Pietro Stella, Don Bosco – Il Mulino, 2001, 150 p. (cap. 5 – Guadagnare i cuori)

Chapter 5

To gain hearts

At this point we need to examine the nature of the religious mentality and intimate spiritual experience of Don Bosco. To fail to do so could deprive us of an important element in the understanding of Don Bosco and the experiences that in Italy and elsewhere throughout the world are attributed to him. About 1840, as Don Bosco was nearing the time of his ordination, he chose as a life-long motto: Give me souls, away with all else (Da mihi animas, caetera tolle). As a priest he had these words enframed and set up on his desk. Some time later the frame was substituted by Valdocco among other relics in the rooms he used in his latter years. The text is from Genesis (14. 21) and belongs to the king of Sodom's reply to Abram, who on the occasion of another on which the word caetera was written coetera. This latter plaque is now kept at a foray, had freed him and his people. The king had said, Give me the people; you can keep the loot. The figurative meaning given to the words by traditional medieval interpretation and modern religious writers was much different: and to visitors to his room who inquired, Don Bosco naturally translated the Latin motto as: Give me souls; away with all else. Indeed, this was the explanation he gave to Dominic Savio when he presented himself as a new student in the November of 1854.

Da mihi animas was not a resolution, such as the motto Ad maiorem Dei gloriam et salutem animarum of Ignatius of Loyola and the Jesuits. It was rather an ejaculatory prayer, a small capsuled plea dispatched to God from the heart. It also outlined a totality of thought and essential resolve that was at the very root of vital personal choices: the realisation of God and man. Don Bosco's conception of God was the personal God of Christian tradition. He saw God as Creator, Lord, Infinite Good, and especially, Father. He used expressions that manifested God's divine properties: infinite love, essential goodness, eternal mercy of the good God towards his creatures. According to those who knew him, the prayer that he recited with particular expressiveness was the Our Father it was the prayer he had learnt as a child, and that for centuries summarised for the faithful the life and mystery of Christ. In his priestly motto, soul recalled the theological and catechetical meaning that for centuries envisaged man as body and soul, spiritual and material. Catechesis, preaching, spirituality had firmly rooted in the collective imagination of Western Catholicism the anxiety for the destiny of the soul after the dissolution of the human being; the body returned to dust; the soul after death destined to appear before Jesus Christ to be judged and to receive the final sentence: to be welcomed in heaven, or assigned to the purifying flames of purgatory, or destined to infernal punishment. Catholic catechesis and Protestant doctrine agreed in maintaining that nobody could be certain of being in the state of grace or of what the eternal destiny would be. Doctrinal distinctions and conflicts were on other matters. Don Bosco of course was totally Catholic. The theology of salvation to which he aspired as a priest was in accord with the teaching of Alphonsus Liguori, whose spiritual and pastoral teachings were circulated in standard editions of the enterprising publisher Giacinto Marietti. Certain typical expressions of Don Bosco's catechesis for his boys were taken from Alphonsus' Massime eterne: We read in the Giovane Provveduto:

Consider, my son, that your body and your soul were given by God; you were created by him without any merit of your own; it is he who speaks; the young person reads or listens; the body and soul are distinct entities created by the bountiful God.

The strict theological principles are broken down into elements that tend to suggest a kind of dramatic or poetic vision of life. Hand in hand with St Alphonsus, Don Bosco adds: You should also consider that if you save your soul, all is well, and you will be happy for ever; but if you fail, you will lose body and soul, God and heaven; you will be wretched forever. The ejaculatory prayer, 'Give me souls', reveals in a few words the doctrine of salvation and the pastoral practice that Don Bosco continued to insist on throughout his whole life. The second part of the motto (away with the rest) expresses the relation of one's personal living to what is fundamental to life. In the Giovane Provveduto and in other books of Don Bosco this desire for salvation is expressed in various other ways - for example: 'Whoever prays will certainly be saved; whoever does not pray, will be lost'.

The theological study of mankind that sees human beings as created by God and made in his image, sees the concept of sin as disquieting and sinister. Don Bosco tends to define it as more than a disorder (as Thomas Aquinas sees it) - but a revolt of the created against the Creator and Lord of all. 'I shall not serve' is the biblical expression used by St Alphonsus (Massime eterne and Apparecchio alla morte), to indicate dramatically the revolt of the angels who followed Lucifer, and the revolt of mankind initiated by our First Parents. In his pedagogical discourses he insisted on the need to help the young country lads seeking work in the city.

