Mother's Day and Mamma Margaret

Fr Frank Bertagnolli SDB, Dominic College Rector, has often written of Mamma Margaret. He recently wrote:

Students at Dominic are reminded every day of a great example of a mother – the mother of Don Bosco, known as "MAMMA MARGARET". The kitchen in the Savio Centre bears her name. I hope when children use that facility, they give a thought to their own mothers.

On several occasions in past newsletters I have spoken about Mamma Margaret: she worked alongside her son, Don Bosco, for the last ten years of her life, to establish the first boarding school for homeless boys on the outskirts of Turin, in very poor and difficult circumstances – leaving behind in the peaceful countryside her other children and grandchildren: she cooked, cleaned, washed, grew vegetables, mended clothes...

She was a woman of great faith, tremendous courage, hard work and self-less commitment to those poor boys, who called her "Mamma". We are looking forward to the day when she will be declared a saint, as an example of a truly Christian mother.

She was illiterate; she lived and died in great poverty, and was buried in a common grave without a name! But her love, her wisdom, her dedication have made her famous in every part of the world where the Salesian Family is present.

The boys of Don Bosco's school collected various wise sayings or proverbs used by Mamma Margaret. Some of them will be displayed in the Mamma Margaret kitchen: their wisdom is still relevant today.

Happy Mother's Day