Don Bosco had gone near his home village when he heard about a young boy who was very holy. The pastor of the church had told him, “You’ll find in him another St. Aloysius!” Aloysius Gonzaga was a holy boy who became a Jesuit. He was known well for keeping pure.
Don Bosco met this holy boy with his father. They introduced each themselves and then began to speak for a while. Eventually, young Dominic threw out the question which was on his heart:
“Will you take me with you to study?”
Don Bosco considered a little while. “You look like good material to me,” said Don Bosco.
“Good material for what?”
“To make a beautiful garment for the Lord!”
“If I am the cloth then you must be the tailor!” Dominic shot back.
This playful banter opened up a relationship between these two future saints which would last forever.
When Dominic Savio entered the Oratory he went straight to Don Bosco’s office. On the desk he saw the words “Da mihi animas, caetera tolle.” He asked the saint what it meant.
“That’s my motto, think you can guess it?”
Dominic couldn’t quite get the meaning, so Don Bosco helped him out.
“Well, if Da means ‘give’ and mihi means ‘me,’ then it must ‘give me,’ right?”
“Oh, okay, so then, animas is…”
“’Souls!’”
“So the first part is ‘give me souls!’” Dominic was extatic, “and the second part?
“The second part is ‘take away the rest,’” Don Bosco supplied.
Dominic became serious for a moment, he was deep in contemplation. Suddenly his mouth twitched into a smile. “I see! You don’t do business in money here, you deal in souls! I hope you deal well with my soul!”
This playful way of talking about becoming a saint became a norm at the Oratory of St. Francis de Sales. It was through this method that Dominic became a saint and many others of the boys as well. In fact, Dominic later said, “Here at the Oratory, cheerfulness is holiness.”
Let us try to be cheerful in our attempts at holiness.
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