Writings

[6605]

I acknowledge receipt of the Most Eminent Cardinal Vicar’s Circular on the execrable abuse and commerce of Sacred Relics, which in my Vicariate is totally unknown. However the venerable circular will serve as a norm for me and for my successors, for us not to let ourselves be taken in by whoever might try to get our complicity in acquiring Holy Relics for our churches. I thank you cordially for it.

[6606]

I am impatiently awaiting the Holy Father’s Encyclical, which I have already read in the newspapers, on the providential Jubilee which, for the Sacred Missions, is prolonged throughout this year and on which I shall preach myself in the different languages in all the stations of my difficult Vicariate.
More than a month ago in Khartoum I received Your Eminence’s revered letter of 14th February in which you invite me, at Mgr Ciurcia’s request, to contact this prelate in order to determine the rights I intend to give to the Vicariate Apostolic of Egypt as regards the members of my Institutes, and with reference to the other matters.

[6607]

I delayed answering Your Eminence, as I did not know what to say, for the following reasons: since 1867, when I founded those preparatory Institutes for the missions in Central Africa, until 1872, when the Holy See entrusted Central Africa to my Verona Institute, I communicated with Mgr Ciurcia as a son does with his father and my Institutes had the same relationship with him as exists between friars in a friary and its Guardian.

[6608]

In September 1872, when I returned from Rome to Egypt as Pro-Vicar Apostolic heading for Central Africa, I recommended to Mgr Ciurcia that he treat my people and my Institutes as if they were his, and as a Rector of a Jesuit house would treat his religious, notifying the members of my Institutes to obey him and his representative, the Franciscan parish priest of Old Cairo. This was carried out with reciprocal satisfaction.

[6609]

In 1873, Mgr Ciurcia, through the Superior of my Institutes in Cairo, invited me to draft a modus vivendi; and I answered him that, on the basis of the principles of the sacred canons, he should continue to act as a father and immediate superior as before and that he should issue his orders to the superior of the houses as best pleased him. However, since he insisted (again through my representative, Fr Rolleri) on his request for a modus vivendi, I drafted it. Perhaps, prompted by the Camillians who were then at the service of the Mission, against my own sentiments, I asked for too much, and I sent this convention to Mgr Ciurcia who, I was told, did not approve it, but he never wrote to me about it.

[6610]

Then, when in 1879 I passed through Egypt I went to see him personally, and I implored him to allow me to make a reciprocal convention and for us to agree right away, since I was prepared for anything, trusting him completely. That was when he told me that I should ask for as much as I could, because he would grant me as little as he could.

[6611]

So I drafted a petition dated 2nd May 1879 in which I expressed my requests in three articles, and I presented it to him on the 3rd of May of the same year. Not only did I not receive any answer from Mgr Ciurcia to my proposed Convention of 1873 or to my petition of 2nd May 1879, but nor did I receive any to more than twenty letters I wrote him from the Vicariate and from Europe. Monsignor Ciurcia never answered one syllable, never ever. He only sent back four short letters to four letters I wrote him in Alexandria from Cairo or Assiut, between 1877 and 1880, requesting the faculty to confirm or other such matters. But from 1872 to 1881 never has he once answered the 20 or more letters I wrote him from Europe and Central Africa.

[6612]

This being the case, I think it is a waste of time for me to write to Monsignor Ciurcia since the matter would best be dealt with verbally, to reach a verbal agreement, and then to put into writing what has been agreed. What is more, at the moment, as long as in Egypt the pernicious Franciscan monopoly of this most important apostolate prevails and survives, preventing all other Institutions from operating to the full extent of their capacities (for which Mgr Ciurcia is not to blame) it will never be possible to do much good in Egypt, which the currently existing Institutions could do, including my own. This is why I leave my people in Egypt as little as I can (I would like to state some truths… but…); and at this moment I have only one priest, the most devout and quite good administrator, the Roman Fr Francesco Giulianelli, whom Your Eminence knows, with three lay brothers who are acclimatising there, and 4 Sisters who are certainly no bother to that Vicar Apostolic, and to whom I secretly advised to seek counsel from the Jesuit Fathers, my true friends and benefactors.

[6613]

Moreover I am fortunate that the Friar now appointed by Mgr Ciurcia as Confessor to my Sisters, etc. is a pious and holy man, with whom I am most pleased and he is pleased with us. Therefore I do not request nor have I requested any of the things indicated in Your Eminence’s esteemed above-mentioned letter; neither the faculty for the missionaries to confess each other, also because I do not wish to have it now, because in Cairo there are the Jesuits who minister to both the missionaries and the Sisters, giving retreats and hearing confessions; nor to give the right to the Vicar Apostolic to intervene, because in any case this prelate was always asked by me to intervene, and my Representative has instructions from me to refer to him, etc., etc., etc.

[6614]

I am happy for Mgr Ciurcia to treat my Institutes as a Bishop treats his Seminary. I am pleased that he should act as immediate Superior to my establishments, and this until the Rule of my Verona Institute has been submitted to and approved by the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide, trusting firmly in God that the Sacred Congregation will not take long to make the necessary arrangements in Egypt for the greater development of this most important apostolate.

[6615]

Interpreting Your Eminence’s will then, I shall write to Mgr Ciurcia asking him to oversee and always to be a father to my little establishments. And since both Mgr Ciurcia and Your Eminence are prepared to grant my Cairo Institutes the Indult for Private Chapels, which is, as you told me, what has been done for Monsignor Lavigerie in Tunis, please grant this to me immediately, and I thank you for it in advance.

[6616]

I will write to you later with greater ease because, so far, I have sweated, toiled and suffered greatly in my travels, and due to the terrible drought in Kordofan (where 95 of us have to eat and drink) where it costs me 7 to 10 scudi
a day to buy dirty and brackish water, and although I am ill with the heat and fatigue, I must work night and day. I will write to you about the splendid church I will be blessing in a few days’ time, which stands in the capital of Kordofan, 30 meters long and roofed with galvanised iron sheets, which is the largest in Central and Equatorial Africa, and which is a wonder of these lands.

