Writings

[7068]

I received your dear letters from Sestri and Verona, and heard of your regret for the withdrawal. But it is a disposition of God, and the Rector could not do otherwise in view of that miserable usurer, who has despised perhaps the last and most powerful grace offered him by God to be reconciled with Him and to improve his position in the world’s eyes by making a generous gift to Africa. He wrote to me that the Convent is always there and available to me. But I answered him reproving him for deceiving me and for wanting to deceive the world. I cannot reconcile such disgusting greed with the odd touch of liberality which you also witnessed. Certainly, if he does not give me the convent and garden, with all the legal forms, with nothing owing and without wanting to be their administrator himself, I will never engage in relations with him. Courage, we will found other Institutes.

[7069]

For the time being you should help the Superior: next spring Mother Teresina Grigolini will make a brief visit to Europe, and will put some electric sparks into the Institute. You will be pleased with her. She is a true pearl of Central Africa and my bravest grenadier for converting African women. Sister Vittoria is a superior woman too; and in general I am happy with each and every one of our Sisters, who scorn death, trample on the world and keep to the straight path. You build up your strength. Tell Sister Costanza that I want her to write to me to give me her news and that of her brother. I bless you all. Give the Superior and Virginia my greetings.
Yours most affectionately

+ Bishop Daniel

[7070]

Yesterday I received a letter from Fr Sembianti, which I enclose here, Enclosure V, from which it emerges that this Father justifies me to Cardinal Canossa on the falsity written by the same Cardinal on a note he had passed to me about Sestri.
Furthermore, in Kordofan I transcribed and sent to Fr Sembianti a passage from the letter written to me by the same Cardinal, that is Enclosure III, which explained the black and false judgement of the Cardinal concerning Virginia; that is, I transcribed it from the words on the 2nd page: “Passion. Yes, let me speak clearly, etc. The person who urged you for secondary aims, etc. Virginia… she is a scourge of the Mission etc.”, to the words of the 3rd page of the letter: “What a lot of sorrows does St Jacob’s partiality produce for his St Joseph”. Now Fr Sembianti, to whom I transcribed this passage that denigrates Virginia so much, replies to me that he never insinuated to His Eminence these sad sentiments about Virginia. Indeed, in reading this transcribed passage about Virginia he says that he felt indignation; he comforts me in bearing with him, who is suffering for it the cross that will take us both to heaven, and encourages me to persevere in the holy Work.

[7071]

Since Your Eminence will have difficulty in reading Fr Sembianti’s terrible writing, I transcribe it more clearly here.

“N. 39
Verona, 17 August 1881
Your Most Reverend Excellency,

Your last letter from El Obeid of 9th July brought me great sorrow. Oh! How wretched it is to be in this world! How many afflictions are born, grow and are oppressive, so often because of a misunderstanding, without there being anyone to blame. The distinguished Lawyer Brasca also said to me that man’s life is strewn with misfortunes, that no matter how one tries to avoid them one encounters them involuntarily and blamelessly. All this is only the Cross, that dear Cross as you wrote, which we must carry if we want to follow Jesus. But let us get back to us.

[7072]

My pain was caused by the suffering and affliction which the letter from Cardinal di Canossa brought you, as Yr. Exc. wrote, and he caused it to both of us without meaning to, through a misunderstanding. Indeed, I was at the Cardinal’s residence when he asked me: “Is it true that in withdrawing the Sisters from Sestri Mgr will have to pay 20,000 lire?” And he was rather upset when he asked me this; what with his agitation and the falsity of the matter, I answered him with surprise and forcefully: “But no, Your Eminence, he does not have to pay anything since these precise words are written: Mgr Comboni will pay the same sum (20,000 lire) if the premises given should be used for other purposes than those of the Work he heads”. He was pacified by this; but he did not say who had told him (it was the impostor Tagliaferro, on whose words Cardinal de Canossa, as he himself writes in Enclosure III, formed the dark and sinister opinion on poor Virginia) nor did he say that he had written this to Your Most Reverend Excellency.

[7073]

In your last letter you blame others for the distress and bitterness with which His Eminence wrote to you: whom you can blame for this idea I would be unable to guess. (I had blamed Fr Sembianti himself; I would be very happy to have been wrong). I will tell you only that I did not suggest to His Eminence the sentiments which I express to Your Most Reverend Excellency about you and Virginia. Indeed to put it frankly, in reading such feelings copied down, as Your Excellency does, I was disgusted. Fr Luciano, whom I could not but allow to read the whole letter, will testify to this.

