We have a dream. And it is our greatest wealth

Two hundred years ago, a nine-year-old boy, poor and with no future other than to be a farmer, had a dream. He told it in the morning to his mother, grandmother and siblings, who laughed it off. The grandmother concluded, “Don’t pay attention to dreams.” Many years later, that boy, John Bosco, wrote, “I was of my grandmother’s opinion, yet it was never possible to get that dream out of my mind.”
Because it was not a dream like so many others and it did not die with the coming of dawn.
It came back again and again. With an overwhelming charge of energy. It was a source of joyful security and inexhaustible strength for John Bosco. The source of his life.
At the diocesan process for Don Bosco’s cause of Beatification, Fr. Rua, his first successor, testified, “I was told by Lucia Turco, a member of a family where D. Bosco often went to stay with her brothers, that one morning they saw him arrive more joyful than usual. Asked what was the cause, he replied that he had had a dream during the night, which had cheered him up. Asked to recount it, he said that he had seen a Lady coming towards him, who had a very large flock behind her, and who approached him, called him by name and said ‘Here you are John: all this flock I entrust to your care.’ I then heard from others that he asked, ‘How will I take care of so many sheep? And so many lambs? Where will I find pastures to keep them?’ The Lady answered him, ‘Fear not, I will assist you’, and then she disappeared.
From that moment on, his desires to study to become a priest became more ardent; but serious difficulties arose because of his family’s straits, and also because of opposition from his half-brother Anthony, who would have liked him to do farm work like him…”
Indeed, everything seemed impossible, but Jesus’ command had been “pressing” and Our Lady’s assistance had been sweetly certain.
Fr Lemoyne, Don Bosco’s first historian, in fact summarised the dream as follows, “It seemed to him that he saw the Divine Saviour dressed in white, radiant with the most splendid light, in the act of leading an innumerable crowd of young men. Turning to him, he had said, ‘Come here: put yourself at the head of these young men and lead them yourself.’ ‘But I am not capable’, John replied. The Divine Saviour insisted until John placed himself at the head of that multitude of boys and began to lead them just as he had been commanded.”
In the seminary, Don Bosco wrote a page of admirable humility as a motivation for his vocation, “The Morialdo dream always made an impression on me; indeed it had been renewed at other times in a much clearer way, so that if I wanted to believe it I had to choose the clerical state, to which he felt I was inclined: but I did not want to believe in dreams, and my way of life, and the absolute lack of the virtues necessary for this state made that decision doubtful and very difficult.”
We can be sure: he had recognised the Lord and his Mother. Despite his modesty, he did not doubt at all that he had been visited by Heaven. Nor did he doubt that those visits were intended to reveal to him his future and that of his work. He said it himself, “The Salesian Congregation has not taken a step without being advised to do so by a supernatural fact. It has not arrived at the point of development it is at without a special command from the Lord. All our past history, we could have written in advance in its humblest details…”
That is why the Salesian Constitutions begin with an “act of faith”: “With a feeling of humble gratitude we believe that the Society of St Francis de Sales came into being not as a merely human venture but by the initiative of God”.

Don Bosco’s Testament
The Pope himself asked Don Bosco to write the dream down for his sons. He began: “Now, what purpose can this chronicle serve? It will be a record to help people overcome problems that may come in the future by learning from the past. It will serve to make known how God himself has always been our guide. It will give my sons some entertainment to be able to read: about their father’s adventures. Doubtless they will be read much more avidly when I have been called by God to render my account, when I am no longer amongst them.”
Don Bosco clearly reveals his intention to involve the reader in the adventure narrated, to the point of making him participate in it as a story that concerns him and that he, drawn into the tale, is called upon to continue. The narration of the dream clearly becomes Don Bosco’s “testament”.
There is the mission: the transformation of the world starting with the smallest, the youngest, the most abandoned. There is the method: goodness, respect, patience. There is the security of the strong protection of the Holy Trinity and the tender and maternal protection of Mary.
In the Memoirs of the Oratory, Don Bosco recounts that twenty years after the first dream, in 1824, he had “another dream, which seems to be an appendix to the one I had at Becchi when I was nine years old. I think it advisable to relate it literally. I dreamt that I was standing in the middle of a multitude of wolves, goats and kids, lambs, ewes, rams, dogs, even birds. All together they made a din, a racket, or better, a bedlam to frighten the stoutest heart. I wanted to run away, when a lady very handsomely dressed as a shepherdess signaled me to follow her and accompany that strange flock while she went ahead. … After we had walked a long way, I found myself in a field where all the animals grazed and gamboled together and none made attacks on the others.
Worn out, I wanted to sit down beside a nearby road, but the shepherdess invited me to continue the trip. After another short journey, I found myself in a large courtyard with porticoes all round. At one end was a church. I then saw that four-fifths of the animals had been changed into lambs and their number greatly increased. Just then, several shepherds came along to take care of the flock; but they stayed only a very short time and promptly went away. Then something wonderful happened. Many of the lambs were transformed into shepherds, who as they grew took care of the others. I wanted to be off because it seemed to me time to celebrate Mass; but the shepherdess invited me to look to the south. I looked and saw a field sown with maize, potatoes, cabbages, beetroot, lettuce, and many other vegetables.  “Look again,” she said to me. I looked again and saw a wondrously big church. An orchestra and music, both instrumental and vocal, were inviting me to sing Mass. Inside the church hung a white banner on which was written in huge letters, Hic domus mea, inde gloria mea.
That is why, when we enter the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians, we enter Don Bosco’s dream.
Which asks to become “our” dream.

St John Bosco’s devotion to Our Lady is well known. The graces received from Mary Help of Christians, even the extraordinary, miraculous ones, are perhaps also partly known. Probably less well known is the promise made to the Virgin, to take to Paradise those who have combined a Hail Mary with Holy Mass for their entire lives.

That the saint had an open door in Heaven to his prayers is well known. Even as a cleric in the seminary, his prayers were answered, and to disguise this intervention with Heaven he used the trick of providing bread pills instead of miracles as medicines for a while, until he was discovered by a real pharmacist. The numerous intercession requests and the many miracles that occurred in his life, abundantly recounted by his biographers, confirm this powerful intercession.

The promise of having several thousand young people with him in paradise, which he received from the Blessed Virgin, is confirmed by two seminarians who heard him speak about it during a Retreat to the clerics at the Episcopal Seminary in Bergamo. One of them was Angelo Cattaneo, future Vicar Apostolic of Southern Honan in China, and he testified in a paper addressed to Fr Michael Rua, and another, Stefano Scaini, who later became a Jesuit; he too left a testimony in a paper addressed to the Salesians. Here is the first testimony.