[6617]

I will tell you of the happy development of my Mission, although none other in the world compares with it in difficulty and harshness. In the meantime, I enclose a Document, or Commendation from Rauf Pasha, Governor General of the Egyptian Sudan, a territory five times the size of Italy, which stretches from the Tropic to the Equator and from the Red Sea to the Waday. I am sending you a copy of this Document in Arabic with a translation in Italian, in which Your Eminence will realise the moral power my Mission has. Here in the Kordofan, where Muslim fanaticism has fought hard against the mission, now all the Pashas, Cadis, Faquis, Arab nomads and all have a great fear of me. This Diwan sent orders everywhere for the slave trade to cease and for the Bishop of all the Christians in the Sudan to be honoured. The most powerful slave traders have been to see me. Each of these used to tear thousands of slaves from their tribes and one of them, the most powerful Tefaala, who captured Daniel Sorur the Propaganda student, invited me to lunch and assured me (??!) that henceforth he would make no more expeditions to steal Africans. I shall take advantage of my position to foster our religion and to destroy the slave trade.

[6618]

But having given you instances above of measures to be taken for the improvement of the apostolate in Egypt, since it is of great importance to me in Central Africa, I had to get it off my chest and subordinately give Your Eminence my opinion. While I kiss the Sacred Purple, I remain humbly
Your Eminence’s obedient and devoted son

+ Daniel Comboni,
Vicar Apostolic

[6619]

On the 5th of this month I arrived in El Obeid, capital of Kordofan, and I was not a little amazed to see a church bigger, vaster and more beautiful than the palace of the governor, which here is considered a monument. The roof and the facade are nearly finished: one part of the nave and the side walls have not yet been whitewashed because of the lack of water. The issue of water, dear Sirs, is a serious matter, which recurs every year, every day, and is always hanging over our heads. With a little money, one can always find something to eat, but to be able to drink one needs a lot of money and this year both the Institutes have been forced on certain days to go thirsty, even though they had money available. The heat is unbearable, our thirst is great, and how can we quench it if there is so very little water and it is also exorbitantly expensive? At certain times of the year the price of drinking water rises to fifteen, twenty and even twenty-five francs, depending on the month. The hotter the sun gets, the scarcer water gets and its price rises. What a trial it is to hear the Superior of the Sisters say: “There is no more water to prepare food for the children”, or to hear a child cry: “Father I am thirsty, we have no more water”.

[6620]

It is sometimes necessary for the Superior himself to go to the Governor to ask for water which costs 15 to 20 centimes a litre. It is difficult in Europe to have an idea of the sufferings that must be borne in these hot and arid regions of Central Africa, especially if one has never experienced what it means to lack water, so as to have a precise idea. If one day there is no water, where can one go to wash one’s face and hands? Lucky are the missionaries and sisters who have saved in their basins the water with which they washed the day before. One is sometimes forced to drink that water, even if it is dirty.

[6621]

And if it is absolutely necessary to wash the clothes of the missionaries, the sisters, the children, the girls and the boys, then expenses are doubled that week; but there is also another reason for which it is necessary to spend money to obtain water: the building and restructuring of the rooms in both the Institutes.
During the rainy season, which lasts three months, construction and repairs are impossible, so that everything must be finished before that time, since in Kordofan all the houses are made of mud, and if the roof is not sound and the walls well plastered with mud and dung, then water seeps in and the house is ruined.

[6622]

Last year, when construction work on the church had begun, it was impossible to repair the rooms of the two Institutes and when the rains started, umbrellas had to be used in the rooms to shelter from the rain which poured in abundantly.
What we were unable to do last year must be done this year, otherwise it will rain as much in the houses as on the roads and the water could make the houses collapse.
In all the missions there are schools. In El Obeid there are Copts who wish to send their children to school. This is why we must build other schools, but unfortunately the water required for this can only be bought at impossible prices.

[6623]

So at the moment we cannot even carry out this indispensable work. However there would be a way of eliminating these obstacles and that is to construct wells or a cistern; a cistern would be preferable, since wells must be at least 55 metres deep; in addition they must be made deeper each year and at a depth of 35 metres there is granite which can only be pierced with explosives and appropriate tools. However, a cistern capable of providing each year enough water to quench our thirst, to wash the laundry and to carry out the necessary construction work would mean serious costs. Bricks and cement would be needed for this.

[6624]

Terracotta bricks cost 20 francs a thousand and cement costs 30 francs a hundred kilos. The cistern should contain about 300 cubic metres of water, which would require 50–60 thousand bricks and a corresponding amount of cement, not to mention the manual labour.
What a sum! Ah, but what a torment it is to think of the missionaries, of the sisters and of the children who for 9 months of the year suffer thirst in varying degrees and for the remaining three months are lashed with rain!
And what a consolation I would receive if I had the water needed to quench their thirst and I knew that they were under a good roof.

[6625]

Even in our days there is still misery and suffering that we must try to mitigate. However, there are nevertheless compassionate hearts, and it is these, gentlemen, that I address through your mediation. These hearts can feel compassion for us and understand the sufferings of my missionaries, of the Sisters and of the children; may the good God touch their hearts; then I and all of us will be able to pray the Lord that he should not fail to reward even a single glass of water given to the poor for love of him and in his name, so that he may bless them with blessings corresponding to the gifts they have donated.
Receive, illustrious sirs, the assurance of my deepest veneration, your most devoted

+ Daniel Comboni
Bishop of Claudiopolis i. p. i.
Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

Translated from the German.

[6626]

I arrived in El Obeid, capital of Kordofan, on the 5th of this month at 9 a.m. I was amazed to see a new church taller, vaster and more beautiful than the palace of the governor, which here is considered a monument. The roof and the
facade are nearly finished: one part of the nave inside and the outside walls have not yet been plastered with lime because of the lack of water.
The lack of water is a serious question, an annual question, a question yet to be resolved. With money one can find something to eat at all times, but to find something to drink one needs a lot of money and this very year the establishments of the Mission have suffered from thirst. The water costs amount to 15, 20, 25 francs a day depending on the month. The hotter the sun burns, the higher the price of water goes. What a heartbreak it is when the Superior of the Sisters comes to tell me: “We cannot prepare the food for the African girls”; or when an African boy cries: “Father, I am thirsty!” It is then necessary to go to the Governor to ask for water which costs 15 to 20 centimes a litre.

