"The faithful sometimes like to wear on them, always and usually around their neck, medals with the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They are witnesses of faith, signs of veneration to the Mother of the Lord, expression of trust to her motherly protection. The Church blesses those objects of marian piety, reminding us, that they "recall God's love and contribute in faith, growth and trust to the Blessed ", but at the same time, admonishes the faithul that the devotion to the Mother of Jesus requires mostly "a coherent life witness"" (Directory on populr piety and liturgy n. 206).
Among these medals we want o underline the Medal of Mary Help of Christians, widespread by don Bosco, as a direct and simple way of manifesting externally the heart feeling and the commitment to live as christians. Don Bosco distributed with filled hands, in Italy and abroad, medals of various formats which, in one part depicted Mary Help of Christians and on the other hand the Most Blessed Sacrament or Jesus's Sacred Heart, symbolizing the Don Bosco frequently referred "two columns". He adviced often to wear that medal, to kiss her while in temptation, to entrust to the Help of Christians every kind of dangers. He liked to say: "wear this medal on your neck and remember that Our Lady loves you so much and pray wholeheartedly for help" (MB III 46). For Don Bosco, the Mary Help of Christians' medal was not a lucky charm but as commonly said, a powerful means to remind us of Mary's potentiality and a constant filial trust in Her to the sight and in the mind. He adviced Don Cagliero: "you know how to remove every fear togliere... The same antidote: Mary help of Christians medal and the short prayer: "Mary Help of Christians, pray for us": frequent communion; that's all!".
The Mary Help of Christians' medal is above all a powerful arm against sin, as Don Bosco said it during a "Good Night" on 4th September 1868: "Few days ago in a hospital there was a seriously sick woman who did not want to confess. The danger of death grew and it was suggested to call Don Bosco. She said: - Let anyone come; I'll never confess.
Don Bosco went and met the sick:
- Don Bosco is here.
- I'll confess when I am healed.
- Don Bosco will heal you.
- I'll confess if he succeeds.
I was holding the Mary Help of Christians' Medal in a hand through a cord and I presented it to her. The sick took it, kissed it and put on her neck. All the bystanders at this sight cried tears of confusion. Don Bosco ordered to send the people away at a distance; he made a sign of the cross and the lady did the same; the priest asked for her last confession before she could confess all her sins. She said at the end:
- Why this? I have confessed finally and yet I never wanted it! She was very happy.
- I don't really know, he replied; look, it is the Blessed Virgin who wants your salvation. Don Bosco left her fully converted and a good christian.
So let us put all our trust in Mary and let all those who still have to acquire the medal do so; at night, when tempted, let us kiss that medal and we'll draw a great advantage for our soul" (MB IX 337-338). Against the sin of incredulity, iron shield: the Mary Help of Christians' medal.
That sign is even present when the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians was created, much before don Bosco and Maria Mazzarello's first personal encounter, just to say that Our Lady has spiritually and apostolically united both the great educators and evangelizers of the youth. "It came to be that way at don Pestarino's first visit to the Oratory. Don Bosco listened with delight the account of the examplary life of the little peasant girls and don Pestarino's returning to the countryside, gave them two medals of Mary Help of Christians. He gave one medal to Maria and the other to Petronilla saying:
- Don Bosco sends it to you and on his behalf I want you to keep it devoutly, for they will free you from so many harms and from it you'll get help throughout. He wants you to pray unceasingly but you must fight to prevent the offense to God, even through an ordinary venial sin.
Don Bosco was unknown by the two young ladies, but they knew don Pestarino who was an outstanding priest youth minister. In Maria Mazzarello, the Saint already saw a founding stone for the Institute to be founded for the young girls; nevertheless he kept a prudent reserve on that issue. The medal that was given became a price for the zeal exercised and for the recommendations and paternal cares that Don Bosco could have for the new Institute" (MB IX 618).
It is interesting to note that Mary Help of Christians was particularly invoked and her intercessions naturally, in big changes, were efficient: earthquakes, vulcanic eruptions, epidemic sicknesses, tempests, to witness that the victory over the natural elements were a sign of the victorious power and more efficient of grace over sin.
"The secured mind with which the Saint promised the preservation from cholera to the French was amazing. To Don Ronchail, Rector of Nizza, he wrote on 1st July: 'It seems God wants to visit us. Let our youth and our friends have a sure antidote for cholera: a Mary Help of Christians' medal, reciting: Maria, Auxilium Christianorum, ora pro nobis'. So on 18th august he could write to Ms Louvet: 'I have a great and nice news to give you. All the houses in France, all the benefactors of our youngsters, thanks to Mary Help of Christians, were preserved from the whipping that stroke France " (MB XVII 238-241).
"Another fact happened when he had to realize the hand of Mary Help of Christians with a news that came the same days to Don Bosco. A dangerous eruption of the Etna that threw terror among the so far peaceful populations along the lower slopes of the famous vulcan. The most threatened countryside was Nicolosi, a commune of nearly four thousand souls. The given estimated flow speed of the larva in that slope was fifty to sixty meters per hour. Pinewood, chestnuts farms, cultivated spaces were invested, dry and distructed. The inhabitants have abandoned their homes. At that terrible moment the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians of Catania and of Agira wrote to Don Bosco, begging him to suggest some means to ward off the danger. Don Bosco adviced them to scatter immediately the Mary Help of Christians' medal on the spot and he would himself pray for them and bless them. The parish priest received from the sisters some medals and had them scattered here and there. What a marvel! These medals became a kind of territorial limit to stop the terrific natural element that stopped its course. 'The larva has reached three hundred meters and is suspended at the high slope of the countryside". Now they could notice that the fire corrent, 'suspended at the slope', was liquid but the eruption went on. Men of science expected Nicolosi's disappearance. Even the anticlericaled Gazzetta di Catania adverted with a special publication, giving the precise stopping point naming it and expressing it this way: 'At Altarelli the larva has branched and left them safe. Miracle'. Toda y the accumulated larva body is a visible perpetual memory of that wonder" (MB XVIII 153-154).
Don Bosco was so much attached to that God's given instrument, as for many other things, it became the gift of "multiplication", for the good of the souls: "Don Belmonte, rector of the Sampierdarena Hospice, attested that at S. Siro a marvelous fact happened. Don Bosco was distributing the Mary Help of Christians medals in the sacristy but the medals got finished, nothing remained from nowhere. Then the Rector gave him some spare ones, less than fourty. The Saint restarted the distribution. The place was crowded and he gave out medals to all strechted hands. The nearby Don Belmonte and mister Dufour could'nt believe it: these medals just distributed were numbered hundreds or a thousand. How could it be possible ?" (MB XVIII 43).
Don Bosco was so much attached to that God's given instrument, as for many other things, it became the gift of "multiplication", for the good of the souls: "Don Belmonte, rector of the Sampierdarena Hospice, attested that at S. Siro a marvelous fact happened. Don Bosco was distributing the Mary Help of Christians medals in the sacristy but the medals got finished, nothing remained from nowhere. Then the Rector gave him some spare ones, less than fourty. The Saint restarted the distribution. The place was crowded and he gave out medals to all strechted hands. The nearby Don Belmonte and mister Dufour could'nt believe it: these medals just distributed were numbered hundreds or a thousand. How could it be possible ?" (MB XVIII 43).
Faithfully, let us wear that Medal with love: we shall become the peace makers in Jesus Christ's name!
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