Mamma Margherita proclaimed Venerable

by GIianni Cardinale

From the left, Don Elio Torrigiani, Don Chávez Villanueva, the new bishop Raffaele Farina, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Cardinal José Saraiva Martins and Don Enrico dal Covolo, in the Chapel of the Salesian Community , in the Vatican, 15 November 2006

“Mamma Margherita”, the mother of Saint John Bosco, has been proclaimed Venerable, and hence when a miracle attributed to intercession has been recognized, she will be proclaimed saint. The decree of the Congregation of the Causes of the Saints that recognizes the heroic virtues of Margherita Occhiena was dated 23 October and was read in solemn form during an intense moment of prayer held on 15 November in the Chapel of the Salesian Community in the Vatican. The ceremony, presided over by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, Prefect of the Congregation of the Causes of the Saints, was attended by the Rector Superior of the Salesians, Don Pascual Chávez Villanueva, the Prefect of the Apostolic Vatican Library, Don Raffaele Farina (who was the same day elevated to episcopal dignity), the editor of L’Osservatore Romano, Mario Agnes. Present also were the postulator general of the Salesians, Don Enrico dal Covolo, the director of the Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Don Claudio Rossini, the lay Salesian Antonio Maggiotto, commercial director of the Tipografia Vaticana, Don Giuseppe Colombara, manager of the photographic service of L’Osservatore Romano. The host was Don Elio Torrigiani, general director of the Tipografia Vaticana and in charge of the Salesian House in the Vatican. The ceremony was also attended by the Cardinal Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, who concluded the ceremony by intoning the Salesian hymn par excellence, Giù dai colli [Down from the hills], and pointing out that in the decree super virtutibus it says that «the grace of God and the exercise of virtue made a heroic mother of Margherita Occhiena, a wise educator and a good counsellor of the nascent Salesian charism».
The proclamation of the heroic virtues of Mama Margherita fell on the 150th anniversary of her death in 1856. The cause of beatification, opened in Turin in 1995, was taken up Rome in 1996.