On this Feast of St. Bakhita, we continue our story about the Visitation Monastery of Milan and its central role in the efforts to rescue trafficked girls in the 1800’s.
The rescue work of Fathers Olivieri and Verri was placed under the constant protection of the Sacred Heart and of St. Margaret Mary Alacocque, a Visitandine of Paray-le-Monial, France, whose cult during the nineteenth century was widely circulated. Most of the letters that they wrote also end with a reference to this devotion often linked to the Marian one, showing again the great spiritual harmony between the Visitation and the missionary impetus of the two priests.
The Salesian spirit, characterized by sweetness and understanding, was easily linked to the basic lines on which the ransom Work rests: the need to help abandoned and abused children, the drive towards the redemption of the peoples not yet evangelized, the struggle against slavery and the consequent attitude of understanding the problems that the transfer from one continent to another irreparably caused. These were some of the reasons that allowed the birth of a solid and lasting bond between this pious work and the Order of the Visitation in particular.
Source:https://air.unimi.it/retrieve/handle/2434/354297/521390/phd_unimi_R09936.pdf