THE APOSTLE OF YOUTH
Francis of Sales. And thousands of students had achieved success in other honorable walks of life, where they reflected credit upon the Society and its Venerable Founder.
What beautiful young virgin souls he had consecrated to God in the Society of Mary, Help of Christians, whose mission went hand in hand with that of the Salesian Fathers everywhere! What husbands and wives, what fathers and mothers had been sent forth equipped to carry on his work, to implant the teachings of Christ in the souls of future generations, to ennoble and elevate the family and society! And who could count the multitude of blessed souls, saved through him, that came in glorious procession to meet him on his entrance into the heavenly land?
Don Bosco left the mantle of his sanctity as well as of his authority upon the shoulders of his beloved Don Michael Rua, who had been his assistant from the foundation of the Salesian Society, whom he had brought up at Valdocco from early childhood in the ways of God and whom he regarded with veneration as a saint. Don Bosco had sometimes in a playful manner in Don Rua's presence held up two fingers significantly toward him. One day the latter ventured to ask the founder the meaning of the gesture. "It means that you are to do half of my work," Don Bosco answered with cheerful satisfaction. And in his last moments the Venerable Superior-General reiterated solemnly to his successor what he had
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