10 How the Church Has Changed the World she had worked from the time she was married, to go to dingy and noisy and dangerous Turin, the big city, and be mother, housemaid, nurse, and teacher to hundreds of boys. But she did it. They called her Mamma Margarita, and what that one old woman did freed Don Bosco to build more and more— teaching, always teaching, establishing the Oratory of Saint Francis, hiring professors for it, and reaping the reward of vocations to the priesthood. Man and woman, mother and son, working together as if in a dance, as God intended it to be. Theotherwas adognamedGrigio.Hewas three feet tall at the shoulder, as big as aNewfoundland or a mastiff. He had thick white-gray fur, and a muzzle like a wolf ’s. He could put the fear of dog into the criminals who infested the alleys of the city. Where did Don Bosco find him? Nowhere. Don Bosco did not find him. Grigio found Don Bosco. “It was not you who chose me,” said Jesus to the apostles, “but I who chose you.” Often, when Don Bosco was walking from the country into Turin, or walking the city’s streets at night, this magnificent animal appeared out of nowhere to walk beside him, just when assassins were about to waylay him. Once, Grigio pinned a thug by the throat, and would have killed him if the man hadn’t pleaded with Don Bosco to call his dog off. The boys loved Grigio, but nobody ever gave him any food. Grigio refused, even when once they got
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