Gentleness is a word closely linked to Francis de Sales, the esteemed patron saint of Don Bosco.
Francis was born in France in 1567; he was ordained priest at the age of 24 and became a bishop nine years later. For over a decade he never shared his desire to become a priest to anyone.
He went to Paris (University of Paris, 15th century) to study in order to fulfil the wish of his father, but he also took up theology to please himself.
When he finished his studies in 1592, he earned for himself the title of "doctor," both in the fields of law and theology.
Like St. Paul, he received the Call when he fell from his horse. But not just once. Thrice he fell, and each time, his sword came out of its casing to fall on the ground crossing another sword making a form of the cross. This he took as a sign that God was calling him to a life of consecration.
As a priest, he was filled with apostolic fervor. He hiked through the villages in order to convert Protestants back to Catholicism. His patience and zeal in evangelizing worked to his advantage. Since nobody would listen to him as no households would welcome him, Francis wrote out his sermons, copied them by hand, and slipped them under the doors.
In 1602, when Bishop Granier died, Francis succeeded him.
As a bishop, he established catechetical instructions for the faithful—both young and old. He visited all the parishes scattered through the rugged mountains of his diocese. He reformed even the religious communities. His goodness, patience and mildness spread like wildfire. His food was plain, his dress and his household simple. He settled with what was basic and lived with the greatest economy, in order to be able to provide more abundantly for the wants of the needy.[1]
By the time, Francis left to go home, he was able to win 40,000 people back to Catholicism.
Don Bosco chose St. Francis as his patron despite the fact that the latter lived 200 years before him. Hence, when Don Bosco told the assembly of
young people that they would be called ‘Salesians,’ this was in 1854 (founding of the salesians), it was not an act done on the spur of the moment.
Then a seminarian, Don Bosco must have so known, and studied and loved him that one of his ordination resolutions as a priest was to have the "charity and gentleness of St. Francis de Sales to be his guide.[2]"
And of course, the motto that he left to his children, his Salesians, is unmistakably a legacy from St. Francis: Give me souls; take away the rest.
Pastoral charity is our heritage from St. Francis de Sales. This, hands down, was not a mere empty slogan—for Don Bosco proclaimed this by his lips and was witnessed concretely in his life. We make Don Bosco continue to live by embracing love and gentleness which characterized the life of St. Francis
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[1] Catholic Encyclopedia
[2] Memoirs of the Oratory, p. 172
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