D. Bosco spoke of the snares the devil laid for the youngsters to distract them from Confession and told them he would have liked to reveal to individuals, who asked him, the spiritual condition of their souls.
[…]
When, after a sermon to the seminarians [of Bergamo], one of them [Angelo Cattaneo] presented himself to Don Bosco with a list of sins in his hand, the Saint threw it on the fire and then listed all the sins as if he were reading them. Then he told his attentive listeners that he had obtained a promise from Our Lady to have several thousand young people with him in paradise, on the condition that they recite a Hail Mary every day during Mass throughout their earthly life. (Pilla Eugenio, I sogni di Don Bosco, p. 207)

And also the second.

Very Rev. Sir,

On a certain occasion I was allowed to ask Our Lady for the grace of having several thousand boys with me in heaven (I think he also specified the number, but can’t remember) and the Blessed Virgin granted me the favour. If you wish to be included too, I shall be happy to admit you. The only condition is that, for the rest of your life, you say a Hail Mary every day – possibly at Mass and, preferably, at the Consecration.”
I don’t know what the others made of this proposal, but I myself accepted it joyfully because of the very high esteem I had then acquired for Don Bosco. As far as I can remember, I have never missed my daily Hail Mary for that intention. However, with the passing of years, a doubt came to my mind which I once asked Don Bosco to clear up.
On January 3, 1882, as I was passing through Turin on my way to the Jesuit novitiate at Chieri, I obtained an audience with Don Bosco, who received me very warmly. When I told him I was about to become a Jesuit, he said, “I am delighted to hear it! When I learn that someone enters that Society, I am as happy as if he were joining the Salesians.” Then I said to him, “With your permission, I’d like to ask you to clarify a matter I have much at heart. Father, do you remember preaching a spiritual retreat at the Bergamo seminary?” “I certainly do!” “Do you recall telling us of a grace you asked of Our Lady?” I reminded him of his words and of the condition he had stipulated. “Yes, I do.” “Well, I have always said that Hail Mary and will always say it, but you spoke of thousands of boys! I’m afraid I’m no longer one of those lucky ones!”
Without hesitation, Don Bosco replied, “Keep on reciting the Hail Mary, and we shall be together in heaven.” After receiving his holy blessing and affectionately kissing his hand, I left with joy and the hope of one day being really with him in heaven.
If this can bring glory to God and honour to Don Bosco, I promise that I’m ready to confirm it by oath.
Lomello, 4 March 1891.

Most humble Devoted Servant
V. Stefano Scaini S.I. [MB VI,846].

These testimonies make it clear how much eternal salvation was at the heart of Don Bosco. In all his educational and social initiatives, very necessary for that matter, he did not lose sight of the ultimate goal of human life, Paradise. He wanted to prepare everyone for this last examination of life, and for this reason he insisted that young people also be accustomed to do the exercise of the good death every month-end, remembering the last things, also called the novissimos (the last things): death, judgement, Heaven and hell. And for this he had asked and obtained this special grace from Mary Help of Christians.

Of course it seems strange to us today that this prayer was made during Holy Mass and also at the very moment of the Consecration. But, to understand this, one must remember that in Don Bosco’s time Mass was celebrated entirely in Latin, and since the vast majority of the faithful did not know this language, it was easy to get distracted instead of praying. To find a remedy for this human inclination he used to recommend various prayers during the celebration.

Can we say this Hail Mary at the end of the celebration today? Don Bosco himself has us understand: “If possible during the time you are listening to Holy Mass…”. What is more, today’s liturgical norms do not recommend inserting other prayers outside those of the Missal.
Can we hope that this Hail Mary will also add us to the number of beneficiaries of the promise? By living in God’s grace, by doing it all our lives, and by Don Bosco’s reply to Stefano Scaini, “Keep reciting that Hail Mary and we shall be together in Heaven” we can answer in the affirmative.

(continuation from previous article)

THE PRESENCE OF MARY IN SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES (8/8)

The first information we have about devotion to Mary in the de Sales family refers to his mother, the young Françoise de Sionnaz, a devotee of the Virgin, faithful to the Rosary. She passed love for this pious practice on to her son, who, as a young boy in Annecy, enrolled in the Confraternity of the Rosary, committing himself to say all or part of it every day. Fidelity to this would accompany him throughout his life.

Devotion to the Virgin continued during his Parisian years. “He entered the Congregation of Mary, which brought together the spiritual elite of the students at their college.”

Then there was the spiritual crisis that broke out at the end of 1586: for several weeks he did not eat, sleep, and was in despair. He had the idea in his head that he had been abandoned by God’s love and would “never be able to see your sweet face again”. Until one day, in January 1587, on his return from college, he entered the church of Saint-Etienne-des-Grès and made an act of abandonment before the Virgin: he said the Salve Regina and was freed from temptation and regained his serenity.

His prayer and devotion to the Mother of God certainly continued during his years in Padua: he would entrust his vocation to the priesthood to her, and on 18 December 1593, he was ordained a priest and would certainly have celebrated a few masses in the church at Annecy, dedicated to Notre Dame de Liesse (Our Lady of Joy), to thank Her for taking him and leading him by the hand during those long years of study.

Years passed and August 1603 came, when Francis received the letter of invitation from the Archbishop of Bourges to preach for the upcoming Lent in Dijon.
“Our Congregation is the fruit of the journey to Dijon,” he wrote to his friend Fr Pollien.

It would be during this Lent, which began on 5 March 1604, that Francis would meet Baroness Jane Frances Frémyot de Chantal. He would begin a journey towards God in search of His will, a journey that would last six years and end on 6 June 1610, the day on which the Visitation was born with Jane Frances and two other women entering the novitiate.
“Our little Congregation is truly a work of the Heart of Jesus and Mary,” and after a short time he confidently added: “God takes care of his servants and Our Lady provides them with what they need.”
His Daughters would be called Religious of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Four hundred years after its foundation, the Monastery of the Visitation in Paris writes that the Order has never ceased to draw all the best of its spirituality from this Gospel scene.
“Contemplation and praise of the Lord, united to the service of one’s neighbour; the spirit of thanksgiving and the humility of the Magnificat; real poverty that throws itself with infinite confidence on the goodness of the Father; availability to the Spirit; missionary ardour to reveal the presence of Christ; joy in the Lord; Mary who faithfully keeps all these things in her heart.”

