THE VENERABLE DON BOSCO
streaming tears, pointed upward, and the saintly apostle knew that his mother's soul had gone to its rest in the bosom of its Creator.
"He went at once," writes Father Bonetti, "to celebrate Holy Mass in the Chapel of Our Lady of Consolation, accompanied by young Joseph Buzzetti. There after offering the Holy Sacrifice in suffrage for her soul, he stopped to pray for a long time before the image of Our Lady. Among other things he said to her: 'I and my children are now bereaved of our mother. O be thou for the time to come in a special manner my Mother and theirs also.'"
The funeral was plain, as Margaret had desired: her beloved Poverty was her attendant to the last, and bent over her dead form with a smile, for "her only gown was on her in the coffin." Many ecclesiastics were present, and all the members of the three Salesian houses of Turin followed their "Mother Margaret" to the grave.
Father Bonetti describes the scene. "The funeral was modest but impressive. A solemn Mass was celebrated in the Church of the Oratory, and the boys offered a General Communion for the repose of the soul of their great benefactress and mother. All then escorted the bier to the Parish Church, and the singing of the Miserere was accompanied by the plaintive strains of our band. The cortege was so orderly and edifying that several affirmed they had never assisted at such an affecting funeral."
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