The Many Miracles of Don Bosco

The great patron saint of children worked many wonders in his lifetime

Tomb effigy of St. John Bosco, from Salesian Vocation

This piece also appears at the National Catholic Register.

"There was no greater thaumaturgus (miracle worker) in the nineteenth century," was the verdict of Augustine Auffray, one of Don Bosco's biographers. "Death, life, the devil, disease and nature proved docile to his commands." The miracles, Auffray said, "both accredited and facilitated his work."

St. John Bosco (August 16, 1815 to January 31, 1888), founder of the Salesians, dedicated his life to improving the lives of countless disadvantaged youth. Even in his lifetime, he was known for working wonders to serve his people and prove the divine sanction for his work. And yet, Bosco himself denied that he was responsible for miracles:

"Don Bosco does not work miracles. He prays himself and gets others to pray for those who recommend themselves to him; and that is all. As for the miracles, it is the Blessed Virgin who works them. She sees Don Bosco needs money to feed and bring up his thousands of children as Christians; and then she brings him benefactors by the favours she showers upon them."

The biographies and documents of his life are filled with numerous examples of healing, of which two examples will suffice. There was a crippled woman brought by donkey cart and desperate to see him in spike of the grow. When the cart couldn't get any closer, she suddenly found herself able to walk and rejoiced as she came to greet him. There was also a blind girl whose eyes, the doctors said, were "completely ruined." Bosco asked if she was given the gift of sight, she would promise to only use it for things that glorify God. She made the promise, and her sight was restored. Similar accounts of sudden and unexpected healing could fill a book. They were closely examined by during the canonization process, with affidavits submitted by witnesses and those who had been healed, and biographers collecting many more.

Read the rest at the National Catholic Register.