Page:Don-bosco-pine.djvu/163

 as formerly in childhood, in the dress of a shepherdess. "Then she foretold many works which I have since accomplished for the poor orphans of Turin; now she commanded the purchase of this garden and the erection of a convent for nuns." The field was bought without trouble; but the beautiful villa became the possession of the Salesians only on the death of the proprietor, which happened shortly after. His heir made generous terms with the Fathers and became one of their most zealous Co-operators.

In November of that year, 1886, the Sisters of Our Lady, Help of Christians, were installed in their new home and ere long opened a school for poor young girls; subsequently a novitiate "made nuns for the missions" by attracting many fervent aspirants to shelter themselves from the seductions of the world under the mantle of Mary.

Don Bosco achieved so many wonders and effected so many extraordinary cures in Spain that the veneration he attracted was universal. As in Paris the words, "He is a thaumaturgus, a saint," were repeated everywhere; and the multitudes who thronged wherever he was to be seen, felt that a heavenly atmosphere surrounded them in his presence.

In 1887, the year preceding Don Bosco's death, an earthquake destroyed almost the entire country of Liguria. Several of the Salesian Institutes were materially injured, though no loss of life ensued. Don Bosco remarked also that amid those