Three Sisters of Charity left together on a train bound for the port city of Leghorn, Italy. Their journey would take them to Sardinia, an island in the Mediterranean west of Italy, to work in the girls’ orphanage there. Their trip would, quite providentially, bring them into contact with St. John Bosco. One of them, Sr. Brambilla, wrote of this in her diary.

She took her place in the coach reserved for them, and put her baggage under the seat. A few moments later a gentleman and a priest boarded the train and took seats directly opposite the nuns. They traveled some distance in silence; but when they arrived at the first stop, several gentleman came to the window to say hello to the priest. He shook hands with them and returned their good wishes. "Goodbye, Don Bosco!" they called out as the train moved off.

Summoning up all her courage, Sr. Brambilla looked directly at the priest. So this was Don Bosco, who was doing so much for the young! She was very happy to see him since she was already convinced that he was a saint. However, given the great influence he had over the young, she had imagined that he was a well-built, imposing type of man, whereas the priest before her was nothing out of the ordinary and in no way imposing. She even thought to herself that he had rather large ears.

When the train was moving again, Don Bosco broke the silence and casually remarked to his companion:

"Once upon a time I had the idea of having my photograph taken. When the photographer gave me the copies, imagine my surprise when I saw that I was neither well-built, nor imposing, nor anything out of the ordinary. Besides that, I had rather large ears."

Imagine Sr. Brambilla’s surprise to hear Don Bosco himself say aloud what she had just been thinking about him! Her deep embarrassment caused her to blush instantly. She was experiencing firsthand the saint’s gift for reading hearts.

Don Bosco then addressed the poor nun, "Where are you bound for, Sister?"

"To Sardinia," she answered.

"And what will you do there?"

"I am assigned to an orphanage for girls."

"But, if you had to look after boys, instead?"

"Oh!"

"You wouldn’t like that?"

"No."

"Nevertheless, one can do a lot of good with boys."

One of her fellow nuns spoke up, asking "Send your priests down there, Don Bosco. They would do a lot of good."

But to this Don Bosco replied, "For the present, Sardinia doesn’t seem ready for us."

The conversation came to a natural close as the train reached the station where Don Bosco planned to disembark. After bidding goodbye to the gentleman who had accompanied him, he gave an encouraging parting comment to Sr. Brambilla:

"Work hard for those boys, Sister!"

The three Sisters reached Leghorn, but only to discover a letter waiting for them. In it, it stated that Sr. Brambilla was no longer assigned to the girls’ orphanage. Instead, she was to go to the orphanage for boys.

This orphanage, a very poor place housing some fifty boys, was a significant workload with very little resources. Although poor, the devoted religious there were giving all they had to help sustain the lives of these abandoned children. In fact, two Sisters had already died from the excessive labor. It was in this loss that Sr. Brambilla was being sent to carry on in their stead at the orphanage for boys.

But, as the years would show, she was up to the task. The memory of her meeting with the saintly priest remained with Sr. Brambilla for the rest of her life. So much so, that she told this charming story to the Salesians at Don Bosco’s beatification in 1929 - fifty years later. She had, indeed, followed the saint’s prophetic instruction - "work hard for those boys"!