From: rich <
richarra@gmail.com>
May 14th - St. Mary Mazzarello, Don Bosco's Lieutenant
(1837-1881)
How often, in the history of the saints, the male founder of a
religious order of men, has been providentially associated with a
saintly woman who has established a parallel order of nuns! One
recalls St. Benedict and his own sister, St. Scholastica; St, Francis
of Assisi and St. Clare of Assisi; St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane
Frances de Chantal, to name just a few.
St. Mary Mazzarello was another such. She collaborated with St. John
Bosco, the famous Italian educator of boys and founder of the
Salesians (1815-1888). Under his direction she would found the
Daughters of Our Lady Help of Christians.
Maria Dominica Mazzarello was the first-born child of a peasant who
farmed near Mornese, a town in northwestern Italy not far from Genoa.
Her father and mother, Joseph and Maddalena Calcagno Mazzarello, were hard-working folk, and their children, too, labored long hours in the
fields and vineyards. Teen-aged Mary, tough and strong physically,
thought nothing of walking frequently to their distant parish church,
both for Mass and to attend events in connection with the parish
sodality of Mary, of which she was a charter member.
This =E2=80=9CSodality of the Daughters of Mary Immaculate=E2=80=9D was est= ablished in
1855 by the pastor, Don Pestarino, in consultation with Don John Bosco
of Turin, whom he highly admired. It was almost like a religious
order, with a rule of its own and a schedule of devotional and
charitable works. Thus, when a typhoid epidemic broke out at Mornese
in 1860, the Sodalists were asked to take care of the stricken. Mary
was assigned to her uncle and his family. She was rather frightened at
the prospect, but she consented. Along the line, she herself became
infected, and came close to death.
One of the after-effects of her illness was that she was no longer
able to engage in the rugged labors of farming. Looking for less
arduous means of self-support, she and a friend named Petronilla took
up dressmaking. Not content just to sew in partnership, the pair
started a business that also gave training and employment to local
girls. Now, Don Bosco had already won note for the vocational schools
he had founded for boys, in which he would train them in various
skills and at the same time educate them in piety and social behavior.
Mary sought to do the same for young women, and Don Bosco himself
encouraged her. Thus, he and she established, in 1872, the Daughters
of Our Lady Help of Christians, to be known more familiarly as the =E2=80=9CSalesian Sisters=E2=80=9D (after St. Francis de Sales). Its earlie=
st members
were former members of the Sodality of the Daughters of Mary
Immaculate. St. John Bosco wrote the rule for the new order and named
Mary Dominica, now aged 35, as their superior. He housed them in a
building he just had erected in Mornese as a schoolhouse for boys. Incidentally, years before, Mary had a vision of some sort of a school
filled with pupils and supervised by nuns in habits, on that very
spot.
The new congregation got off to an uneven start. The villagers of
Mornese had wanted a school for boys in the building chosen for the
convent. They therefore subjected the sisters to many petty annoyances
and mockery, and even the relatives of the first nuns gave them the
cold shoulder. Some must have wondered why Don Bosco chose Mary as
superior, since by her own admission, she could scarcely write. But,
as time passed, Bosco's choice proved justified. By 1878 six of the
sisters, trained by her in Salesian ideals, were deemed qualified to
accompany the Salesian priests' 2nd mission to the Indians of
Argentina. By 1879, indeed, the order had so many aspirants that they
had to move to a larger convent in another locality. During Mother
Mary's lifetime, 13 more convents were opened in Italy and France; =
and
by the 1930s the worldwide total of convents was 800. Teaching was
their main task, but they were ready to undertake any good work that
would benefit their pupils. The positive spirit of St. Francis de
Sales and St. John Bosco characterized their whole approach. They
achieved discipline, and achieved it well, not by plying the stick but
by using the gracious approach of Christ Himself.
Early in 1881, Mother Mary fell seriously ill when away from home on
business. She asked Don Bosco whether she was likely to recover. His
reply was basically: =E2=80=9CNo, it is the office of a superior to lead ev=
en
in death.=E2=80=9D On April 27, Mary received the anointing of the sick. Sh=
e
cheerfully said to the priest who administered it, =E2=80=9CNow that you=E2= =80=99ve
given me my passport, I can go any time, can't I?=E2=80=9D In her l=
ast hours
she suffered a grievous temptation to despair, but she overcame it by
singing softly to herself, again and again, a little hymn to Our Lady.
Mother Mazzarello died, aged 44, on May 14,1881. Pope Pius XII
canonized her in 1951. The remains of this lieutenant of St. John
Bosco are now enshrined side by side with those of her =E2=80=9Ccaptain=E2= =80=9D, Don
Bosco, in Turin.
Saint Quote:
At the resurrection the substance of our bodies, however
disintegrated, will be united. We must not fear that the omnipotence
of God cannot recall all the particles that have been consumed by fire
or by beast, or dissolved into dust and ashes, or decomposed into
water, or evaporated into air.
--St. Augustine, The City of God
Bible Quote:
You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was
completed by the works. [James 2:22]
<><><><>
Born as a son,
led forth as a lamb,
sacrificed as a sheep,
buried as a man,
He rose from the dead as a God,
for He was by nature God and Man.
He is all things: He judges, and so He is Law;
He teaches, and so He is Word;
He saves, and so He is Grace;
He begets, and so He is Father,
He is begotten, and so He is Son;
He suffers, and so He is Sacrifice;
He is buried, and so He is Man;
He rises again, and so He is God.
This is Jesus Christ, to Whom belongs Glory for all ages.
-- by Saint Melito of Sardis
--- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
* Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)