The Venerable Don Bosco, the Apostle of Youth/Chapter VII
CHAPTER VII
PURCHASE OF VALDOCCO PROPERTY. CHURCH OF ST. FRANCIS OF SALES. THE CHOLERA
It was not until 1851 that Don Bosco was enabled to purchase the Valdocco property, the owner, Pinardi, constantly requiring 80,000 francs, an exorbitant price. In February of that year he sought Don Bosco and agreed to accept 30,500, which was its real value. The offer was timely. This acquisition had been the object of the saintly apostle's desires for five years; and now, though his purse was empty, he concluded the contract with eyes fixed confidently on Divine Providence, assured that Mary, Help of Christians would be as ever his intercessor and treasurer.
Scarcely had Pinardi disappeared, when Don Cafasso, his spiritual director, entered with a gift of 10,000 francs from the Countess Casazza. The next day a trust fund of 20,000 francs was placed at his disposal, and a banker, his friend, supplied the lacking 500 francs. It was a joyous day for all when the contract was signed and the Valdocco fields became the property of the Oratory.
Don Bosco saw that this was a golden moment for securing a public house near by, the Giardiniera, which had long been a source of fear and sorrow to him on account of the danger to his boys from the proximity of vicious examples. He hastened to make overtures to the proprietor, which were at once accepted; and the necessary funds for the purchase poured in with promptitude.
"And now, madre mia," he said to his chief and most cherished counsellor, "I am going to erect a beautiful church on the site of the Giardiniera, and dedicate it to St. Francis of Sales."
"But where will the money come from?" inquired practical Margaret. "You know we have nothing—but debts."
"Madre mia, would you contribute if you could?"
"Certainly, you know I would, poverello mio."
"And do you think God is less liberal?"
"You are always right, my son; we will pray with the innocent children God has intrusted to us. If we are imprudent, it is in His service."
His heart full of gladness and hope he began the enterprise; the cornerstone was laid July 21, 1851, and on June 20, 1852, the new church, free of debt, was consecrated under the title of St. Francis of Sales, a solemn and ever-memorable day for the Oratory, and for the gentle Bishop of Geneva an increase of devotion as the beloved patron of the Institute.
The evening after the sacred ceremony beheld him closeted anew with "madre mia", all on fire with another project. His children must no longer live in such a ruined house; they must have a better and more commodious home. Margaret was alarmed; but he calmed her anxiety, declaring, "Money will not be wanting. The priest who spends liberally for God becomes the channel for the alms of the faithful." His hopes were more than realized, for from the king, Victor Emmanuel, down to the most lowly, all were eager to contribute to the new building.
In 1854 the cholera broke out in Italy, and its ravages were felt in many of the provinces. In Turin business was suspended, the rich fled to the mountains and the victims of the scourge died daily without help and were left unburied. Valdocco did not escape—whole families were cut off. Don Bosco adopted every possible sanitary measure to hinder its fatal inroads among his children. He offered himself to God for his flock, and more frequent and fervent prayer and greater purity of conscience became the law of the pupils.
As the hospitals filled Don Bosco accepted the charge of one in Valdocco and appealed to his young disciples for co-operation.
"Should any of you sacrifice your life in this noble charity, it will be for you a martyrdom, with the certainty of obtaining the palm of everlasting victory," he concluded with solemn assurance.
Large numbers of his devoted youths eagerly pressed forward to answer his call; but Don Bosco chose only forty of the most robust among the volunteers for this duty of charity, so fraught with danger. Four tragic months they labored heroically in the service of the sick and dying under the eye of their beloved master.
Don Bosco was everywhere; he was confessor to open the gates of heaven to the departing souls, to speed them on the way with the Bread of Life; he was physician and nurse, loving and skillful, not disdaining the most menial acts in his widesouled devotedness. After the toils and hardships of the day, he sought repose still dressed, ready for any emergency, and was called more than once during the night to afford aid to the dying. In the Oratory all was activity. Demands on Margaret's patience, time and supplies were unceasing. She gave at last the table linen and even the altar linen for the relief of the suffering.
But the dread ordeal came to an end. God's Providence had watched over the Father and his children, and the relentless herald of Death had not been allowed to claim one victim.
Cardinal Cagliero, the celebrated Salesian, now seventy-eight years of age, in a recent lecture in Rome (Feb. 1916) on his apostolate in Patagonia and the Argentine, told the following thrilling experience of his own during this period. "In the August of 1854," said the venerable Prince of the Church, "the cholera raged at Turin and I lay sick in the infirmary of the Oratory. I was then sixteen years of age, and the physicians vowed I had come to the end of my life. In the house it was said I was reduced to this state cause I had committed the 'imprudence' of accompanying Don Bosco on a visit to the lazaretto. Don Bosco was requested by the doctors to visit me and to administer the last Sacraments. He came to my bedside. I remember him yet, just as if I saw him here this moment.
"'Which is better for you,' he asked me, 'to get well or to go to Paradise?'
"To go to Paradise, I replied.
"Very well,' he added. 'But the Madonna wishes you to be cured this time. You will get well. You will be a priest. And you will take your breviary and travel far, far, far.'
"A stupendous vision then opened before the eyes of the Father. Drawing near to my bed (he was to recount it only after thirty-five years) he saw it surrounded by a savage people of tall stature and fierce aspect, of copper-colored skin and with thick black hair tied by a string at the forehead. He did not know then to what race these figures belonged; and only later on he opened in secret a manual of geography and found there that they belonged to the type of Patagonians. To the mind of the Father there then opened out a vision of that immense region, which he foretold would be rich in minerals, in industries, in factories, in railways, blessed by the precious gift of the Christian faith through the labors and the blood of his own spiritual family.
"I certainly got well. In that moment the fever left me. And I did not even receive the Sacraments because, since I grew well suddenly, it seemed to be better to do this when I should have risen. I must add that all these particulars Don Bosco revealed only after I had initiated the evangelization of Patagonia and was already its Vicar-Apostolic; because, precisely through fear of being guided by his personal impression, he never wished to take a leading part where I or my duties were concerned; but he rather left everything to be disposed by Divine Providence that it might direct all things exactly as it had shown to the Father in the glance into the future."