Jane Frances de Chantal summarises the Salesian spirit as follows: “a spirit of profound humility towards God and of great gentleness towards one’s neighbour”, which are precisely the virtues that immediately arise from the lived contemplation of the mystery of the Visitation.

In the Treatise on the spirit of simplicity, Francis to his said to his Visitandines:
“We must have a totally simple trust which makes us remain quiet in the arms of our Father and our dear Mother, confident that Our Lord and Our Lady, our dear Mother, will always protect us with their care and motherly tenderness.”
The Visitation is the living monument of Francis’ love for the Mother of Jesus.

His friend Bishop J.P. Camus sums up Francis’ love for the Virgin in this way: “His devotion to the Mother of splendid love, of wisdom, of chaste love and of holy hope was truly great. From his earliest years he devoted himself to honouring her.”

 Mary’s presence is like yeast in the dough for his letters: discreet, silent, active and effective. There is no lack of prayers composed by Francis himself.

On 8 December (!) 1621, he sent one to a Visitandine:
“May the most glorious Virgin fill us with her love, so that together, you and I, who have had the good fortune to be called and have embarked under her protection and in her name, may accomplish our voyage in humble purity and simplicity, so that one day we may find ourselves in the port of salvation, which is Paradise.”

When he wrote letters around some Marian feast, he did not miss an opportunity to mention her or make a point for reflection. Thus,
– for the Assumption of Mary into heaven: “May this holy Virgin, with her prayers, have us live in this holy love! May this love always be the sole object of our heart.
– for the Annunciation: it is the day “of the most blessed greeting ever given to anyonen. I beseech this glorious Virgin to grant you some of the consolation she received.”

Who was Mary for Francis?

a. She was the Mother of God
Not only Mother, but also… grandmother!
“Honour, reverence and respect the holy and glorious Virgin Mary with a special love: she is the Mother of our sovereign Father and therefore also our dear grandmother. Let us have recourse to her as grandchildren, let us throw ourselves upon her knees with absolute trust; at all times, in all circumstances, let us appeal to this sweet Mother, let us invoke her maternal love and, making every effort to imitate her virtues, let us have the sincere heart of children for her.”

She leads us to Jesus: “Do whatever He tells you!”
“If we want Our Lady to ask her Son to change the water of our lukewarmness into the wine of His love, we must do all that He will tell us. Let us do what the Saviour will tell us well, let us fill our hearts well with the water of penance, and this lukewarm water will be changed for us into the wine of fervent love.”

b. She was the model we must imitate
In listening to the Word of God.
“Receive it in your heart like a precious ointment, following the example of the Blessed Virgin, who carefully kept all the praises spoken in honour of her Son in her own,”

Model for living in humility.
“The Most Blessed Virgin, Our Lady, gave us a most remarkable example of humility when she pronounced these words: Behold the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your word; in saying that she is the handmaid of the Lord, she expresses the greatest act of humility that can be done and immediately performs an act of most excellent generosity, saying: Let it be done to me according to your word.”

Model for living common holiness.
“If one wants to be a saint of true holiness, it must be common, daily, everyday holiness like that of Our Lord and Our Lady.”

Model for living in serenity:
“If you feel excessively worried, soothe your soul and try to give it back its tranquillity. Imagine how the Virgin worked calmly with one hand, while with the other she held Our Lord, during her childhood: she held Him on one arm, never taking her gaze away from Him.”

Model for giving ourselves to God in time:
“Oh how happy are the souls who, in imitation of this holy Virgin, consecrate themselves as first fruits, from their youth, to the service of Our Lord.”.

c. Strength in suffering
Madame de Granieu’s husband suffered very painful attacks of gout.
Francis shared in the gentleman’s suffering sayings:
“A pain that our Blessed Lady and Abbess (the Virgin Mary) can greatly alleviate by leading you to Mount Calvary, where she holds the novitiate of her monastery, teaching you not only to suffer well, but to suffer everything that happens both for us and for our loved ones with love.”

Let me conclude with this beautiful passage that underlines the bond that unites Mary and the believer every time we approach the Eucharist:
“Do you want to become relatives of the Virgin Mary? Go to communion! For in receiving the Holy Sacrament you receive the flesh of her flesh and the blood of her blood, since the precious body of the Saviour, which is in the divine Eucharist, was made and formed with her most pure blood and with the collaboration of the Holy Spirit. Since you cannot be related to Our Lady in the same way as Elizabeth, be so by imitating her virtues and holy life.”

(continuation from previous article)

Always in action
But Providence must also be “sought”. And in August Don Bosco wrote again to Count Cibrario, Secretary of the Order of St Maurcie, to remind him that the time had come to honour the second part of the financial commitment he had made two years earlier. From Genoa, fortunately, he received substantial offers from Count Pallavicini and Counts Viancino di Viancino; other offers reached him in September from Countess Callori di Vignale and likewise from other cities, Rome and Florence in particular.
However, a very cold winter soon arrived, with the consequent increase in consumer prices, including bread. Don Bosco went into a liquidity crisis. Between feeding hundreds of mouths and suspending building work, the choice was forced on him. Work on the church therefore stagnated, while debts grew. So, on 4 December, Don Bosco took pen and paper and wrote to Cavalier Oreglia in Rome: “Collect lots of money, then come back, because we don’t know where to get any more. It is true that Our Lady always does her part, but at the end of the year, all the providers ask for money.” Great!

9 June 1868: solemn consecration of the Church of Mary Help of Christians
In January 1868 Don Bosco set about completing the interior decoration of the Church of Mary Help of Christians.

At Valdocco the situation was still quite serious. Don Bosco wrote to Cav. Oreglia in Rome: “Here we continue with very intense cold: today it reached 18 degrees below zero; despite the fire in the stove, the ice in my room would not melt. We have delayed rising time for the boys, and as most are still dressed for summer, each puts on two shirts, a jacket, two pairs of breeches, military coats; others keep the blankets over their shoulders throughout the day and look like carnival masquerades.”
Fortunately, a week later the cold diminished and the metre of snow began to melt.
Meanwhile, the commemorative medal was being prepared in Rome. Don Bosco, once he had it in hand, had corrections made to the inscription and the thickness halved in order to save money. Even so, the amount of money collected was always less than what was needed. So, the collection for the chapel of St. Anne promoted by the Florentine noblewomen, in particular Countess Virginia Cambray Digny, wife of the Minister of Agriculture, Finance and Commerce, in mid-February, was still one sixth of the total (6000 lira). However, Don Bosco did not despair and invited the Countess to Turin: “I hope that on some occasion you will be able to visit us and see with your own eyes this majestic building, of which it can be said that every brick is an offering made by those now near and now far but always for grace received.”
And so it really was. At the beginning of spring, he told the Cavlier as usual (and he would print it shortly afterwards in the commemorative booklet (The wonders of the Mother of God invoked under the title of Mary Help of Christians): “I am swamped with expenses, many things to be settled, all the work to be resumed; do what you can but pray with faith. I think the time is right for those who want grace from Mary! We see one every day.”