From the religious point of view he stressed rather the persistent inclination to evil provoked by original sin and accentuated by personal sin. In his Giovane Provveduto he states that 'A tender plant, although planted in good soil in a garden, can nevertheless weaken and droop if not cultivated when young; and this can happen to you, my dear boys, if you do not accept the help of those who have the task of directing you'. Thus the religious thinking of Don Bosco, marked by caution and a moderate pessimism, seems to re-echo the well known thinking in Italy of Charles Gobinet, educator and writer in the Paris of the mid-seventies, and other inspired writers of Port-Royal, such as Pierre Coutel and Charles Rollin. In his effort to arouse an aversion to sin, Don Bosco described the consequences as a form of degradation (iumentis comparatus est-'animalistic'). The preaching of the times commonly expressed it as a blinding of the intellect, incapability to choose genuine goodness, corruption of the mind and heart, a repulse in the eyes of God. At times sin was described as a repellent stench.

In keeping with this line of thought, Don Bosco had a vivid conception of Jesus Christ as the one who brought salvation. When Alphonsus de Liguori wrote of Christ he used the words Redeemer and Saviour. When Don Bosco spoke with conviction of freedom from evil and salvation, he generally emphasised the latter, and referred to Jesus with expressions such as Our Saviour, Our Divine Redeemer.

Other religious themes favoured the concept of Church - understood as Congregation of the Faithful personally instituted by Christ himself. Today, in the light of the declaration of Vatican II regarding religious freedom and the trusting respect of conscience (7 December 1965) it is possible to note how certain basic ecclesial themes of the 19th century were dated and used by Don Bosco. In this regard one could note the saying that summarised his concept of 'Church' -the affirmation of St Cyprian (and repeated by St Augustine): 'Outside the Church there is no salvation' (Salus extra ecclesiam non est). For St Augustine the word 'Church' had a complex meaning. It indicated the mystery of communion of righteous souls within the Mystical Body of Christ, in which individual prayers became part of a choral expression of divine glorification. It indicated also the various communities of the faithful under the guidance of the bishop, who in his turn was united with Orthodox and Catholic ecumenism. At the distance of centuries, in the wake of the anti-Protestant Controversie of Robert Bellarmine, the mystical definition of the Church prevalent in Catholic catechesis was understood as a visible organisation of the faithful who were baptised, professed the same faith, used the seven sacraments instituted by Christ and recognised the Roman Pontiff as the successor of the apostle Peter in the universal government of that same Church. It was a definition that actually encouraged ambiguous concepts regarding the obedience to the bishops, the Pope and the sovereigns in matters both religious and political.

On the other hand, the expression 'No salvation outside the Church' gave rise to discouraging articles concerning the consoling or distressing problem of personal eternal salvation. In the period when there was common argument against the Waldensians, Don Bosco took a rigid stand with books such as Avvisi ai cattolici (1850), ll cattolico istruito nella sua religione (1853), and Conversione di una valdese (1854). He insisted that only within the visible Catholic Church, and professing obedience to the Pope was there to be found the grace and the moral certitude of belonging to the true Church, the one and only Ark of Salvation.

Only later, when Catholics in Italy no longer lived in fear of a mass turning to Protestantism, did Don Bosco introduce into his catechetical writings more acquiescent formulas; for instance, that even those lacking obedience to the Pope, if in good faith, had the divine help needed for salvation.

Still, in the seventies and eighties, we find in his discourses and first-edition writings both rigid and acquiescent statements (v. Massimino ossia incontro di un giovanetto con un ministro protestante sul Campidoglio, 1874); and the same can be said of his republished, amplified and reviewed editions (v. ll cattolico nel secolo, trattenimenti famigliari di un padre coi suoi figliuoli intorno alla religione, 1883).

Surely it can be supposed that in him (as in the protagonists of the missionary expansion during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation) the anxiety for salvation had increased educational and pastoral commitment in Italy, Europe, and indeed throughout the world. The interpretive scheme, with necessary variations could be applied to Don Bosco. This scheme (inspired by Michelet) saw in the mass revolutionary impulses, a double aspect of traditional social affairs marked with modernity.