[6627]

It is difficult in Europe to have an exact idea of the sufferings that must be borne in these torrid and arid regions of Central Africa. One needs to have experienced them to be quite convinced. If on a certain day there is no water to drink, what about washing one’s face and hands? Lucky are the African boys and girls when missionaries and Sisters had water to wash with and kept it in the basin, this gives them a welcome drink! And when it comes to washing the clothes of the missionaries, the sisters and the children, the expense is doubled that week.

[6628]

The construction and repairs of the small houses in the two establishments further increases the expense. It is impossible to start on the work in the rainy season, which lasts two or three months. Everything must be properly finished before the rains come, because in Kordofan the houses are made of sandy earth and if the roof is not well made and the walls are not coated with mud mixed with animal excrement, the water seeps in and ruins the house. Last year, since the church was being built, it was not possible to deal with the two establishments and when the rains came umbrellas had to be opened even inside the rooms. Now, to avoid seeing everything go to ruin, we must plan to repair our houses this year.

[6629]

In El Obeid many Copts would like to entrust their children to us, but for this schools would have to be built. Now water is lacking and we must pay impossible prices for it. In the meantime, we are improving nothing. There would be a means of eliminating all this inconvenience, by making wells or even better, cisterns. The cistern is preferable because wells must be at least 35 metres deep and must be deepened again each year. At 30 metres there is granite which can only be broken using explosives.

[6630]

A cistern large enough to provide the water needed in one year to quench our thirst, cook food, wash clothes and repair the houses must cost a considerable amount. Indeed, it calls for baked bricks and mortar. The former cost 20 francs per thousand and the latter 15 francs per quintal. Since the cistern must have a capacity of at least 300 cubic meters, it would require 50 to 60 thousand bricks and several quintals of mortar, without counting the labour. What a sum!
Ah! What grief I feel when I think of my poor missionaries, the sisters and the African children suffering from thirst for several months and being tried by the rains and other ailments for the rest of the year! Instead, what a comfort it would be for me to see them finally have water in sufficient quantity!

[6631]

In these times of desolation there are unfortunately too many sufferings to alleviate, but in our beloved France there are always hearts of inextinguishable charity. May they have pity on us and be moved by our sufferings!

+ Daniel Comboni

[6632]

It is with shame that I write this letter to Your Majesty, because after having had the consolation of receiving the magnificent letter of 11th October 1878 which Your Majesty did me the honour of addressing to me and which I always keep religiously with me as a monument to your regal bounty, your great zeal for the civilisation of Africa, I did not write to Your Majesty again as I wished.
The terrible famine, the plague, the hunger and the mortality which has decimated the population in many regions; the death of my great Vicar and of many missionaries and Sisters and many other reasons and my ailments, etc., etc. (that I will explain to Your Majesty in my next letter) and the hope I nurtured of having the honour of going to Brussels in person and of obtaining an audience with Your Majesty, have been the cause of my silence; and I am sure that Your Majesty’s generous bounty will grant your most benevolent forgiveness. After all, I am very guilty with regard to Your Majesty, because I should have written.

[6633]

I must send Your Majesty news of the abolition of slavery and inform you about the organisation of my apostolic Works. But what is more interesting in my opinion, are the positive and solid results of the work Your Majesty founded and the war-cry it has raised against the slave trade in Central Africa from the Tropic to the Equator, which is under my jurisdiction. This will be the subject of my next letters. What I urgently wish to say in this letter is to implore two graces of Your Majesty’s regal bounty.

[6634]

The first is that you allow me to offer Your Majesty my most sincere congratulations and my most ardent wishes of prosperity and happiness for the forthcoming wedding of Your beloved daughter, Princess Stefania, to His Imperial and Royal Highness, Archduke Rodolfo, Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary. I offer the same congratulations and wishes to Your daughter, Her Imperial and Royal Highness Stefania, whom I shall one day venerate as Empress of the glorious Hapsburg Empire, protector of the Vicariate of Central Africa.

[6635]

The second grace I implore of Your Majesty’s eminent bounty is that you should deign to read my letter of congratulations to your worthy son-in-law, His Imperial and Royal Highness, Archduke Rodolfo, the Crown Prince, on the occasion of his glorious wedding, and also to be kind enough to present him these wishes in Vienna when you go there for the solemn occasion of the celebration of his nuptials.

[6636]

These are the two graces I implore of Your Majesty.
I again beg Your Majesty to grant me your benevolent forgiveness for my silence: what I have suffered and put up with for the redemption of Central Africa is indescribable, but never will I bend to any obstacle until my dying breath. My battle-cry will always be: Africa or Death!

[6637]

I would like to add many things, but the dromedary that carries the mail is leaving. In a word I say just one thing to Your Majesty: slavery has received a formidable and fatal blow. Your Majesty has great merit for this. I will show this in my next letter to Your Majesty.
May Your Majesty deign to accept my deep respects and my heartfelt thanks, my eternal veneration and my dévouement, with which I have the honour to remain forever and with all my heart
Your Majesty’s most humble, respectful, and devoted servant

+ Daniel Comboni
Bishop of Claudiopolis i. p. i.
Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[6638]

On the day of the marriage of the Imperial Prince and the Princess, Your daughter, we will organise a splendid feast in Khartoum and here in Kordofan with the Consul of Austria, Cavaliere Hansal, here, after the pontifical Mass and Te Deum, we shall have a great illumination with the intervention of the Pasha, the Governor of Kordofan and Darfur.
From the Tropic to the Equator, to which the Egyptian possessions extend, the banner of Austria-Hungary and the banner of Christian civilisation; the Catholic Mission is the strongest moral power in these immense regions.


Translated from the French.