Preparations for the feast
In mid-March, Archbishop Riccardi fixed the date for consecration of the church for the first fortnight in June. Everything was ready by then: the two bell towers on the façade surmounted by two archangels, the large golden statue on the dome already blessed by the archbishop, the five marble altars with their respective paintings, including the marvellous one of Mary Help of Christians with the child in her arms, surrounded by angels, apostles, evangelists, in a blaze of light and colour.
An exceptional plan for the preparation was then set in motion. First of all, it was a matter of finding the consecrating bishop; then contacting various bishops for the solemn celebrations in the morning and evening of each day of the Octave; then issuing personal invitations to dozens of distinguished benefactors, priests and lay people from all over Italy, many of whom were to be hosted in the house in a worthy manner; finally, it was a matter of preparing hundreds of children both to solemnise the pontifical and liturgical ceremonies with songs, and to participate in academies, games, parades, moments of joy and merriment.

Finally the big day

Three days before 9 June, the boys from the Lanzo boarding school arrived in Valdocco. On Sunday 7 June, L’Unità Cattolica published the programme for the celebrations, and on Monday 8 June the first guests arrived and the arrival of the Duke of Aosta representing the Royal Family was announced. The boys from the Mirabello boarding school also arrived. The singers spent hours rehearsing the new Mass by Maestro De Vecchi and Fr Cagliero’s new Tantum Ergo, as well as the solemn antiphon Maria Succurre Miseris also by Cagliero, which had been inspired by the polyphonic Tu es Petrus from the Vatican basilica.
The following morning, 9 June, at 5.30 a.m., passing between a double line of 1,200 festive and singing boys, the archbishop made the triple tour around the church and then with the clergy entered the church to perform the planned consecration ceremonies of the altars behind closed doors. It was only at 10.30 that the church was thrown open to the public, who attended the archbishop’s Mass and Don Bosco’s following Mass.
The archbishop returned in the afternoon for the pontifical vespers, solemnized by the triple choir of singers: 150 tenors and basses at the foot of St Joseph’s altar, 200 sopranos and contraltos on the dome, another 100 tenors and basses in the orchestra. Fr Cagliero conducted them, even without seeing them all, through an electric contraption designed for the occasion.

It was a triumph of sacred music, an enchantment, something heavenly. Indescribable was the emotion of those present, who on leaving the church were also able to admire the external illumination of the façade and the dome surmounted by the illuminated statue of Mary Help of Christians.
And Don Bosco? All day surrounded by a crowd of benefactors and friends, moved beyond words, he did nothing but praise Our Lady. An “impossible” dream had come true.

An equally solemn octave
Solemn celebrations alternated morning and evening throughout the octave. They were unforgettable days, the most solemn Valdocco had ever seen. Don Bosco immediately made them widely known through a solid publication “Remembrance of a solemnity in honour of Mary Help of Christians”.
On 17 June some peace returned to Valdocco, the young guests went back to their schools, the devotees to their homes; the church still lacked interior finishing touches, ornaments, furnishings… But the devotion to Mary Help of Christians, which by then had become “Don Bosco’s Madonna” quickly spread throughout Piedmont, Italy, Europe and Latin America. Today in the world there are hundreds of churches dedicated to her, thousands of altars, millions of pictures and little images. Don Bosco repeats to everyone today, as he did to Fr Cagliero as he left for the missions in November 1875: “Place all your trust in Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and in Mary Help of Christians and you will see what miracles are.”

3/3 ❱❱❱ ⍹

(continuation from previous article)

The Lottery
The authorisation was granted very quickly, so the complex machine of collecting and evaluating the gifts and selling the tickets was immediately set in motion in Valdocco: everything as indicated in the regulation plan circulated in the press. It was Cav. Federico Oreglia di Santo Stefano, a Salesian Brother, who personally worked to obtain names of prominent people to be included in the Promoters’ catalogue, ask for other gifts, and find buyers or “sellers” of lottery tickets. The lottery was, of course, publicised in the city’s Catholic press, although only after the closing of the deaf-mute lottery at the beginning of June.

The works continue, as well as expenses and debts
On 4 June the masonry work was already two metres above ground, but on 2 July Don Bosco was forced to resort urgently to a generous benefactor so that the master builder Buzzetti could pay the “workers’ salary” (8000 euro). A few days later he again asked another aristocratic benefactor if he could undertake to pay for at least some of the four batches of tiles, planks and laths for the church roof over the course of the year, for a total expenditure of around 16,000 lire (64,000 euro). On 17 July it was the turn of a priest promoter of the lottery to be asked for urgent help in paying “another workers’ salary”: Don Bosco suggested that he get the money with an immediate bank loan, or rather prepare it for the end of the week when he himself would go to pick it up, or even better, to bring it directly to Valdocco where he could see the church under construction in person. In short, he was navigating by sight and the risk of foundering due to lack of liquidity was renewed every month.
On 10 August, he sent the printed forms to Countess Virginia Cambray Digny, wife of the Mayor of Florence, the new capital of the Kingdom, inviting her to personally promote the lottery. By the end of the month, part of the walls were already at roof level. And shortly before Christmas, she sent 400 tickets to Marquis Angelo Nobili Vitelleschi of Florence with a request to distribute them among known individuals.
The search for donations for the Valdocco lottery and the sale of the tickets would continue over the following years. Don Bosco’s circulars would spread especially to the centre north of the country. Even benefactors in Rome, the pope himself, would play their part. But why would they have committed themselves to selling lottery tickets to build a church that was not their own, moreover in a city that had just ceased to be the capital of the Kingdom (January 1865)?
There could have been many reasons, obviously including winning some nice prize, but certainly one of the most important was of a spiritual nature: to all those who had contributed to building the “Mary’s house” on earth, at Valdocco, by means of alms in general or paying for items (windows, stained glass windows, altar, bells, vestments…) Don Bosco in the Virgin Mary’s name, had guaranteed a special prize: “fine accommodation”, a “room”  not just anywhere, but “in paradise”.

