# The Venerable Don Bosco, the Apostle of Youth/Chapter XVII

CHAPTER XVII
FIRST FOREIGN MISSION. THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. DON CAGLIERO
It is pleasant to know that the venerable Don Bosco received one of the earliest and most pressing applications for his Salesian Fathers from our own Cardinal McCloskey, the learned, eloquent and saintly Archbishop of New York from 1864 to 1885. The Italians, yearly increasing by immigration, became a cause of grave concern to His Eminence, especially the youthful contingent, whom he saw in danger of losing the faith of their fathers; and the entrance of the Society of St. Francis of Sales into his diocese, he believed, would be the solution of his difficulties. But, ardently as Don Bosco desired the foundation, he could ill spare his priests as yet from his institutions in and near Turin. He could only beg the American Cardinal to wait.
Pius IX was fully aware of the pressing demands of the bishops in the various countries; for Don Bosco's devotion to the Vicar of Christ led him frequently to Rome to lay before his Holiness, like a docile child, his plans and inspirations, which were welcomed with the magnanimous heart of a father, considered at leisure, and finally, with added lights and counsels, sealed and put into operation with his sanction and blessing. The ​holy Pontiff had, indeed, a special, Christ-like love for children; and the privations and sorrows of the young had entered into his earliest priestly experience as director of the orphan asylum, Tata Giovanni, in Rome; who, then, could wonder at his affectionate support of Don Bosco in his enterprises for youth?
The first Salesian house outside of Italy was opened at Nice in 1875. This foundation had been revealed to Don Bosco; so that when, on a visit three years after to the new Oratory, the children were brought to welcome him at the entrance to the grounds, he said to the rector, Don Perrot: "I recognize this place which I have seen in a dream; and even the voice of the child singing is the same I heard in my dream. Praise to Our Lady, Help of Christians!"
But now there was question of a wider Salesian separation—the urgent entreaties from overseas must be heeded. Africa, Australia, India, America—which should it be? Pius IX decided. As a young priest, Pope Leo XII in 1823 had appointed him auditor of the Apostolic Delegate, Msgr. Muzi, to Chili; and there El Padre Giovanni Mastai, the loving and beloved, had left a portion of his great heart. He had traveled through broad areas inhabited only by savage tribes; he had witnessed the ignorance and great decay of morality caused by revolutions and civil wars among the civilized Christian peoples; and he had lamented the probable loss of souls through the dearth ​of priests, for South America had been neglected from the time of the suppression of the Jesuits (1773). Another motive, however, more urgent still, carried weight with the Pope and Don Bosco. On the banks of the La Plata and all along the eastern coast of South America were located thousands of Italian immigrants, who had fled from Italy to escape poverty. Agriculture, river navigation, business and the trades were all represented in a flourishing manner by these energetic and industrious settlers. The venerable Archbishop Frederic Aneyros, of Buenos Ayres, had besought Don Bosco during many years for a foundation, with liberal and large-hearted offers of support for as many Salesian Fathers and Sisters as he could part with to confer a blessing on that remote diocese.
For the Argentine Republic, therefore, Don Bosco organized his first missionary enterprise. The heroic band was composed of ten priests and coadjutor Salesian Brothers and fifteen Sisters of Mary, Help of Christians. Don Cagliero (now a prince of the Church), a favorite disciple of Don Bosco, whom he had never left from the age of thirteen, and who had become one of the most learned and saintly sons of the Society, was appointed the director of the mission, and Don Fagnano, prefect of Varese College, a man of rare wisdom and heroic virtue, was made assistant.
Don Bosco, ever animated with love and loyalty to Peter's Chair, bade them repair to Rome, where ​on November 1, 1875, Pius IX received them all with fatherly affection, having previously given a special and prolonged audience to Don Cagliero. With his blessing the holy Pontiff addressed to each of them kindly and inspiriting counsels. Speaking of the Argentine Republic, he remarked: "It is a beautiful country. You will go farther—to Chili—where I formerly lived, and of which I have pleasant memories; you will travel farther still, perhaps evangelize the Patagonian savages whom the Jesuits could not tame because they eat their missionaries. Have courage and confidence. You are vessels full of good seed. Try to sow it with self-sacrifice and energy; the harvest will be plentiful, and console the last years of my stormy pontificate."