[7074]

Ah! What afflictions, through no one’s fault! (Here the fault is Cardinal di Canossa’s, who writes without thinking and whatever comes into his head). What a misery to be in this world! Take heart, Monsignor, we carry the cross
together and it will carry us to heaven. You say that Your Excellency will succumb: that will not be; other enterprises, other Works and other more precious crowns are in store for you”.
Fr G. Sembianti


I kiss the Sacred Purple
Your most unworthy son

+ Daniel Comboni Bishop and Vicar Apostolic

Attachment V

[7075]

Letter from Fr Sembianti in his own hand, in which he justifies me to Cardinal di Canossa on what the latter calls the unfortunate Sestri affair.
He also declares that he is very irritated at the judgement passed by His Eminence on Virginia, and he encourages me to bear the Cross together with him, for he was pained and irritated by this, so that it may bear us both to heaven, and he urges me to persevere with the Work.

[7076]

I am beginning to feel easier about Fr Francesco because I have given him a mustard plaster etc. and he is now breathing, sleeping and is cheerful. Although he is most virtuous, we all realised that he is a novice at suffering and suffering for Jesus Christ, and not fearing death. At the Last Judgement, the Missionaries of Central Africa, so despised by such men as Fr Bortolo that it would be madness to listen to some of his judgements, and so poorly known by Propaganda because we write little, will cut a fine figure because, with the grace of God, they have known how to suffer greatly for Christ. I speak of those who have survived in Central Africa for three years. Nothing can be said with certainty of the others, though there is good reason to hope. I hope that all those you will be forming will be equal to this highest of vocations.

[7077]

I am very pleased with my manservant Giuseppe Fortini. I have not even once had to say a thing to him, whereas you know that I always shouted at Domenico, the American, for his open lies and his absent-mindedness. This one is always working in the house, obeys everyone and, above all, he is happy and says that he has finally reached his objective and what he always wanted.
I am extremely pleased with Fr Giulianelli. I have tested him in every way, tempting him, threatening him and restricting his faculties. He is a saint. I have therefore made him general administrator, because he handles and distributes almost all the funds. For three years I have been reflecting about where the general administrator should be based. Provisionally, I now want to try Cairo. In due course, I will send Giulianelli on a tour of the Vicariate for him to get to know the needs of each Station, after which he will return to Cairo.

[7078]

The life of an administrator is not safe in Khartoum, and I must use all the Missionaries I have in Ministry. I have already sent Giulianelli what was received in the Vicariate, etc. But you must continue to send everything to me, because while asking me to choose an administrator whom I trust, Propaganda told me that everything is under my responsibility, as is natural. If this is the case for all Vicars Apostolic, all the more reason for it to apply to me, since I, more than any other, raise the funds myself.

[7079]

As for Fr Bortolo, I recommend: after Recoaro, he could take the Acidule Catuliane at home. Next year, send him to Recoaro at the beginning of July and let him stay there for the whole of August, as I will explain.
I bless you all

+ Bishop Daniel

[7080]

In two words, Sister Vittoria’s recovery is a miracle in my humble opinion, or at least a stupendous grace from Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, wife of my Beppo. Excuse the familiarity, the air of Montebaldo is here too. Here they used to spend 3 thalers a day on water. Yesterday and today they spent 4 thalers a day, and from now on it will be even more. But Beppo is there to pay.
My dear Fr Luciano, I greet you and bless you from Kordofan, together with your sister, to whom I shall write, and your family.
Yours affectionately

+ Bishop Daniel.

[7081]

Under the auspices of Our Lady of Ransom, I hope God will give me the grace to deal properly with the cause for Africa, and to gain some merit for it with God, as I defend the most holy cause of Virginia, so unjustly oppressed in Verona against all the rules of charity. And I hope through Our Lady to succeed, both because the case is being dealt with by Propaganda in the court of justice and charity, and because I am profoundly convinced that, just as I am acting through conscience and for the most holy end of the twofold immense benefit, for my Mission and for the sanctification of the excellent and afflicted Virginia, so too Cardinal di Canossa and my dear Father Sembianti are acting for a holy end.

