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CHAPTER XXIX

AFTER DEATH

Don Rua, the successor of Don Bosco, thus attests, in his deposition for the Cause of Beatification, the general devotion that immediately followed upon the death of his departed Father:

"Although in life Don Bosco had attracted a multitude of persons to him by the fame of his sanctity, yet after his death there was a great increase of devotion: the learned and noble, ecclesiastics especially, were those who evinced most confidence in his intercession. And not only from Turin, but from all parts of Italy, from France, Spain, Austria, etc., and from across the ocean, the United States, Canada, and all the other countries of America, came to me letters imploring for prayers to Don Bosco. I can certainly say that these came by hundreds every week."

There were many manifestations of the potency of his prayers. Among numerous cases reported by the pen of Father Lemoyne. I choose only three for the edification of my readers:

The parish priest of Nyas, France, tells us that one day speaking to Don Bosco of a well-known scientist of his parish who had neglected for several years the practice of his religion, Don Bosco considered for a moment and then said: "Do

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