Thus Don Bosco's presentation of doctrine and spiritual proposals were based on ancient traditions in a way that corresponded well with modern developments. In his traditional religious thinking and his activity, there is a kind of puzzling rejection: his doctrinal rigidity and practice in ecclesiological matters bonded well with a civil behaviour that was acceptable to both strict Christians and anti-clericals - especially when he hoped to gain help for his supreme religious aspirations or simply for his oratories. When it is a question of saving a soul, he would say, I would raise my hat even to the devil.

Don Bosco's ecclesiology, his teaching on death, divine judgement and eternal punishment and his pastoral strategy regarding sacramental confession, while still rather tied to the past, reveal in him a mentality of transition. In the 19th century, to speak to young people of death, seemed successful in persuading them to make certain choices. The mortality rate of the young had not changed much from the three preceding centuries. Out of 100 - 200 youngsters it could be presumed that there would be two, three or four deaths each year. Already in the fifties, Don Bosco used to tell the community of his 'dream' that predicted events of the coming year. Among them there was also the mention of boys who would die. Don Bosco gave them to understand that he knew the face, name, and date of the one concerned, thus arousing in the hearers the impression that it was truly a prophecy and the feeling that all should be prepared for the final judgement and final verdict.

The pastoral strategy of fear in the Oratory and other Salesian institutes had its culmination in the days (usually three) dedicated to the 'spiritual exercises' in preparation for sacramental Confession and Easter Communion. According to the custom in vogue for centuries and practised in Ignatian spiritual retreats and parochial missions, the homilies on death, judgement and hell preceded the day fixed for personal sacramental confession. The intention of preachers was to arouse in all at least the fear of a death occuring for one in serious sin - and hence being condemned to eternal punishment. But actually there was a more frequent use of the practice. Each month the fear of death was recalled on the so-called 'monthly exercise for a happy death'.

A remarkable testimony of the traumas that could be provoked took place during the final days of World War I in the case of the historian Jean Delumeau (born 1923). At 13 years of age he was orphaned of his father and placed in the St Peter's institute in Nice. It was the day of the spiritual exercise for a happy death. Delumeau recalls the anguish he experienced when with the other boys gathered together in the church he listened to the recital of the Litany for a Happy Death:

• When unable to move, I realise that my time in this world is at an end, merciful Jesus, have pity on me.

• When my trembling hands become benumbed and unable to grasp my crucifix, and it falls on my bed of pain, merciful Jesus have pity on me.

• When blinded and distraught in horror of my imminent death, my eyes look on you Lord with exhausted and deathly gaze, merciful Jesus have pity on me...

To the litany inserted in the first edition of the Giovane Provveduto (1847) the Salesians then added a prayer 'For the one amongst us who will be the first to die'. Such were the gloomy stresses and sentiments of anxiety that had their roots in what Don Bosco, Don Cafasso, Leonardo Murialdo, the multitude of Italian priests of the 19th century drew from the Massime eterne and Apparecchio alla morte of Alphonsus, and from the practices of Ignatius (for example, the Lombardian Jesuit Carlo Antonio Cattaneo early in the 18th century, and reprinted in the late 19th century). Other sources stress the theme of a 'happy death': e.g., the Piedmontese Jesuit of the early 18th century, Antonio Giuseppe Bordoni.

These themes, were well established from the thinking of the Enlightened 18th century and the Bourgeois 19th century, and were used also in Don Bosco's oratories - with certain astute relaxations: a special afternoon snack, a prolonged recreation at the conclusion of the monthly 'exercise for a happy death'; and of course there was the delight and consolation of the joyous Easter vigil.

To these pastoral strategies were added other more modern experiences, theological and otherwise, such as found in the booklet on the Preparation for death in an eight-day retreat by Pasquier Quesnel (in Italian, 18th century). Quesnel was a high-ranking exponent of the Jansenistic movement between the 17th and 18th centuries; but was also influenced by Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle, and based his work on the ecclesiology of the Mystical Body, developing in his booklet the comforting hope of being united with Jesus Christ in eternal happiness.

The Oratory's occasion for the Exercise for a Happy Death did not follow constrictive or inhuman methods, for such a complex was not in line with the nature of Don Bosco and his oratorian tradition. During his years at the seminary at Chieri and then from his understanding of the moral and spiritual doctrines and writings of Alphonsus de Liguori, he had been able to understand the pessimism of of modern augustinism (inspired by the writings of St Augustine against Pelagius). Such an anthropology was tempered by a dedicated humanism and responded well to the needs of the festive happiness of the oratory.