[7082]

We find ourselves in totally opposite camps through no one’s fault, perhaps because of the involuntary inexperience of Fr Sembianti who, through God’s loving disposition, coming from his religious house without having known the world, found himself in my Institute so regrettably advised, as I said, by the perfidious Fr Grieff and the farm labourer Giacomo against Virginia, from that day on he became a real, but most innocent, victim. I continue the account.

[7083]

Despite all the above-mentioned adversities, especially that of being removed from the religious community to a little house of mine after having been accustomed from the age of six, and for nearly twenty years, to living in a religious community, Virginia behaved as a true Christian and with edifying resignation both in Verona and in Sestri. This is clearly borne out by the two first attachments to the letters from the Superiors of Verona and Sestri, that I sent Your Eminence on the 3rd of this month with letter N.15. Now we must see how she behaved as a postulant in Verona from the time she entered my Institute, that is from November last year until this May, when Cardinal di Canossa declared that she does not have a religious vocation, and when she ceased to be called to the religious practices of the Postulancy with the others, and up to the present. The Superiors, and especially the Mother General, rejoiced when Virginia was admitted to the Postulancy. Not so Fr Sembianti, who told me, without ever having seen her in action, that he did not think that she would succeed. And the rustic Giacomo, who has great influence, said the day before I left for Africa: “Now that Monsignor is going to Africa, we shall soon be rid of the Arabs, brother and sister”.

[7084]

Virginia then told me: “I am staying here to be a nun, and I am prepared to die. But Monsignor, you will see that when you are on the mission you will have the displeasure of hearing that they have sent me away, because neither His Eminence nor Fr Sembianti wants to have anything to do with me. But for the love of God and of your dear mission, I shall make even this attempt: you will have no reason to complain about me, because with God’s help I will do my duty”.

[7085]

After my departure, Virginia was told not to speak Arabic with her brother, who came to see her from time to time but whom she usually did not receive, meaning that in accordance with the rule, she never went to the parlour without the Superior being present. The letters in Arabic from her mother and relatives in Beirut, as the Superior of the Jesuits in Cairo showed me, were sent to Cairo for translation and then delivered. However, Virginia wrote to me in Africa that the Mother Superior was very kind to her, that all the other Sisters were kind to her; but that she was clearly aware that Fr Sembianti and His Eminence would never approve of her, because she was never allowed to attend the Conference like the others, and the Superior never reproached her about it.

[7086]

She asked the Superior eight times to be clothed in the habit. But the Superior told her that although she was pleased with her, clothing her in the habit depended on the Rector, and that he always said either that he did not know her well enough or that he needed to speak to His Eminence about it. In this way, Virginia, who is perspicacious and knows things for what they are, wrote to me that she was unhappy, the unhappiest of creatures, because she could see clearly that neither the Cardinal nor the Rector wanted her to be a religious. And this was more or less in conformity with what Fr Sembianti wrote to me. He told me that he did not yet know Virginia well enough and that he was not convinced of her vocation: but he never gave me a reason, a motive for his severe and very unjust opinion.

[7087]

Only once did Fr Sembianti give me a detailed judgement of Virginia, differing from his usual habit of writing only that she has no religious spirit, has no vocation, and that was on 16th February this year when he gave me the news that he had informed Virginia that he had sent her brother off by ship from Trieste to Syria.

[7088]

On 9th February he wrote to me in Khartoum that Virginia’s brother, Giorgio (whom Fr Sembianti himself had implored His Eminence to allow to abjure, because he was firm in our faith and of edifying behaviour) was behaving badly and that therefore, at the advice of His Eminence, he had taken him to Trieste. There he told him that he was to leave immediately by Lloyd steamer to Beirut. Giorgio refused to leave because he first wanted at least to say goodbye to his sister; but finally he left under duress. He then told me that as a measure of prudence and for the good of the Institute, he had thought it right to say nothing to the sister, who thought that her brother was in Verona. He ended his letter telling me that when he returned from Trieste to Verona he would inform Virginia of the matter and let me know the result.

[7089]

In fact, on 16th February he wrote to me that on the 13th in the presence of the Mother Superior, he had told Virginia that her brother was no longer in Verona and that he had been forced to send him to Syria without, at the orders of His Eminence, being able to allow him to bid her farewell.
Fr Sembianti writes: “I told Virginia the fact of Giorgio’s departure in all its details. She listened to the whole story without showing any surprise and when I finished she told me in an imperious way and with tears to give her the dowry Your Excellency had promised her” (when she was in the little house separated from the community and she told me weeping that she could not apply to join any Institute because she lacked a dowry etc., I had told her that if God were to call her to join another Institute, I felt bound to provide her with one by means of my numerous benefactors; and Fr Sembianti wrote to me that this is correct) “because she wanted to join the Belgian Sisters who also go to Africa” (Virginia’s longing was and always will be for Africa, and I would be completely mad to let her flee, knowing her outstanding gifts and virtues).

