The Fact of Sr. Maria Benedetta Frey

Let us remember the already known episode that remained fixed in the mind of St. Luigi Orione. It happened some years before the foundation of the Little Missionary Sisters of Charity (LMSC).

In the beginning of the century, a holy religious was living in Viterbo. Her name was Sr. Maria Benedetta Frey. She was born in Rome on March 6, 1836. When she was still young, she entered in the Monastery of the Visitation in Viterbo. She professed as Cistercian and she was a good example of piety, patience and charity.

Sr. Maria Bennedetta Frey

 She was sick for 52 years, with lace rant pains in her body, exhausted and unable to move. She was a woman of faith, loving her Celestial Spouse, the afflicted, those with doubts of faith; she did a fruitful work with her prayers, counseling, advice. She was humble, simple, ingenious, loved and admired when she was still alive, and after her dead she was honored and many wept for her.

She died in Viterbo, on May 10, 1913, leaving the example of her virtues and extraordinary gifts. She was esteemed by the people who knew her, priests, ecclesial authorities and even the Holy Father.

Even St. Luigi Orione had the opportunity to meet her in the last year of her life (1913) and he went in an occasion to ask for advice.

He was having a difficult time and passing through hard trials.

What to do? Was it the will of God to fight in order to defend the Congregation or was he to give up? Was it from God or only human motivations? If in this way, to continue was an illusion and pride…

“Give me that “straccio” (rag) - said the sister of Viterbo- showing to him an old rag left on the table. She took it, squeezed it in her hands, and after she encouraged him to be as a rag into the hands of the Lord, and to allow Divine Providence to direct him. After she added: “They must be as humble stracci (rags), as the rags that wipes away the tears of the poor and the afflicted.”

Certainly, in the beginning of the female Congregation, there were uncomfortable situations of poverty, as occurred with the FDP and others congregations. 

 The strong souls were coming to St. Luigi Orione, and remaining with him; those who had no time to waste looking at themselves, nor to their comfort, those who were not worried about finding everything in order, or looking for decorations or details for the house, or controlling if precautions were assured before a decision or new steps were to be done.

The founder was following the impulse of the grace, the inspiration of the Lord, the will of his superiors. He had not always time or resources to make accounts, to prepare budgets, to think and think another time. Charity was claiming, the needs of the poor were insistent, the good works were urgent and Don Orione was listening, deciding and sending his daughters to the work’s field.

Some of them were suffering, they would like to have a more ordered life, acquire a better preparation in those who were sent to different houses, more time to dedicate for prayers, to stay in peace, to slow down…

However, St. Luigi Orione was very much aware that in the new Congregation and in the whole foundation, many things were missing, that if the he could, he would provide.

But he was insisting so that it may increase the good spirit and the flame of charity.

Thanks to God, we can say that it was really the charity reigning and dominating this first group of aspirants.

There was joy and gladness, and good examples in the houses. The sacrifices were not felt at all, because the enthusiasm fed their souls with desires of good and hope that the Congregation may grow every time more.

Don Orione, Fr. Sterpi and Fr. Zannocchi, were very faithful to bring to them, encouragement and inspiration with their words, as they tried to help them to remain in joy and happiness serving God.

On May 2, 1916, Don Orione sent a letter to the sisters, as he was not able to visit them. These are burning words, a message, almost a synthesis of the Institute: “Jesus, Pope, Maria!”

Serve the Lord in gladness and simplicity of heart; be united in prayers and in the work, having a great devotion to the Most Holy Virgin, living all of you in humility and in the sweet charity of Jesus.

Be all united in one heart and one only soul, in the Crucified Jesus. I bless all of you”

Source: Don Orione alle Piccole Suore Missionarie della Carità, Tipografia San Giuseppe, Tortona, 1979, 23-24.

Our Policy is Charity

I remember reading in the Rosmini Letters a wise and serious letter that that philosopher and holy Founder wrote to his Religious who had been sent to do good works in England. As an able, pious and gifted man he wrote to his people to make themselves become perfect Englishmen, for the love of Jesus Christ. And he implored them to assume the manners, dress and language, and the actions, of the English, their ways and customs; and to do everything to attract souls, that is in visceribus Christi! [into the bosom of Christ]

In all that is not obviously wrong, wrote Rosmini, ‘accept and adopt, rather than create disagreements or placing yourself in positions where you are no longer able to all the good that you could do. Every people have its customs which are good in their own eyes, he added, and in everything that is obviously and clearly not sinful, become English’.

