The altar of Mary Help of Christians
It was a gift from Prince Torlonia, then Mayor of Rome, who had it transported from his villa on the Via Nomentana. Imposing but harmonious, it has two marble columns with Corinthian capitals, surmounted by a broken tympanum. In the centre is the monogram of Mary Help of Christians. The painting is by Giuseppe Rollini, dated 1887 and signed in the bottom right-hand corner. The artist received precise instructions from Don Bosco: Mary was to be crowned, with the sceptre in her right hand and the Child Jesus - also crowned - supported with the left.
An image of royalty and protection, like the one Don Bosco wanted to entrust to his spiritual children. And which continues to protect, more than a century later, the dreams and labours of those who follow in his footsteps.
The Mass of 16 May 1887
It was a poignant Mass. The Biographical Memoirs recount that Don Bosco interrupted it more than 15 times, overcome by tears. He was assisted by the faithful Fr Carlo Viglietti. The altar, now known in Salesian tradition as ‘the altar of tears’, thus became the silent stage for the last great spiritual epiphany of the Saint of Youth.
The church was consecrated on 14 May 1887 and just two days later Don Bosco celebrated that memorable Mass there. The weeping that accompanied it moved those present, who joined him in silence and prayer. It was the heart of an old priest, who after a life spent entirely for God and the young, stood there, at the altar of Mary, to give everything back to the Heart of Jesus.
An entrustment renewed even today
This year too, on the anniversary of that event, the Salesian Family returns ideally to that altar to rediscover the source from which its work sprang: unshakeable faith in Divine Providence. An absolute, almost obstinate faith in a God who provides even when everything seems to be working against him.
And he does so both symbolically and practically: it is no coincidence that in the early hours of today morning, at 7:30 a.m. local time, the 11th Successor of Don Bosco, Fr Fabio Attard, together with all the members of his General Council - gathered in Rome for the start of their first plenary session - celebrated Mass at that very altar, surrounded also by other Salesians from the parish and the Headquarters community: a gesture to renew the abandonment to God's will through the Eucharist and to the intercession of his Mother, thus entrusting the whole Salesian mission of today and tomorrow to her.
The value of that Mass, the fulfilment of a life
If the worldwide Salesian Family still celebrates this anniversary today, not because of an exceptional event - not a foundation, not a great project, but a simple Mass, a daily activity for a priest - it is because of all that lay behind it.
Suffice it to think of the undertaking to build the Sacred Heart Church: a project that Leo XIII entrusted directly to Don Bosco, despite financial difficulties, technical complications related to the terrain, tensions with anti-clerical authorities and prior agreements. Humanly speaking, a work that would have discouraged anyone. But not Don Bosco.
That Heart of Jesus, that discreet but constant presence of Mary Help of Christians, Don Bosco made his own, every day, in the education of the youngest, in the spiritual guidance of his boys, in the foundation of a work destined to last.
The Mass on 16 May was his deepest ‘Amen’, his final ‘fiat’.
