Miracles

St. John Bosco

Miracles St. John Bosco

Archbishop Costamagna tells of the miracle performed by Don Bosco in his native country Taramagna, on the feast of the Holy Cross in 1867. A poor woman introduced herself to Don Bosco, advanced in years, crippled: she dragged herself with the help of two crutches. She asked Don Bosco: "Have pity on me too, give me a blessing". And Don Bosco said: "Kneel." But she answered: "I cannot, my legs are almost dead, it has been so long since I was able to kneel." Don Bosco insisted: "It does not matter, kneel." And the woman leaned on her crutches and tried to bend down to the ground. The Holy man removed her crutches from under her arms and threw them on her shoulders, in front of hundreds of people who were watching in silence and then applauded.
The woman knelt, weeping with joy, knowing that she had been healed, she asked how he could thank Don Bosco and the Saint replied: "Say with me three Hail Mary to Our Lady Help of Christians." Who tells of this event, is a witness well qualified, present during that event.

In 1877, a lady from Turin accompanied her daughter of ten years, Josephine Brighi, who had been paralyzed and mute by a month, to see Don Bosco. It happened in Valdocco, on the eve of the feast of Mary Help of Christians,in the antechamber of Saint Bosco there were a lot of people, including Congressman Earl Charles of Gilletta, who was thinking of becoming Salesian. Everyone agreed to give priority to the unfortunate girl. The mother met Don Bosco, told a painful story and asked for a blessing for Josephine. The saint imparted a blessing to the little sick girl and invited her to make the sign of the cross. The girl did, but with the left hand which was not paralyzed. "Not with the left, but with the right," said Don Bosco, and repeated the invitation. The girl raised her paralyzed arm and made the sign of the cross, as if her arm had not been paralyzed. "Well - said Don Bosco - but you have to say these words, as I do." The girl, mute for a month, moved her tongue and repeated the sign of the cross, accompanied by the words. She shouted: "Our Lady healed me." In confirmation of the miraculous healing the girl walked perfectly and quickly in front of Don Bosco and the guests. The Count, who witnessed the miraculous event, saw in it a sure sign for his Salesian vocation.

Lemoyne, pupil and biographer of Don Bosco, tells the story of a boy who died and rose again. We're in Florence in 1870. The Marquise Girolama Uguccioni had a passionate affection for her godson, who suffered from severe illness and was about to die. The Marquise reached Don Bosco, who was visiting the College of Scolopi and begged him, with tears in her eyes, to come to her house, where the godson was dying. The Holy man agreed, but found that the child was already dead. He invited those present to pray to Mary Help of Christians and then gave his blessing to the dead. As soon as he ended the blessing, the boy gave a yawn and began to breathe again, he smiled at the godmother and soon the boy recovered completely.
For this reason, when the Holy man passed through Florence, he was always a guest of the Marquise, who became a generous benefactor of the works of Don Bosco.She told everyone about the godson raised by the Saint.
After his death,the fame of extraordinary events, attributed to his intercession, continued to spread more and more each day : instant healing, conversions deemed humanly impossible.

Sister Provina Negro, daughter of Mary Help of Christians, and resident in Giaveno, in 1905 accused ventricular ulcer in the stomach, loss of appetite, prostration of strength. She was taken to Turin and cured by Dr. Farini. But the decay appeared unstoppable and her condition became increasingly more serious.
Since each remedy failed, Sister Provina, encouraged by her sisters, decided to resort to Don Bosco with a novena of prayers. Then she decided to go even farther: She recited some prayers, took the image of the saint, made a bullet of it and swallowed it.
"From that moment she felt perfectly healed:all illness ceased forever. The doctors of the Congregation of Rites were all in agreement in recognizing that the only cure was to be attributed to supernatural forces.

Sister Adele Marquis, Daughter of Mary Help of Christians resident of Turin, was suffering from tuberculosis, for about a year and she had also completely lost her sight. On February 1st, 1888,she was conducted to venerate the mortal remains of the saint: she laid her hand next to that of Him,then she placed it over her eyes and in that instant recovered her sight.

