(ANS – Rome) – On the second Sunday of October 1844, Don Bosco had a dream which was a kind of continuation of the one he had at the age of nine. In the dream, the Blessed Virgin told him to lead a large group of various kinds of animals.

As he walked along at the head of the animals, they gradually turned into lambs. At a certain point in the dream there was before him a lofty church. Inside the church, a white banner carried the inscription in large characters: “Hic domus mea; inde gloria mea,”that is: “This is my house; from it my glory shines forth.” The Blessed Virgin told Don Bosco, “You will understand everything when, with your material eyes, you will see in actual fact what you now see with the eyes of your mind.”

In another dream, which Don Bosco had in 1845, the Blessed Virgin showed him a large gathering of children, a field, and then three churches in Valdocco. At the third church, the Blessed Virgin told Don Bosco, “In this place, where the glorious martyrs of Turin, Adventor, Octavius, and Solutor suffered martyrdom, and on these cloths soaked and sanctified by their blood, I wish that God be honored in a very special manner.” So saying, she put out her foot and thus indicated the exact spot where the martyrs had fallen.

The vast and magnificent Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Turin, built by St. John Bosco, received its heavenly inspiration and encouragement from those dream-visions of 1844 and 1845. For nineteen years, Don Bosco carried this idea in his mind and, finally, in 1863 he set to work. As a result of the directions which the Blessed Virgin had given him, he chose for his church in honor of Mary Help of Christians the actual spot of the martyrdom of Saints Adventor, Solutor, and Octavius. They were Roman soldiers who were martyred under Maximianus early in the fourth century and whose commemoration used to be on November 20.