Our Lady seeks alms for her church

On 15 January 1867, the Prefecture of Turin issued a decree establishing the date for the lottery draw on 1 April. From Valdocco there was a rush to send the remaining tickets throughout Italy, with a request to return the unsold ones by mid-March so that they could be sent elsewhere before the draw.
Don Bosco, who had already been preparing for a second trip to Rome at the end of December 1866 (9 years after the first one), with a stopover in Florence, to try to reach an agreement between State and Church on the appointment of new bishops, took the opportunity to go back over the network of his Florentine and Roman friendships. He managed to sell many bundles of tickets, so much so that his travelling companion, Fr Francesia, urged the shipment of others, because “everyone wants some”.

If Turin charity, once the city was downgraded from its role as capital of the Kingdom, was in crisis, Florence’s, on the other hand, was growing and so played its part with many generous aristocratic women; Bologna was no less worthy, with Marquis Prospero Bevilacqua and Countess Sassatelli. No was Milan lacking, even though it was to the Milanese Rosa Guenzati on 21 March that Don Bosco confided: “The lottery is nearing its end and we still have many tickets.”
What was the final economic result of the lottery? About 90,000 lire [328,000 euro], a nice sum, one might say, but it was only a sixth of the money already spent; so much so that on 3 April Don Bosco had to ask a benefactor for an urgent loan of 5,000 lire [18,250 euro] for payment for building materials that could be delayed no further: some expected income had not turned up.

Our Lady intervenes
The following week, while negotiating about the side altars with Countess Virginia Cambray Digny of Florence – she had personally promoted a collection of funds for an altar to be dedicated to St Anne (Our Lady’s mother) – Don Bosco informed her of the resumption of work and the hope (which turned out to be in vain) of being able to open the church within the year. He was always counting on the offerings for graces that Our Lady continually granted his donors, and wrote to everyone, to Cambray Digny herself, to Miss Pellico, sister of the famous Silvio, etc. Some of his female benefactors, incredulous, asked him for confirmation and Don Bosco repeated his request.

The graces increased, their reputation spread and Don Bosco had to restrain himself because, as he wrote on 9 May to Cav. Oreglia di S. Stefano, a Salesian sent to Rome to seek charity: “I cannot write because I am too involved.” Indeed, he could not fail to update his alms-giver the following month: “A gentleman who had his arm healed immediately brought 3,000 lire [€11,000] used to pay part of the previous year’s debts… I have never boasted of extraordinary things; I have always said that Our Lady Help of Christians has granted and still grants extraordinary graces to those who in some way contribute to the building of this church. I have always said and I still say: ‘the offering will be made when grace is received, not before’ [italics in the original]”. And on 25 July he told Countess Callori about a girl he had taken in who was “mad and furious” and held down by two men; as soon as she was blessed she calmed down and went to confession.

If Our Lady was active, Don Bosco certainly was not standing still either. On 24 May he sent out another circular for the building and furnishing of the chapel of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary: he enclosed a form for the monthly offering, while he asked everyone for a Hail Mary for the donors. On the same day, with remarkable “nerve” he asked Mother Galeffi, Superior of the Oblates at Tor de Specchi in Rome, whether or not the 2000 scudi promised some time before for the altar of the Sacred Hearts was part of her renewed willingness to do other things for the church. On 4 July, he thanked Prince Orazio Falconieri di Carpegna of Rome for the gift of a chalice and an offering for the church. He wrote to everyone that the church was progressing and that he was awaiting promised gifts such as altars, bells, balustrades etc. The large offerings therefore came from aristocrats, the princes of the church, but there was no lack of “widow’s mites”, offerings from simple people: “Last week, in small offerings made for graces received, 3800 francs were recorded” [€12,800].
On 20 February 1867, the Gazzetta Piemontese gave the following news: “to the many calamities with which Italy is afflicted – [think of the third war of independence that has just ended], we must now add the reappearance of cholera.” It was the beginning of the nightmare that would threaten Italy for the next twelve months, with tens of thousands of deaths all over the country, including Rome, where the disease also claimed victims among civil and ecclesiastical dignitaries.
Don Bosco’s benefactors were worried, but he reassured them: “none of those taking part in the construction of the church in honour of Mary will fall victim to these illnesses, as long as they put their trust in her”, he wrote at the beginning of July to the Duchess of Sora.

(continued)

“Our Lady did it all”, we are used to reading in Salesian spiritual literature, to indicate that the Virgin was at the origin of Don Bosco’s whole story. If we apply those words to the construction of the Church of Mary Help of Christians, the truth of it is very well documented, always bearing in mind that, alongside heavenly intervention, Don Bosco also played his part, and how!

Launching the idea and first promises of grants (1863)
At the end of January and beginning of February 1863, Don Bosco sent out a lengthy circular about the purpose of a church, dedicated to Mary Help of Christians, which he had in mind to build at Valdocco: it was to serve the masses of young people taken in there and the twenty thousand souls from the surrounding area, with the further possibility of being erected as a parish by the diocesan authority.
Shortly afterwards, on 13 February, he informed Pope Pius IX, not only that the church was a parish church, but that it was already “under construction”. He obtained the desired outcome from Rome: at the end of March he received 500 lira. Thanking the Cardinal Secretary of State Antonelli for the grant received, he wrote that “the works… are about to begin”. In fact, in May he bought land and timber for the building site and in the summer the excavation work began, which continued until the autumn.
On the eve of the feast of Mary Help of Christians, 23 May, the Ministry of Grace, Justice and Worship, having heard the Mayor, Marquis Emanuele Luserna, declared that it was willing to provide a grant. Don Bosco took the opportunity to make an immediate appeal to the generosity of the first Secretary of the Ordine Mauriziano (The Orders of Sts Maurice and Lazaraus) and the Mayor. He sent a twofold appeal to them on the same date: he asked the former, privately, for as big a grant as possible as possible, reminding him of the commitment he had made on the occasion of his visit to Valdocco; he asked the latter formally, officially, for the same, but dwelling in detail on the church to be built.

