When the coffin had been lowered, the archbishop blessed the grave while the others threw in symbolic handfuls of earth. The wooden cross they erected over the grave held a strip of brass with the words: Zepherin Namuncura -- Eighteen Years Old -- Died in Rome May 11, 1905.

The ceremony was quiet. Indeed, except for the occasional chirping of a birds or two there was not a sound. But for the behavior of the archbishop it would have seemed impersonal. He appeared indescribably sad.

As for the others, they did not know the young man being buried and so could not be concerned. They were from the school where Zepherin had once been convalescing. If any of them had noticed the presence of the deceased among them, it was simply because of his strange color and still stranger name. Like the priest, they had come only because their beloved archbishop had requested it. They lined up again and marched out of the cemetery, leaving the deceased to rest in obscurity, overshadowed by the tombs of the great.

On All Saints Day they varnished a wooden cross, cut the grass about his tomb, and placed on it a few wild flowers. The one in charge said something they scarcely understood -- that Zepherin was the most beautiful flower the Mission had ever gathered in Patagonia.

Had Manuel tried in later years to discover some reminder of his son he would have been convinced that he had been right: that the name of the Cura had been forgotten, that if anyone had been destined for obscurity it was his son. It might have occurred to him that some higher power had even set out to destroy all evidence of his existence.

His birthplace was said to be "somewhere in Chimpay." Who can mark the site of a toldo? The little ward of five beds called Amici -- Friends -- in the hospital where he died, was demolished to make room for a garden.

At the Oratory in Turin, the classrooms where he studied, the dormitory where he slept -- these, too, had been demolished. At Villa Soara where he went to recuperate, so many alterations had been made that not even the oldest member of the community could recall where he had stayed. At the school in Rome there existed no trace whatsoever of his presence.

Even the salon at the Vatican where Pope Pius X had so warmly received him in company with Cagliero was no longer used for audiences.

Saddest of all the proofs for Manuel, however, would have been the revelation that nowhere in the Verano Cemetery was there any sign to mark the spot where his son's bones rested. The small patch which had been his grave was now completely indistinguishable. When the statutory ten years for the removal of the bones had elapsed, they had been taken up (May 6, 1915) to prevent their being placed in a common grave, and put in an ossuary. Even this ossuary itself, around 1935, during alterations, was destroyed.

Man merely proposes.

In the fullness of God's time something strange began to happen. On the other side of the Atlantic, in his native Patagonia, interest in Zepherin not only did not decrease, but rapid increased. So much so that in 1924, at the insistence of the people of Argentina, his remains were brought to Fortin Mercedes and placed in the little chapel where, while on his way to Viedma, he had served Mass for "his friend the bishop." This time, in solemn procession with lighted torches, the remains, enclosed in a precious urn, were finally laid to rest.

On September 24, 1944, official recognition was given Zepherin when the process for his cause was opened. On June 22, 1972, Pope Paul VI signed the decree approving the heroic nature of his virtues, declaring him Venerable. This prepares the way for his canonization.

But long before this, however, he had already attained, in a manner of speaking, the glory of the altar.

In 1936, Cardinal Eugene Pacelli (Pius XII) blessed a statue of St. John Bosco and placed it in one of the niches reserved for founders. Today it can be seen directly above the bronze statue of St. Peter, mecca of a million pilgrims. To the left of St. John Bosco stands St. Dominic Savio and between them stands on whose name will never be forgotten -- Zepherin Namuncura!