Mamma Margherita: Model Mother

“The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world”, goes the old saying. This has rarely been so true as in the case of Mamma Margherita Bosco, mother of the great apostle of youth, Saint John Bosco.

A peasant by birth, Margherita already demonstrated virtue, courage and common sense as a young girl. After her husband’s death, she single-handedly raised her three boys while running the family farm. Then, when her beloved John called on her help for his budding Oratory in Turin, she generously answered his call. She once more became a mother – this time of hundreds of boys in Turin.

Partly using material from his monumental biography of Don Bosco (Saint John Bosco: A Giant of Charity) and partly relying on the Saint’s memoirs, Father Auffray paints as complete a picture as possible of this great woman.

Father Auffray wrote this book in order to give mothers an example they could follow and in order to encourage them in the difficulties inherent in their sacred task of raising children.

“We offer to all women who feel in their heart the desire to be “mothers of a holy people” this model of energy, abnegation and Christian spirit in the education of her children”. Father Augustin Auffray (Preface)