And did not the saints, the great saints, Cyril and Methodius, become Slavs, even in the Liturgy, in order to convert the Slavs? And recalled to Rome to defend themselves, they came with the humility of saints, and the Pope approved and blessed what they had done, and Rome welcomed them in triumph. Then the Vicar of Jesus Christ proclaimed them Saints, and gave them for their tomb one of the most venerated Basilicas in Rome, St. Clement’s.

Don Bosco was in the habit of saying: ‘Let us enter with theirs, in order to leave with ours’; that is, let us adopt their systems wherever possible in order to save their souls. St. Paul came to write that he would have loved to be anathematised, that is excommunicated, purely to save souls.

Fr. Orlando and Fr. Facundo wearing Filipino Costumes

And I tell you, my dear sons: if you are in Venice and wish to do good, become Venetians as much as possible, insofar as it is done for the love of Jesus Christ; and be Venetians, the better to educate and save Venetian orphans. Or rather, when the opportunity arises, praise Venice which really deserves to be, and always was Catholic, even in the time of Paolo Sarpi, and was the main defender of the Faith of Italy against the heresy of Luther. And you will see that you will do good. In Piedmont be Piedmontese, in Rome Romans, in Sicily Sicilians. In the years when I was in Messina I learned, or tried at once to learn, the language and the usage of the Messinese, and in Messina I used to wear the long Sicilian cloak.

We cannot be perfect in charity, unless we rid ourselves of the prejudices and the egoism of our own regions.

We love our country of birth. and how! But the whole world is homeland to the Son of Divine Providence, whose homeland is Heaven. And so let us go on, slowly; let us be prudent in our comparisons, our enthusiasm and in our judgments, and with any word that might alienate the respect of young people, families, administrators or the public.

We must never get completely involved in [political] parties, and so must not dabble in politics. Our policy must consist in bringing the poor young people and souls to God and to the Church.  We are Italians and feel that we love this country of ours with a gentle, strong and holy love. Let us pray for it: let us labor to do good to its littlest, weakest and most neglected children.  Let us teach our young people to respect, love and obey the civil and political authorities, as well as those religious ones.

We are ready to give our lives for our homeland. And, in fact, we are already sacrificing our whole lives to give Italy worthy and honorable sons.

But let us also love our Holy Mother the Church, the Church of Rome, and our Pope, with a much higher kind of love, a gentler, more filial, holier and divine love. This is because the Church is the real Mother of our Faith and of our souls, of that part of us which is most alive, most spiritual and eternal; and because the Pope is the Pope is the Vicar of Jesus Christ, our God and Redeemer, and the ‘sweet Christ on earth’ as St. Catherine of Siena called him; he is our sure guide, our infallible Teacher, our true Father and is the first and great Italian.

Sr. Rosa taking care of some patients in Dalahican

 But we do not engage in politics: our policy is the great and divine charity that does good to all. We only regard others as souls to save. So that, if we must show any preference, we will  show it to those who seem to us to be most in need of God, since Jesus came more for sinners than for the just.

Souls and souls!  This is our whole life; it is our cry, our program, our whole soul and our whole heart: Souls and souls!

But, in order to be more successful in saving souls, we must, however, know how to adopt certain methods, and not become fossilized in forms, if the forms are no longer suitable, or if they are becoming or have become antiquated or useless...

Let us christianize life; let us christianize the souls of the orphans and the youth entrusted to us: this is what God and the Church asks of us.  And let us use every skill, every acceptable and suitable art to reach this goal.

Mr. Taranco visiting a Dalahican Family

 Whenever we arrive in a town or at a House, let us beware of making changes, because we run the risk of ruining rather than adjusting, of losing ourselves in foolish enterprises; and then, through the foolish ambition of changing things,  offending those who were there before us, and, worse still, losing souls, over superficial things.   Watch out for these dangers! Also, let us respect those forms and usages which might seem to us to be a bit secular. Let us adopt them, if need be, without scruples, without being narrow-minded; we must save the essence! That is everything.

