The Venerable Don Bosco, the Apostle of Youth/Chapter IX
CHAPTER IX
DEATH OF MAMMA MARGARET
Don Bosco's heart overflowed in thanksgiving to God, when, in November, 1856, his new boarding-school was completed free from debt, and filled to its limit with his joyous children.
But a cross was coming; the health of his beloved mother was visibly failing.
A violent inflammation of the lungs had set in, and her sufferings were intense, borne with the heroic patience which had characterized the whole life of this remarkable woman. "The boys prayed fervently for her cure," writes Father Bonetti, "for she was to all of us a second mother, and by her kindness and maternal care made us forget that we had lost our own mother or were far away from her. At almost every hour of the day some were at the patient's room to inquire after her health. In the evening after prayers all awaited with anxiety some news from Don Bosco. The sorrow was general when the last rites of Holy Church had been administered, for we knew that death was fast approaching."
Margaret would not be removed to the new home. "It is too splendid for this poor old woman," she said; "let me die poor, as I have always lived poor."
After giving her last advice to Joseph and his children, she spoke with affection and even authority to John, entering into minute, confidential details:
"Despise splendor in your works; have effective and real poverty as your object…… Have confidence in your fellow-laborers in the Lord's vineyard, but see that their aim is the glory of God…… As your Institute gloriously increases, it should increase in humility, and not esteem itself as superior to other religious houses. Each member should willingly be second to others in the wide road of charity, where there is abundant room for all. God will bless those who act thus."
More than once Margaret expressed her happiness at seeing the numbers of Don Bosco's children who now wore the soutane. "They are my children, too," she would add with a smile.
On the 25th of November the end seemed near, and the happiness of Heaven beamed upon her face. In the evening Don Bosco administered the last Sacraments to his dying mother. His grief was excessive and affected Margaret to such a degree that after the ceremony was over, and the last kiss and good-by given, she said tenderly to this favorite son: "Now, Giovanni mio, do not stay: you suffer, and it frets me."
He obeyed her, and kneeling in his own room where he could hear the murmur of prayers around her bedside, poured out his grief and tears at the foot of the crucifix. At three in the morning Joseph entered. Don Bosco arose. Joseph, with streaming tears, pointed upward, and the saintly apostle knew that his mother's soul had gone to its rest in the bosom of its Creator.
"He went at once," writes Father Bonetti, "to celebrate Holy Mass in the Chapel of Our Lady of Consolation, accompanied by young Joseph Buzzetti. There after offering the Holy Sacrifice in suffrage for her soul, he stopped to pray for a long time before the image of Our Lady. Among other things he said to her: 'I and my children are now bereaved of our mother. O be thou for the time to come in a special manner my Mother and theirs also.'"
The funeral was plain, as Margaret had desired: her beloved Poverty was her attendant to the last, and bent over her dead form with a smile, for "her only gown was on her in the coffin." Many ecclesiastics were present, and all the members of the three Salesian houses of Turin followed their "Mother Margaret" to the grave.
Father Bonetti describes the scene. "The funeral was modest but impressive. A solemn Mass was celebrated in the Church of the Oratory, and the boys offered a General Communion for the repose of the soul of their great benefactress and mother. All then escorted the bier to the Parish Church, and the singing of the Miserere was accompanied by the plaintive strains of our band. The cortege was so orderly and edifying that several affirmed they had never assisted at such an affecting funeral."
Margaret Bosco's age was only fifty-eight; in ten years she had fulfilled the sacred mission to which she had been called by the Divine Heart of Jesus. "Suffer the little children to come unto me," had met with an ardent and persevering response from her great heart. The stories told of her sweetness and charity and sacrifice are multitudinous, all permeated with the deep affection of the narrators. Her prudence and management always forestalled the desires of Don Bosco, and many were trained by her to the various employments of the house. As the Society grew, these places were filled by boys who, not called to the priesthood, yet would not leave Don Bosco, but remained as coadjutor Brethren to serve the others and supply the temporal wants of the great household.
The great Courtyard in front of the Church
of St. Francis of Sales
in Turin