3. TOURS AND VISITS “Would you be good enough to help me?” I asked one, “Would you come to the apse and take the big boys?” To the taller one I said, “I entrust to you this class, which is the wildest.” Realising that they were excellent catechists, I asked one of them to give a short sermon to our boys, and the other to give benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Both accepted graciously. The shorter priest was Father Antonio Rosmini, founder of the Institute of Charity. The other was Canon Archpriest De Gaudenzi, the present bishop of Vigevano. From that time, both of them were always kindly disposed towards our house; in fact they were benefactors. (MO Ch. 53). But there was no lack of visits of a less courteous nature: Marquis Cavour was still sending along his guards. Every Sunday he sent some agents or policemen to spend the whole day with us, watching all that was said or done in church or outside it. “Well,” Marquis Cavour said to one of these guards, “what did you see and hear in the midst of that rabble?” “Lord Marquis,we saw a huge crowd of boys enjoying themselves in a thousand ways. In church we heard some hair-raising sermons. They said so many things about hell and devils that it made me want to go to confession.” “And what about politics?” “Politics weren’t even mentioned. Those boys wouldn’t understand anything about politics.” (MO Ch. 41). Fr Lemoyne tells us that “the Marquis’s order did a great deal of good for the guards. They ... had never heard these truths preached and hadn’t been to confession for year, so they became afraid, and as soon as Don Bosco had finished his sermon, they went up to him and asked to go to Confession.” (MB 2, 447). Very soon what was going on at the Pinardi chapel produced positive results. Don Bosco was able to pick out some of his boys in view of eventually sharing the apostolate with them. with this in mind, in 1848, the retreats began: I adopted every means to pursue also my own particular objective, which was to observe, get to know, and chose some individuals who had a suitable inclination to the common life, and to take them with me into my house. With this same purpose, in that year (1848) I put it to a test with a little spiritual retreat. (MO Ch. 48). The Lord blessed the Oratory work through some miraculous signs which Fr Lemoyne tells us about, like the multiplication of hosts during one of Our lady’s Feast Days in 1848 (cf. MB 3, 441–442) or the chestnuts in November 1849 at the door of the Pinardi chapel (cf. MB 3, 575-578).
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