[7090]

“Together with the Mother, I tried to calm her” (after giving her a mortal blow, he tries to revive her) “and I advised her to take her time, that a decision made in such emotion could be the wrong one. She replied that she had already made this decision some time ago, and she added: either I get the dowry to join the Belgian Sisters, or I am clothed and sent as soon as possible to Africa. Today, the 15th (two days later), she is still proposing the same thing: either to have the dowry or to be sent as soon as possible to Africa, because in conscience she can no longer stay here. She says she wants to go to the Cardinal and tell him the same thing; but as His Eminence is away on a visitation, she has to delay this. What pains her most is the way Giorgio was sent away without her being informed” (and she is right, right a thousand times) “for, she says, she would have corrected him, and if he had not mended his ways, she would have soon found some good pretext to send him home” (and Virginia is quite right on this point too). “I answered that I had thought of this, and if I did not go ahead and bring Giorgio to her to let her correct him, it was through fear that her reproaches might make him feel exposed and make a scene; which would have been error peior priore.”

[7091]

“All those I sought advice from agreed with this. As regards Virginia being clothed and sent to Africa as soon as possible, I made it clear to her that she had to do her time here” (Virginia asked the Superior and Fr Sembianti eight times to be
clothed, and said ‘If they want me to do something else, let them tell me because I am ready to do anything; if they do not want me to write to Monsignor any more, I won’t, but let them say so’). And she said: ‘However long I have to stay here’ (this is what Fr Sembianti says… but one must see and weigh up the anxieties in her heart that day, the 15th of February, two days after Fr Sembianti had told her about her brother’s departure… without seeing him… and in that manner). ‘I have been here for two years’ (and this is the great crime that led Fr Sembianti to believe that Virginia does not have the slightest vocation) ‘and if I were to stay here even 30 years I would stay the same and would not change’ (for one year Virginia was the person described by the Superiors of Verona and Sestri; and if she were not to change, should not everyone be pleased? Indeed, those Superiors and Cardinal di Canossa wrote to me and to Your Eminence in August last year that Virginia was good and deserved to be admitted to my Institute).

[7092]

“All those I sought advice from agreed with this. As regards Virginia being clothed and sent to Africa as soon as possible, I made it clear to her that she had to do her time here” (Virginia asked the Superior and Fr Sembianti eight times to be
clothed, and said ‘If they want me to do something else, let them tell me because I am ready to do anything; if they do not want me to write to Monsignor any more, I won’t, but let them say so’). And she said: ‘However long I have to stay here’ (this is what Fr Sembianti says… but one must see and weigh up the anxieties in her heart that day, the 15th of February, two days after Fr Sembianti had told her about her brother’s departure… without seeing him… and in that manner). ‘I have been here for two years’ (and this is the great crime that led Fr Sembianti to believe that Virginia does not have the slightest vocation) ‘and if I were to stay here even 30 years I would stay the same and would not change’ (for one year Virginia was the person described by the Superiors of Verona and Sestri; and if she were not to change, should not everyone be pleased? Indeed, those Superiors and Cardinal di Canossa wrote to me and to Your Eminence in August last year that Virginia was good and deserved to be admitted to my Institute).

[7093]

“She is not fit to come with our Sisters or, I add, with Sisters of any religion (sic) who are true Sisters” (therefore, according to Fr Sembianti, the Sisters of St Joseph, who are approved by the Church, who serve the missions so well and whose Cardinal Protector is Your Eminence, are not true Sisters; they are Sisters without spirit. This is an insult to Holy Church who approved the Congregation of St Joseph, where Virginia stayed with great praise for 20 years, it is an insult to Propaganda, which has under its authority more than 30 houses of these Sisters, and it is an offence to Your Eminence, who is their Protector). “She is not fit to be with Sisters of any religion who are true Sisters” (the Devout Mothers of Africa, whom I founded, are extremely good, and they all without exception do great good here in Africa, but I would be very pleased and proud if I could form a Congregation approved by the Church, like that of St Joseph of the Apparition: I hope for this, but I am still some way behind this point).

