aloy-
sius Colle of Toulon whom he had known on this earth. Between 1881 and 1885 this
departed boy appeared to him in the confessional, at Mass, at the distribution of Holy
Communion: once he appeared in the station at Orte where Don Bosco was forced to
wait for four hours. Such apparitions were always enlightening and happy, sometimes
with conversation, sometimes no. He had a similar sort of vision at Lanzo in 1887. A
Daughter of Mary Help of Christians was eager to receive the blessing of the saint. She
was tired of waiting in the anti-chamber so she lightly opened the door that led to Don
Bosco's study. What did she see? She saw the good father like a person enraptured and
listening to someone. His face was bathed in a bright and white light, its features were
sweet and calm, his arms spread towards heaven, his head from time to time nodding
yes.
Hail, Jesus! ... Father, may I come in?
The good nun repeated again and again but Don Bosco did not move. At last after
about ten minutes the scene was closed with a sign of the cross and a reverential bow
of the head that is beyond description. There is this to note that during the year Don
Bosco could not stand on his legs without assistance, whereas the nun had seen him like
a robust and healthy man.
Besides the imaginary visions we know two other kinds one inferior, the other superior
to the preceding. The inferior kind is that of so called sensible, corporal, ocular visions; in
them the senses perceive external things that could never be seen or understood without
supernatural aid. Don Bosco had one vision of this kind when he foresaw the future of
the sick youth before him, John Cagliero. He stepped into the room to visit him and
prepare him for death but just then he had two visions each lasting a fraction of a minute.
He saw a snow-white dove with an olive twig in its beak ying round the room. It then
went to the dying boy, touched his lips with the olive, and then let it rest upon his head.
It was a prediction of a missionary apostolate and fullness of the priestly powers. After
that a horde of unknown savages anxiously bent over the boy: they were belonging to
two dierent tribes that were found in really in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.
The other kind of visions the highest of all others bears the name of intellectual: in
them the mind intuitively perceives spiritual truths without any help of sensible images.
Did God give some of these visions to Don Bosco? We cannot arm it with certainty.
But who can ever know all the wealth of supernatural gifts that enriched the soul of Don
Bosco? His spontaneous naturalness in everything and his habitual simplicity of life were
purposely shown in order to conceal the secret operations of grace when the discovery of
these would be of no benet to his neighbour. Anyhow, do not the cases of levitation and
96

10.7 Page 97

▲back to top


luminous aureola bear any value for the future to the hypothesis that not even visions of
the highest kind were wanting to him? In 1879 while the Servant of God was saying Mass
at his private altar on three dierent days there was seen a radiant light on his face that
lled the room; little by little he was raised o the predella and held in the air for about
ten minutes. The historian, Fr Lemoyne, on three consecutive evenings saw the Saint's
face lit up with a splendour that looked transparent. His whole manner emitted a strong
and sweet brilliance. Our late reverend Rector Major, Fr P. Rinaldi, experienced on
three occasions, in broad daylight and in dierent places, when he was ten, twenty-two,
and thirty years old, the eyes of Don Bosco becoming suddenly illumined and brilliant,
and this light extending to all his person like a glorious aureola that outdone the day's
light and far surpassed any painters' conception of paradise Litheness and splendour are
beautiful gifts reserved for glorious bodies. If such gifts cause here below admiration
in living bodies, will it. be wrong to think that such a phenomenon may happen when
souls, like unto God. rejoice in the vision of Divinity?
The notice of these last heavenly favours had not as much echo as his fame of wonder
worker that accompanied his name with continuous increase until his death. It is not
our task to dilate on his gift of miracles; nevertheless a rapid glance, just in keeping
with our plan, will nd a place before we close this chapter. From the Memoirs which
Don Bosco in his old age gradually wrote down with trembling hand and open heart, we
shall cull some sentences that, even had he said nothing, were the conviction of those
who were daily with him. For us however his declarations are the best we could desire
in order to know well what were his intimate thoughts concerning the supernatural gifts
that ooded his soul and over-owed into acclaiming him Miracle-man. The neglected
form of the composition says clearly that his only intention was to open his soul frankly
and not to act the highbrow. Thus he writes:
Sincerely do I recommend to my sons to be on their guard over word and writing that
they may never assert that Don Bosco had obtained graces from God or had worked
miracles in any way. He would fall into a great error. Although the bounty of God
has been generous towards me, nevertheless, I have never claimed to know and work
supernatural things. I have done nothing else than pray and have prayers said that Jesus
might bestow his graces on good souls. I have always found out that the common prayers
of our boys were ecacious to bring the good God and His Holy Mother to our aid. This
was most especially realized when we had to provide for our poor and abandoned boys
and more especially when they were in danger to their souls.
97