Returning to Turin, they celebrated solemnly the Feast of St. Martin on the eve of their departure, receiving the blessing of Archbishop Gastaldi. After Vespers, Don Bosco preached the farewell sermon. His concluding words were full of pathos: "Go, my dear sons in St. Francis of Sales, with the blessing of the Successor of St. Peter, head of the Apostles; with the blessing of our venerated Archbishop; allow my feeble hands also to bless you once more. Catholics, do not forget the Father of the Church, the Pope. Salesians, do not forget the family from which you are about to be separated, and your father who received you into it, whose hearts will follow you." At these words emotion overpowered the speaker, ​and he was forced to descend from the pulpit. The parting between the venerable founder and his beloved Don Cagliero was most touching; the last words of his father and benefactor were treasured by the son as words falling from the lips of Christ Himself. As Don Bosco pressed his hands in farewell he left in them as a parting gift a small box, saying: "You need not open it in a hurry." Don Cagliero, you will think, must have performed a heroic act of mortification daily when I tell you that the precious box remained closed for several years. Not until that day in 1884 when the mail brought to him the Holy Father's Bull promoting him to the episcopate, did he open it by a sudden inspiration. As he pressed the spring, a thrill of wonder and thanksgiving ran through his frame, and he dropped upon his knees, for there disclosed was a beautiful pectoral cross, and in Don Bosco's hand the words: "For our first Bishop."
The vessel in which the missioners embarked, the Savoy, was filled with emigrants—Italian, French and Spanish. Don Cagliero instructed them in the three languages; the priests celebrated Mass, at which the captain and most of the passengers assisted. They disembarked at Rio Janeiro on December 7th. The Brazilian Archbishop, whose need of priests was a source of affliction to him, detained them for three hours with every manifestation of kindness and attention. "Ah!" said he sadly, "if your superior could send ​me dozens, or rather hundreds of Salesians, what a treasure for my flock! They would be my well-beloved sons." But the good prelate had to wait in prayer and hope seven years.
At Montevideo, where they stopped again, a rich chemist welcomed them: "My four sons attend Don Bosco's college at Val Salice," he said. "How hard it is to have to send them so far! Shall we never have a Salesian college here?" In a little more than a year his wish was realized.
On December 14th the missioners arrived at Buenos Ayres, where they were greeted by upwards of two hundred of their fellow-countrymen—some of whom had been educated in the Oratories of Turin—who escorted them with joy to the home prepared for them. Here the Archbishop welcomed these new champions and co-workers of Christ as his dear friends and children. At his entreaty they at once devoted themselves to the parochial duties of the Church, Madre de Misericordia (Mother of Mercy), Don Cagliero remaining as rector, Don Baccino as curate, and Don Belmonte, not yet ordained, as organist.
Don Fagnano with the seven others and some of the Salesian nuns, repaired to Los Arroyos. There the College of St. Nicholas was opened on March 20, 1876, by the Archbishop in person and Don Fagnano. The work increased and with it the ardor and enthusiasm of the people; the progress was so rapid, the adults thirsting for the word of God, and the children growing in habits of virtue, ​that structures for schools and colleges arose almost by magic side by side with buildings and workshops for artisans. Large areas of land were given them for agricultural schools and farms.
The results were so astonishing—indeed, little short of miraculous—that Don Bosco with great willingness of heart sent almost annually new detachments of Salesians and Sisters of Mary, Help of Christians. Buenos Ayres became a mother-house—a rival of Turin—from which radiated new foundations on all sides. "Had there been a hundred, nay a thousand Salesians," says a historian, "they would not have been sufficient." Two novitiates were opened, one for priests and one for sisters; and while postulants with strong and beautiful vocations were hurrying to give themselves to God in religion, gifted and pious aspirants to the altar were multiplying and filling the Salesian seminaries erected at Montevideo and other cities.
His Eminence, JOHN CARDINAL CAGLIERO
The First Salesian Cardinal