THE VENERABLE DON BOSCO
of Salesian rules "of wonderful wisdom, discretion and sweetness," emanated from the hands of the saintly founder—rules tried seven times in the fiery crucible of loving and heroic obedience by his ardent followers—rules which planted the roots of sanctity deep in the vital recesses of the soul, later to flourish and spread its branches over the whole world laden with fruit for the healing of the nations.
Hardly any story of the formation of a religious order could be more interesting, touching, thrilling in its details; and to indulge in the cumulative evidence of detail, of anecdote, of conversations, is the momentary temptation of any author who would write of Don Bosco. But space limits me; and my readers may well await, in this as in all the other circumstances of this mysterious life, the filial revelations of Father Lemoyne in his wonderful fifteen-volumed biography of the Apostle of Turin. Don Bosco was truly living two lives—more in the invisible world of spirit than in the world of superhuman activities in which, however, he seemed always plunged; seemed, I say, for it was a divine power that guided them all, and though he was not exempt from the most cruel trials yet was he, I may truly say, care-free in his utter infantine dependence on God.
And, therefore, as in ever increasing numbers these young, strong-souled priests and trained professors of his own making, relinquished every
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