Early replies
The appeals made for offerings were followed by replies. The reply on 29 May from the secretary of the Order of St Maurice was negative for the current year, but not for the following year when a grant (amount unspecified) could be budgeted for. The reply from the Ministry on 26 July, however, was positive: 6,000 lire were allocated, but half would be delivered when the foundations were laid at ground level, and the other half when the church was roofed; everything, however, was conditional on the inspection and approval of a special government commission. Finally, on 11 December came the answer, unfortunately negative, from the city council: the municipality’s financial contribution was only envisaged for parish churches, and Don Bosco’s was not such. Nor, given the fact that the Diocese was a vacant see at that stage, could it easily be granted. Don Bosco then took a few days of reflection and on Christmas Eve reaffirmed his intention to the Mayor to build a large parish church to serve the “densely populated neighbourhood.” If there was a failure in providing a grant, he would have to limit himself to a much smaller church. But this new appeal also fell on deaf ears.
1863 thus ended for Don Bosco with little to show for it in real terms, apart from a few general promises. There was cause for discouragement. But if the public authorities were lacking in financial support, Don Bosco thought, Divine Providence would not fail. He had experienced its strong presence some fifteen years earlier, during the construction of the church of St Francis de Sales. He therefore entrusted the engineer, Antonio Spezia, already known to him as an excellent professional, with the task of drawing up the plans for the new church he had in mind. Among other things, he was to work, once again, free of charge.

The decisive year (1864)

In little more than a month the plans were ready, and at the end of January 1864 they were handed over to the municipal building commission. In the meantime, Don Bosco had asked the management of the State Railways of Upper Italy to transport the stones from Borgone in the lower Susa Valley to Turin free of charge. The favour was quickly granted, but the Building Commission was not so favourable. In mid-March it rejected the drawings that had been delivered due to some “construction irregularity”, inviting the engineer to modify them. Resubmitted on 14 May, they were found to be defective again on 23 May, with a further invitation to take them into account; alternatively, it was suggested that a different design be considered. Don Bosco accepted the first proposal, and on 27 May the revised project was approved and on 2 June the City Council issued the building permit.

Meanwhile Don Bosco had wasted no time. He had asked the Mayor to have the exact alignment of the sunken Via Cottolengo drawn up, in order to be able to raise it at his own expense with material from church excavations. In addition, he had sent out a printed circular throughout central and northern Italy, through some trusted benefactors, in which he presented the pastoral reasons for the new church, its dimensions, and its costs (which actually quadrupled during the course of construction). The appeal, addressed above all to “devotees of Mary”, was accompanied by a registration form for those who wished to indicate in advance the sum they would pay over the three-year period 1864-1866. The circular also indicated the possibility of offering materials for the church or other items needed for it. In April the announcement was published in the Official Gazette of the Kingdom and in L’Unità Cattolica.
The work continued and Don Bosco had to always be there because of the constant requests for changes, especially regarding the demarcation lines on the irregular Via Cottolengo. In September he sent out a new circular to a wider circle of benefactors, modelled on the previous one, but specifying that the work would be finished within three years. He also sent a copy to Princes Tommaso and Eugenio of the House of Savoy and to Mayor Emanuele Luserna di Rorà; however, he only asked them, once again, to collaborate on the project by rectifying Via Cottolengo.

Debts, a lottery and much courage
At the end of January 1865, on the feast of St Francis de Sales when Salesians from various houses were gathered at Valdocco, Don Bosco told them of his intention to start a new lottery to raise funds for the continuation of the work (of excavation) for the church. However, he had to postpone it due to the simultaneous presence in the city of another work on behalf of deaf-mutes. As a result, the work, which would have resumed in the spring after the winter break, had no financial cover. So, Don Bosco urgently asked his friend and confrere from Mornese, Fr Domenico Pestarino, for a loan of 5000 lire (20,000 euro). He did not want to resort to a bank loan in the capital, since interest rates were too high. As if these thorny financial problems were not enough, others arose at the same time with the neighbours, in particular those in the Casa Bellezza. Don Bosco had to pay them compensation so he could deny them passage through the Via della Giardiniera, which then ceased to be a road.

Solemn laying of the foundation stone

The day finally came for the laying of the foundation stone of the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians on 27 April 1865. Three days before, Don Bosco issued the invitations in which he announced that His Royal Highness Prince Amadeus of Savoy would lay the cornerstone, while the religious function would be presided over by the Bishop of Casale, Bishop Pietro Maria Ferrè. However, the latter passed away at the last minute and the solemn ceremony was celebrated by the Bishop of Susa, Bishop Giovanni Antonio Odone, in the presence of the City Prefect, the Mayor, various City Councillors, benefactors, members of the city nobility and the Lottery Commission. Duke Amedeo’s procession was welcomed to the sound of the royal march by the band and the children’s choir at Valdocco, and Mirabello students. The city press acted as a sounding board for the festive event and Don Bosco, for his part, grasping its great political-religious significance, extended its historical scope with his own publications.

Three days later, in a long and painful letter to Pope Pius IX about the difficult situation in which the Holy See found itself in in the face of the politics of the Kingdom of Italy, he mentioned the church with its walls already rising from ground level. He asked for a blessing on the ongoing enterprise and for gifts for the lottery he was about to launch. In fact, in mid-May he formally asked the Prefecture of Turin for authorisation, justifying it with the need to pay off the debts of the various oratories in Turin, to provide food, clothing, accommodation and schooling for the 880 or so pupils at Valdocco, and to continue the work on the Church of Mary Help of Christians. Obviously, he undertook to observe all the numerous legal provisions in this regard.

(continued)

“Once again I was able to see for myself, travelling in the Salesian world, that Mary Help of Christians – as promised by Don Bosco – is a beacon of light, a safe harbour, the maternal love of her son and of us all.”

Dear friends of Don Bosco, of the Salesian Bulletin and his precious charism, as I often do I want to share with you, in this month of May, an event that I experienced recently and that touched my heart, and at the same time, made me think a lot about the responsibility we have regarding devotion to Mary Help of Christians.
On the day John Bosco entered the seminary, Mamma Margaret told him: “‘When you came into the world, I consecrated you to the Blessed Virgin: when you began your studies I recommended to you the devotion to this Mother of ours: now I say to you to be completely hers: love those of your companions who have devotion to Mary; and if you become a priest, always preach and promote devotion to Mary.’ My mother was deeply moved as she finished these words. ‘Mother,’ I replied, ‘I thank you for all you have said and done for me; these words of yours will not prove vain, I will treasure them all my life.’”
As our Memoirs often recall, Don Bosco threw himself into the arms of divine Providence, like a child into those of his mother.

