KNOWING DON BOSCO

PASCUAL CHÁVEZ VILLANUEVA

THE COLUMN

A cool evening in May 1862, with his usual skill as a story-teller Don Bosco said: «Try to picture yourselves with me on the seashore, or better still, on an outlying cliff with no other land in sight. The vast expanse of water is covered with a formidable array of ships I battle formation, prows fitted with sharp spear-like beaks capable of breaking through any defence. All are heavily armed with cannons, incendiary bombs, and firearms of all sorts – even books and are heading toward one stately ship, mightier than them all. As they close in, they try to ram it, set it afire, and cripple it as much as possible.

This stately vessel is shielded by a flotilla escort. Winds and waves are with the enemy.

In the midst of this endless sea, two solid columns, a short distance apart, soar high in the sky; one is surmounted by a statue of the Immaculate Virgin at whose feet a large inscription reads: “Auxilium Christianorum”; the other far loftier and sturdier, supports a Host of proportionate size and bears beneath it the inscription: “Salus Credentium”.

The flagship commander – the Roman Pontiff – breaking through all resistance steers his ship safely between the two columns from whose summits hang many anchors and strong hooks linked to chains, and moors it to the two columns first to the one surmounted by the Host, and then to the other, topped by the statue of the Virgin. At this point something unexpected happens. The enemy ships panic and disperse, colliding with and scuttling each other.»

A name new and old

Don Albera tells us that one evening in December that year, after hearing confessions until about 11.00 p.m., Don Bosco went for his supper. He looked very pensive. He suddenly remarked: “There were a lot of confessions tonight but truthfully I hardly know what I said or did, because all the time I had something on my mind. I kept thinking: Our church is too small; we have to pack in our boys like sardines. We must build a larger, more imposing one under the title of Mary Help of Christians. I don’t have a penny, nor do I know where to find the money, but that’s not important. If God so wills, it will be done » (BM 7, 196). He also confided his plan to Don Cagliero: «Up to now we have celebrated the feast of the Immaculate Conception with pomp and solemnity […]. But the Madonna wishes us to honour her under the title of Mary, Help of Christians. The times are so bad that we sadly need her help to preserve and safeguard our faith.» (MB 7, 197).

In the first months of 1863 he set to work obtaining the necessary permissions; in 1865 the foundation stone was laid, and in 1868 the work was finished.

The icon that speaks

Don Bosco was moved not only by practical considerations (to have a larger church) or political and religious ones (the wave of fierce anticlericalism that was threatening the Church).

The picture of Mary in the painting by Lorenzone above the high altar expresses very well Don Bosco’s innermost thoughts. His understanding of the history of salvation led him to place the Church at the heart of the world, and at the heart of the Church he saw Mary Help of Christians, the all-powerful Mother, who conquers evil.

The Madonna was always present in Don Bosco’s life. In the dream at nine years of age, Jesus introduces himself in this way: «I am the son of the woman whom your mother has taught you to greet three times a day.»

But the focus for his devotion to her has a specific location: the church in Valdocco. «And this,” Fr Viganò writes, “will remain the definitive Marian icon: the point of reference for an unceasing increase in vocations and the centre of the expansion of his charism as founder. In Mary Help of Christians Don Bosco finally recognises the features of the Lady who was at the origin of his own vocation and who was and would always remain his Inspiration and Teacher.»

Mary has built herself a house

The Valdocco sanctuary becomes the tangible and the real sign of the presence of Mary in the life of Don Bosco and of the Congregation. This is the “mother church” of the Salesian Family.

Popular opinion immediately discovers the marvellous understanding between Mary Help of Christians and Don Bosco: Mary Help of Christians now will always be «Don Bosco’s Madonna.» And Don Bosco is «the saint of the Help of Christians.» Very rarely has it happened that a title of Mary, almost unknown, has spread so quickly throughout the world.

Humbly Don Bosco said: «I am not the one responsible for the great things you see; it is the Lord, it is Mary Most Holy who deigns to make use of a poor priest. I have put up nothing of my own: Aedificavit sibi domum Maria (Mary has built herself a house). Every stone, every decoration represents a grace.»

The Valdocco sanctuary is the church which Salesians all round the world see more with their hearts than with their eyes. And it is here that everyone feels “at home.”