The Venerable Don Bosco, the Apostle of Youth/Chapter XXXI
CHAPTER XXXI
THE HISTORIAN OF DON BOSCO DON LEMOYNE
"Dearly Beloved Children in Jesus Christ: The Lord in His inscrutable and loving dispensation on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, September 14, at 6:40 P. M., called to Heaven our beloved
Emeritus and Honorary Secretary of the Superior Chapter, and Biographer of our Venerable Father Don Bosco, at the age of seventy-seven years, seven months and thirteen days."
This announcement of the Superior General Don Paul Albera precedes the brief but touching biographical notice of the saintly disciple and historian of the Venerable. "The departure from this life", he says, "of one who lived for so many years with Don Bosco in the most cordial intimacy, gathering up all the pulsations of his paternal heart in order to make them known to future ages with biblical sincerity, cannot but be to us all a severe trial…… But may the holy and adorable Will of God he done now and forever!"
My readers will be moved and uplifted, as I have been, by some excerpts from this life, pleasing to God and man.
John Baptist Lemoyne was born in Genoa, February 2, 1839, of Luigi Lemoyne, the royal physician, and the Countess Prasca, a model of virtue for all Christian mothers. Brought up in the innocence of a Stanislaus, the youth chose the ecclesiastical career; and after pursuing his studies with the most splendid success, he was ordained priest on June 14, 1862.
The religious life, however, strongly attracted him; and Divine Providence, who loves to guide lowly and docile hearts, pointed out clearly the path he was to follow. In the Process for the Cause of Beatification of Don Bosco, he declared in these terms his Salesian vocation:
"In 1864 I had already been a secular priest for two years. Meanwhile I had heard much about Don Bosco who was reputed a saint: but I did not know that he was the founder of a religious Society. In the month of July I visited Turin for the purpose of seeing him; he was absent from the city, however, and I returned to Genoa. On the last Sunday of September, being at Belforte, a small village near Ovada, I prayed in the chapel of our Lady to know the will of God in my regard. The following morning on awakening, I heard a distinct voice at my ear which said to me: Go to Lerma! (a small village one hour's distance from Belforte) and you will find Don Bosco! It must be noted that I was quite unaware Don Bosco ever visited this region. Accordingly, I offered the Holy Mass absorbed in the thought of what had happened; yet fearing it might be the effect of imagination I imparted my dream to young Marquis Carlo Cattaneo, who answered: Dream or no dream, let us go to Lerma, and question the Pastor. This we did; and to our great astonishment learned that Don Bosco was really expected there in a few days. Sure enough, Don Bosco came. I had a conference with him and, at his invitation, I entered the Oratory of Valdocco a few days after, and in his Institute I lived with Don Bosco from that day until his death."
There was a wonderful congeniality between these two souls: Don Lemoyne was drawn to his guide with so intense an affection and admiration that from the day he set foot in the Oratory, comprehending in all its grandeur the mission of Don Bosco, he began at once to write down every action and saying of his worthy of remembrance. His eyes ever fixed on his director, he imbibed his spirit in governing and guiding the young and his prudence in the conduct of business affairs.
Having pronounced his perpetual vows before Don Bosco, November 10, 1865, he was elected Director of the College of Lanzo, where he shone in every Salesian virtue. All under his charge, confreres, young clerics, students, and the youthful artisans, felt his perfect and universal spirit of love and devotedness, for he had an art all his own in guiding souls. The "past-pupils", from every social class, set no bounds in their manifestations of gratitude and appreciation of his great heart and heavenly virtues. The same testimony was rendered in the other Institutes which he governed during his long and active life, Mornese and especially Monferrato, "where the Venerable in order to imbue with his spirit the new-born Institute of the Daughters of Our Lady Help of Christians, intrusted its direction to Don Lemoyne, confident of the most happy success."
And yet during all these busy years his pen never ceased its labour of love in portraying the heroic virtues, the daily sacrifices, the great and the lowly deeds, the lofty teachings, the miracles and the prophecies of his beloved Founder. He had questioned the cherished "Mamma Margaret," and the childhood years of her favorite John are painted with simple beauty and minute detail. And on, on through the saintly career he dogs the steps of his revered hero—nothing escapes his keen eye and loving heart. God so approved of the beautiful task to which he had set himself that His Providence often brought the dear chronicler, apparently by chance, into the presence of Don Bosco when he wrought some of his greatest miracles or uttered some of his most striking prophecies.
The continual recurrence of the personal element on almost every page; the precious contact with a saint every day and hour for such lengthened periods; a Father limned for us in such entrancing, heavenly colors by Love's brush, give the wonderful "Memorie Biografiche di Don Bosco", a charm, almost poignant in its penetrating beauty, that one finds simply inexpressible.
"In 1883 Don Bosco summoned him to the Valdocco Oratory to be the Secretary of the Superior Chapter and Editor of the Salesian Bulletin, which he directed for nearly ten years. God so disposed circumstances that he should become the most intimate companion of the Venerable during the last five years of his precious existence, and should hear from his own mouth the relation of the many wonders that Divine Providence was effecting through him."
And during these active years he gave to the world many charming volumes of piety, books of poems and hymns, with numerous dramas for the boys and girls of the Salesian Oratories. On the death of the Venerable Don Bosco "to him was committed the great work of gathering and publishing the Biographical Memoirs. In this work the dear dead," I am citing the revered Don Albera, "consumed the last thirty-three years of his existence. With the patience of a Carthusian monk, he collected first of all the most precious documents, and then began his work of writing. In 1898, he presented to us the first volume of the Memorie Biografiche di Don Bosco; and after that, one at a time, eight other volumes followed. The ninth volume which is now in process of publication was revised by the dear author himself. For the remainder of the life of Don Bosco, eighteen more years, he left the written material all prepared."
The world owes an immense debt of gratitude to the gifted Salesian. His great unfinished work is still in the original Italian; and the volumes are limited to the possession of the Salesian houses until the Church shall have pronounced definitively on the marvels related therein.
When that moment comes we trust a gifted pen will present us an English translation worthy of the great author.
Don Lemoyne's death was like his life calm and serene, his soul sweetly united with God under the protecting mantle of Mary, Help of Christians, during those last solemn hours on the Cross with his Crucified Master.
"On the morning of the Feast of the Exaltation, the Holy Viaticum was brought to him solemnly and he received for the last time with fervent recollection the dear Jesus he had so ardently loved and made others love. At his bedside was His Eminence Cardinal Cagliero, suggesting pious aspirations; and surrounding him in prayer were his Superiors and brethren who held him in their hearts' affections as the dearest relic of their departed Founder, the beloved Don Bosco. Extreme Unction was administered and the papal blessing given; his agony lasted till 6:40 P. M. when his soul passed peacefully to its eternal rest.
"And now his blessed body reposes in the cemetery with those of our many other brethren who have preceded us to the grave: we shall no more behold his sweet and loving figure; but his memory will always live with us, and we shall remember the luminous examples he has given us of prudence, amiability, profound piety and ardent love of labor and retirement."