The Venerable Don Bosco, the Apostle of Youth/Chapter XXII
CHAPTER XXII
DON BOSCO IN FRANCE
Up to his last years, Don Bosco was accustomed to visit regularly his institutions in France. They had no revenue except public charity; and the Fathers confessed that each visit of his was to them a harvest while everywhere he enlisted new Co-operators. His life during these visitations was full of activity. After his Mass and breakfast the house was crowded with visitors, whom he received till midday. Dinner over, he again gave audiences, generally from one o'clock till eight. He took his meals with the community, where he was always cheerful and witty. After supper he attended to his correspondence; the mail brought him daily a hundred letters or more, and he scrupulously endeavored to answer all. An Italian and a French secretary read to him the letters ordinarily, and received his instructions as to the answers, which were read aloud to him the next morning and signed by him. He was consulted by persons of all ranks on the most diverse subjects, for his judgment was regarded with unlimited confidence. He retired at eleven o'clock, to spend, no doubt, hours of prayer and close union with the Holy Spirit after the long day of labor for God's glory. From his seminary life he had limited his hours of sleep to five. "My mother taught me to do with little sleep," he used to say. And one of his disciples tells us that he often contented himself with less than five hours, adding the almost incredible fact that two nights of the week he slept none at all.
In 1883 he extended his travels through France, desirous of doing all the good possible ere his health, which was already perceptibly weakening, should fail utterly. In Avignon, the house where he was a guest was besieged. In spite of the watchfulness of his hosts, pieces of his soutane were clipped off as relics, for he was everywhere venerated as a saint.
"Well, if my soutane is cut," he would say with a benignant smile, "I may hope for a new one."
While awaiting dinner one day at the St. Peter's Patronage, Lyons, a Salesian house, Don Bosco expressed regret that the Fathers had not as yet erected a chapel more worthy of their Eucharistic Guest. A Mr. Michel present showed him a plan which the architect had drawn at an estimate of thirty thousand francs.
"But you will hardly get that sum now, Father," he observed; "we have had many collections and lotteries for charity here this winter."
"Nevertheless," persisted the Father, "I would like to have the money today; I feel ashamed of so poor a chapel."
Dinner was announced. At dessert the attorney of the house arose and addressed Don Bosco. "Father, I take pleasure in informing you that a charitable donor left thirty thousand francs with me for you today."
"Praise to Our Lady, Help of Christians!" exclaimed Don Bosco, with clasped hands and eyes raised to Heaven. Those present were astounded at seeing in the offering the exact sum required.
On the feast day of the rector, Don Ronchail, March 19th, a number of gentlemen dined at the Oratory. The conversation fell upon an addition which was needed at the printing house.
"How much will it cost?" asked one.
"Ten thousand francs", was the answer.
"Only that?" said the lawyer, taking out his memorandum. "We are ten here, not counting the Reverend Fathers. I open a list, and head it with one thousand francs." The paper was passed around, and in a few moments the whole sum was subscribed.
The Apostle of Turin, while collecting for his own multiple charities, often accepted invitations to advocate the cause of local orphanages or other institutions dependent upon public aid. On one occasion, while speaking at Lyons, a few considerations of his produced a powerful effect. After expatiating on the works of the Abbé Boisard for youth, he proceeded to point out that children are God's favorites, hence the necessity of guarding in early childhood the innocence, the virtues infused into the soul by the beneficence of God in the sacrament of Baptism. Then passing to social life, he continued: "If youth is bad, society will be bad. To save society, then, youth must be protected. Do you know where the salvation of society is? In your pockets. These children, whom the patronage and workshops receive, want your help and await your alms. If you repulse them and abandon them to communist theories, they will come to demand from you one day the money you now refuse; not with hat in hand, but knife at the throat; perhaps with your money they will demand your life."
His arrival in Paris was greeted with almost incredible enthusiasm. "A thaumaturgus, a saint, the Italian St. Vincent of Paul is in our city!" was the cry everywhere. For a fortnight he was "the lion of the day." He preached many sermons in Paris, commencing in the Church of Notre Dame des Victoires. Sceptics were moved, and numerous remarkable conversions followed in the great city. Crowds of the faithful congregated wherever he was expected, and waited patiently long hours in order to see him and get "the blessing of a saint."
An eye-witness writes: "I have never seen him in his orphanages, among the priests he educated; but I have seen him among the multitude, who knelt at his feet, kissed his hands, bent for his blessing; but what charmed me most was the humility and modesty of the object of this demonstration, who accepted none of it as his own, but referred all to God and the Blessed Virgin. He, a peasant's son, remained so, and sought no other prestige. He attributed all that he accomplished to Our Lady, Help of Christians; to her intercession all was due. He passed along doing good, and devoting himself to all, without choice, without predilection."
A memorable feature of Don Bosco's stay in Paris was his meeting with the celebrated Apostle of Africa, the founder of the White Fathers, Cardinal Lavigerie, who, in the Church of San Pierre, pronounced a magnificent eulogy on the Italian Apostle and his works, of which the Cardinal had seen the humble beginning in Turin. Addressing Don Bosco, His Eminence said: "I live in a country where St. Vincent of Paul was carried by force and held in slavery during two years. Now another St. Vincent of Paul is wanted in Tunis, brought by love, not by force. This St. Vincent of Paul is you, Reverend Father; with your religious family, half Italian, half French, you will accomplish better than any other, the necessary work of peace and conciliation. Your place is waiting for you…… Father of Italian orphans, I appeal to your heart. You have already responded to Europe and America; here is Africa presenting desolate children whom your heart is large enough to contain." Don Bosco could not resist this appeal. But it was many years after his holy death that Don Rua, his successor, was enabled to fulfill his promise to Cardinal Lavigerie, and found a house of Salesian Fathers in Tunis.
Among the many prodigies wrought by Don Bosco during his journey I must relate one, touching in its simplicity. One day shortly after his arrival at Nice, he had said Mass in a convent near the railway station, when a son of the official, a boy of seven, who had never walked without crutches, was brought to him by the mother, who begged him to bless her lame child.
"Willingly," answered Don Bosco, "I give him the benediction of Our Lady, Help of Christians," Then stroking the boy's cheek, he repaired to the end of the parlor.
"Come to me now, my little friend," he said, "but without crutches; let them fall. Don't be afraid. No, do not give him your hand."
The little one paused, while his mother encouraged him. Timidly, step by step, he approached Don Bosco, who then told him to go back and get his crutches. In the excitement of his new found strength, he ran across the room, caught them up, and rushed to the station whirling them in the air to the wonder of the passers-by. His mother, pale with emotion, followed, saying: "He is my son; Don Bosco has cured him." This miracle was witnessed by Don Ronchail, several religious, and some ladies who had come to consult Don Bosco.
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Private Chapel of the Venerable Don Bosco |
Ante-room where the Sick and Sorrowing waited to see Don Bosco.