10.8 Page 98

▲back to top


CHAPTER 3 The gift of prayer
The extraordinary phenomena hitherto described are marvellous signs that manifest the
presence of God in the soul. God lives in us when grace unites us to Him; but in certain
souls He makes Himself felt with an indescribable touch that goes deep to the essence
of the spirit itself, according to the expression used by the mystics. Then it follows
that, while the superior powers of the intellect and will are bathed as though in Divine
light and action, the senses act no more: as happens precisely in ecstasies. We are not
certain of anything like this in the lives of Jesus and Mary on earth, for, although they
rejoiced at every moment in the experimental perception of the supernatural life, yet they
underwent no change to waywardness in the inferior powers on account of the perfect
state of integrity that carried with it the full submission of the senses to the reason.
Now we can ask ourselves, granted that we see in Don Bosco the exterior signs that
usually mark the mystic life1, can it be undeniably held that he was really raised to the
mystic union? If so, to what extent? In other words, since this is carried out by means
of contemplation infused, is it possible to nd out in what measure this gift of infused
contemplation adorned the exquisite soul of Don Bosco?
A priori in the reality of things it would not seem timorous to reply armatively! In
fact, Benedict XIV, basing himself on the grounds of history, has not hesitated to assert:
Almost all the saints and especially founders of Orders have received Divine visions
and revelations.
Without doubt, he adds, God speaks familiarly with His friends and favours in a
special manner those whom He has chosen for His great works.
Father Poulain, after having said that usually canonized saints (that is, those who have
reached the heroicity of virtue) have been chosen favourites of the mystic union, observes
that if it seems that any were without it we cannot positively declare that it was a real
privation but rather we lack sucient documentary evidence for an historical account.
Fortunately, the precautions of Don Bosco did not, as is seen, rob us of all the exterior
manifestations of his mystic life: thus a posteriori we lack no arguments.
We would rather prefer to have a like security in determining the rank of his mystical
union with God. After thorough examination it seems (passing by special moments when
its intensity was greatest) we think we can show that he was the habitual possessor of
that grace of prayer called by St. Teresa entire union, by Fr. Poulain full union,
by others, especially Italians, among whom are Scaramelli and St. Alphonsus, simple
union. St Alphonsus describes it so:
In simple union the powers are suspended but not the body senses, although these
are much hindered in the functioning.
Hence the gift of prayer presents two characteristics: rst, the soul is absorbed by the
Divine object and no other thought can occupy it, it has no distractions; second, the
98

10.9 Page 99

▲back to top


senses however continue their actions more or less, for their possibility of communicating
with the world is not wholly removed, so the person can hear, see, speak, walk and even
freely leave the state of prayer. Weighty mystical writers who have culled the fundamental
ideas of this delicate theme from St. Thomas enumerate and describe seven eects of the
simple union. In order to avoid the danger of beating air we shall cast a rapid glance of
its presence in Don Bosco.
Faciant meliora potentes.
The nature of the argument, however, counsels us not to proceed without setting forth
an idea which the reader may have formed from the foregoing pages. Don Bosco's soul
enjoyed this union with God, without interruption in order to say it frankly; indeed this
seems to have been his gift, namely, never being distracted from the loving thought of
God in spite of many many important and continual occupations and pre-occupations.
We see in the Summarium of the positio super virtutibus the seventh heading De heroica
charitate in Deum some adequate expressions on this question that just suit us. The
witnesses, all of the greatest authenticity, are persons who when talking of Don Bosco
can take for themselves the moving prologue of St. John's Epistle:
What was from the beginning that we have heard, that we have seen with our eyes,
that we have looked upon, that our hands have touched ... we are witnesses and we
announce it.
Let the three successors of Don Bosco be the rst to speak. Fr. Michael Rua (whose
cause for beatication has been introduced at Rome) says:
That which I have continually noted in Don Bosco was his uninterrupted union with
God. And these sentiments (of God's love) he manifested with so much spontaneity that
it was understood they owed from a mind and a heart wholly sunk in the contemplation
of God and His attributes.
Fr. Paul Albera says:
He seemed to receive his counsels from his intimate union with God,
those counsels he gave to his sons.
Fr. Philip Rinaldi says:
It is my rm conviction that the Venerable was wholly a man of God, continually
united with Him in prayer.
Fr John Francesia, the only one remaining of the rst Salesians and who formed part of
those epic days, takes a place of honour among the three Rectors Major with his words:
I saw how easy it was for the Venerable father to recollect himself in God.
Seven other Salesians follow whose testimonies are trustworthy on account of their
virtue, culture, or oce, or the three combined. Their reports tell us:
The life of Don Bosco seemed an endless union with God so that he would answer like
one absorbed in meditation to whatever he was asked at any time, even in the midst of
the most distracting aairs.
He lived continuously in the presence of God and his thoughts were always centred in
Him.
It can be said that mental prayer was his continuous practice. Love for God shone
out in his union with Him.
His heart was so full of God that his thoughts and words piloted on Him.
99