The times are moving quickly and have somewhat changed; and in all that does not affect doctrine, Christian life or the Church we must move and walk at the head of the times and the peoples, and not at the tail, lagging behind.

In order to be able to draw and bring the people and youth to the Church and to Christ we must walk at the head. Then we will remove the abyss which is opening up between the people and God, and between the people and the Church.

Work, work, work!  We are sons of the Faith and of work.  And we must love being apostles of work and of the Faith. We must always run in order to work, and to work always harder. At Reggio Calabria we are called ‘the running priests’. Watch your health, but always work zealously and enthusiastically for the cause of God, of the Church and of souls.

Look to Heaven, pray, and then...go on courageously and work! ‘Ave Maria and onwards’ that holy and seraphic Friar, Father Ludovic of Casoria, used to say to Bartolo Longo. Always onwards, my sons in the Lord, always onwards! Onwards with Our Lady. ‘Ave Maria and onwards’. Onwards in the Lord.

Vittorio Orione: Don Orione´s Father

 Don Orione, the youngest of four children of whom one, Luigi, died as a child, was born there on 23 June 1872.  It was the time when the crops in the fields were becoming golden under the sun which was at its highest point in the sky.

He was baptised with the names Giovanni Luigi in the parish church of the Assumption on the next day, the feast of St. John the Baptist.  His brother, Benedetto, was godfather.

 Vittorio his father, a native of Tortona, was a man of good physical stature and great natural goodness.

He had fought as a brave soldier at Bicocca (Novara) on 23 March 1849, as batman to one of his fellow townspeople, a captain who died on the field of battle.

His mother, Carolina Feltri, a native of Castelnuovo Scrivia, was an unaffected, decent housewife, very thoughtful and resolute.  This became obvious at her first meeting with the man who was to become her husband.

Vittorio Orione was hardly more than twenty when he came for the first time to the village, dressed in the gaudy uniform of a soldier in the Royal Sardinian Army.  He went as far as to address a somewhat joking word to the young Carolina Feltri whose only response was to give him a stinging slap on the face.  The soldier went away more in admiration than humiliation and did not reappear for another year, but this time to ask her to be his wife.  The marriage was blessed by both sets of parents and the family grew in a good, Christian way for all that Vittorio was, in Don Orione's words, a follower of Garibaldi who was faithful to the beliefs current at the time and little inclined to religious practice.

He was a road-builder by trade; this was traditional in his family.  Through his experience he came to know all the villages of the Alessandria province.  For hours and hours he would stand knee-deep in the wet sand, his back bent and his hands calloused, hoeing, weighing stones and putting them in place with measured blows of the hammer.  What a relief it was at the end, and as if in recreation, to take the tamper with both hands from under his straddled legs, fall into line with his workmates and in turn beat a joyful tune of reinforcement on the cobbled road that had just been made up and sprinkled with sand.

Don Orione would always remember this life of sacrifice, even to explain certain acute pains that racked his limbs.  According to him it was due to a hereditary kind of rheumatism.

His brothers were road-builders too: Benedetto, 13 years older than him and Alberto, similar to his own age.  Luigi was too little to become an out and out road-builder, but in certain matters he had to help his father and elder brother whose work often kept them away from Pontecurone for weeks and months at a time.  At home, then, there would be the mother and the two younger brothers.

It was a rented house, extremely poor, consisting of the servant's quarters of the villa of Urbano Rattazzi, situated at the end of the village towards Voghera on the left hand side of the road.  It was later demolished in order to extend the little garden that was already there.  It has since been rebuilt according to precise details based on surveys; it contains relics and souvenirs of the past.  Urbano Rattazzi, a famous minister of the newly-formed Kingdom of Italy (1861), spent a few weeks of his holidays at Pontecurone and had a great respect for old Vittorio, with whom he often held friendly conversations.

"What will we do with him?" he said one day, pointing to little Luigi who was still a young baby.  He then went up to the infant, pinched his cheek with his fingers and added:  "We'll make a general out of him."

What a pity it was that the famous minister in that very environment used to make fun of the Pope's flag with witticisms of dubious taste.

Source: St. Luigi Orione by. Fr. Domenico Sparpaglione

How Don Orione Coped with a Disease: Diabetes

During his second stay in Argentina, Don Orione began to feel his age, and at 62 years old he experienced some health problems, among them diabetes.