From St Francis de Sales' Introduction to the devout life he had absorbed the attraction of a Christian life that did not demand long prayers and tiring penances, but rather a profound love of God and the fulfilment of daily duties. The oratory had welcomed the words of Phillip Neri as related in Bacci's Vita; 'Run, jump and shout as much as you please, as long as you avoid sin'. In the Giovane Provveduto one of the 'devil's tricks' is listed as the belief that the Christian way of life was unhappy by nature, and that 'everything pleasant must be avoided'. Don Bosco's personal conviction was based on the obvious and persuasive example of the oratory life: 'We are convinced that whoever lives in the grace of God is always happy and even in afflictions has a contented heart; conversely, whoever is only interested in worldly pleasures knows only anger, and despite all efforts to find peace in pastimes, know only unhappiness. Non est pax impiis (there is no peace for evil-doers). Don Bosco gave his boys the example of saints well-known to them: 'Who was more affable and jovial than St Aloysius Gonzaga? Who was more happy and facetious than St Phillip Neri?

It is interesting to note that the Giovane Provveduto made its first appearance in 1847. Up to 1848 civil law included the control that religion had regarding agreement between State and Church and the marginal position of the non-Catholic religions. The events of 1848 revolutionised this arrangement. The concession of civil rights and freedom of cult for all citizens made Turin the first assembly to accept a Catholicism with freedom of opinions and religious beliefs.

The religious commitment proposed by Don Bosco had to confront the general anticlericalism provoked by the reactionary line adopted by Archbishop Fransoni; and also the clash with the dreaded proselitism of the Waldensians reawakened by the laws in their favour.

The events of 1848 were also a threat to the image of Aloysius Gonzaga. Vincenzo Gioberti's ll Gesuita moderno had spread an extremely negative image of the Jesuits in matters religious and political. The traumatic events of the period furthered the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Sardinian States. St Aloysius had lived his final years as a Jesuit, and it was this period exactly that had inspired the practice of the Six Sundays in honour of St Aloysius promoted by Don Bosco in his oratories.

This cult of St Aloysius and his feastday in the month of June remained a firm practice in the life of the oratories. However, Don Bosco was convinced of the need to propose to his boys models of Christian life, holiness, and Christian heroism closer to the boys under his care, and responding more to the lives they were leading. He sought to choose examples from his own oratory ranks.

In 1854 he republished in the Letture Cattoliche the Six Sundays and the novena in honour of St Aloysius Gonzaga (already in the first edition of 1846 and inserted in the Giovane Provveduto of 1851). He added a brief account of the life of St Aloysius (elaborated with borrowings from the classic account of Fr Virgilio Cepari and also from the Exercises for each day of the year of the Jesuit Jean Croiset). In the same year he inserted in the Letture Cattoliche series a reprint of the Cenni sulla vita - (Incidents in the life of Luigi Comollo). Comollo was a seminary companion who died as a young cleric and to whom he also made frequent reference in the Giovane Provveduto.

The next year, in addition to the Letture Cattoliche he published a pamphlet entitled La forza della buona educazione. In this he related an event that could be of a working-class family in Turin about the year 1848. It related how a farmer's wife and mother of four children coped with a drunken irreligious husband. The eldest son, Peter, at eight years of age, had to work in a sulphur factory and later in a cotton factory. His mother helped prepare him for his First Communion, and he proved a good Christian despite the bad example of work companions. He became a regular visitor to the Oratory of Valdocco and was eventually called up to the army and sent to Sardinia and then to the Crimea. He took part in the battle at Cernaia, and his letters to his mother from Sardinia and the Crimea attested to his moral integrity and his love for his family and the oratory. In one of his letters he referred to certain valued teachings of Don Bosco: the possibility of Christian living in all kinds of conditions, including a soldier's duty to his country, where it was rare to find a soldier returning from military service as upright and honest as he had been when he had set out from his home and family.

On 9 March 1857 Dominic Savio died at Mondonio (Asti). He was fifteen years of age, and had been a student at Valdocco from November 1854. He became ill during the early months of 1957 and had to return to his family. On receiving the news of his death, Don Bosco sought the details of his life and from the information received, wrote his Vita del giovnetto Savio Domenico and had it printed in 1859. To this narrative he added accounts of two other pupils of the Oratory: in 1861, the Biography of Michael Magone (who died in 1859), and in 1864 the Biography of Francis Besucco (who died in 1862).