10.10 Page 100

▲back to top


The Venerable always showed a true and deep spirit of prayer and union with God,
as was seen every time his sons approached him.
His was a perfect union of spirit with God.
Finally follow the words of two prelates. His Lordship Bishop Tasso C. M. of Aosta, a
pupil of Don Bosco from 1861 to 1865, says:
The Venerable burned always with great love for God and I am convinced that he
lived continuously in union with Him. I remember that we boys had the same conviction,
that is, the Venerable spoke directly with God especially when he had advice to give us
for our future.
Cardinal Cagliero who needs no introduction thus remarks:
Divine love lit up his face and radiated from his whole person and from all the words
that fell from his lips while he spoke of God in the pulpit, in the confessional, in public
and in private speeches, and in familiar conversation. This love was his only ardent
desire, his only sigh, the strong wish of all his life. Thousands of times have I heard him
repeat `All for God and His glory!'. In intimate union with God he gave audiences, sat
busy at his desk, came into recreation with us, prayed like an angel before Jesus in the
Blessed Sacrament, and celebrated Holy Mass. If you approached him at any moment he
always welcomed you with exquisite charity and so much calm amiability as if just then
he had left an exact prayer or the Divine Presence. I repeat the Cardinal Alimonda said
to me: `Don Bosco was always in intimate union with God'.
How often always appears in these reports! The eloquent Cardinal who became Arch-
bishop of Turin and so much consoled the last six years of our Father expressed the
above-mentioned words also in a funeral discourse for the month's mind. He unhesitat-
ingly dened Don Bosco as:
Continuous union with God.
In conclusion: as the ancient chronicler of St. Bonaventure reports that this saint
made a prayer of every truth in his writings, so we can apply the some armation to
every act of Don Bosco's admirable life. What Don Bosco did was a prayer.
The long list of witnesses will shorten our road somewhat. It will
not be out of place or dicult to note opportune points that will gradually appear as
we treat the seven eects of the simple union spoken of above.
The rst eect is the only one whose proofs are almost unattainable. We can designate
it with the word dissolution; a, word suggested by the Biblical phrase:
My soul dissolves as soon as my Beloved has spoken. It could be called a consumma-
tion of the heart by the most ardent re of charity or (leaving aside metaphors) a sweet
feeling of Divine Love which lls the soul with an inexpressible joy that produces a mys-
tical longing in the body sometimes making it fall into a swoon: Are such-like sensible
phenomena veried in Don Bosco! We shall answer with two general observations and
three particular facts.
The rst observation is that humility stands out clearly among the fruits of contempla-
tion. The contemplative knowing better than others the greatness of God has a greater
idea of his own nothingness: so, to delight in the Divine gift, he. almost fears lest even
the air should know it, and without an insistent urging will not unburden his soul; nay,
he uses every means to keep the fulness of love to himself. Not his will alone it is that
100

