Don Bosco: "... you will be saved from this scourge" - 1854, when people were dying of cholera in Turin

During the nineteenth century, Turin was ravaged by cholera on several occasions, which raged especially in the poorest city districts, which were in turn overcrowded and lacked adequate healthcare.

As early as May, Don Bosco told the young people clearly that cholera would come to Turin and leave devastation in its wake, adding: "Be assured: if you do what I tell you, you will be saved from this scourge."

"What should we do?" - the young people asked. "First of all, live in the grace of God. Wear the medal of Our Lady, which I will bless and give to everyone. Then, for this intention, pray every day: Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be, with the invocation: Ab omni malo libera nos - From all evil, deliver us, O Lord!"

The cholera epidemic broke out on 25 July 1854, and the authorities did not declare the end of the emergency until 21 November. It caused 1,248 deaths in Turin itself. The worst-affected district was Borgo Dore, where, in the first month alone, five hundred of the eight hundred infected died. Don Bosco (1815-1888) lived close by, in Valdocco.

Day by day, the districts grew ever more ghostly, with closed shops and empty streets, something rather like what we are experiencing here these days. Don Bosco, without a thought for himself, devoted himself to treating and hearing the confessions of the sick, assisted in this by his co-workers and the young people.

Don Giovanni Battista Lemoyne, in his Biography of Don Bosco, testifies: "As people of faith, we knew that from the first days of the epidemic Don Bosco had offered this prayer to the Lord at the altar: "My God, strike the shepherd, but spare the tender flock." He then turned to the Blessed Virgin, saying: "Mary, you who are full of love and a powerful Mother! Preserve for me these beloved children! If, Lord, you desire a victim among us, I am ready to die this very moment - whenever and however you will."

In the evening of 5 August, Don Bosco gave his young people a short address: "Here, my dear children, these are the remedies I propose to you so that you may be freed from cholera. They are the same ones prescribed by the doctors: sobriety, moderation, peace and courage. But how can those who are in mortal sin have peace and courage? I also want us to place our body and soul in Mary's hands. What remedy is better and more effective than the Queen of Heaven, whom Holy Church has called "Health of the Sick", Salus infirmorum? Will Mary not defend us again this year, removing this terrible evil...? If you all place yourselves in God's grace and commit no mortal sin, I assure you that cholera will not strike any of you."

Through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the epidemic was soon overcome. In memory of this grace, the city of Turin erected a magnificent granite column, with a white marble statue of the Blessed Virgin on top, which we can still see today in the square of the "Consolata" shrine.

Don Bosco immediately set to work. In the dormitories, the beds were taken apart, the rooms were thoroughly washed, and the food was improved. Don Giovanni Battista Francesia recalled: "That year the examinations were held, but before the end of July all the schools were closed." As soon as the town council opened two lazarettos for the Borgo Dore area, the saint went at once to bring help to the sick - both as confessor and as nurse. Margaret, Don Bosco's mother, always concerned for her son's health, told him that he had to face the contagion and do everything necessary to help others. There was a great need for care of the sick, but many, out of fear of infection, withdrew. The chronicles of the time read: "In certain places, as soon as someone was struck by cholera, the neighbours, and sometimes even relatives, took fright and abandoned him."

In such great need, Don Bosco decided to ask his young people whether any of them wished to volunteer to help the sick. Fourteen boys answered his call first, and then thirty more. Not one of them was struck by the epidemic. They were often even attacked for supposedly spreading the contagion themselves. Yet the young people were not discouraged, and continued lovingly to serve the sick in their homes and in the lazarettos, gladly working alongside Don Bosco. They would run to Mamma Margaret to get some bedding for the poorest. And she gave everything she had, even her shawl, all her clothing. All that remained was the dress she was wearing.

Cholera left terrible consequences behind, and it threatened again in 1884, thirty years later. Don Bosco immediately sent a letter to the Salesians: "I should like, should the need arise, for us to place ourselves at the service of our neighbour, as far as our circumstances allow – both in giving help to the sick and spiritually, receiving into our hospices those young people who are poorest, who have been left orphaned and abandoned on account of illness."