The Venerable Don Bosco, the Apostle of Youth/Chapter XIII
CHAPTER XIII
DON BOSCO'S LITERARY WORKS. PRINTING PLANT. THE SALESIAN BULLETIN
I have said that Don Bosco wrote over a hundred books—no one ever believed more devoutly than he in the apostolate of the press. The spoken word first, in season and out of season. "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace!" was verified daily in his life, as well as in the lives of all his followers in the ways of St. Francis of Sales. But after that and the cares, spiritual and temporal, of his beloved family had been attended to, every leisure moment was given to writing or to thought and conversation preparatory to it.
Oliver Wendell Holmes was one day talking with a few friends and an enchanted hour slipped by in listening to his oracles of wisdom and experience drawn from the study of his fellow-men. One of his hearers said with regret: "Dr. Holmes, would that all you have said to us were in print, that it might benefit thousands!" "Perhaps it will be some day," answered the doctor laughing; "I have a way of roughing out my thoughts to my friends before they appear before the public eye." Don Bosco had a goodly share of that wisdom, so that his leisure hours of converse, as well as his hours of prayer, contributed generously to his written page, and swelled the number of his books almost to miracle.
And, besides, Don Bosco never wasted time. St. Liguori, whose voluminous works are the treasure of the Church, made a vow which might well frighten the most saintly, never to waste a minute of time; and I have often thought that vow was like the fiery chariot of Elias, which bore his soul up to heaven to witness the "Glories" of divine love, and then, returning to earth, sped him over its vast spaces scattering his pages—so many sparks of fire to kindle heavenly love in the hearts of men. I really believe if we could enter into the secret world of Don Bosco's life in God, we should find that vow or its equivalent there written in the Heart of Jesus; for he, too, scattered his burning pages over the world in miraculous haste, and number, and spiritual variety.
He did not aim at the world's admiration in his choice of word and phrase. He looked to God for the thought and the power, and then wrote in simple, strong, concise language his gospel message to the young; for to them his eyes were always directed; to create the temple of God in their souls was his one imperious and dominating motive. Don Bosco had the gift of genius which might have put him on a par with the finest prose writers of Italy, had literature been his ambition. But all his beloved classics, in collegiate days so profoundly studied, so carefully imitated, were now disregarded, art for art's sake spurned, before the world's crying need of instruction and his own powerful convictions, fairly burning themselves into the paper.
I am going to introduce a paragraph by one of his own devoted students which, I think, will lend a charm to the pleasant topic under discussion. How beautiful the picture of the saintly and learned theologian waiting on his mother's words for suggestion and correction in matters so weighty!
"I feel quite affected when I think of those happy years during which our beloved Father often related the trouble he took in his youth to study the composition of flowery, figurative rhetoric; and his difficulties later—the struggle and effort to write in the plain, simple style, always faultless, which makes his ideas and writings charming. I remember what he told us of his 'Ecclesiastical History,' and his venerable mother, who, though endowed with great judgment, was ignorant of literature. Wishing to make his 'History' intelligible to all, he got her to read it; then he retouched and corrected it according to her advice. Sometimes, regardless of fatigue, he re-wrote entire chapters. His wish was, without despising art in its sober beauty, to be fully understood. His works may be classed under four heads: works of piety, works of religious discussion, narratives for youth and course of classics."
Chief among his writings are "Sacred History;" "Ecclesiastical History," just referred to, a voluminous work of research, full of charm and interest, in twenty volumes from one hundred to two hundred and fifty pages each; and his "History of Italy," comprising upwards of five hundred pages, "a clear, concise, judicious statement of events." He assures the reader that he has not written one phrase without collating it with accredited historians. This book was highly praised by the renowned Tommaseo. The Minister of Public Instruction found it so estimable that he adopted it in the public schools and rewarded the author with a thousand francs. "The Catholic Church and the Hierarchy," "The Catholic in the World," and many other volumes of a similar nature, are replete with instruction, convincing by their clear, conclusive logic, and practical in the extreme.