11 Pages 101-110

▲back to top


11.1 Page 101

▲back to top


does all, but his temperament also lends its aid. Grace works in nature but does not
suppress it. We have seen in connection with Aloysius Comollo that if after Communion
he had not given vent to his overowing aections his heart would have burst. Don Bosco
instead controlled the impetus of his fervour and so would he have wished his friend to
do too; but his friend's physical resistance was not like his.
Here, now comes the second observation. Don Bosco was master of his nerves, he
tempered their steel, or, to use language less profane, he was a man to whom the following
words of the Psalmist can be applied:
My soul is in my hands continuously.
He had at the service of his humility a will that dominated his inferior powers and
therefore capable of guarding the strength of his feelings that they might not overcome
him. Hence, it follows that the absence of outward phenomena, superadded as they are,
forms no decisive argument to deny the gift of infused contemplation. Besides, how can
you explain how a person touches, nay is frequently overwhelmed with most acute sorrows
that even draw blood, and yet shows himself more cheerful than usual? Do aictions
therefore produce joy? Sorrow in hearts elevate to contemplation is mystically changed
to love, and it is love that widen hearts. This is the rst of the three facts. The second
fact in that in Don Bosco's last years he, after whole mornings spent in receiving visitors,
used to retire to his room for at least one hour in the afternoon no matter where he was.
Here he was often seen sitting at his desk (his body erect, his hands joined, his attitude
wholly sweet) totally absorbed in heavenly things. This was the hour when the Sister
saw him as we related in the last chapter.
It was also in his last years (and this is the third fact) when his worn out body had to
give way to the liveliness of his feelings, that while celebrating Mass he was sometimes
moved in all his being, sometimes seemingly shaken with a holy ague, especially during
the moment of the Elevation.
The second eect of passive prayer is a tender need of weeping. In intimate union of
the soul with God the lover, conscious of the Divine bounty, awakens in his heart sweet
and lively emotion which no longer can contain itself but calls on the help of the eyes,
according to a word picture of St Catherine of Sienna. Don Bosco had the gift of tears
over which his strength could not command at times. In his last journey to Rome he
burst into tears at least fteen times while celebrating in the new church of the Sacred
Heart. The priest who was assisting him tried to distract him in order that he might
nish the Mass. Afterwards he again wept with extraordinary emotion in front of those
who accompanied him. During all his priestly life whenever he was preaching on certain
subjects he would purposely think of silly things in order to avoid weeping but he did so
in vain. These tears of his, however, were very benecial to an eyewitnessperhaps it
was a motive not outside the designs of Providence in bestowing on him uncontrollable
emotions. We have more amply treated this elsewhere (Chap. 3 of part 2): it will be
worthless to repeat it here.
The third eect is to feel the presence of God with such certainty as to exclude any
doubt. St. Teresa (in the fth mansion of her 'Interior Castle') says:
God comes precisely to remain in the depths of the soul, so that when she looks
into herself she feels sure beyond doubt that she is in God and God is in her. This
101

11.2 Page 102

▲back to top


truth becomes so impressed on her that even should years pass away without her again
reaching that state she will not be able to forget the favour received or doubt its reality.
Don Bosco was full of the thought of God: to show it would be a task indeed. Mgr.
Tasso, cited above, speaks of the charm derived from it when he says:
It was enough to deal a little with him to understand at once that he was truly a man
of God. The supernatural permeated his every word and his whole person. This I have
proved by experience.
The fourth eect: courage, strength and unalterable patience. Fourth in suering all
for the love of God. These souls are so inamed with divine love that they greatly desire
to suer for God, a desire that increases more alongside of the desire to be Thus was Don
Bosco. Truly, many of the foregoing pages sing his superhuman greatness in the midst
of pains: nevertheless two new quotations send us an echo still. The rst refers to moral
sorrows, and the servant of God, Fr M. Rua, after enumerating them says:
His patience was always admirable, as also were his courage and resignation. It seemed
that diculties and sorrows put strength into him so that in sorrow, especially if it came
from the Ecclesiastical Authorities he never lost his calmness, nay, it seemed as if he had
acquired more courage for we would see him more cheerful and humorous than usual.
Regarding his physical pains numerous and heavy as they were, Fr. Lemoyne attests:
He never prayed for his own cure and thus his suerings were voluntary. He never
complained or grew impatient, but continued his work.
The fth eect is an ardent eagerness to praise God. The man enamed with Divine
Love wishes to be naught else than a voice to give praise to God, wishes Him to be known,
loved, gloried. He knows that God is greater than all praise, yet for the thought of such
immense greatness and goodness there is no better (delight than in adoring, honouring,
and thanking God. The great Seraph of Assisi, in order to satisfy this goading desire,
called to his aid with burning words of charity all creatures, the irrational as well as
the intellectual and even imaginable creatures, that they might join with him in praising
their God. But St. Francis of Sales asserts that in the Church variety goes hand in hand
with unity. On the unfailing basis of charity's gold the admirable many sidedness of
the saints is explained all is of love, in love, and for love in the bosom of the Church.
Don Bosco, a soul so enamoured of God, had his own three ways of inviting and inviting
praise for God: he placed the most scrupulous diligence in the decorum of the church
services; he spoke with tenderness of God and holy things to those who came near him;
and he underwent sacrices courageously to promote the glory of God always. These
three things, especially the last which embraces the rest, give us so much material that
were we to insert it here our work would grow apace.
The sixth eect is a great desire for the welfare of one's neighbour. The soul that
lives by God often succeeds in being useful to its neighbour without its even realizing
it because in the act of helping, consoling, or dealing with it, it receives help from on
high in a mysterious manner that makes its work eective. These three are the ways St
Thomas mentions in his Summa for helping the needy.
To say Don Bosco was to say charityendless charity in treating with his fellowmen,
sweet charity in upholding the sorrowful and comforting the dying, heroic charity in
seeking the ways of practising charity. For this the world loves Don Bosco: we have
102