This article aims at being both a historical and medical study of Don Orione’s diabetes.

Diabetes

Diabetes is a disease which produces hyperglycemia, meaning a high level of blood sugar. The normal level of blood sugar ranges between 70 and 110 mg%. Diabetes is usually related to the absence or low level of insulin. Basically there are two kinds of diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes, or juvenile diabetes (IDDM), the origin of which is genetic. It is found in children and young people who will become insulin-dependent. This is usually the more severe diabetes and likely to have complications.

Type 2 diabetes, or adult-onset diabetes (NIDDM), is also determined genetically. The pancreas can produce insulin, but in insufficient quantity. As the years go by, the pancreas produces less and less insulin, so the patient needs to be treated with oral anti-diabetics which improve insulin secretion or reduce the hyperglycemia. It usually has a better prognosis and can sometimes be regulated by an appropriate diet. It was type 2 diabetes which Don Orione suffered from.

The First Symptoms of Diabetes

In many letters written by Don Orione between June and July 1935, he briefly described how the symptoms of diabetes had appeared, his treatment, medical tests and other details.

In a letter to Fr. Sterpi, Don Orione wrote about what made him suspect something was wrong and consult a doctor: a great sense of exhaustion and extreme thirst: “I have been very weak for more than a month; I thought I was exhausted due to hard work – I could not manage to get any useful writing or work done. Then, as I was also extremely thirsty, I began to think that it must be something else, and when they tested my urine, they found it was diabetes”.[1]

The increase of sugar in the blood produces the loss of a lot of water through urine, due to osmosis; the cells become dehydrated and cause extreme thirst. In fact, excessive thirst and the excessive production or passage of urine are the main symptoms of diabetes.

In addition, diabetes also causes an alteration in the metabolism of proteins and fats, as well as chronic inflammation of nerves and blood vessels, which produces a feeling of tiredness and pain, especially in the arms and legs.

The result of his urine test showed that he was suffering from diabetes.

Together with this, stress and tiredness increase a kind of hormone called catecholamine, which produces hyperglycemia. The doctors probably thought that resting would help Don Orione, together with a reduced carbohydrate diet to normalize the level of sugar, which otherwise was not so high.

In another letter to Fr. Sterpi, he explained other details:

“I didn’t want to cause you any worry about my diabetes, but this is what happened: I had a great thirst and I felt unable to work, I didn’t know why. I thought it might be diabetes, and the urine test showed 42 per one thousand of glucose. They have forbidden me to eat potatoes, fruit, eggs, rice, and only very little bread, etc. Today they took a blood sample and repeated the urine test, too. Now I’m better than I was, certainly because I have cut out some kinds of food and have rested more. So you need not worry, and I’ll keep you informed.”[2]

Above 30 decigrams per 1000 of sugar in the urine shows as traces in the tests, and above 40 is positive, which shows us that the doctor found a high level of sugar in Don Orione’s urine (42 decigrams per mil); which is equivalent to 140 mg % - 180 mg % of sugar in the blood.

Calming the confreres down

Trying to calm down his religious in Italy who were concerned about this news, Don Orione begged them to believe that he was well. Then he transcribed the results of his tests:

 “I assure you that I’m fine, and there’s no need for you to worry about my diabetes; it is quite fashionable to have diabetes these days! I don’t think there is anything else wrong with me; you must believe me that I’m fine (…) Regarding my diabetes, I have received the results of both my blood and urine tests, and  I’m sending them to reassure Fr. Sterpi. / Blood test: blood sugar: 1,51 grams per thousand. / Glucose in the blood (Follin-Wu Method) / Urine – Albumin – serine – traces. Globulin idem. Albuminosa – nil. / Mucins – traces / Glucose – 3,034 gr. per one thousand / Laevulose – nil / Acetone – nil”[3]

Looking at these new results, we can see that a minimum detectable level of sugar in the urine and blood was 151 mg %, though the letter shows the old way of measuring in grams per thousand.

Reduced Carbohydrate Diet

There is another indirect mention of Don Orione’s diabetes in a draft, where he described the diet he was following.

