On 6 April, the Church commemorated Blessed Michael Rua, a disciple and successor of St. John Bosco, who was a great promoter of the Salesian Congregation.
Newsroom (22/04/2025 23:40, Gaudium Press) Turin was the birthplace of Miguel Rua. Born on 9 June 1837, the last child of John Baptist Rua’s second marriage to Joanna Maria Ferrero, he was the Benjamin of a family of fervent Catholics, as his baptism, which took place only forty-eight hours after his birth, attests to.
John Baptist was a hard-working, honourable and very intelligent man, which is why he had a good job at the Royal Arms Factory in Borgo Dora, a small district of the Piedmontese capital. Within the factory itself, he managed to find a home for his family. It was in this setting that little Miguel grew up and studied, with a chaplain as his teacher and catechist, and the children of other workers as his companions.
At the age of eight, the boy was ready for his First Communion. However, a cloud overshadowed the blue skies of that family: on 2 August 1845, his excellent father and faithful husband passed away. Curiously – or providentially! – a month after his father’s death, the young boy met another John…
A remarkable encounter
The Oratory founded by Fr. John Bosco, dedicated to the education and religious formation of poor children, had already become well known in the populous Turin of the time.
One day, Ramón Batista, one of Miguel’s mates at the Royal Armoury, was carrying a beautiful tie that he had bought at an Oratory party. This was the pretext for an enthusiastic talk about Don Bosco, that blessed place, the games, the children… And Miguel did not hesitate to accompany his friend the following Sunday.
When he arrived, the Saint approached him to say hello. Miguel received affectionate words and then the invitation to attend the Oratory.
On one occasion in 1847, little Miguel, who was only ten years old, approached him to receive the little medals and prints that he used to give out to the children. Don Bosco, in no hurry to hand them over, pretended not to understand the request and simply smiled and joked, placing his cap on the youngster’s head.
Miguel, however, insisted:
“A little print! A little print, please!”
At that moment, Don Bosco held out a prayer-card over the palm of his left hand, and with his right he marked the middle of the figure, as if he were cutting it out, and said with a smile:
“Take it, little Miguel, take it! We’ll both go ‘to the socks’!”
The scene was repeated several times, and the young Rua left wondering what such gestures and words meant…
The first foundation of the Salesian foundation
From those first meetings, St. John Bosco mysteriously discerned that little Miguel was destined to be his main helper in the congregation he was to found. A relationship began that would last forever.
As soon as he was able, Don Rua became Don Bosco’s secretary, a fact that allowed him to follow his spiritual father’s labourious life closely. His fascination and admiration led him to take notes, like a literary assistant, of his every action and word, so that nothing was missed.
Thanks to these notes, we can learn how the great Saint of Turin, in the manner of the Divine Redeemer, endeavoured to outline the Salesian rule first in souls and only then on paper.
This is what Miguel Rua wrote in January 1854, when he was still a teenager: ‘We met in Don Bosco’s room, Rocchietti, Artiglia, Cagliero and I. He proposed that we take a test. He proposed that we do a practical exercise of charity towards our neighbour. Next, we will make a promise and then a vow. Those who take this test, and those who take it later, will be called Salesians’.
This is how the Salesian Congregation began, and Don Rua seems to have paved the way for those who would pass the ‘competition’. On 25 March 1855, at Don Bosco’s invitation, he alone took the vows of obedience, chastity and poverty. The Salesian society was officially welcoming its first child! On that eighteen-year-old boy, the founder laid the foundations of his work.
The ‘we’ll go in our socks’ is fulfilled to the letter
As a young boy attending the Oratory, Miguel was given the task, on the initiative of St. John Bosco, of looking after the other boys. As he grew and developed, these responsibilities only increased.
Whenever it was necessary to revive the Salesian spirit somewhere, Don Bosco sent Don Rua. When it was necessary to undertake a journey for the benefit of the institute, to found a new house, to give impetus to existing ones or to reorganize them, he was also entrusted with the task. Little by little, the Saint gave his favourite son tasks that were exclusively his as founder, in order to show everyone with whom he wished to leave his baton of command.