[6639]

It is impossible for me to answer all the points of your letters because it is hot and I have many things to do and letters to write, etc. I shall limit myself to the main points.
Regarding the latest communication I have received about the present demands of the Peccati sisters, here is what I have to say in conscience, and it is the pure and absolute truth. Beware, dear Father, there is perhaps some deceit, and it is perhaps that rascal and miserable parish priest Grego who is inspiring it, because he also goes on writing to Fr Bonomi inciting him to return to be parish priest of Montorio. If he were to succeed (he will not succeed because Fr Luigi is solid and is not to be led by the nose) he would remove my right hand man from my Vicariate.

[6640]

First of all, once Signora Luigia Zago, calculating 10,000 lire, asked the late Fr Squaranti for 6,600 or so Masses to be celebrated after their death, and after her proposal was accepted by Fr Squaranti, in justice the lady benefactor can no longer claim the 10,000 lire, but only the Masses. Perhaps with the obligation to pay 10,000 lire, neither Fr Squaranti nor myself would have accepted the donation, but for Masses, and to be celebrated in the future, yes, as is natural. The 6,000-odd Masses were reduced to half that amount by Fr Squaranti through the close reasoning he developed for those devout souls: “How is it possible that you, Signora Luigia, who have always lived like a saint and who have always done so much good and so much charity in the world, to the point of divesting yourself of everything, should go to purgatory and require 6,000 or more Masses to be freed of this penance, etc., etc.?” So they were reduced by half.

[6641]

Two months before Signora Luigia, urged by the priests, took me to court for me to guarantee her a yearly pension of 2,500 lire, I repeated Squaranti’s argument, and adding to it that charitas operit multitudinem peccatorum, I begged her to relieve me of the obligation of saying so many Masses after their death, and I swear before God that they both agreed saying: “If the money for the Masses is needed for the mission, let them stop saying them, because alms to the mission is the same, for by contributing to the salvation of souls, one saves one’s own and the like”. The fact is that immediately after this I made a note on more than one registry in Verona that there is no obligation for the Masses when the mission is in need; then after agreeing everything with the Cardinal our Father, that is the pension of 2,500 (I wanted 1,400, they wanted 1,600 and His Eminence suggested dividing the burden in half), I wrote for my successors that my heirs were not bound by any further obligation of conscience with regard to the Peccati ladies. This is the truth.

[6642]

As regards promising assistance if the yearly 2,500 were not enough, oh, that yes! I promised it to them several times, verbally and in writing. And certainly I promised it to them even last week when replying to a very nice letter Luigia wrote to me on 9th February.
And here, my dear Rector, even if other respectable personalities should think otherwise, I tell you truly that I incline towards my own feelings. Even if the Zago women were to need a hundred thousand francs, long live Noah , I would crucify our Beppo to make him find them for them. How? The Peccatis helped me with such charity at a moment when I was in extreme need to endow the Verona Institute, so that the Holy See would entrust the Vicariate of Central Africa to it (and without those two good souls perhaps I would not have obtained the mission), so should I be afraid of giving them even one hundred thousand francs?

[6643]

Rest assured that in St Joseph’s beard there are millions at our disposal, and you can be sure that the Peccatis will not abuse, indeed (even if extraneous influences were temporarily to prevail over them) they will ask for less than they need. And this is why it is good that you should forestall them and, by going to see them, be the first to ask to give them help. You must give them what they want: this is a debt of gratitude. They gave with so much charity: let us give to them with greater charity.

[6644]

This is Jesus: it was for Jesus that they gave, and it is for Jesus that we give to them; and Jesus takes everything into account, even if we were to give them more than we received. Everything comes from the beard of the Eternal Father by means of Beppetto, and we’ll make Beppetto jump for the Peccatis who venerated and loved him so much. Actually I am in credit with Beppetto for the church in Kordofan, which so far is the biggest in Central Africa, that is, 30 metres long (without counting the round front), and it is all covered in iron (or at least more than half covered with galvanised iron sheets I imported from France, and the rest is covered with zinc). I celebrated pontifical Mass there on Maundy Thursday, consecrated the holy oils and solemnly celebrated pontifical Mass there on Easter Day. I shall send drawings of it, inside and outside, done for me by an able Protestant pastor, and you will make lithographs for the Annals. I think I have said everything on the pending Peccati issue. Give them my heartfelt regards and my blessing.

[6645]

The Archbishop of Algiers is publishing and trumpeting that his boundaries are at the 10th degree of latitude, and on this basis is getting over 300,000 francs from Lyons, to the detriment of my Vicariate, whose name he would like to eliminate. But with St Joseph’s help I will make trouble: I have thought about it and meditated before God, and told only one person. I pray to God that this great prelate may do some good, but I have no faith in him, because he lacks the poetry of the true spirit. He will succeed because he has numerous personnel and great means, but he will cause fiascos, because God is the avenger of justice, and if he meddles with me he will create major fiascos. We shall see. He has deceived many people, and all because of his ignorance of things African. Out of all this will come the greater glory of God and the greater good for Africa.

[6646]

As regards Sestri, I gave no positive order to build; I merely expressed that if I had the money I would make that expense, no more. Instead, Fr Angelo said and wrote several times: “if I run up expenses and they are not approved, I will pay”. So be calm, and trust in God, for he himself guides his work.
The rice and candles from Montorio have arrived in Khartoum. To help the Sisters in Cairo, I shall send with Callisto and Fr Bortolo (who has decided to return; although he is well… he is totally lacking in Christ’s charity, and will therefore never be any good and will be a burden on others, but we will have charity for him) two strong African girls from the house in Khartoum, but I will never send Sisters from here. I’d rather call Sisters here from there. This is the opinion of the Sisters here, and especially of Sr Teresina, who is a woman equal to the arduous mission she has, and who sees clearly.

