Mary Paulina Finn - The Venerable Don Bosco, the Apostle of Youth

Mary Paulina Finn

Published by Good Press, 2020

EAN 4064066063344

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This brief sketch of the holy life and marvellous achievements of a great inheritor of the spirit of Saint Francis of Sales , the Venerable Don Bosco is intended only to stimulate souls to a wider study of this loving Apostle of Youth, and so to a knowledge and reverence and appreciation, we dare to hope, which will urge them onward in the ways of holiness, and make them ardent and practical co-operators in the divine work of saving the youngthe most pressing need of our timesinitiated by the Founder of the Salesian Society, and brought to wonderful issues through the miraculous power of God and the loving intervention of Mary, Help of Christians.

Fascinating reading is the "History of Don Bosco's Early Apostolate," by an eye-witness, his saintly son, Don Joseph Bonetti, which recounts in simple, affectionate language and comprehensive detail the story of the first twenty-five years of the Oratory of Saint Francis of Sales (18411866), eventful years teeming with prodigies in the spiritual and temporal order. A veritable Boswell , the author declares in his closing lines: "By it I would show my gratitude to Don Bosco, who received me as a boy, who educated me, both to religion and the priesthood, in which I have been able to be of some small service to others. May my hand wither and my tongue lose the power of speech if I should ever cease to speak of that home of charity and peace, I who have lived there so many years and enjoyed its hospitality."

A complete life of Don Boscoa monumental onehas been furnished by the Reverend John Baptist Lemoyne , another saintly disciple of the Salesian Founder. It is circumstantial and graphic in the highest degree; and, abounding in personal as well as contributed reminiscences of Don Bosco, enriched with his instructions and letters, and teeming with the historic interest of the times, it possesses an indefinable charm, which is enhanced as we enter with bated breath the world of the supernatural in which Don Bosco lived and where he led even his little ones as to their Father's home.

But a Memoir that will hold the hearts of posterity in veneration and love is the autobiography written by Don Bosco at the express command of Pius IX ., a precious manuscript still in the archives of the Society, and bearing the title, "Memoranda of the Oratory from 1835 to 1855. Exclusively for the Salesian Society." This amazing record of God's miraculous dealings with an elect soul has not yet been given to the public in its entirety; but excerpts of extraordinary beauty, couched in the simple language of humility, indicate what we are to expect when the Church shall have set her seal conclusively on the life and works of Don Bosco.

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BIRTH AND EARLY CHILDHOOD

This year, 1915, all the nations are doing honor to the memory of a man who was born a hundred years ago, August 16, 1815, in sunny Italy, on the western slope of the Alps. They are keeping the centenary of his birth, some with magnificent celebrations. And who is this illustrious favorite of four continents? you will ask. Is he a great general who won famous victories? No, he never steeped his sword in the blood of his fellow-men. Was he a renowned poet, a singer of songs to the heart of the people, a chanter of high epics, a great dramatist? Human histories do not so record him. Was he an extraordinary musician, then, or a Titian or Raphael in art that the world so honors him? No, he was not a Napoleon , nor a Mozart , nor a Raphael. Yet I dare to say he was all of these, but in a sublime and supernatural manner; and I think when we have studied him a little together the generous hearts of my readers will be in accord with me.

The name of Don Giovanni Bosco , the saintly parish priest of Turin, the Apostle of Youth, has gone forth into the whole world. The Church has already set her seal of approval, on his sanctity by proclaiming her priest Venerable; and the Apostle of Youth he is rightly called, for he saved thousands, hundreds of thousands, of children from moral destruction.

In the far days of the past, so far back that they seem like a beautiful, hallowed dream, I learned to know and love Don Bosco, then in the zenith of his great achievements, a living and powerful force for good. His name became a household word with us because of the profound appreciation of our mistress for his heroic character, his noble simplicity, and his astounding labors for the glory of God and the salvation of the poor little homeless boys roaming the streets of Italywaifs in her beautiful, historic cities, no one to love them, to care for them, or educate them, but many, alas! to teach them crime and wickedness by word and example. Don Bosco had known the pangs of poverty, and his great heart, Christ-like in its vast capacity of loving, took them all in, and they became his own children, his own far-reaching, virtuous, and happy little world of souls.

You are familiar with Joseph's prophetic dream, how he and his eleven brethren were all binding sheaves in the field, when suddenly his sheaf arose and stood, and their sheaves all bowed down before it. How cruelly they hated him for that dreamselling him finally as a slave into Egypt, where the vision was realized when Joseph became ruler of the country and held their destinies in his hands. God often foreshadows the future to little children who are serving Him with their whole heart and soul. What beautiful visions the little Joan of Arc had of her supernatural mission as savior of France! And perhaps some of you have read the story of the child, Just de Bretenire, afterwards the heroic priest-martyr of Corea at twenty-eight years of age. In 1844, ere Just had completed his sixth year, he was one day playing with his brother in the garden, both digging, when suddenly Just stopped, and looking into the hole he cried: "Look, I see the Chinese! I see the Chinese! Come, let us dig deeper and we shall reach them." While digging vigorously, he described their appearance and costumes, and declared he could even hear their voices. "They are calling me," he said to his mother who had come to the spot; "and I must go to save them."

God favored our little John Bosco with such a vision, though he told it as a dream to his mother and brothers at breakfast. Here is his own version of it: "I stood on a hillock, and saw numberless wild beasts approaching me from the neighboring wood; they terrified me as they advanced jumping, fighting and biting each other, when a mysterious voice told me to bring them to pasture. Immediately I held a crook to them; they followed, and, strange to say, I had then around me only a flock of gentle sheep."

The mother treated the dream lightly, as an illusion, though in her heart she trembled with joy as she thought it might be a token that this beloved son was called to the priesthood. Anthony and Joseph pleasantly ridiculed it; one warned him not to become a bandit chief; the other prophesied that he would have a drove of pigs. Later in life, at Barcelona, he confessed that the mysterious voice was the Blessed Virgin's; disguised as a shepherdess she gave him the crook, saying that he would tame the animals, and even indicated how this was to be accomplished. In a vision later he saw that some of the lambs became shepherds and assisted in guarding and directing the flocks. And the whole world is witness of the miraculous manner in which this prophetic dream has been fulfilled in the stupendous moral transformations Don Bosco wrought during his long and active life of seventy-two years.