To Count Louis-Antoine Colle, Toulon

E IX, 4133

Thanks him for the payments made to the Salesian house in Navarre to the rector Fr Perrot — there are no other counts and countesses as generous as the Colli family in France or Italy.

Turin, 29 December 1884

My dear and charitable Count,

I would like to visit you and thank you personally. Unable to express myself in words, I would like to end the year by writing to you, kind Count and Countess Colle.

Praise and thanks be to God, who has kept us in good health, and I hope, also in his grace.

Among other works, you have paid Fr Perrot’s debts in Navarre. The good Lord will not fail to reward you generously, and our poor orphans will pray incessantly for your intentions. Happy Fr Perrot, to have such generous payers!

But why can’t we find similar benefactors in Italy?

If such a payer exists in Italy, let him pay the 75,000 francs that Fr Rua will have to pay for our missionaries in America; and another similar sum for the equipment and travel expenses of those who will leave as soon as possible? Why doesn’t he come and pay the debts of our house in Turin and the church and hospice in Rome?

The reason is clear. There is only one Count Colle in France and Italy, and we thank God a thousand times that this gentleman and Mrs Colle live to help us, support us and sustain us in our difficulties.

May God keep you both in good health for a long time, and grant you the grace to spend many more happy years as a reward for your charity on earth, and finally, in the next life, the true reward, the great reward of eternal life in paradise, where I am confident that we will be with Jesus, Mary, our dear Louis, praising God and speaking of God forever.

Thursday, first day of the year 1885. In all our houses, we will pray and receive communion for you.

Please also recommend to God your poor

obliged and humble servant

Fr J. Bosco