[6647]

Besides, concerning Sestri, my opinion is not to spend anything on building, except for what you yourself told Sr Metilde in writing last autumn. My blessings and greetings to Sestri, the Sisters, Fr Angelo, the Most Reverend Archpriest, the Mayor and Serluppi.
At your first opportunity, please send me 4 packs of 100 mustard plasters and half a dozen long enemas with a bulb in the middle for our hospitals and infirmaries, etc. You will find all this at Vincenzo Carretoni, whom you paid for the quinine wine and who sells at good prices.
At Sestri, Virginia fell on the bathroom stairs. Not even the Mother General and Sister Gemma herself could keep Virginia and Sr Virginia Tabraui (who was a saint and my first Superior) in bed. The Arab women are like this and without these Arab women one cannot teach either in the East or in Africa.

[6648]

With great difficulty and good luck I have found an Arab teacher from Syria who is here, a young Maronite: I give him expenses, food and clothing and 25 thalers (125 gold francs) a month. It is really lucky. If I could find two women teachers at these same conditions for Kordofan and for Khartoum, I would be happy. But it is impossible.
I thank the female Institute and yourself for the Easter wishes, and I send mine in return. The cleric Neiss is a good and talented young man, as the Jesuits assure me: he could not become a Jesuit, but I know no more. Observe him and form a good judgement. Ask him whether from Fr Boetman’s he went to other monasteries. For Walcher, there certainly were some enemies. And is Titz at Verona or in Vienna?

[6649]

I am writing to Propaganda about the young African Pietro: in the meantime have him taught third year of primary school and half of the first year of Latin, because it is essential for Propaganda. See to it that he is placed in some school.
With reference to the silence of the Salzburg nuns, take no notice of it: they think, pray and work for Africa and they are madly in love with our Work. At times they bombard me with letters, and I do not reply. Not replying is the German way: the German acts, and does not chatter. Sometimes I have received three or four letters of credit in one year without a line of explanation. One German does more in silence than a hundred Italians chattering away.

[6650]

I have sent my Stampais cousin the receipt you mentioned.
Those objects, (antiquities) that I left for Cardinal di Canossa were all personally collected by me in Luxor, Upper Egypt, that is in the ancient Thebes of a Hundred Doors, the land of the 10,000 Theban martyrs, St Maurizio, etc., Alexander.
For the rest, keep trusting in God, and prepare for me excellent candidates of both sexes. I am very glad that Giorgio is no longer there. He has truly lost the grace of God, which he had received very copiously. Prayer and charity will call him back to the way of virtue in his own country.

[6651]

As for Virginia, I neither share your opinion, nor do I believe that she is as you portrayed her to me. I am convinced that you spoke in conscience and are full of charity, and that you would be happy to see her being a saint; but you must be equally convinced that I too speak in conscience, that I have Christ’s true charity for her and that I hope to receive blessings from heaven for what I have done and will do for her. How can one explain these two things which seem contradictory? Well, Virginia is not in her place: to treat Virginia like a 14 year-old postulant, to forbid her to speak Arabic to her brother, she who has spent 18 years in a much more worthy community than ours, those are the reasons why Virginia is a fish out of water in Verona. Virginia is an experienced missionary accustomed to an active life, Virginia mortified herself for 18 years of convent life and suffered like a Trappist, or more. Therefore it is good for Virginia, for the Verona Institute and for your responsibility that she is to leave Verona. It will be seen to by St Joseph, to whom I have commended her, and that’s it. But before she leaves Europe, I want her to have some treatment which she cannot do outside Italy, so please talk to Dr Braschera. I thank you so much for what you have done for Virginia. I hope Jesus will send me to heaven for what I have done for that poor soul, whom God will certainly send to heaven, because she toiled so much for him and she had real divine charity. Africa knows this.
I bless you and the Institutes, a thousand greetings to Fr Vignola, Tabarelli, etc. and pray for me very much

+ Bishop Daniel

[6652]

I kept forgetting to ask you to collect from Mgr Stegagnini (I even forgot to collect them in Verona, and Mgr Steg. forgot to send them to me at home) the several copies of the little booklets on the Sacred Heart and St Joseph that he composed, and that the Girelli sisters from Brescia gave me, and sent me as soon as they were published. Moreover, I would like every missionary and every Sister in Central Africa to possess and become thoroughly familiar with these two stupendous books (as well as Kempis and Rodriguez) so as to know fully the riches of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ and the poetry of St Joseph’s greatness.

[6653]

These two treasures, together with fervent devotion to the great Immaculate Mother of God, the wife of the great Patron of the Universal Church and of Africa, are a safe talisman for those who work in the interest of souls in Central Africa among the people of both sexes in these lands, and give courage and enkindle the charity necessary to deal with them in a friendly and relaxed way to convert them to Christ and Our Lady. A model of the true missionary of Central Africa (and she really is like, or better than, Sr Giuseppina Tabraui, who taught Virginia with Mother Emilienne, taking Virginia in at the age of 6 and with the best of the Sisters of St Joseph) is Sister Teresa Grigolini, who (I am giving you my considered opinion, which is shared by the others and Sister Vittoria) is the prime and most complete and perfect example in the Congregation of the Devout Mothers of Africa (leaving aside the eminent holiness, I mean the holiness of Sr Maria Giuseppina Scandola which shines so brightly in a person of heroic humility, etc.): with her outstanding mind, capacities, charity and piety; with the qualities of a Daughter of St Vincent de Paul, she combines the sublime interior life of a Sacramentine and of a Daughter of the Visitation.

[6654]

In addition, she has iron health and a surprising vitality, and she also manages quite well in Arabic. This is the type I mean. Here in Khartoum, she has brought to Christ and to the sacraments a number of souls that I would never have thought possible. When the time comes for me to establish a house in Syria, I am certain that Sr Grigolini will succeed in six months, and you will know her in Verona and see the real mettle of a Sister of Central Africa. But to succeed in this, I mean so that each, or a large part of the Sisters become secure missionaries in Central Africa, I agree with Sr Grigolini (who has no idea that I have so much esteem for her, indeed I fight her), that novices must be educated, as is presently being done by our Verona Mother, under Stigmatine inspiration: why? Because when they are sent to Africa so humble, compliant, plain and simple, as were the ones sent to the Sudan, they adapt to practical life as one wants.

