The Venerable Don Bosco, the Apostle of Youth/Chapter XXVIII
CHAPTER XXVIII
A RETROSPECT. DON MICHAEL RUA, SUPERIOR-GENERAL
The Venerable Don Bosco, as he lay dying in the Oratory of Valdocco on January 31, 1888, was the Father and Superior General of two hundred and fifty houses of the Salesian Society in all parts of the world. In these beneficent institutions one hundred and thirty thousand children were being educated and trained; and annually there went forth eighteen thousand finished apprentices ready to enter upon the career of life with self-reliance, fitted mentally and physically for their self-chosen art or trade, and—of deeper import to society—their characters moulded to the highest ideals of morality and religion.
During the marvelous years of development from that memorable December 8, 1841, on which Don Bosco, newly-ordained, had providentially met and saved the little waif, Bartholomew Garelli, he had given six thousand priests to the Church of God, learned, fervent and saintly apostles, of whom twelve hundred, faithful to the traditions of their childhood, had clung with filial love to their guardian and devoted themselves heart and soul to the heroic labors for the young which he had initiated in the Society of St. Francis of Sales. And thousands of students had achieved success in other honorable walks of life, where they reflected credit upon the Society and its Venerable Founder.
What beautiful young virgin souls he had consecrated to God in the Society of Mary, Help of Christians, whose mission went hand in hand with that of the Salesian Fathers everywhere! What husbands and wives, what fathers and mothers had been sent forth equipped to carry on his work, to implant the teachings of Christ in the souls of future generations, to ennoble and elevate the family and society! And who could count the multitude of blessed souls, saved through him, that came in glorious procession to meet him on his entrance into the heavenly land?
Don Bosco left the mantle of his sanctity as well as of his authority upon the shoulders of his beloved Don Michael Rua, who had been his assistant from the foundation of the Salesian Society, whom he had brought up at Valdocco from early childhood in the ways of God and whom he regarded with veneration as a saint. Don Bosco had sometimes in a playful manner in Don Rua's presence held up two fingers significantly toward him. One day the latter ventured to ask the founder the meaning of the gesture. "It means that you are to do half of my work," Don Bosco answered with cheerful satisfaction. And in his last moments the Venerable Superior-General reiterated solemnly to his successor what he had often predicted relative to the expansion of the Society after his departure to another life. He bade Don Rua look forward to the future with confidence and hope, but to prepare for far greater things than even the remarkable achievements which had made his own life so eventful.
The inherent vitality of the Society, indeed, was not even yet realized by those who had watched its progress and taken an active part in it from its inception; its possibilities were yet to be revealed to them, for the passing of the founder, which seemed to crush every hope of a great future, only gave a new impetus to his apostolic works in all directions; and it was manifest that his power as a heavenly protector and intercessor for the cherished companions and children left on life's highway, was not less effective in its supernatural aid from on high, than his actual presence and living inspiration had been on earth.
As I reflect upon the band of apostles that filed out under Don Bosco's Salesian banner, my heart is thrilled as it is in contemplating the heroism o£ the first Christians. Don Bosco, endowed with the skill, sweetness and magnetism of a heavenly director, had formed saints and heroes to perpetuate his work, for none others could do it. And Mary Mazzarello, whose Cause of Beatification is already opened in Rome, had no less left her spirit of supreme self-denial as a heritage to her Salesian Sisters. What venerable names, radiant with light, loom up before the eyes as memory traces the pages of the Salesian Annals during these three-score years!
How many of these humble and heroic pioneers may not our Holy Mother the Church, in the fullness of her heart, yet raise to her altars—a crown of stars around the head of their Venerable Founder!
Setting aside the countries of their own Europe, cast a glance upon South America. From the Republic of Colombia down the long stretch of mountain, plain, cities and wilderness to Tierra del Fuego, from Rio Janeiro across the interior savage regions of Brazil to the coasts of Chili and Ecuador, the continent is netted with Salesian churches and Institutes and missions. True, the Fathers met with a paternal welcome from the noble and zealous prelates, were received even with civic honors at times by the rulers of the Republics and greeted with joyous acclamations by the people as messengers sent by God for their salvation and religious comfort. Yet none the less they had to take their lives in their hands, prepared to sacrifice them at any moment. Through long suffering and hardships and tremendous perils they won savage tribes to Christianity and civilization. Their courage did not fail before the army of the poor, afflicted lepers—thousands of them-in the lazarettoes of Colombia, Theirs is a story written large in every department of the "History of South America," and the Salesian annalists merit an honored place in the literature of the world.
In other foreign missions, in Palestine, in Alexandria, Egypt, in Algiers and Cape Town, Africa, in Macao, China, in Tanjore and Calcutta, India, the same exalted ideals of sanctity and self-sacrifice dominate the Salesian; his mission is everywhere founded on the meekness and humility of the Sacred Heart of Jesus—the fullness of the interior life passing into outer activities of zeal, to win hearts and bow minds to the sweet yoke of Christ.
As a confirmation of my remarks touching the expansion of the Society, I will quote from one of the "Annual Letters" of Don Rua, the Superior-General, to the "Society of Co-operators", descriptive of the work accomplished by the Salesians in 1904, the sixteenth year after Don Bosco's happy death.
"Most rich in the blessings of the Heavenly Queen," he declares it to have been, "during this jubilee year of the definition of the dogma of her Immaculate Conception." He names no less than twenty-four new foundations in the different countries, of Festive Oratories, seminaries, theological institutions, schools of agriculture and institutes of arts and trades; while the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians, have been called to establish fourteen new houses of their order in Italy, Spain, Belgium and South America. Urging upon his readers the duty as well as the glory of sustaining the Salesian missions, he states: "Over one hundred and fifty missionaries left ports of Europe during last October and November for the various parts of Africa, Asia and the Republics of South America." Don Rua calls his co-workers' attention also to "four large churches which our Society, entirely at its own cost, has at present under construction, besides many others of smaller dimensions."
The venerated Don Rua, even on his death-bed, was never weary of manifesting his gratitude to the Salesian Co-operators.
"I desire," he humbly requested, "that you would tell them that I am full of gratitude for the help they have given our works. If Don Bosco said that without them he could have done nothing, how much less could I have done, who am but a poor creature! I am therefore obliged to remember them in a special manner. I will pray for them, for their families and friends, that the Lord may reward them in this life and in the next."
And when in 1910, on the death of the saintly Don Rua, the supreme direction of the Salesian Societies was committed to the Very Reverend Paul Albera, his grateful heart overflowed at once upon his magnanimous Co-operators; after having imparted to them the special blessing of the Holy Father, he made known his sentiments in a long and beautiful letter from which we present a brief excerpt:
"I seize this opportunity to assure you that recognizing my littleness in comparison with that giant of charity and virtue, our lamented Don Rua, I have still the holy ambition of not being inferior to him in the affection and gratitude I profess toward our Co-operators."
Very Reverend MICHAEL RUA
Successor of Don Bosco, Born in 1837, Died in 1910