“Veal, mainly grilled, or maybe some boiled or grilled chicken: / boiled or raw eggs / Clear soup – milk, tea or coffee – butter / A little brown bread, or better crackers. / Vegetables – boiled chard and spinach with a little oil / celery – cucumber – cabbage- salad with oil and lemon / Fruit: an orange or mandarin – 100 grams of wine with meals - mate tea or coffee / Forbidden: flour – pasta – semolina and noodles / White bread – biscuits – sweets – fruit – sugar – potatoes – sweet potatoes – pumpkin- – carrots – carrots – lentils – beans and chickpeas”.[4]

The diet described by Don Orione is a typical example of a reduced carbohydrate diet, which cuts out sugar, alcohol, honey, carrots, cereals and both white and brown bread.

Sense of humor

In a letter to Bishop Albera, his friend, Don Orione told him what had happened, joking about his confinement to bed, drinking:

“I am quite well; I am slightly diabetic, but it is already much better. They wanted me to stay in bed for at least three days, condemned to drink nothing but plain water. Can you imagine it? And do you remember Gonella? He was one of our students at San Bernardino for his first year, and then he went on to St. Chiara. He is a doctor here now, a medical authority. (…) Do you know what I told him? ‘Listen, Gonnella, if you tell me to stay in bed for three days drinking only wine, such as nebbiolo, barbera or grignolino,[5] then I would be quite willing. I might then sing all day long, and it would be fine. But drinking only water, come on! Show some sense! Is this your gratitude to me for allowing you into our school?’ You can imagine, dear bishop, what a laugh it was!”[6]

In the book “La gioia del bene” (Messagi 19), Fr. Orlandi told many stories about Don Orione’s sense of humor: “If it was money that the bursar had lent him, Don Orione would joke about his forgetfulness: - ‘I don’t remember’ - he would say, smiling – ‘I can’t remember ... don’t you know, I am diabetic!...’- and everything ended on a jolly note…”[7]

Conclusion

From a medical point of view, we can affirm that Don Orione had type 2 diabetes, a mild form, which could be treated by diet alone. We do not have any information about whether he took oral antidiabetics, because his hyperglycemia was probably normalized by the prescribed diet.

We cannot but admire how, even though he was diagnosed with a chronic disease, needing lifelong care, Don Orione bore it with optimism and did not get discouraged, even managing to laugh about it.

We can also see how responsible he was in taking care of his health, following the doctors’ advice, calming the worries of his religious, not thinking about himself, but doing his best to prevent anybody being too worried about him.

The saintly man shows his maturity in every circumstance, even when coping with a disease.

Sr. Maria Rosa Zbicajnik, PHMC

Fr. Facundo Mela, FDP

* Sr. María Rosa is a graduated doctor in the “Universidad de Buenos Aires” (Buenos Aires University), with adult infectious diseases residency in Francisco J. Muñiz Hospital (Buenos Aires City).

---

[1] Letter to Fr. Sterpi. Buenos Aires, 12th June 1935.

[2] Letter to Fr. Sterpi. Buenos Aires, 14th June 1935.

[3] Letter to Fr. Sciaccaluga. Buenos Aires, 19th June 1935.

[4] This draft has neither date nor place. Scritti 100, 106 and 100, 126.

[5] Three different kinds of Italian wine.

[6] Letter to Bishop Albera. Buenos Aires, 22nd June 1935. “

[7] L. Orlandi, “La Gioia del Bene”, Messaggi di Don Orione 19 (1973) 19.

The Doors of Providence: Don Orione and Victor Hugo

By Fr. Fernando Fornerod, FDP 

 Saint Luis Orione (1872-1940) had “a heart which knew no boundaries,” loving everyone everywhere. Indeed, his life contributed to making our world a place with room for all, especially those suffering from neglect. In this article we set the figure of the Founder alongside “Les Miserables,” the famous book written in the nineteenth century by the French novelist Victor Hugo, which was one of the literary expressions of romanticism, and a critique of the bourgeois society of those times.

In the introductory note to one of the Spanish versions, we read “No writer of the century provided a greater service to the cause of social justice than Hugo. Nobody, in any country, acted with greater political independence and selflessness to create a sense of human solidarity’.” and then, “Victor Hugo was involved with all forms of government, the advocate of all the disinherited, all the unfortunate of all nations or oppressed individuals;  the infallible impulse by which he either proposed or supported social reforms was always great pity.”

