The Patience of a Saint

Fr. Michael Ribotta, SDB

In the process of preparing the case for Don Bosco's beatification and canonization, the following story, in adapted form, was related by Salesian Br. Peter Enria.

Some years after Br. Peter Enria entered Don Bosco's Oratory as an orphan about 1857, Br. Enria remembered a youth whom the police brought to Don Bosco since they could not find any family to care for him. Don Bosco immediately befriended him and soon found him a job at a local smithy.

At first, things worked out very well. But the young man eventually became so unruly and even unmanageable that his blacksmith employer had to fire him. Don Bosco took the boy back into the Oratory and went out of his way to find him another job. In less than a week, however, the youngster was fired again.

This went on for almost two years. One day, after losing his job for the umpteenth time, the boy arrived at the Oratory during lunch. Without so much as an explanation, he demanded that the long-suffering Don Bosco find him a new job. With saintly patience, Don Bosco ignored the youth's arrogant intrusion and after a long pause finally said: "Don't you see that it's about time that you realize that the reason you can't hold on to a job is because you are driving everybody crazy. I can't even start to count the number of times you've been fired. If you keep this up much longer, son, you'll never be able to hold on to any job."

In a snit, the young man turned his back on the priest who had so patiently befriended him and stomped out, determined never to set foot in the Oratory again. For several years he tried to make it on his own, drifting from job to job. Finally he returned to Turin, in poor health and with no place to turn. Soon he was hospitalized.

One day he quietly slipped out of the hospital and appeared at the Oratory. He had come to apologize for all the trouble he had caused Don Bosco in the past. The priest treated the prodigal with nothing but kind words and genuine affection. He assured him that he was happy to see him and that the boy had been in his prayers all this time.

The young man broke into tears. He returned to the hospital promising that if he recovered he would return to make up for all the trouble he had caused the priest.

Don Bosco blessed him before he left. It was the last blessing he ever received from the man who had treated him with nothing but kindness and patience. A few days later the boy was dead. He died full of remorse but resigned to his fate.