CHAPTER XXXII
DON PAUL ALBERA. THE PRESENT STATUS OF THE SOCIETY
Don Michael Rua died in the odor of sanctity in 1910, in his seventy-third year; and his mortal remains lie in the same tomb at Val Salice with those of his father and model, the Venerable Don Bosco. His successor, the Very Reverend Paul Albera, was also one of the saintly founder's early children and emulated his master and his companions in the strife after perfection; so that in France they called him another Don Bosco. He was Don Rua's assistant for many years, and was frequently deputed to visit as his representative the various houses of the Institute. I have before me a record of his arrival and splendid reception at the great Salesian house, Battersea, London, "after his journeys in America of nearly three years duration, journeys which extended over every point of the Salesian missions, from the frosty shores of Tierra del Fuego up to the Lazarettoes of Colombia"—where he gave missions to the poor lepers—through Central America and Mexico, on to California, and thence, by way of Chicago, to New York. They were leisurely visits, teeming with consolation and help to his brethren, while to himself they brought not only consolation, in spite of weariness and frequent suffering, but that wisdom, bought by experience,
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