11. THE MAGIC RIBBON, 1845
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"I seemed to find myself on a vast plain, covered with an innumerable number of young men. Some were fighting, others were swearing. Here they were stealing, there they were lacking of modesty. A cloud of stones, thrown by warring sides, was flying through the air. They were youths abandoned by their parents and of corrupt habits. I was about to leave when I saw a lady standing next to me and She said to me: "You must go to these young people and act.
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I went to them, but what to do? There was no place to put any of them; I wanted to do them good: I went to people who were watching from afar and who could have helped me a lot, but no one would listen to me and no one would help me.
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Then I turned to the lady, and she said to me, "Here is a place for you," and she pointed to a meadow.
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- But here," I said, "there is only a meadow.
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She answered, "My Son and the Apostles had not even a meter of earth on which to lay their heads.
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I began to work in that meadow; I counseled, preached, confessed, but I saw that my efforts were useless for most of them, unless I could find a fenced-in place with premises where I could gather them and where I could shelter some who had been totally abandoned by their parents, discarded and despised by everyone. Then that Lady took me a little further north and said to me: "Look! And I saw a small, low church, a small courtyard and many young people. I began my work again. But since that church was already narrow, I went to the kind Lady again, and She showed me another church, much larger and with a house next to it.
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Then She took me a little further on, to a cultivated piece of land, almost opposite the front of the second church. And she added: "In this place, where the glorious martyrs of Turin, Adventor and Octavius, suffered their martyrdom, on this land bathed and sanctified with their blood, I want God to be honored in a very special way.
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And so saying, She advanced one foot until She placed it on the exact spot where the martyrdom took place and indicated it to me with precision. I wanted to put a sign to find it when I returned that way, but I found nothing: not a stick, not a stone; nevertheless, I fixed it in my memory with complete exactitude.
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It corresponds exactly to the inner corner of the chapel of the Holy Martyrs, on the Gospel side of the Church of Mary Help of Christians.
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In the meantime, I saw myself surrounded by an immense and ever-increasing number of young people; and as I asked the Lady for help, the means and the place grew; and then I saw a very large church, precisely in the place where She had made me see that the martyrdom of the Saints of the region of Thebea took place, with many buildings around it and with a beautiful monument in the middle of it.
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While all this was going on, always dreaming, I had priests as collaborators who helped me at first, but then they left. I tried with great difficulty to attract them to me, but they would go away soon after and leave me alone. Then I turned again to that Lady, Who said to me, "Do you want to know how to stop them from leaving you? Take this ribbon and tie it on their head. I reverently took the white ribbon from Her hand and saw that on it was written one word: obedience. I immediately tried out what the Lady told me to do and began to tie the ribbon on the heads of some of my volunteer co-workers, and soon I saw a great and truly astonishing change. This change became more and more noticeable, as the advice I had been given was being carried out, since they gave up their desire to go elsewhere and stayed, at last, with me. Thus the Salesian Society was formed.
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I saw, in addition, many other things that it is not now the case of manifesting them (it seems that they were alluding to great future events). Suffice it to say that, from that time on, I was on the safe side, both with regard to the Oratories and with regard to the Congregation, and with regard to the way of relating to all sorts of authorities. The great difficulties to come are all foreseen and I know how to overcome them. I see clearly many things that were going to happen in the future. That is why after having seen houses, churches, schools and religious who were going to collaborate with me, I began to talk about all this, and to tell them as if they were already a reality. That is why some people thought I was crazy or that I was making nonsense... Our Lady had informed me ...
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. 12. The martyrs of Turin 1845
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I seemed to find myself in the square of Valdocco, in Turin, and directing my gaze to the river Dora, I managed to see among the trees, where today is the Avenue of Regina Marguerita, next to Cottolengo Street, in a field planted with vegetables, corn, beans and cabbages, three very beautiful young men, radiant with light. They were standing in that place which, in the previous dream, had been pointed out to me as the site of the glorious martyrdom of the three soldiers of the legion of Thebea. They invited me to come down and approach them. I went towards them, and they kindly accompanied me to the end of that piece of land where today stands majestically the Church of Mary Help of Christians, I found myself in front of a Lady, magnificently dressed and of admirable beauty, majesty and splendor, and accompanied by a select group of venerable elders with the appearance of princes.
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Innumerable personages, adorned with grace and dazzling wealth, courted Her as a queen. And forming endless circles around Her, rows and rows of angels stretched out until they were out of sight. The Lady appeared precisely where the main altar of the great Church of Mary Help of Christians is now located and invited me to approach. When She had me by Her side, She said that the three young men who had brought me to Her were the martyrs Solutor, Adventor and Octavio, which seemed to indicate that they would be special patrons of that place.
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Then, with an ineffable smile on Her lips and with loving words, She encouraged me not to abandon the boys and to continue, more and more fervently, the enterprise I had begun; She told me that I would encounter very serious obstacles, but that they would all be smoothed out and overcome if I put my trust in the Mother of God and in Her Divine Son. Finally, She showed me a house nearby that really existed, which I later learned was the property of a certain Pinardi; and a church, precisely where that of St. Francis de Sales now stands, with the adjoining building. Then, raising Her right hand, She exclaimed in a voice of ineffable harmony: "THIS IS MY HOUSE, FROM HERE WILL COME MY GLORY". Hearing these words, I was so impressed that I woke up (Don Bosco).
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Note: Don Bosco was very impressed by this dream. He inquired with a great scholar and historian, to know where the three martyred soldiers (who belonged to the Legion of Thebea) had been martyred and he told him that the martyrdom had been in the outskirts of Turin, near the river Dora (where the dream indicated). Twenty years later, Don Bosco built the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians there, a temple from which the devotion to the Blessed Virgin spread to many countries of the world.