[7094]

“The shortcomings with which she seems stained” (in Fr Sembianti’s mind), “to which, I would say, she seems to be accustomed” (and Fr Sembianti had only then been her Rector for 3 months, from 5th November 1880 to 16th February, the time he wrote this letter), “do not give me good hopes, but they lead me to foresee much evil”.

[7095]

“Impertinent (sic), two-faced (sic etc.), lying, always seeing the bad side of things and unable to bear even the slightest thing” (Fr Sembianti should prove this with facts, not with gossip, to me who am the founder, Bishop and Superior General of my Institutes: but the only grounds he has are the interview described above in which he told Virginia that he had sent her brother away without telling her, and sent him not from Rome to Frascati, but from Verona to the schismatics in Beirut, where he risks losing his soul for good: he gave me no other instances), “restless and turbulent, she seems devoid of that purity (sic, sic, sic etc. in omnibus et quoad in omnia) and sincerity which in the other Sisters allows one to see to the bottom of their hearts, devoid of simplicity and rectitude of mind, spontaneous compliance and trust in her Superiors” (how can Virginia put complete trust in this man Sembianti, who did not want to become Rector of my Institute until Virginia was removed from the community, after 20 years in a religious community, who was always looking for the slightest fault – and women are shrewd, and feel this easily – and at their every meeting made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with her? Does Virginia not have every reason to be disheartened and not to trust entirely in Fr Sembianti (although she did trust him completely for a long time?

[7096]

Trust is the result of trust) “and in what is prescribed in the Rules” (Virginia willingly observed all the Rules) “so necessary to a Sister if she is to live happily and not to be a burden and a constraint to the others, without good judgement (sic) which gives just value to all things and leads to speaking and acting with good sense” (it rather seems to me that it is Fr Sembianti who is not giving a just value to things, not having taken account of the critical moment of the brother’s departure, which caused her such sorrow). “Fickle” (I ask if Virginia is fickle, she who bore so many trials to be a religious, she who escaped at the age of 15 from a family which had a husband lined up for her, to become a religious etc., etc. and who after so many trials still insists today and will insist until she dies on being a missionary religious). “Finally, I repeat, that I do not consider her fit to live with our Sisters, or indeed with any well-ordered religious community.

Fr Giuseppe Sembianti”

[7097]

This sinister judgement of Virginia was written to me by Fr Sembianti three days after he had told Virginia that he had expelled her brother from the Institute and sent him to Syria among the schismatics at the risk of losing his soul forever. This judgement was pronounced after he had seen Virginia in the most critical position in which a sister, a missionary, a Christian virgin who has never thought of anything but saving souls could ever be, a prey to the most just sorrows… I am baffled when I see this unjust and unreasonable behaviour on the part of holy men… who eat, like my dear Fr Sembianti, who appear to be completely lacking in the queen of virtues, Charity, without which, according to the Scriptures, holy lives, prophecies, miracles and all holy works are worthless.

[7098]

Now, Most Eminent Prince, I do not wish to discuss here the reasons for which Cardinal di Canossa and Fr Sembianti expelled Virginia’s brother from my Institute without informing his sister (in this I see no form of Charity, because due to His Eminence and Sembianti Giorgio is certainly exposed to the risk of being lost forever): I do in fact admit that they had the best of motives, and that they did very well. I answered Fr Sembianti (I had the news at midday, and I answered at three o’clock on the same day) that they had done well, and that I thanked them warmly. However, I did not write this with conviction, but in verba magistri, dazzled as I was then by the authority of His Eminence and by the esteem I have for Fr Sembianti and the two counsellors.

[7099]

But to expect Virginia to listen unmoved to such painful and unexpected news of the expulsion and probable eternal perdition of a brother for whom she had shed so many tears and made so many sacrifices; to expect her to say nothing, and even to appear happy and be grateful to the perpetrators of such a strange, even if just, decision, and to deduce from Virginia’s anxiety and commotion at her great misfortune that she has no religious spirit, and she did not have, does not have and will never have a vocation: that is too much, and I do not understand it. No, the judgement of Cardinal di Canossa and Fr Sembianti regarding Virginia is not a right judgement, but is contrary to justice and charity.

