THE VENERABLE DON BOSCO
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
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