A Salesian city

At the end of March, when I went to Peru again – Latin America – I wanted to go to the north-western part of the country and visit a city and a very significant Salesian presence. For several reasons.
First of all because Piura is called ‘the city of eternal heat’ by the locals themselves, or even ‘the city where summer never ends.’ It is certainly very hot there and the humidity makes it even hotter.
But at the same time it is a very Salesian city. More than a century of presence here has marked the spirit of the people with a very familiar, very simple, in short, very Salesian style of educational and relational ties.
Above all, it is a very Marian city, and within the sphere of the two Salesian presences it is very devoted to Mary Help of Christians.

Finally, I would like to emphasise the magnificent educational service that has been provided since the beginning of the presence with the Don Bosco school and especially, in recent decades, with the Salesian presence in Bosconia, a humble and beautiful presence in one of the most troubled, most peripheral and poorest neighbourhoods, and where, thanks to the commitment of so many people (both in civil society and in the Church) and above all thanks to the charism of Don Bosco, this part of the city continues to be transformed, offering vocational training opportunities to hundreds of boys and girls who, where they would have had no chance, today leave this Salesian home with a profession learned, practised and trained for the world of work.
In Bosconia there is even a magnificent Salesian medical centre run by a branch of our family, the Salesian Sisters.
I think I have quickly described what I found in the ‘city of eternal heat’. Everything is noteworthy, but I was particularly touched by the deep devotion to Mary Help of Christians. Almost unexpectedly – because only a couple of weeks before had I announced that I would like to come – I found myself at 6pm on a normal weekday in the midst of a crowd of more than three thousand people who had gathered to celebrate the Eucharist in honour of our Mother Help of Christians.
I saw hundreds of children and young people with their parents, dozens and dozens of boys, girls, teenagers from the various local Salesian oratories, teachers, educators, etc.
The ‘eternal heat of the city’ seemed little compared to the faith, devotion, interiority and prayer, singing and everything else that I imagined filled the hearts of those people, just as it filled mine.
Once again I was able to see for myself, travelling in the Salesian world, that Mary Help of Christians – as promised by Don Bosco – is a beacon of light, a safe haven, the maternal love of her son and of all of us, her sons and daughters. She is ultimately the MOTHER in whom we abandon ourselves and who will always lead us to her beloved Son. I also saw this in Piura.

Our Lady on the balcony
And at the same time I would like to add another small comment with a necessary self-criticism for all of us who are sons and daughters of Don Bosco. It comes down to this: God’s spirit reaches where it wills and touches the hearts of his faithful in a way that only he knows how. This is the case with the devotion to the Mother of the Son of God, and my critical note is that not in all parts of the world has the Mother of Heaven, our Mother Help of Christians, been made known in the same way, with the same intensity, with the same apostolic passion. There are places where we have developed schools, where we have taken steps, where we have certainly served the good of the people, but we have not succeeded in making her known and loved.
This would be incomprehensible to Don Bosco. I will tell you that for me it is equally incomprehensible and unacceptable. Because, moreover, if there were people in Don Bosco’s family who did not refer to Mary Help of Christians, they would be something else, but they would not be sons and daughters of Don Bosco. She, the Mother, and devotion to Mary Help of Christians as Mother of the Lord and our mother is not optional in the Salesian charism, as it was not for Don Bosco. It is, quite simply, essential. “Mary Most Holy is the foundress and she will be the supporter of our works,” Don Bosco used to repeat continuously, “She will be generous with us with temporal and spiritual gifts. She will be our guide, our teacher, our mother. All the Lord’s goods come to us through Mary.”
In one of his dreams, Don Bosco saw a very noble Lady dressed royally, who came out on her balcony shouting: “My children, come, shelter yourselves under my mantle.”
It is my fervent wish that she, the Mother of the beloved Son, she, the Help of Christians, continue to be as special in all parts of the world as she is in the “city of eternal heat” (Piura-Peru).
Happy Feast of Mary Help of Christians to everyone throughout the world.

The Association of Mary Help of Christians (ADMA) was founded on 18 April 1869 by Don Bosco, as the second group of his work after the Salesians, with the aim of “promoting the glories of the divine Mother of the Saviour, in order to merit Her protection in life and particularly at the point of death.”

            The Pious Association of Mary Help of Christians was founded after the opening of the Basilica dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, which took place on 9 June 1868 in Turin. With the building of the Basilica, Don Bosco saw with his own eyes the realisation of the famous dream of 1844, in which the Virgin Mary, in the likeness of a shepherdess, made him see “a wondrously big Church” in whose interior there was “a white banner on which was written in huge letters: HIC DOMUS MEA, INDE GLORIA MEA.” Many individuals, especially from among ordinary folk, had contributed offerings to the building of the Shrine as a sign of gratitude for graces received from Mary Help of Christians. The faithful had made “repeated requests that a pious Association of devotees be started, who, united in the same spirit of prayer and piety, would pay homage to the great Mother of the Saviour, invoked under the title of Help of Christians.” This popular request – made even though an ancient (12th century) and strong devotion to Our Lady existed in Turin under the title of the Consolata – indicates that the initiative came from above.

Thus one can also understand the reason for the request for approval of the Association made by Don Bosco himself: “The undersigned humbly asks Your Grace that for the sole desire of promoting the glory of God and the good of souls he agree that in the church of Mary Help of Christians consecrated a year ago by Your Grace to Divine Worship, a pious union of the faithful be started under the name of Association of the Devotees of Mary Help of Christians. The main aim would be to promote adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and devotion to Maria Auxilium Christianorum: a title which seems to be of great pleasure to the august Queen of Heaven.” His request was not only accepted, but in less than a year from its foundation (February 1870) the Pious Association of Mary Help of Christians became an Archconfraternity.