The twofold aim of Don Bosco was to present the model lives of young lads and the benevolent educative methods practised in his institutes. This was particularly noticeable in his Life of Dominic Savio. The salient instances were the crisis of fervour and enthusiasm of the lad after hearing a homily of Don Bosco in which he spoke of God wanting all to lead saintly lives (which was not difficult to achieve); and the great reward in heaven for such devout people. Don Bosco remarked that Dominic was so impressed by the former statement that he withdrew from games as though this renunciation of enjoyment was needed in the pursuit of holiness.

However, Don Bosco made it clear to Dominic that the traditional idea that holiness demanded such conditions was a false notion held by most people. They had the wrong idea that their saintly patrons, protectors and healers had to pray for long hours, wear themselves out with penances, possess the charism of prophecy and the gift of miracles. In his Life of Dominic Savio Don Bosco clarified the holiness he proposed for his youngsters. When hebecame aware of the false idea Dominic had and how it was changing his life, he made it clear to him that holiness consisted merely in the faithful performance of his daily duties. Dominic went back to his games, and actually told a companion who was new to the Oratory: Here we make holiness consist in being truly happy.

Don Bosco further added that Dominic had been regular with the sacraments of Confession and Communion; that he had founded the Sodality of Mary Immaculate, and that he had developed a fervent prayer life. (Indeed, he had once remained praying before the tabernacle, unaware that the other lads had gone for their meal.)

Successive editions of the 'Life' added accounts of certain extraordinary graces attributed to the intercession of Dominic (particularly cures from sicknesses).

It is evident from the Life of Dominic Savio, and the documentation Don Bosco selected, that he wished to emphasise a certain aspect of the boy that greatly interested him. He chose to write about the religious practices of his life that were primarily centred on the sacraments, his devotion to Mary and his duties as a student. Among testimonies not used was that of a contemporary (Giusto Ollagnier) who mentioned that he and Dominic frequently recited a prayer to St Aventino to be both freed from headaches.

Dominic was thus presented as a model virtually ready for a possible cause for beatification, and surely welcomed by ecclesiastical groups (not only in Italy) in the 19th century and early 20th century. Similar to Aloysius Gonzaga, Don Bosco's Dominic Savio had the characteristics of a young student in a nation when schools of religious character had the support of both the humanities and liberal Catholicism.

At this point it could be added that that Don Bosco understood 'true and total happiness' to be the natural expression of a peaceful conscience in the state of grace. In his booklet on the Preventive System, Don Bosco expressed this total happiness as loving-kindness, characterised in its perfection as the expression of charity according to St Paul: Charity is patient, kind ... (1 Cor. 13,4). These mental standards formed the basis of all Don Bosco's activities and therefore must be retained for their practical historical relevance.

Of particular importance is the role of Mary in the religious imagery and spirituality of Don Bosco. From the years of the French Revolution, the cult of Mary was linked with the politicisation of whoever was seen as harbouring Christological devotions such as the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Such people were branded as having absolute attachment to the Church and fidelity to the Pope, its visible head. Just as he urged 'devotion' to the Pope, so also did he encourage the devout cult of Mary; indeed it could be said of Don Bosco that in his Marian cult, his loyalty to the Pope and his religious discourses, Don Bosco had to face up to public thinking that could not distinguish between political intentions and religious teachings.

Already in the 'democratic triennium' at the close of the 18th century the concept of defending the Church (certainly in the area of Castelnuovo d'Asti) was part of the counter-revolutionary sentiment of the rural workers. Don Bosco could still recall the memory of his childhood years: the 'Christian Forces' fighting for the Church and the reigning king - hence anti-French and anti-Jacobite. Counter-revolution discussions included various elements of their traditional concepts of religion. Sin for them included amongst the offences against God (and treated as both political and religious) such matters as the guillotine, regicide, the massacres of the Terror Months, the profanation of sacred edifices, violent and sacrilegious acts of the French armed forces in Italy.

These were the matters in the minds of people when they begged for the pardon of The Sacred Heart of Jesus offended by the sins of men or when they implored the help of Mary. The thought of the Church as the barque with the sleeping Christ, and with St Peter at the helm, strengthened their faith in a special heavenly protection for the Pope and the whole Christian community. They interpreted the expression, The gates of hell will not prevail as revolutionary infernal acts permitted by God, but to be followed by unforeseen but certain 'triumphs'. Those Catholics who had favoured the democratic experiments and the Napoleonic institutions were convinced that religion and the Church had nothing to fear. The worship of Christ and devotion to Mary were intact while there was freedom of worship. Those of the 'counter-revolution religion' considered that divine omnipotence would be revealed through the supernatural intervention of Mary.

