The Dream of the Two Pillars (The Glorious Dreams of St. John Bosco)

This is one of a series of paintings in the Basilica Maria Ausiliatrice  (Basilica of Our Lady Help of Christians) of the Glorious Dreams of St. John Bosco painted by Mario Barberis in 1939. These are a beautiful set of dreams that St. John Bosco related to his boys and are well worth reading. This painting lends a beautiful representation of this particularly mysterious dream. St. John Bosco relates it as follows:  “Imagine yourself to be with me on the seashore, or better, on an isolated rock and not to see any patch of land other than that under your feet. On the whole of that vast sheet of water you see an innumerable fleet of ships in battle array. The prows of the ships are formed into sharp, spear-like points so that wherever they are thrust they pierce and completely destroy. These ships are armed with cannons, with lots of rifles, with incendiary materials, with other firearms of all kinds, and also with books, and advance against a ship very much bigger and higher than themse