The Venerable Don Bosco, the Apostle of Youth/Chapter XXIX
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 not lose hope: let us both pray to Mary, Help of Christians, and she will obtain his conversion." Two years elapsed and there was no sign of it. "On the morning of January 31, 1888," continues the priest, "as I was sitting in my room, I looked up and to my surprise beheld Don Bosco standing before me.
"You here, Don Bosco?" I exclaimed.
"'Yes,' he replied. 'I have come to tell you that Our Lady has granted your request.'
"I am very grateful to her and you, I said; but why did you come without letting me know? I should have wished to—but here I stopped for Don Bosco had disappeared and I was left alone. At first I thought I must have been dreaming; but on the same morning I heard of Don Bosco's death, and I concluded that he had come to visit me before going to Paradise. A few days afterwards, the gentleman whose conversion I had prayed for, made a good confession, and ever after led a most exemplary life."
Toward the end of 1887, Sister Adèle Marchesa, experienced an utter loss of sight. After several specialists had pronounced her case hopeless, she pleaded to be taken to Don Bosco. But he being then in his last illness the doctors would not permit it. When she heard of Don Bosco's death on January 31, she entreated more earnestly than ever to be carried to the Church where his body lay. Thither she was borne on the first of February, but the crowd was so great that her party could not find entrance. They returned early the next day, and Sister Adèle, kneeling by Don Bosco, took his hand and with it touched her eyes. Immediately her sight was restored. "I see Don Bosco!" she cried aloud twice. "I see you; Don Bosco has cured me." Her sight was perfect ever after.
One of the boys at the Oratory became seriously ill. Through the kindness of the Superiors, his mother was allowed to nurse him there. On February 1, being at the point of death, he suddenly looked up and his eyes became fixed on some object at the door.
"Mother," he said, turning to her, "did you see him?"
"Who?" questioned the mother.
"Don Bosco," he replied.
"Surely not; Don Bosco is dead and his body is lying in the Church."
"Well, I saw him," insisted the boy. "He came to tell me that in three days he will come to take me with him to Heaven."
"No, you will not die yet; you must get better and come home with me."
"What for, mother? Is it not better to go to Heaven?"
The mother was broken-hearted, and resolved to take him away from the Oratory. This news afflicted the sick child. "Why must I leave the Oratory?" he lamented. "I want to die under the mantle of Mary."
Though it was snowing heavily, the mother was inflexible. On his arrival at the hospital he said to the Sister of Charity: "I wish to receive the Holy Communion tomorrow."
"Then you must be one of Don Bosco's boys," said the Sister; "they are all alike; they ask at once for Confession and Communion."
"I am to die very soon, Sister; tomorrow Don Bosco will come for me."
"No, no," protested his mother, "do not believe him; he is under a delusion."
The morning hour came and brought the little sufferer his beloved Lord in the Holy Communion. His joy and calm were inexpressible. All the day the poor mother sat by his side while he was in a sweet sleep. At five o'clock in the afternoon he awoke from his slumber, and raising his eyes to one in front of him exclaimed: "Here he is, here he is, come quickly!" A smile of joy on his face, his pure soul sped forth with his beloved Don Bosco to his early-achieved blessedness.
The apostle's reputation for sanctity so widely established, with miracles and prophecies in so great number attributed to him, there was ere long a general petition of clergy and laity that his Cause might be introduced into the Roman Court. The petition was granted by Pope Leo XIII. The "Process Ordinary," the first inquiry into the virtues and miracles of Don Bosco, was solemnly opened in Turin on June 4, 1890, and ended on April 1, 1897 after five hundred and sixty-two meetings. These acts were all conveyed to Rome, and committed for farther scrutiny and consideration to the Sacred Congregation of Rites.
Countless, we might almost say, were the wonders made known during this first Process; they would fill volumes, tributes to Don Bosco's sanctity, from all parts of the world. Extraordinary cures of soul and body, supernatural conversions, marvelous prophecies fulfilled, wrongs righted, reconciliations brought about, reckless sons or daughters led back to duty, divine vocations, especially to the Salesian Orders, in which the finger of God was openly manifest.
The tomb of Don Bosco, their beloved benefactor and wonder-worker, became to the people of Turin a sacred place. There might be seen individuals and groups of fervent pilgrims confiding to him as in life the secrets of their grief, their present needs or their future hopes. And they built on solid rock, secure that he whose heart was a fountain of love, of pity, of refreshment for all the weak and indigent when on earth, whose prevailing prayer ever brought Heaven-sent resources to his redeeming work, was now a still more powerful and loving advocate, his soul immersed in the splendors of the Heart of Jesus, the divine furnace of charity.
Their confidence was superabundantly rewarded; faith and enthusiasm grew as the story of cures and temporal and spiritual prodigies was noised abroad; and little pilgrimages came from the various provinces of Italy, from France, from all Europe, and even from America, to obtain healing and light at the tomb of Don Bosco. At the close of the Salesian International Congresses, held at the Oratory of St. Francis of Sales, Turin, the Cardinals, Prelates, and other dignitaries, with Co-operators from all parts, went in solemn procession to venerate the mortal remains of the Apostle, to pay their tribute of praise and remembrance to him, and to uplift their souls to greater deeds in his silent presence.