Purchase of the Pinardi and Bellezza houses
The Year 1850
The year 1849 was painful and sterile, even though it had cost great fatigue and enormous sacrifice. But it was a preparation for 1850, which was less turbulent and much more fruitful.
Let us begin with the Pinardi house. Those who had been dislodged from this house found it hard to take.
They went round saying, Isn’t it disgusting, that a house of entertainment and relaxation should fall into the hands of a priest, and an intolerant priest at that?
Pinardi, moreover, was offered a rent almost twice as much as we paid. But he felt considerable remorse at getting more money by sinful means. So several times he had offered to sell the house, if ever I wished to buy it. But his price was exorbitant. He was looking for eighty thousand francs for a building whose value must have been one-third of that. God wished to show that he is the master of hearts, and he showed it now.
One feast day, while Doctor Borrelli was preaching, I was at the courtyard gate to prevent assemblies and disturbances when Mr Pinardi came along. Hello there, he said. Don Bosco should buy my house.
Hello there, I replied. Mr Pinardi should sell it to me for what it’s worth, and I’ll buy it at once.
Of course I’ll sell it for what it’s worth.
How much?
The price I’ve been asking.
I couldn’t even think of it.
Make me an offer.
I can’t.
Why not?
Because your price is excessive. I don’t want to insult you.
Offer what you wish.
Will you sell it to me for what it’s really worth?
On my word of honour, I will.
Shake hands on it, and I’ll make my offer.
How much, then?
I suggested to him, I’ve had it valued by a friend of yours and mine. He assured me that in its present state we ought to be discussing between 26 and 28 thousand francs. And, to close the deal, I’ll give you 30,000 francs.
Will you throw in a brooch worth 500 francs as a gift for my wife?
I’ll give her that, I said.
Will you pay cash?
I’ll pay cash.
When can we sign the papers?
Whenever you please.
Two weeks from tomorrow. Payment in one installment.
Everything just as you wish.
A fine of one hundred thousand francs on whoever backs out.
Amen.
That transaction took only five minutes. But where was I to get that sum at such short notice? Then began a beautiful play of Divine Providence. That same evening, Fr Cafasso did something unusual for a feast day; he came to visit me, and he told me that a devout lady, Countess Casazza-Riccardi, had entrusted him with ten thousand francs for me, to be spent on whatever I considered to be for God’s greater glory. The next day a Rosminian who had come to Turin to invest 20,000 francs came to ask my advice in the matter. I proposed that they should lend it to me for the Pinardi contract. In that way the sum I was looking for was put together. The three thousand francs for related costs were donated by Chevalier Cotta, in whose bank the much-desired deed was drawn up.
Having thus secured ownership of that building, I turned my attention to the so-called Gardener’s Inn. This was a tavern where pleasure-seekers used to gather on feast days. Music from accordions, fifes, clarinets, guitars, violins, basses and double-basses, and songs of every kind flowed therefrom all day long. Indeed it was not seldom that all those sounds issued at once in concert. As only a simple wall divided our courtyard from this building, the Bellezza house, it often happened that the hymns from our chapel were confused and drowned out by the din of the music and of the bottles of the Gardener’s Inn. In addition there were the constant comings and goings between the Pinardi house and the Gardener’s Inn. One can easily imagine the disturbance this caused us, and the danger for our boys.
To free ourselves from this odious situation, I tried to buy the house, but I did not succeed. I tried to rent it, and the landlady was willing; but the tavern keeper claimed exorbitant damages. Then I proposed to take over the whole tavern, pay the rent, and buy all the furnishings of the bedrooms, table service, cellar, kitchen, etc. By paying dearly for it all, I was able to become the manager of the premises. I changed their character immediately. In this way was destroyed the second seedbed of iniquity which up to then had existed in Valdocco alongside the Pinardi house.