 Rua made his first profession on 25 March 1855 in the new Societá di San Francesco de Sales (Society of St. Francis de Sales) which Bosco was then forming; Rua was among its first members.For over the next three decades he was Bosco's closest collaborator in the development of the congregation.The death of Don Bosco's mother in 1856 prompted Rua to bring his own mother to live at the oratory where she remained for the next two decades.