The devotion to Mary thrived in these circumstances. Indeed, according to Don Bosco's writings it seems to have been totally based on tradition and not on political events. Examples are the Rosary and Angelus recited at Morialdo; the dream of Mary who taught him how to deal with quarrelsome companions and that contained the message: 'In good time you will understand; the Marian devotions in the local sanctuaries - such as the Castello Madonna at Castelnuovo, the Chieri Grazie; the devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows at Castelnuovo: and the Immaculate Conception, which, as we have already noted, became fundamental and characteristic in the Oratory of Valdocco right from the early days. Devotion to Mary was for Don Bosco a guarantee for worldly blessings and for eternal salvation. In his Giovane Provveduto he wrote: 'If you are devoted to Mary, you will not only be blessed in this world, you will gain Paradise in the next life'. Indeed the liturgy attributes to Mary the biblical quotation: Whoever honours me will gain eternal life. Don Bosco continually joined praise of Mary to eternal salvation, just as St Alphonsus de Liguori did in his writings, and also as found in the traditions confirmed in the Tridentine discussion on anti-Protestant religious teachings.

However after 1848 (and particularly between 1854 and 1855) there was considerable discussion regarding the dogmatic details of the Immaculate Conception and the suppression of ecclesiastical organisations, and Turin became noted for the politicisation of the cult of Mary Immaculate. The image represented by Mary's white garments, and her foot crushing the head of the serpent, was utilised by the clergy as a symbol of what was to come: attackers of the Church (symbolised by Mary) would sooner or later be defeated by unforeseen events that were actually the fruit of supernatural intervention.

Between 8 December 1854 and May 1855 Turin's religious festivities for the proclamation of the dogma merged with the emotive debate on the suppression laws proposed by Rattazzi. The Consolata church was the centre of Turin's collective religious activities. On 25 March, the feast of the Annunciation, the packed church included Princess Clotilde, the firstborn of Victor Emanuel II. From the pulpit the preacher of the day (Oblate Father Vincenzo Gregorio Berchialla) addressed the congregation and quoted Genesis (I will put enmity between you and the woman), applying the words to Mary. He was thus able to plead the cause of the Church and the Papacy that were being threatened by politicians and the media. He told his congregation: 'You must honour the Immaculate, and solemnly refute the calumnies of those who combat your holy religion and who assert that the cause of Catholicism and the Papacy is without hope'.

It was during the time of these problems that Dominic Savio was at the Oratory. After the dogmatic definition of the Immaculate Conception, Don Bosco's emphasised devotion to Mary Immaculate rather than the political and social upsets. To his boys he stressed the symbolism of the word immaculate and worked on the perfecting of their religious and moral conscience.

A proof of the care taken by Don Bosco to cleanse religious matters of political stain is characterised in 1865 in the name he gave to the Valdocco Church being built for the use of young people and the parishioners: he called it Help of Christians. The title was well known in Turin, where there was set up in the mid 17th Century the Confraternity of Mary our Help, in the church of St Francis de Paola. The confraternity was somewhat wan, but after the first annexations and the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy it was greatly enlivened by the commotion of a recent apparition of Mary and the miraculous events that followed.

On 19 March 1862 a young lad unexpectedly regained his health when he had prayed before an image of the Madonna in a small tumbledown church in Fratta di Castelrinaldi near Spoleto. There was also talk of a child in that same place who had had apparitions of Mary. The church soon became a place of attraction for the faithful who prayed there and begged for favours. The Archbishop of Spoleto, John Baptist Arnaldi was deeply impressed by the crowds, and decided to give significance and title to what was happening. He proclaimed that it was a sign that Mary was showing her support for the Pope, on the occasion of the recent assaults against the temporal power of the Papacy. The most suitable title to give to the Marian image was Help of Christians; and Pius VII, recently returned from his French ill-treatment and imprisonment, extended the feast to the universal Church. His accounts and writings spread abroad, and the Marian and ecclesiological symbolisms became intertwined with the Papal events and took on religious and political nuances.