The abandoned of every time

In the plot of “Les Misérables,” you can find fascinating expressions, both in the literary style and the message. But there is a scene in the second book of the novel, which undoubtedly inspired Don Orione to write one of his most beautiful pages on “The Little Cottolengo of Argentina.” This is the scene of the dialogue between Bishop Myriel and the convict Jean Valjean. The latter was seeking refuge after having been released, and he met with only aggression and rejection from the inhabitants of that village.

“Worn out with fatigue, and no longer entertaining any hope, he lay down on a stone bench which stood at the doorway of this printing office. At that moment an old woman came out of the church. She saw the man stretched out in the shadow. “What are you doing there, my friend?” said she.

He answered harshly and angrily: “As you see, my good woman, I am sleeping.” The good woman, who well deserved the description, was in fact the Marquise de R-

“On this bench?” she went on (…)

“I have knocked on all the doors.”

“Well?”

“I have been driven away everywhere.”

The “good woman” touched the man’s arm, and pointed to a small, low house on the other side of the street, beside the Bishop’s palace.

“Have you knocked at that one?”

“No.”

“Knock there”

So he went to the place indicated by the old woman. The bishop, who was at dinner with his sister and his housekeeper, heard somebody knocking on the door of his house and, without asking who was there, gave permission to enter. The women, seeing the figure emerging from the darkness, were as silent and motionless as statues.

The Bishop, with calm eyes, heard from the convict’s lips all the vicissitudes that he had suffered looking for a place to sleep, and ordered a room to be prepared for the newly arrived visitor. Then, turning to his housekeeper, he said:

“Madame Magloire (…) set another place (…). While he was speaking, the Bishop had gone and shut the door, which had remained wide open. Madame Magloire returned, bringing a silver spoon and fork, which she placed on the table.

“Madame Maglorie”, said the Bishop, “place those as near the fire as possible.” And turning to his guest: “The night wind is harsh in the Alps. You must be cold, sir.”

Each time that he uttered the word “sir” in his gently grave and polished voice, the man’s face lighted up. To a convict, to be called “Monsieur” is like a glass of water to one of the shipwrecked of the Medusa. Ignominy thirsts for consideration.

“This lamp gives a very bad light,” said the bishop.

Madame Magliore understood him, and went to get the two silver candlesticks from the chimney-piece in Monseigneur’s bed-chamber, and placed them, lighted, on the table.

“Monsieur le Cure,” said the man, “you are good, you do not despise me. You received me into your house. You lighted your candles for me. Yet I have not concealed from you whence I come and that I am an unfortunate man.” 

The Bishop, who was sitting close to him, gently touched his hand. “You did not need to tell me who you are. This is not my house; it is the house of Jesus Christ. This door does not demand of him who enters whether he has a name, but whether he has a grief. You suffer, you are hungry and thirsty; you are welcome. And do not thank me; do not say that I received you into my house. No one is at home here, except the man who needs a refuge. I say to you who are passing by that you are much more at home here than I am myself. Everything here is yours. What need have I to know your name? Besides, before you told me, you had one which I knew.”

The man opened his eyes in astonishment.

“Really? You knew what I was called?”

“Yes,” replied the Bishop,” you are called my brother.”

Bishop Myriel and Jean Valjean

  

            We can, indeed, see in Victor Hugo’s text the inspiration for Don Orione’s famous passage about the "The Little Cottolengo of Argentina":

“Thanks be to God!  Trusting in Divine Providence, in the generous heart of the Argentineans and in every person of good will, we are beginning in Buenos Aires, in the Name of God and with the blessing of the Church, a most humble Work of faith and charity, which is intended to provide shelter, food and comfort to the “desemparados,” those abandoned people who have been unable to find help and shelter with other charitable Institutions.

The Work draws life and spirit from the love of Christ, and its name from St. Joseph Benedict Cottolengo, who was an Apostle and Father of the poorest of the poor.

At the door of the Little Cottolengo no-one asks the names of those wishing to enter, but only whether they are suffering.

