"First tell the devil to rest, and then I'll rest too," Don Bosco used to say to those who urged him to let up in his activity. Indeed, rarely has the Church seen such a tireless apostle.

Trained to labor from his boyhood, he occupied himself with boys, constantly interesting himself in their activities. On Sundays, after a strenuous day with his Oratory, he often had to be carried home; more than once he fell asleep fully dressed, kneeling at his bedside. For many years he slept only five hours a night, skipping a night each week. After a day of physical work, he would spend the quiet hours of the night penning letters to friends for aid, sending letters of comfort to those who begged for his prayers, and writing books on mathematics, literature, the Bible, and Church history for boys. He began a pamphlet series, the "Catholic Readings," and for some time wrote a pamphlet a month on Catholic faith and morals. Always at the call of the Church, he was a tireless confessor; he was a popular preacher and never refused an invitation to preach a mission or a retreat.

Even when age began creeping up on him, he worked. More than once the people of Turin saw a boy leading him by the hand through the streets, dozing while he stumbled along. As an older man, he lost sight in one eye, and the other was impaired. His legs were swollen to painful proportions. His back was curved by weakness, yet his mind was crystal clear. He never laid down the burden. Besides his youth activities, he interested himself in matters of Church and State, acting even as a mediator for the Pope. He spurred boys on to Catholic action; he favored and worked for retreat movements, mission crusades, the catechetical movement, and foreign missions. Though urged by his personal friend Pius IX to rest, he would answer, "While I have time, I must work."

While at prayer one time, Don Bosco was interrupted by the visit of a wealthy noble. "Tell him I'll be there soon," he said, and he continued his prayers. Three times he was called. Finally he went. "My dear sir," he said, "you are a good friend of mine, but God comes first." He also used to repeat, "First of all Don Bosco is a priest!"

With such a marvelous sense of values, he was able to temper his activity with deep, ceaseless, and fervent piety. In fact, the energy of his work came from this carefully tended fire of prayer in his soul. And God rewarded him in a wonderful way. Toward the end of his life, his prayers wrought miracles. His blessing carried astonishing powers. Sometimes he was seen rising in ecstasy during the Mass. But, with characteristic humility, he labored to feed his ministry with prayer; so much so that Pope Pius XI said of him that he prayed every moment of his life.

When Don Bosco planned to build a basilica in Mary's honor in Turin, he drew up the plans and called an architect to start the excavations. "Here is your first payment," he said, handing the astonished man eight cents. "Mary will build her own basilica." This was characteristic of Don Bosco: living in personal poverty while spending millions for God. "When you become a priest," his mother had told him, "if ever you become rich, I shall never enter your house!" Describing his life, he would say, "I am poor, penniless Don Bosco, a shepherd boy of the hills. I have lived poor and shall die poor."

Yet this impoverished priest, who lived on the coarsest of foods and wore the poorest garments (often borrowed), spent millions for his boys, opened large schools, built one basilica to Mary in Turin and another to the Sacred Heart in Rome, and financed great mission expeditions. The faith that God would provide worked miracles in his life.

Such generosity of spirit could not go unrewarded by God, for whom this priest slaved the 72 years of his life. Besides providing for his work, God gave him the gift of miracles. With his blessing, Don Bosco cured people disease. After his prayers on their behalf, the deaf heard, the lame walked, and once, a dead boy was raised to life. He had the gift of prophecy. He could read consciences, and used this gift to assist penitents in confession. He could foretell one's vocation, as well as one's future.

All these gifts were so common that Pope Pius XI said, "In Don Bosco the extraordinary becomes ordinary." They were given to him in partial reward for his exceptional self-sacrifice and as a seal of divine approval of his work.

Don Bosco's sanctity was not a frightening one. It was attractive because it was rooted in charity and forged by an exceptional purity that bathed him, as it were, in its light and drew people to him. Though he sometimes did extraordinary penances, he would never allow them to his boys. "Sanctity is easy," he would say. "God does not scare us away. You do not have to scourge yourself or fast or pray long hours. Just do your duty in school, at home, at work. Take sufferings as they come-bad weather, disappointments, physical illness, sorrow; that will make you saints." St. Dominic Savio, one of his boys who died at the age of 15, is Don Bosco's proof to the world that holiness is not a monopoly of the monastery or of the desert. It belongs to our city streets and our houses as well.

The last years were torturous for the tired, sick priest, yet he smiled and worked willingly, keeping up with all the activities of his Salesians, inspiring them to greater achievements for youth. But when he took to his bed in December of 1887, he said, "Now I go to my rest; I shall not get up again." Just before his death, he summoned his sons and begged the favor of their prayers. "Do not ever forget these three things: devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, devotion to Mary Help of Christians, and devotion to the Holy Father!" On January 31, 1888, Don Bosco's worn-out body finally yielded to nature. With the names of Jesus and Mary on his lips, Don Bosco's soul passed to his God and his Lady as the morning angelus bell was summoning the faithful to prayer. "Our saint has left us," the people of Turin mourned.

Don Bosco left a legacy. His ideals, his spirit, his constant activity are all still with us in his Salesian priests, brothers, and sisters, who strive to perpetuate his work on earth.

On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1934, Pope Pius XI declared Don Bosco a saint; the Pope styled him "a giant of sanctity."

As for himself, Don Bosco would say, as he often told his admirers, "I have been an instrument in the hands of Mary. She has done everything. Had I been a worthier instrument, I would have accomplished a great deal more."