The Spoleto Virgin (wrote Archbishop Arnaldi), called for help, crushed the skull of all the ancient heresies. She would also crush the modern heresies that were endeavouring to erase the spiritual and temporal powers of the Papacy. 'The Madonna', he added, 'who has been honoured by the Pope's declaration of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, will undoubtedly lead him on to a splendid triumph.' In September 1862 Archbishop Arnaldi suggested that a grand temple be built to replace the tumble-down small church. In Turin the Catholic newspapers announced the prelate's suggestion and the proposed church edifice. From 1863 to 1867 the Unità Cattolica followed the Armonia in publishing lengthy lists of donors' names from every part of Italy, and the compelling motivations that followed graces received after intercessions to the Madonna of Spoleto. Archbishop Arnaldi was imprisoned in the fortress of Spoleto after being accused of contempt of the State. As archbishop of Turin, Fransoni, with other bishops, who in those years were banished from their sees because of protesting against the annexations, was honoured by the clerical party with the halo of martyrdom.

In these circumstances, Don Bosco proposed to the Turin administrators the title Help of Christians for the new church. Despite the predictable reservations, he was granted permission, since the administrators, as well as the Court itself, favoured moderation and sought to avoid dissent among the population. The foundation stone was laid on 27 April 1865, in the presence of one of the king's sons (Amedeo duke of Aosta), the mayor (Marquis Emanuele Luserna di Rorà), and the prefect Costantino Radicati Talice. The band of the Oratory welcomed the arrival of Amedeo of Savoy with the royal march. As already recorded, Amedeo, Eugenio di Carignano, Tommaso Duke of Genoa, Maria Elisabetta of Saxony and Princess Margherita of Savoy had accepted to participate in the commission of the lottery organised in 1864 and finalised in 1867.

Meanwhile, in the recruitment of the charity workers and in all statements of public opinion, political allusions were avoided, even in references to the connection of the new Turin sanctuary with the Spoleto Marian revelation.

The Salesian Bulletin printed various writings of Don Bosco and other authors relating favours and graces attributed to Mary. Such publications included Maria Ausiliatrice col racconto di alcune grazie, La Nuvoletta del Carmelo, L'arca dell'alleanza, La città di refugio, La madre delle grazie. These pamphlets pointed out that the title Ausiliatrice was more or less equivalent to Madonna delle Grazie, Consolatrice, Madonna del Soccorso (Grace, Consolation and Our Lady of Help). As Don Bosco wrote, the title at that particular time was particularly suitable. He did not normally make distinctions regarding requests to Mary; he exhorted people to ask Mary Help of Christians for any kind of religious grace for the soul, and also for material favours for themselves or others, including nations, all Christians and the Pope. The great number of graces received from Turin's devotion to Mary Help of Christians mostly expressed the deep-seated traditional devotion in both city and country-side: recovery from sickness, escape from dangerous situations, the saving of crops from hail, good harvests.

In 1869 Don Bosco founded the Pious Association of Mary Help of Christians, stressing the influence of the traditional devotion. After a few years it took on the nature of an association more in keeping with modern mentality - and hence the Union of Salesian Cooperators was rendered possible in the liberating atmosphere that followed the cancelling of the temporal power of the Papacy. Meanwhile, the title of Mary Help of Christians grew in strength and affected all aspects of the devotion and language of Don Bosco. It flourished in the Turin sanctuary and was furthered by the Salesian Sisters (the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians), who spread the devotion among women in their educational and religious teaching that was typically according to the style of Don Bosco.

However, when the heart of Don Bosco was troubled and imploring Mary's help, he seemingly forgot the title he had so actively promoted. In 1867, for instance, he was deeply worried when his Centenario di San Pietro Apostolo was presented to Rome to be possibly listed in the Index of Forbidden Books. In distress, perhaps late at night, he scrawled with a heavy hand two simple words at the foot of the page of the 'defence memorial' of his friend at the time, Bishop Lorenzo Gastaldi: Mary, help me - not Mary Immaculate or Mary our Help, but simply Mary, help me. Then, after thought, and recalling the title he prized, he wrote in lighter form the title, Our Help. Thus today we read (under the neat and orderly writing of Gastaldi) these words clumsily written in barely legible hand-writing: Mary, Help of Christians, help me. And on his deathbed he did not call on Mary Immaculate or Mary, Our Help, but many times, Mother, Mother ... Holy Mary, Mary, Mary.... Mother, Mother ... Holy Mary, Mary, Mary....