“Charitas Christi urged nos” [We are driven by Christ’s love. 2^nd Corinthians 4]. How greatly the generous souls who assist us in relieving the sufferings and lessening the misery of those wretched people treated as outcasts by society will be blessed by God and our beloved poor!”

Little Cottolengo of Argentina

There are other testimonies that tell us that Don Orione had read “Les Misérables,” but that he also admired some of the expressions in the French novel. He wrote a letter, of which only the draft was kept, possibly addressed to a mother who was concerned about the situation of her son, who was causing her suffering, encouraging her to stand firm in faith and recognize God's comfort. Immediately afterwards, he made an analogy between her circumstances and those described by the French writer in the book:

           

            “I have always been struck by the venerable figure of the bishop, portrayed by Victor Hugo in the first two books of “Les Misérables.” He knew how to draw from the abyss, and bring comfort and salvation to the convict Jean Valjean, careful to avoid preaching at him with any word which might sound reproachful or tinged with morality or advice.

            How sublime is the divine love of Jesus Christ!

            And how great is the church in that Bishop!”

But elsewhere Don Orione went a step further: in the episode of Bishop Myriel’s meeting with Jean Valjean in that house, our Founder identifies the bishop with the one who made his "Little House" everyone’s:

      “In “Les Misérables” by Victor Hugo, in the scene about the convict, who was refused entry by every single inn, who saw every door slammed in his face, who was threatened with a gun when he begged for a glass of water, and who even had a dog kennel thrown at him. In the end, however, on the advice of an old woman who was leaving the church, he knocked at Monsignor Myriel’s door and heard the words: "Come in!"And the Bishop, who greeted and hugged him, welcomed him as a brother, offering him the kindest hospitality. "But I did not tell you my name” – cried the convict – “my name which terrifies everyone. And you do not drive me away?” – And Mgsr. Myriel replied –“ This house does not belong to me, but to Jesus Christ, and that door does not ask the one who enters if he has a name, but if he is suffering.”

             “Les Misérables” was published in 1866, but the door it speaks of was to be found in Torino 35 years before that.

             Victor Hugo had described it as an ideal, a dream, but it had actually come true, because at the Cottolengo, nobody is asked if they have a name, but only if they are suffering.

            And at that door Victor Hugo would surely have repeated the convict’s remark: "What a wonderful thing a good priest is!"

            And Blessed [Joseph Benedict] Cottolengo was a good priest!”

St. Joseph Benedict Cottolengo

  

            Ever since he was young, Don Orione had admired the figure and work of Joseph Benedict (1786-1842). In fact, while he was still at the Salesian Oratory in Valdocco, he used to pass by the "Little House" of Turin, a place that held a special attraction for him.

The Cottolengo: a Home for the Abandoned

In October 1934, Don Orione sailed from Genoa to Buenos Aires, staying in Latin America until August 1937. During that long period of time, he launched some very decisive activities in favor of the abandoned and the outcast, among which the most outstanding was the foundation of “The Little Cottolengo of Argentina" in Buenos Aires in April 1935. These are his thoughts:

"O Jesus, to this world you really were treated as refuse, and thus our dear poor of the Little Cottolengo resemble you in a way.  O Jesus, your first people rejected you and refused to welcome you! You became the great Rejected One. You had but a cave, open to the winds: You are the First among the poor of the Cottolengo”

Therefore, the "Little Cottolengo" and its "refuse" are a metaphor for God’s comprehensive love, embracing the whole of history, touching and transforming all humankind, and converting a mass of individuals into his very own people: the People of God.

“Belonging to the Cottolengo” is a parable for the state of suffering in which a person lives, but which, in Christ, is radically transformed into a source of life.

And the church has become an instrument of God's Providence, standing close to all those who suffer, a mission which it must never forsake.

Don Orione, especially in the years he spent in Latin America, had a deep understanding of this, so that he did not hesitate to give his life to it. For him, anyone who wants to participate in the construction of a new humanity, not only has to serve Jesus in the poor, but must want to live as his Lord did, sharing the fate of the "abandoned and the outcast."

The providential face of God is like that "good woman" who, as she left the church, saw the man lying in the shadow, rejected by all, and pointed out the house of the bishop as a safe place.

Providence is the one which will point out to us the doors that we have to open to let into our lives the way of paternal and maternal love, which will truly lead to a homeland for all.