[6655]

As regards religious education, therefore, please continue as you have been doing and as you mean to do. I say this because I know your spirit and your intentions very well indeed: holy and capable. Saintliness without capability or capability without saintliness are of very little value to a person who wants to undertake a missionary career. The missionary man or woman cannot go to heaven alone. They must go to heaven in the company of the souls they have helped to save. So in the first place holiness, completely free from sin and offence against God, and humble. But this is not enough: love too is necessary to make these men and women do good work.

[6656]

A mission as arduous and difficult as ours cannot survive with just a patina, with people putting on airs of holiness, but full of egoism and self-centredness, caring very little about the salvation and conversion of souls. They must be fired with love which has its source in God, and with the love of Christ. Once we really love Christ then privation, suffering and martyrdom become sweet. Poor Jesus! How little he is loved by those who should love him! And I am one of them. And here, in the secret of the confessional (for Fr Vignola there are no secrets of the confessional; you can tell him all) I tell you that all our Verona Sisters have been a great success here under the watchful and able Sister Grigolini. But had it not been for the energy and iron hand of Sr Grigolini and Sr Vittoria, perhaps, indeed no perhaps, I would have had to send Sr Marietta Caspi back to Verona, she who was my first recruit, who had been the servant of the Camillian Franceschini’s father and who would go to confession to the Philippian Superior, Fr Dalla Chiara.

[6657]

This Sister is good, obedient, very gentle and dear to the Mother Superior of Verona, and she was among the first to come to Africa. But she is a bastard, a daughter of sin, illegitimate (and the Sisters Grigolini and Vittoria were most displeased that her illegitimacy was revealed in the Annals: it is not a good image for those who aspire to join our Institute), just as the novice Augusta, entrusted to us by Fr Falezza, is illegitimate. I have always observed through my direct experience that illegitimate sons and daughters are hot and full of fire like those who gave birth to them; and even if they are educated to be devout and pure, at the first opportunity they flare up and fall in love easily. If Marietta Caspi had not been held and guarded with an iron hand, she would have fallen into the web of a Barabbas of a doctor, and then of another in Kordofan and in Berber: she did not mean to do the slightest harm, but she did want to speak and write. In fact, at two different times, that is in 1878 (and I remedied that one with a sudden action similar to the one with which you dealt with Giorgio, supposing that if the sister had been warned it would have been useless… and it was right to suppose this) and in 1880 with Dr Zucchinetti who was treating her, she gave a lot of trouble to Sr Grigolini, who had decided, if Marietta survived, to send her back to Verona, had I given my consent. But there was never a shadow of any evil, and she died as a true religious, asking to be forgiven by the Superiors and by me (as Sr Grigolini wrote to me in Verona).

[6658]

I studied this matter seriously and even sought good advice in Rome. The founders of Orders and Congregations always excluded illegitimate candidates from the religious state (save a few exceptions); and here I can see clearly that they had good sense. So we too must exclude the illegitimate from our African Institutes, or at least never send them to Africa. Therefore, do not send Fr Falezza’s Augusta to Africa, although she is good; but even after her profession, give her a permanent job in Verona, in the kitchen or in some other office. It would be good if she became a good cook, like Sr Marietta Caspi, so that presiding permanently over the kitchen she could ably supervise the others.

[6659]

Perfect silence, therefore, on the matter of Sr Marietta Caspi: not, however, on the principle of excluding the illegitimate and of keeping Augusta always in Verona, at least for a few years until her youth has passed. Exceptions prove the rule. If an illegitimate girl were to apply, with good references, a fine dowry, an education (together with a good spirit), etc. that would be another matter; then… we are generous… because the mean don’t go to heaven.

[6660]

For the rest, my dear Rector, do not let any difficulties get you down: the works of God have always cost blood, sorrows and death, troubles, etc. But remember that all the troubles, pains, crosses are meritorious, because we work for Christ alone, and for the glory of his name, and to win the souls of the Africans: it is the most difficult apostolate of the Catholic Church. Look, for example, at the recent missions to the Equator, where they are not doing a thing. Look at the Mission in the Upper Zambezi entrusted to the Jesuits: it is a mission in which there are able Jesuits, its climate is healthier than the healthiest climate in Europe; the Jesuits have brought in machines and stupendous personnel, etc. And yet; so far, they have not achieved a thing: read the Milanese Missioni Cattoliche, or Missions Catholiques etc., and you will see. Among others, read issue n.9 of Friday 4th March 1881, p. 97 Upper Zambezi on the Mission founded and run by the Jesuits, etc., and this is in Missioni Cattoliche from Milan (Fr Scurati), and notice what the Jesuit Superior writes on pp. 98–99. He was a missionary for 18 years in Calcutta and Bombay, in India.

[6661]

“How many difficulties will we have to face before we can get these people used to the ideas and customs of the Gospel!… To insist on the practice of the moral law, to demand restitution and the renunciation of hatred… the inviolability of marriage, chastity and charity. All this is impossible for a fallen nature! How much we experience here the necessity of grace. The only thought which keeps us from despairing is that the history of the Church shows how in the past many peoples like our pagans of Africa submitted to the yoke of Christ”. This is what a great Jesuit Missionary with twenty years’ experience says! And yet there are certain Cardinals at Propaganda who have seen nothing but the gilded salons of Paris and Lisbon, who know nothing about the history of the Church, who have suffered and endured nothing (and whom our Most Eminent Father and Bishop knows well: Cardinal Orelia di Stefano, Meglia and a few others) and who say…

[6662]

But that’s enough, because even these things are the will of God… These Cardinals (and Mitterrutzner would even include Cardinal Simeoni) weigh and judge the African Missions with the same criteria they use for the Indies, China and America. But this is a serious mistake which I have fought against, fight against now and will continue to fight against in my dealings with Propaganda (where naturally there is to be found the spirit of God, apostolic zeal, uprightness and justice: only that there is just a little ignorance… which I would call almost blameworthy). Many other Bishops, Patriarchs and Vicars Apostolic, who agree with me, because we have the experience and grace of our vocation (posuit Ep.pos regere Ecclesiam Dei), complain about this to other people (especially the Friars), but they say nothing to Propaganda. I instead write freely, although it should be understood that I have always and will always blindly obey every hint, wish or order from Propaganda, because it represents the Pope in these matters. I scourge them, however, gently but tenaciously. In Rome they are ready to listen to every side.