Anna Maccolini Rimini met Don Bosco in Turin in 1886. At the age of 74,she was hit by various diseases: bronchitis, heart failure, organic deterioration, edema of the foot, so serious to cause her limb to become twice the volume of the right one, making, at times, every movement impossible. To make matters worse, she developed a severe phlebitis, which threatened her life. The sick woman, lost all confidence in men and decided to make recourse to the patronage of Don Bosco. She had a framed picture of the Blessed man in her room, and a priest had given her a relic of the saint. It was this that caused the miracle, with a lanyard he applied it over the left thigh above the knee. Then she fell asleep. When she woke up she felt with her hand the sick leg and immediately noticed that the swelling was completely gone and that it was completely healed. She shouted for the joy: "I am healed: Don Bosco did the miracle." The doctors had to recognize the complete disappearance of phlebitis and recognized that the instant healing exceeded all the laws of nature.

The healing of Catherine Lanfranchi was accomplished in the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Turin May 6th, 1931. Catherine suffered from an illness that progressively worsened. From 1905 to 1920 her knee joints worsened. she then suffered from: headaches and dizziness with worsening of articular lesions. Since 1929 her arthritis had worsened too, to the point of making impossible to stand and to walk.

Driven by hope, she decided to travel to Lourdes, against the advice of relatives and doctors. She remained in the city of Mary for four days without any sign of improvement. She left for Turin:here, together with Catherine, the pilgrims stopped at the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians . She herself describes what happened at that time: "I went into the church, supported by my sister and my sister in law and I immediately saw the urn of Blessed Don Bosco. I crawled to the bench that is in front of the casket and found myself on my knees without my noticing and exclaimed: "What a pleasure to feel so good" and I prayed. I did not notice that I was healed. Seeing ,near the casket, Bishop Prosdocimi, director of the pilgrimage, I wanted to go to say hello and thank him, walking freely on my own. I understood then that I was completely healed. I felt full of desire to walk: I was all changed." Experts stated that Catherine Lanfranchi was instantly and permanently healed.

"Marina Della Valle, who suffered from cancer of the uterus, after praying with no relief Mary Help of Christians and various saints, advised by Don Dalmas, rector of St. John the Evangelist, recited a novena to Don Bosco, the last day, February 8, 1889, while she seemed to be about to die, after receiving the Last Rites,she took in her hands the photograph of the saint, begged him again with faith and, after an hour of rest,she woke up completely healed and immediately got up and she would,immediately, have gone to church to give thanks to the Lord, if she had a dress to wear, but she found none because the family had, long, distributed them to the poor, sure that, after the repeated statements of the doctors, she would no longer have been healed.

Jean-de-Maurienne, from Savoy, since 1886, had been suffering from a serious disease of the breast and since 1889, as a result of tubercular peritonitis, compounded by a tumor or abscess , was very close to die. After having received the Last Rites, she was advised to recite, together with the community, a novena to Don Bosco: one day before the end of the novena, she had a vision of the saint promising her to heal her: the next day she was instantly healed.

Don Giuseppe Manaj, Rector of Zerfaliu, Diocese of Oristano,had been tormented for three years by a fistula at the corner of the left eye and had been diagnosed with criocistite. A few months after the death of Don Bosco, he applied over the diseased eye a piece of cloth, which had belonged to the saint, saying, "O Father Don Bosco, I firmly believe that you are in Heaven, and you can make my illness vanish." And in an instant he was cured; Narrating the fact, he said plainly, "if this was not a miracle, I do not know what else is.".

Mary Constantine Vorbe, Sister of Charity in Vesoul, in the diocese of Besançon in France, had been seriously ill for eight months with internal ulcers in the stomach, vomiting blood forcing her to be fed on milk alone; on the eighth day of a novena to the Servant of God, she was suddenly healed,she got up from the bed, ate with the sisters and returned to her work in the kitchen, and in the aftermath she went on a pilgrimage to a chapel on a hill nearby.

On 1st April 1934, Pius XI proclaimed John Don Bosco Saint. He had been declared Blessed on June 2nd, 1929. To the glory of God, the Church.