Don Rua, for his part, endowed with portentous energy of soul and, above all, an ardent love for the master God had given him, shouldered everything with unlimited willingness. From his very first mission – founding a Salesian house in Mirabello Monferrato, also in the Piedmont region – he revealed the secret that would always crown all his endeavours with success: ‘In Mirabello I will try to be Don Bosco’. And so it was!
Don Rua on Don Bosco’s mind
‘If the Lord were to tell me that he was going to die soon and that I should choose a successor, asking in his favour for all the qualities and virtues that I wanted, I assure you that I would not know what to ask of God, because I see that Don Rua already has all this’. These were the words of the charismatic founder of the Salesians, when his disciple was only thirty years old.
It is portentous that a founder can make such statements about a member of his spiritual family. God honoured the great Don Bosco by giving him not only a son, a follower, a disciple, a friend, but also ‘another himself’.
Personality of Blessed Miguel Rua
Although Don Rua was acclaimed by his contemporaries as another Don Bosco, some of his personal characteristics were different from those of his master. In this sense, his mission also consisted of completing him. In fact, the distinction between the two did not separate them, but united them, with a view to realizing God’s plan for them and for the Salesian work.
There is unanimous recognition of Miguel Rua’s qualities: a man of noble character, of uprightness of conscience, of acute intelligence and prodigious memory, of organizing talent, but above all, of a humble soul overflowing with faith.
His countenance was smiling, his presence discreet, his mood perpetually serene. His heart, however, was fiery and his horizons very broad! His ability to master and bring to a successful conclusion a number of endeavours at the same time gave him a strong sense of determination.
His good humour was also evident, even in the most difficult times. On 2 April 1910, for example, when he was four days away from death – and therefore in a serious condition and probably suffering atrocious pain – Don Rua asked those in attendance:
“When I die, where will you put me?”
Confused by the uncomfortable question, the congregation’s spiritual director, Mgr. Pablo Álbera, replied:
“We are not thinking about that. We are asking for your healing and for you to continue doing all the good you do.”
Don Rua insisted, but realizing the embarrassment he was causing his interlocutor, he jokingly explained:
“I asked that question to find out, when the Universal Judgement comes, where I should go to collect my poor ashes. I might go to a place where I cannot find them, and start going round and round…”
That is how Don Rua was: so different and, at the same time, so different from John Bosco!
A bond that he respected until death
It was 1868. The famous Salesian Congregation is expanding, the work is only increasing and the influx of members of the institute on the occasion of the inauguration of the Church of Mary Help of Christians is immense. Don Rua was not in good health. Paying little attention to his illness, he carried out his duties as normal, always repeating the phrase that became famous on his lips: ‘All for the Lord! His holy will be done!’ One day, however, the illness shows signs of winning the duel: he seems about to die, and his spiritual father is absent.
On learning of the grave situation of his beloved son, Don Bosco said almost jokingly: ‘Don Rua, do not leave without my permission’. And he calmly went to dinner. Afterwards, he went to the bedside of the sick man, who asked in a weak voice:
“Don Bosco, give me your blessing and the Holy Oils without delay, because my last moment has come.”
“Calm down! Are you planning to go without my permission? You still have many things to do.”
As the sick man insists, he repeats:
“Calm down, my son, because you know that Don Rua will do nothing without Don Bosco’s consent.”
Against all human hope, the illness disappeared. Little by little, the disciple’s physical vigour returned and he was soon able to resume his busy routine for another forty-one years.
Don Rua died on 6 April 1910, aged seventy-two. After taking over the leadership of the Salesian Congregation in 1888, he saw its membership grow from just over seven hundred to four thousand, spread across thirty-three countries.
Text taken, with adaptations, from the magazine Heralds of the Gospel no. 256, April 2023. By Sr. Mariana de Oliveira, EP.
Compiled by Sandra Chisholm
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