Don Bosco: This is how he fought against the devil and these are his tips to scare him away

This Friday, August 16, marks 209 years since the birth of Saint John Bosco, father and teacher of youth, who had frontal struggles against the devil and who, thanks to this, gave some advice to his young followers to scare him away.

Saint John Bosco: His confrontations with the Devil

In the Biographical Memoriesa set of 20 volumes in which the Salesians compiled the life and work of their founder with stories told by him himself, it is narrated that the saint faced the devil at different times.

Don Bosco, already a priest and beginning his work for young people, when going to bed heard noises on the ceiling, as if large stones were rolling on the wood. At first he set traps thinking they were rats, but when he came up in the morning he found everything the same. Then he spoke with Saint Joseph Cafasso, his confessor and current patron of Italian prisons.

Don Cafasso advised him to sprinkle holy water in the attic. However, the devilish noises continued. Don Bosco then decided to change rooms, but this didn’t help either. And so he began to lose weight and endanger his health, because he couldn’t sleep well.

The situation was so worrying that even his mother, the current Venerable Mama Margarita, entered his room and, looking at the ceiling, shouted: “Ugly beasts, leave Don Bosco alone, finish it once and for all!”

Saint John Bosco had a hole opened in the roof, like a skylight, and put a ladder to climb quickly when he heard the first noise. Thus, when the infernal sounds began, the saint immediately went up and met the demon.

Without thinking twice he took a painting of the Virgin Mary and hung it on the attic wall, begging the Mother of God to free him from this disturbance. The noises were no longer heard.

Don Bosco said that among the attacks of the enemy that he had experienced in his life were hearing voices that deafened him, receiving a blow like a hurricane, seeing that the papers fell by themselves and that the demon messed up his books. or he would hide his “Catholic Readings” in another room.

At other times, always before going to sleep, he experienced a hand trying to remove his clothes and undress him. Another day the stove caught fire with flames that seemed like they were going to burn the house down.

He also saw how his bed was shaken with an invisible force, and on one occasion he even saw a horrible monster enter through the door to devour him.

Advice from Saint John Bosco to scare away the devil

With all this experience, Don Bosco recommended these practices to his boys to drive away the demon:

1. Make the sign of the cross well: “So, then, in temptations and especially when entering the church, make the sign of the cross well, because there the devil awaits you to make you lose the fruit of prayer. The sign of the cross drives the devil away for a while. moment: but the sign of the cross with holy water keeps him away for much longer,” he explained.

2. Visits to the Blessed Sacrament: “Do you want me to teach you not to be afraid of him and to resist his attacks? Listen to me. There is nothing that the devil fears more than these two things: 1. Communion well done. 2. Visits to Jesus in the sacrament.”

   “Do you want the Lord to grant you many graces? Visit him often. Do you want him to give you few? Visit him little. Do you want the devil to attack you? Visit the sacramented Jesus little. Do you want him to flee from you? Visit often Jesus. Do you want to defeat the devil? Take refuge often at the feet of Jesus. Do you want to be defeated?

   “My dear ones, visiting Jesus in the sacrament is a very necessary means to defeat the devil. Go, then, frequently visit Jesus in the sacrament and the devil will not be able to do anything against you,” Don Bosco taught.