            The name “ADMA” that Don Bosco gave to this association, meant the Association of the Devotees of Mary Help of Christians, where the word “devotees” reflected what St Francis de Sales taught: “Devotion is simply a spiritual activity and liveliness by means of which Divine Love works in us, and causes us to work briskly and lovingly.” This devotion is further specified: “Don Bosco, aware of our difficulties and frailty, took a further, even more beautiful step: we are not general devotees, but devotees of Mary Help of Christians. In his experience, the gift of love which unites the Father and the Son (grace) and which drives us to action (charity), passes explicitly, almost sensitively, through Mary’s maternal mediation”, as Don Bosco’s successor, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, points out.
            Don Bosco founded ADMA to share grace and spread and defend the faith of the people, spreading adoration of Jesus in the Eucharist and devotion to the Virgin Help of Christians, two pillars of our faith, throughout the world. This seed sown by the saint has now spread to 50 countries around the world, with around 800 groups attached to the Turin Primary ADMA.
            Today in ADMA, at the school of Don Bosco, paths of prayer, apostolate and service are followed in a family spirit. Devotion to the Eucharist and to Mary Help of Christians is lived and spread, valuing participation in liturgical life and reconciliation. Christian formation is aimed at imitating Mary in living the “spirituality of daily life”, seeking to cultivate a Christian environment of welcome and solidarity in the family and wherever people live.
            On the occasion of the 150th year of the foundation of ADMA, the successor of Don Bosco, in his letter “Entrust, confide, smile!” he left the Association some instructions. The invitation is to let ourselves be guided by the Holy Spirit for a renewed evangelising impulse, anchored to the two pillars, the Eucharist and devotion to Mary Help of Christians with certain emphases:
            – living holiness in the family, giving witness mainly through perseverance in love between spouses, parents and children, brothers and sisters, young and old;
            – bringing Our Lady into the home, imitating Mary in all that one can;
            – offering a way to holiness and apostolate that is simple and accessible to all;
            – participating in the Eucharist, without which there is no path to holiness;
            – entrusting ourselves to Mary, convinced that she will take us “by the hand” to lead us to the encounter with her Son Jesus.

            The privileged opportunities for living and spreading devotion to Mary Help of Christians among ordinary folk, and asking for graces, are the practices of piety: the commemoration of the 24th of each month, the rosary, the novena in preparation for the feast of Mary Help of Christians, the blessing of Mary Help of Christians, pilgrimages to Marian shrines, processions, collaboration in parish life.
            Members of ADMA are part of the great Salesian Family tree, a movement of people promoted by Don Bosco under the guidance of Mary Help of Christians, for the mission to youth and ordinary folk: “We must unite” he wrote in 1878 “among ourselves and all with the Congregation… aiming at the same goal and using the same means… as in a single family with the bonds of fraternal charity which spurs us to help and support each other for the benefit of our neighbour.” In the Salesian Family ADMA retains the task of emphasising the particular Eucharistic and Marian devotion lived and spread by St John Bosco, devotion which expresses the founding element of the Salesian charism. From this perspective, among other things ADMA promotes the International Congress of Mary Help of Christians for the whole Salesian Family, the next one to be held in Fatima from 29 August to 1 September 2024. The title chosen for this event will be “I will give you a teacher”, in memory of Don Bosco’s dream at nine years of age. This will be the 200th anniversary of the dream.
            In order to get to know ADMA better, as well as the website admadonbosco.org, you can also follow their monthly formation and communion sheet “ADMA on line” and their book series Notebooks of Mary Help of Christians, both of which are on the same site. You can also follow them on their social media channels Facebook and Youtube, and a brochure can be downloaded from HERE.

In the month that recalls the apparitions at Lourdes for us, we take the opportunity to point out the error into which, some time ago, the author of a negative life-story of Don Bosco the Saint fell in his attempt to ridicule the devotion to Mary Help of Christians.
The essayist wrote:
“In such a saturation of Marian cult, history pretty much sub specie Mariae, it is surprising not to find traces in Don Bosco’s life of such important events as the apparitions of La Salette (1846) and Lourdes (1858); and yet everything that happened in France was resented in Turin, far more than what was unfolding in Italy. I do not understand this absence. Was it the mantle of Mary Help of Christians and the Consolata that formed a jealous barrier against other protections and appearances of the same figure?”

What is truly astonishing here is the surprise of a writer not unaware of Salesian sources, because Don Bosco spoke and wrote repeatedly about the apparitions of La Salette and Lourdes. In 1871, i.e. a good three years after the consecration of the Church of Mary Help of Christians and Don Bosco’s commitment to spread the devotion, he himself compiled and published as the May issue of his “Catholic Readings”, the booklet entitled: Apparition of the Blessed Virgin on mount La Salette. In this little volume of 92 pages, which had a third edition in 1877, Don Bosco described the Apparition in all its details, then moved on to other prodigious events attributed to the Virgin.
Two years later, in 1873, he published, as the December issue of the same “Catholic Readings”, the booklet entitled: The Wonders of Our Lady of Lourdes. The issue came out anonymously but was preceded by an announcement “To our benefactors, correspondents and readers” signed by Don Bosco.

In the Biographical Memoirs
And that is not all. In the Biographical Memoirs, describing the first feast of the Immaculate Conception celebrated at Pinardi House in Valdocco on 8 December 1846, the biographer, Fr G.B. Lemoyne, asserts that the feast was “made more cheerful by information regarding an apparition of Our Lady in France at La Salette”; and he continues: “This was Don Bosco’s favourite subject, repeated by him a hundred times.”

To anyone who is supercritical, the expression “a hundred times” will seem exaggerated, but those who know our language know that for us it simply means “many times” (“I have told you a hundred times”). And “many times” does not mean “a few”, much less so “never”.
We find in the same Memoirs on 8 December 1858:
“Don Bosco was delighted with such encouragement as he celebrated the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. All the more so since in this year a portentous event had made the glory and goodness of the heavenly Mother resound throughout the world and Don Bosco had narrated it several times to his youngsters and later gave a report of it to the press.” Clearly this was about Lourdes.
There is more. A chronicle from 1865 reports the “Good Night”, or evening sermon to the young people given by Don Bosco on 11 January that year:
“I would like to tell you magnificent things tonight. Our Lady deigned to appear many times over a few years to her devotees. She appeared in France in 1846 to two shepherd children, where, among other things, she foretold the blight affecting potatoes and grapes, which did happen; and she was sorrowed by blasphemy, people working on Sundays, acting like dogs in church, that had kindled the wrath of her Divine Son. She appeared in 1858 to little Bernadette near Lourdes, recommending that she pray for poor sinners…”
Note that in work had begun that year on the construction of the Church of Mary Help of Christians; yet Don Bosco did not forget the Marian apparitions in France.
Then it is enough to look in the Salesian Bulletin to find many references to Lourdes and Salette.
How can it be insinuated, then, that “the mantle of Mary Help of Christians” formed “a jealous barrier against other protections and appearances of the same figure”? How can it be said that traces of such important events as the Apparitions at La Salette (1846) and Lourdes (1858) are missing in Don Bosco’s life?
Since we are always on the lookout for “curiosities”, we also wanted to record this one, which reveals how certain non-fiction has very little to do with authentic and serious historical knowledge.