This Don Bosco story shows how much he was loved not only by the Oratory boys, but by every God-fearing young man he came into contact with. They preferred him as their confessor and would trek any distance to receive advice from him in the confessional.
Don Bosco’s health had deteriorated so severely that his doctors advised him to stop working and rest if he did not want to die in the prime of his life. Don Borel, who loved him as a brother, saw him in danger. He sent Don Bosco to spend some time in the house of the excellent theologian Pietro Abbondiolo, pastor of Sassi, a suburb of Turin, at the foot of the hill of Soperga. Don Bosco rested there on weekdays. On Saturday evenings, he returned to the city to spend each Sunday with his young students.
Among the schools wisely directed by the previously mentioned religious, were the municipal schools of Turin, called Santa Barbara, attended by several hundred youngsters. Don Bosco went there every week to hear confessions in the adjoining chapel. Some came to him at the Oratory and almost all were his penitents. In the late spring of that year, they were given the spiritual exercises. They waited for Don Bosco during their sacred retreat, hoping he would come as usual. Almost none of them considered confessing to the other priests that were available.
Finally, the closing day of the retreat came around and, not having seen Don Bosco the entire time, the retreat participants went to look for him in Valdocco with the permission of their teachers. Not finding him there either and hearing that he was in Sassi, they set out to walk there, believing the suburb was a short distance from Turin. Poor things! They did not realize that they had several kilometers to travel both ways. They should have ceased their trek and returned to their college when they realized they had to leave the city and cross the Po River. But wise thinking was never the virtue of youth, and those boys listened only to the voice of their hearts, so they continued on…
Watch to the end to hear all that the boys went through just to find Don Bosco. He must have been an incredible confessor.
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