A bilocation of Saint John Bosco

On October 14, 1878, Saint John Bosco (1815-1888) was in Turin. However, that same day, he miraculously cured a child in the south of France. Monsieur Clement, the child's father, had taken in a tired old priest a few hours earlier, whom he had met along the road. The child, blind, deaf and dumb, was being looked after by a nurse a few kilometres away.

Jean Bosco in 1870 © CC0/wikimedia

Reasons to believe:

Mr Clement, of sound mind and body, with no history of delusions or alcoholism, took in a flesh-and-blood man, not a ghost, whose description perfectly matched that given independently by the nurse, who witnessed the child being cured by this mysterious priest that very day.

It was only later, after Don Bosco's death, when holy images of him were in circulation and his fame spread outside Italy, that the mysterious priest was identified by the parents and the nanny as Saint John Bosco.

However, we know for a fact that on October 14, 1878, Don Bosco was in Turin. In fact, he was a well-known figure in Italy, founder of the Salesians and co-founder of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. His first official trip to France was in 1883.

Famous in Italy, John Bosco was little known in France at the time. It is hard to imagine how or why the Clement couple and their son's nanny would have imagined the presence of an unknown priest resembling the saint, in Southeastern France.

The boy's miraculous recovery was attested to by the medical doctors, who stressed that there was no natural explanation for the disappearance of his permanent and incurable disabilities.

The life, mystical experiences and many miracles of Saint John Bosco, such as this bilocation, were documented in the beatification and canonisation processes, and cannot be doubted.

Summary:

Born on August 16, 1815, near Turin (Italy, Piedmont region), John Bosco was the child of a family of small farmers. He shared a peaceful life with his parents and two siblings. But his father soon died and his widowed mother was forced to provide for the siblings. Noted from childhood for his intellectual gifts and prodigious memory, but also for his talents as an acrobat and juggler, which entertained his friends, he escaped the agricultural profession and pursued his studies thanks to donations from benefactors.

In 1824, he had a mysterious dream in which he saw himself surrounded by a gang of street boys insulting and threatening him; then he suddenly saw a majestic man who told him to lead those youth "not with blows, but with gentleness and charity". Finally, he saw a woman in a "shining mantle" who invited him to become "humble, strong and robust". This dream would stay with him all his life, and became one of the foundations of his vocation to the priesthood. His used his ministry for the betterment and education of street children, juvenile delinquents, and other disadvantaged youth.

Alongside his studies, he learnt a number of trades that enabled him to earn a little money: shoemaker, groom, waiter in a bar, magician, etc. He managed to do all of them successfully. He completed his seminary studies and was ordained a priest in 1841.

Then, he embarked on an extraordinary apostolic life. He gathered together destitute young people in a small "oratory" where he taught them catechism, visited prisoners, the sick, and his fellow priests. His qualities and spiritual charisms attracted hundreds of people to him in the poor districts of Turin. Three years later, to enable his Oratory to continue to welcome an ever-increasing number of people, he transferred the premises to the Valdocco district of Turin. It was another success. In his eyes, he was in no way responsible for these works: "It was the Virgin Mary who did everything ", he later declared.

It was at this time that the saint and those around him became aware of his gifts: discernment, prophecy, reading souls, incredibly accurate prophetic dreams, multiplication of food (November 20, 1860), etc. At times, contact between the saint and certain young people went rather badly, at least initially. Don Bosco was even forcibly expelled from certain neighbourhoods, and several attempts were made on his life. But in the face of the saint's dedication, and that of his protégés, all eventually acknowledged the priest's extraordinary charisma.

The period of the foundations had arrived. Since his model was Saint Francis de Sales, whose gentle pastoral care and firm doctrines he admired, he renamed his first community the "Oratory of Saint Francis de Sales". He set up evening classes, catechism classes, and vocational training, and was involved at every level. He also began writing textbooks for school and religious instruction. A mystic, missionary and entrepreneur, Don Bosco was also an outstanding teacher.

Finally, on January 26, 1854, he founded the Society of Saint Francis de Sales, commonly known as the Salesians. Pope Pius IX approved this foundation in 1869. This men's branch of the new order was supplemented in the 1870s by a women's branch, the "Daughters of Mary Help of Christians", followed by a lay branch, the "Pious Union of Salesian Cooperators".

It was this man that a small French farmer, Monsieur Clement, met on October 14, 1878, on a road in the Drôme department in Southeastern France, not far from Clement' house in Saint-Rambert d'Albon. At a bend in the road, Clement saw a man dressed like a priest, whom he had never seen before. Clement was from that region, as his family had been for generations, and he knew the diocesan clergy. The stranger looked exhausted: he was an elderly man who walked awkwardly in front of him, looking at the ground.

Moved by pity, he stopped his cart and asked the mysterious visitor if he would like to rest, offering to carry him home. The man accepted. When they arrived at Clement's house, the priest, who was waiting by the side of the road, and Clement and his wife started talking. Touched by the stranger's appearance and good heart, they told him that one of their sons, entrusted to a nanny not far from there, was suffering from a serious disability. Doctors had given up on the boy, who was blind, deaf and dumb.

Suddenly, the unknown priest turned to Adele, the mother, and said: "Pray and you will be heard". The couple looked at each other, unable to understand what this meant. Meanwhile, they prepared to share a meal with the mysterious priest. At table, after reciting the Blessing, the priest pointed to a white water jug with a silver rim and said: "Keep this jug in memory of me".

When the meal was over, the visitor seemed to have regained his strength. He thanked the Clements and took his leave without delay. "You will be granted your wish!" Who was this priest that no one in the village had ever seen? Adele and her husband wanted to find out for sure, so they went to their sick child's nanny in Coinaud, a few kilometres from their home. What they discovered there amazed them.

The nanny explained that, around midday, she had been visited by an elderly man, dressed in a cassock, whom she had never met before. The visitor knew - she didn't know how - that she was looking after a very sick little boy these days, and insisted on seeing him to pray for him. She found it difficult to finish telling her story because she was sobbing so hard: the stranger laid both his hands on the child's head, prayed in silence for a few moments, then disappeared before she had time to say anything. When she returned to the room, the boy could see and hear and was laughing loudly at the sounds coming out of his mouth!

The parents and the nanny compared all the details of their experience. Their descriptions of the elderly priest perfectly matched! Ten years later, when God called his servant John Bosco back to himself, many images of the saint were circulated throughout the Catholic world. One day, the parents, the child and the nanny recognised the unknown healer of October 14, 1878, when they came across one of those images.

Admired by Pope Leo XIII, who sometimes sought his advice, John Bosco was beatified in 1929 by Pius XI, whom he had met when he was just a young priest. The same pontiff declared him a saint on April 1, 1934.

Patrick Sbalchiero

Beyond reasons to believe:

A man of action, founder, educator, writer, publisher and visionary (in both senses of the term), Saint John Bosco's religious and charitable achievements came about in a difficult social and political context: he came from modest origins, had neither money nor connections, and had to work amid the political crises sweeping through Italy, pitting Catholics against Republicans, in a fast-changing society of the industrial age that neglected the poor in large cities.