[6663]

But I am certain that when all the poetry will have ceased about the 4 Vicariates of Mgr Lavigerie’s Missionaries of Algiers and about the Missions entrusted to the Jesuits, the Algerians, the African Missions of Lyons and the Venerable Libermann’s Holy Ghost Fathers, at Propaganda they will have to reckon and consider my opinions just and correct, and they will be convinced that the Verona Institute has in fact achieved something in the most difficult of all the works of the Catholic Apostolate, that our Work is indeed under a Divine blessing and that this Work of ours is truly God’s work. So you must act well and justly in Verona; and I shall cut the horns, resist and cut the legs off all the monsters of the abyss who are trying from all sides and with incredible cunning to annihilate or cripple it. Christ is more subtle and skilful than the Devil.

[6664]

You must think of the many merits you will gain, and a great troop of apostles, virgins and converted Africans will accompany you into Heaven; but I repeat, we will have to go through and accomplish the pati, contemni et mori pro te. We will have to suffer, be despised, slandered (not you, but I – yes), perhaps be condemned and die… but for our dear Jesus! I do not give a penny for the world, or for the world’s opinion: but for Christ, sacrifice and martyrdom are small matter. In sum, our sufferings for Christ are finer than all the glories and splendour of the Tzar, who was killed by the bombs of nihilists.
Forgive me if I chattered too much, without wanting to. I can’t sleep. Vale .

+ Bishop Daniel

[6665]

From the letters of my cousin, Sr Faustina, the stop-gap of our Cairo Sisters, I have heard of your admirable, prompt and blind obedience to my orders about the candles, etc. I gave you this order after seeing the enormous consumption of candles in Khartoum. They are badly made, burn too quickly and incur expenses beyond our means and in excess of the money God sends me. I have just received in Khartoum two large cases of candles that I bought in Europe for over 1,400 francs, this is why for two years in the Vicariate, counting what we have of old and new, we have no more need for candles, including what we shall consume in the beautiful and stupendous new church in Kordofan roofed with galvanised iron and zinc, 30 meters long and which I will dedicate to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

[6666]

But in Cairo? My poor Fr Francesco! Not to be able to light as many candles as you wish to honour our sweetest Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, the most sublime treasure we possess, oh no! I altogether withdraw the orders I gave you and I give you back the full freedom and faculty to burn as many candles as you want and make as many novenas and expositions of the Most August Sacrament as you wish, in the certainty that with the Sacred Heart of Jesus and with our Immaculate Mother we have nothing to lose, but everything to gain. So be happy, have ceremonies, novenas and burn candles as you please, and pray to Jesus that he may bless our arduous, difficult and important mission. I greet and bless your mother, Sister Maria Teresa Ferro and all the Augustinian Mothers and the Prioress of S. Caterina dei Funari in Rome. Fr Giovanni Dichtl and Fr Giuseppe Ohrwalder are missionaries of the first order, with a great spirit of sacrifice and truly holy.

[6667]

Fr Giovanni is already preaching in Arabic in the Khartoum parish every fortnight. Fr Paolo Rosignoli is behaving so-so: not too bad. Fr Bortolo who has recovered wants to return to Europe, and will leave with Callisto in June. The most capable missionary of the Vicariate, the one who has the greatest self-denial, the most able, strongest and most positive as a missionary, parish priest and administrator, is Fr Luigi Bonomi. He totally lacks good manners and social graces, which is why he is opposed by many, even by the Consuls, but he is the most able, firm and faithful: Africa or Death. The Superior of Khartoum is Fr Arthur Bouchard, that of Kordofan is Fr Giovanni Battista Fraccaro, and I shall appoint the Superior of Jebel Nuba after I have finished my visit.

[6668]

In a few days’ time I expect a telegram in Kordofan telling me of the 6,000 francs I asked Mr Holz for. I am in extraordinary financial difficulty: but I trust in the Sacred Heart and St Joseph. The daily expenses in El Obeid, where we have 85 hungry mouths to feed, are extraordinary. Dirty water alone costs us 7 or 8 thalers or scudi a day. Dear Jesus, help me.

[6669]

Similarly, I withdraw all the other orders I gave you as regards sending money at a difficult time (that is, with regard to the fact that of the 19,000 francs you received, you did not send me a cent, whereas you should cut the debts in half, and while you have urgent debts in Cairo, there are also most urgent ones here): I abandon myself in the arms of Jesus and of Providence and I trust you completely to send me as much as you can.

[6670]

As regards the 3,100 litres of wine to be sent, this is totally useless. We have all we need here for the year, and it would be a folly to spend money to send wine when we have such an extreme need for money. You will send the wine little by little as convenient; for example a thousand litres at a time, but do not send any of the laymen with it before the Kharif; not until September, that is. Of the laymen, the first one you should send me and who is to accompany the first dispatch to the Sudan (after the Kharif, that is) is Battista Felici, for whom I have prepared a job in Khartoum.

[6671]

Moreover, I would like to know 1. Who ordered you to buy so much wine, when we have such a need for money in the Vicariate. 2. From now on and until further notice, you will never order more than one single barrel a year from Santorino through the Friars. Nearly all of us here, and I in particular, drink the local merissa that is home-made by the African girls, and wine is little used. 3. I order you to send me the administrative accounts every month, or at least every two months, because I need to do my accounting. 4. How are the new church and male house coming along? I am glad you have had the new kitchen made. 5. From Khartoum, I have ordered two strong African girls to go to Cairo with Callisto. They are to help the Cairo Sisters in the kitchen, with the laundry and the heavy duties.