11.3 Page 103

▲back to top


believed his charity. On this supernatural charity it is pleasant to read a synthetic
thought of one who was a real second self to Don Bosco and who bore the travail of
the day and the heat for many years alongside the saint. His life was consumed in the
exercise of this charity. We can say of his charity that in part that it came to him as
a special gift of the Divine Will and went on increasing and becoming more perfect as
years rolled by. He saw the work of God in his neighbour, he saw God Himself too, he
saw each man as a brother in Christ Jesus, and so he loved him for the love of God
and employed all his cares ceaselessly to draw all to Him. It was not simply a natural
sympathy, it was the love of God, the charity of Christ that urged him to spend himself
for his neighbour.
The seventh and last eect of the prayer of simple union, and most admirable in a poor
son of Adam, is the practice of all the theological virtues, the Cardinal virtues, and the
moral virtues in an heroic degree, in a measure that is which for intensity and constancy
far outgoes the limit commonly reached by virtuous men. God, bending down to give
such largess of His gifts to a soul to enrich it with every virtue, wishes that the whole
Church be beneted by edication and honour and this happens precisely in consequence
of heroism in the practice of Christian virtues. In such a state, the soul has nothing else
to do than to correspond by simply giving its consent to the torrential shower of heavenly
graces. There is no danger of pride for the soul in this, as though it would forget its own
nature. Nay, as much as it rises in the loving knowledge of God, so much the mere does
it debase itself in its own eyes. Thus as humility grows, grace grows too, and at the same
time there grows an enthusiastic and very visible leaping to every virtue, none excepted.
On this point there is a notable observation of Poulain who writes:
God comes not alone into the soul. His sanctifying action is so much greater and
more sensible the greater is the amount of prayer. The soul saturated with God in the
mystical union feels, without knowing how, enveloped with love, humility, and the spirit
of sacrice. God Himself presents the occasions for exercising ,when He sends her trial
upon trial ... temptations, illnesses, failures, injustices, scorn.
To begin a discussion now on the heroicity of Don Bosco's virtues after the Church
has spoken would be to carry water to the ocean. But there is something we should put
in relief: it shoots forth spontaneously from the last sentence above mentioned. The life
of Don Bosco has experienced! various and uninterrupted changes of Divine intervention
painted out by the Biographer. Now we note the teaching of St. Paul when he writes:
For, whom the Lord loveth He chastiseth.
Such language is hard and impenetrable to worldly heads: it signies that trials, the
means God uses to purify and urge souls on the road of perfection, constitute a proof
of God's love. Such proofs of love Don Bosco received from God throughout his life; a
dierent kind of proof was given to God by the saint when he practised every kind of
virtue heroically in the midst of crosses through his mortal career. His life stands before
us with a lucidity that claries everything in our gaze, yet where we nd naught but
what is holy. His Eminence Cardinal Cagliero says, and with his words we hasten to the
nis of our task:
The heroism of virtues he practised in childhood and boyhood was often mentioned
to me by my neighbours; the other confreres with me, all observers of his life, attest it of
103

11.4 Page 104

▲back to top


him as a priest, Rector of the Oratory and Superior of the Congregation. On my return
from America I found the servant of God more tender and more loving in his charity,
more united with God, and more equipped with spiritual greatness. I saw, if my lial
love does not deceive me, his venerable old age surrounded by a kind of heavenly glory
and angelic air, and his life seemingly already gloried which was all spent in self sacrice
for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
Still another drop must ow before the cup is full. Then, also Don Bosco was a
mystic? We know well that not a few, having nothing worse to say, seemed to think this
an extraordinary idea; but this is not the fault of mysticism. An author thus treats the
gure of mystics:
True mystics are practical men, men of action, and not of reason and theory. They
have a sense of organization, the gift of commanding, and are furnished with excellent
methods in business. The works they set afoot are living and enduring. In thought and
direction their undertakings give proof of prudence boldness, and that right of possibility
that is the characteristic of common sense. And it seems proper, in fact, that common
sense is their predominant quality; a common sense undisturbed by a morbid exaltation
or by disordered imaginations, but united to a very rare faculty of discernment.
This, unless we are deceived, is the living portrait of Don Bosco in which contemplation
has enlightened and directed the fullment.
104