Don Bosco's system in education was preventive rather than repressive, or it would not have attained to such phenomenal success. Here is his secret, laid down in his rule: "Frequent confession, frequent Communion, daily Mass; these are the pillars which must support the whole edifice of education." The confessional was an educative power with Don Bosco which can hardly be conceived; he spent long hours of day and night in the church or at the end of the homely Valdocco corridor, one arm generally around the boy penitent to encourage him. Daily Communion was with him the open door to every heavenly virtue, and through it he led his disciples and made them saints. And the holy Sacrifice of the Mass! Who that beheld his reverence, his absorption in God, his rapt countenance, as he offered the Divine Victim for his little waifs, all intent upon the sacred function, could ever forget it? And therefore these three golden pillars form the recurrent theme of his most ardent exhortations by the pen as by the spoken word. He inculcated these lessons by every form of literature—by graphic pictures of the love of Jesus, doing away with all fear and distrust.
"Arithmetic Made Easy" is only one of many titles that have a pleasant sound for students' ears, for his pen was ever "a scrivener that writeth swiftly" and lovingly to ease their labors. With his stories for youth, his biographies and his religious and moral fiction, our readers have already made acquaintance; and he was no less expert in the dramatic art, having published several excellent plays for public performance by his boys.
From primer class to professor's diploma, religion was the spirit that dominated every study in Don Bosco's curricula. Popular treatises on science which ignore the Creator of all things and present purely material ideas to the young, were superseded by carefully prepared works which elevated the mind and trained the heart while teaching the marvels of creation. Mythology he abhorred. "Shame on mythology!"—these are his strong words: "Nature in its beauty, life in its reality, history in its immortal pages, supply an ample fund of examples and comparisons, provided the professor takes some personal trouble."
In making humanists or scholars his principle was to make good Christians. He would have the De Officiis of St. Ambrose by the side of Cicero's De Officiis; and St. Cyprian's rhetoric a companion to Pro Archia and Pro Marcello. "All my life," he wrote in his late years, "I have struggled against the error of bringing up young Christians as pagans; with this object I have undertaken double publication; that of some of the profane classics most used in the schools, revised and corrected, and of Christian classics. Among the latter I selected those written in concise, elegant style, with pure, holy doctrine, which corrects and weakens the naturalism freely permeating the first. To restore Christian authors to their place, to make pagan authors as harmless as possible, are the ends I have had in view in all the works I have undertaken."
And Don Bosco encouraged literary talent whereever he found it, so that from his schools emanated celebrities in the various departments of literature: His Eminence, Cardinal Cagliero, the Apostle of Patagonia, Don Rua, Don Cerruti, Don Durando and numbers of other distinguished doctors have written on theological and moral subjects; and the other careers of life are similarly represented by authors of style and erudition.
The need of economy in publishing his works became apparent, and Valdocco early had an extensive printing plant of its own; from the manufacture of paper and types to the perfection of binding and gilding, everything necessary to the art of book-making was supplied, and highly skilled work accomplished within its walls by the eager and indefatigable young mechanics and printers. Latin, French and Italian publications were brought out in exquisite taste under Don Bosco's eye and prudent direction, and the printing industry became a lucrative source of income.
Although for years Don Bosco had projected a Salesian periodical he was unable to compass his desire until 1878, when the Salesian Bulletin, a monthly magazine, was launched upon the world to be a mighty power for good. The Annals of the Society in pleasing detail are to be found within its pages—of untold value for records of sanctity and heroic achievement in all parts of the world. The Salesian Bulletin, still issued from Valdocco, Turin, is now published monthly in nine languages: Italian, English, French, Spanish, German, Polish, Portuguese, Hungarian and Slavonic, comprising a total of three hundred and fifty thousand copies.
Its illustrations are attractive and its emblems full of suggestiveness. Its simple cover of paper is the object of special care in design and drawing to the young Salesian artists of Turin, and presents a beautiful religious study. Amid a multitude of details, Mary, Help of Christians, St. Francis of Sales and the Venerable Don Bosco are prominent figures; and the soul-cry of the Order gleams upon its scroll through the emblems of study, art and labor: Da mihi animas: caetera tolle! (Give me souls: takeaway everything else).