[6672]

After you have read this letter addressed to you, please be so kind, if it is not too difficult, as to pass it on to my cousin Faustina, because I do not have time to write to her. I thank you for the care you have shown the sick Sisters. Pray, and have prayers said for us, so that we may break the horns of the devil and chase him out of here with the help of Jesus.
On 12th February I sent the Superior of the Jesuits a Munich cheque for the sum of 2,475 francs and 54 centimes, and on the same day I wrote to Munich to inform them of the matter. I have had a reply from Bavaria, but not from the Superior of the Jesuits in Cairo. Perhaps the cheque was lost and was never received by the Jesuits? I insured it and have a receipt. Please go to that Superior to find out, and write to me.

[6673]

I am extremely pleased with the spirit of God that reigns among our Sisters, and with the eminent virtues of our Provincial Superior in Central Africa, Sister Teresa Grigolini. She is a real saint, able and like an angel. Pray for her and for the 4 Houses of Sisters we have in the Vicariate.
My greetings to the Jesuit Fathers, the Brothers, Holz, Fr Pietro and the Franciscans, Fr Germano the confessor, while I remain
Yours most affectionately in the Lord

+ Daniel,
Bishop and Vicar Apostolic

[6674]

I write from a new little Christian community, which we have founded in the kingdom of Kordofan in a place where there are several wells, called Malbes. Here, we have created a small Christian community which will grow little by little, since we have settled there young married couples after they received Christian education in our establishments at El Obeid, assigning to each one a plot of land, on the produce of which they must live, as they do, and buying each couple a donkey. This Christian community is under the guidance of the young African Fr Antonio Dobale, whom you know from Verona and Limone, and I often send two Sisters here for a change of air, it being healthier (but hot). Now that the little girls are growing up, I must think of establishing a house for the Sisters to bring them up in a Christian manner.

[6675]

But guess what. Not a single boy has been born to 14 of these new families, they are all girls!!! At El Obeid I was amazed by the beautiful church, where I blessed the Holy oils on Maundy Thursday and celebrated the Easter pontifical Mass. I shall bless it in a few days’ time and it is splendid, all covered with sheets of galvanised iron I brought from France (the zinc I sent from Milan is not worth much). We spent 800 thalers on water for this. It is thirty-one and a half metres long (here there are no stones and mortar), it is the most beautiful and the largest church in Central Africa, and it is the wonder of these lands. The Christians of El Obeid offered 1,900 thalers in cash, many objects in kind, wood, etc., all the boys and girls of our establishments (except for a local craftsman) worked on it, with the able bricklayer Angelo Composta from Negrar, whom you saw in Verona; Fr Fraccaro sweated at it like a labourer; I added several thousand thalers to make up for the lack of funds, but the greatest merit in this enterprise for the splendid ornaments, stuccoes, etc. goes to the young Neapolitan priest Fr Vincenzo Marzano whom I ordained in Khartoum in 1878, whose work is magnificent and who was famously successful in raising funds from our Christians, the good, the bad and even the ones with concubines. It is the wonder of this town. Not wishing the city of Khartoum to lag behind El Obeid, the French Consul in Khartoum, as he tells me in a letter today, has proposed to build a bigger one in Khartoum; and of course, taking advantage of the enthusiasm of the moment, I am preparing my orders for the Superior, who is the American Fr Arthur Bouchard, whom you will have met in Verona, so that he may immediately help in this Work.

[6676]

In a fortnight, I shall leave for Jebel Nuba to found the new Station of Golfan among tribes that are completely naked from head to foot. I have many consoling things to write to you, but I do not have time. Here I found my Provincial Superior, Sister Teresa Grigolini, who is the true type of Sister I want, and who is a real angel of activity with her natural goodness, ease and capacity. She is the model of the true daughter of charity. After properly organising the Vicariate, I shall make a general Report which will please all the good people. In the Vicariate, I found much more good than the slanderers have been saying in Egypt, Rome, France and Verona. Even Fr Rolleri (the first to speak badly) was amazed in Khartoum, and is now saying that he was badly informed and he now sees grounds for hope. And yet he only saw a little of Khartoum (he is always in his room). He set off with the caravan of missionaries and sisters, but when the fever struck after two days’ journey towards Kordofan he returned to Khartoum; and since he thinks his health is not good enough, with my consent, he decided to return to Egypt and to Europe (perhaps he will do for Sestri). He will leave Khartoum in mid May with Callisto Legnani from Como, whose brother you saw in Verona.

[6677]

In Unità Cattolica and the Annali del Buon Pastore, you will find the splendid recommendation I received from a fanatical Muslim, Rauf Pasha, the Governor General of the Sudan, which is a territory five times the size of Italy and is also entirely under my jurisdiction. If I have the patience I will copy it for your consolation and the confusion of the Catholic kings and potentates of Europe who unjustly oppose and persecute the Pope, the Bishops and religion. May these learn from a Turk. Here it is, I will scribble it down for you quickly:
(Translated from the Arabic)

[6678]

To his Excellency Mohammed Saïd Pasha, Governor of the Kordofan and Procurator for affairs in the Darfur (ex empire).
“Since His Excellency Monsignor Comboni, Bishop of all the Catholic churches of the Sudan, our friend, and a person who deserves all veneration, respect and honour, will be leaving here in two days’ time for Kordofan and Jebel Nuba to visit the churches there; upon his arrival in your area, you are to receive him in a manner appropriate to his dignity according to the rules of honour and respect, and show him your fine friendship suited to the high level of tribute we owe him particularly, since he is one of the highest dignitaries of his religion, whom we must honour, and because in the world he is considered as a wise and esteemed personality, and see to it that he is satisfied with you.

[6679]

When he wishes to leave for the Nuba mountains, do everything you can to provide him with the means he needs to get there and to come back whenever he wants, and let him be received with all honour everywhere and by everyone, so that when he returns to us he may assure us of his complete satisfaction. Khartoum, 28th March 1881

(L.S.) The Governor General of the Sudan
Rauf Pasha


I bless you, Teresa, relatives and friends

+ Bishop Daniel

Here the pashas, generals, fachìs, etc. have a great fear of me, and they know that I have full powers to prevent the slave trade.