[7100]

From 16th February until today, Fr Sembianti has continued to write me the same things, but without factual proof or substantial reasons and only repeating his irrevocable judgement; and since that day (three months of postulancy), without the unfortunate woman being told a thing, Virginia was no longer admitted to the exercises and practices of the Postulants, but was left alone; she does nothing but weep, and she wrote to me that she would rather die than stay in that painful and unbearable situation.

[7101]

Your Most Reverend Eminence has heard the judgements of Cardinal di Canossa and Fr Sembianti as regards Virginia.
Now, what is the judgement on Virginia of Mother Maria Bollezzoli, Superior General of the Devout Mothers of Africa and local Superior of the Mother House in Verona, whom Cardinal di Canossa assures me in Attachment III that he did not consult at all?… The Mother Superior General, since last November, at the time Virginia entered the Postulancy in Verona, has written me sixteen letters until now. In nine of these she either quotes Virginia or speaks about her. In these nine letters she does not extend much praise for Virginia; indeed she is very parsimonious and reserved, because she knows what Cardinal di Canossa and Fr Sembianti think about the matter.

[7102]

She is a woman of piety, of principle, who is shy, most humble and very unsure of herself, with excessive respect for her immediate Superiors, especially for Cardinal di Canossa, to the point of setting aside her own judgement to conform with that of her superiors. Well now, from the sum of these few short letters from the Mother Superior General in Verona, which I send as Attachments, Your Eminence will be convinced that the Superior General’s opinion of Virginia is diametrically opposed to that of Cardinal di Canossa and Fr Sembianti. I will quote very short passages so as not to bore Your Most Reverend Eminence.

[7103]

On 16th December 1880, the Mother Superior wrote the following:

Attachment VII
“These good daughters of yours are all good, healthy and happy, including Virginia who tells amusing little stories. They all pray wholeheartedly for the health and long life of their Most Excellent Father, and they are in a hurry to be able to join their Sisters who are already in the field of action”. This shows clearly that Virginia is good, prays with the others and is in a hurry to join the Sisters of Africa who are already on the battlefield.

[7104]

On 25th January of this year, the Mother Superior wrote me the following:

(Attachment VIII)
“Virginia seems happy, she even speaks affably with the Rector, which pleases me very much. Since the 3rd of this month the Arabic school has started: the students are seven, and all are educated; therefore I hope they will do honour to the Teacher”.

The next is Attachment IX, a letter in which the Mother Superior tells me how the Rector informed Virginia that her brother Giorgio had left for Syria without being allowed to see his sister Virginia. This is the first and only complaint sent to me by the Mother Superior about Virginia since she was in Italy.

[7105]

And what was this complaint? The Superior says that in this terrible circumstance Virginia behaved badly with the Rector, giving him certain answers which lacked respect, also showing her mistrust of the man; she also tells me in secret that she even appeared stubborn with her when she tried to persuade her to set aside certain sinister prejudices she had about the Rector (it was impossible for Virginia to rid herself of the sinister prejudices she felt towards Fr Sembianti who, from the moment he saw her seemed to be against her, both in words and in actions, as I have described above). But the Superior showed the greatest concern for Virginia and asked me to write to her, to help her come to her senses with my letters. Here is the letter:

[7106]

“Verona, 16th February 1881.

I write this letter reluctantly, because I must be the bearer of sad news; but my duty requires this and I must obey.
In the last few days Virginia has behaved badly with the Rector and has answered sometimes showing him lack of respect and even distrust. (My God! How can Virginia have trust in Fr Sembianti?) and privately I tell you that she appears a little strong-headed with me too, because I am trying to persuade her to set aside certain sinister prejudices she has about the Rector himself, of whom she speaks unfavourably. Nobody knows a word of this; but I thought well to inform Your Most Reverend Excellency so that with your innate charity you might undeceive Virginia. I constantly exhort her to humble herself but… she does not bend that much (Your Eminence will see in the next Attachment that she did humble herself and bend to excess, asking forgiveness a few days later). Would Your Most Illustrious and Reverend Excellency please have prayers said for this matter, for which I am praying here all the time. I end here, because I have great hope in your most fervent prayers. Crosses are not lacking, but nor will divine help be lacking.

Your humble servant Maria Bollezzoli”

[7107]

On 14th March, the Mother Superior wrote (Attachment X) that Virginia, although she was still worried about her brother’s departure for Syria, had humbled herself and, had asked forgiveness of the Rector on her knees, to the great satisfaction of the Superior herself, who has the greatest interest in and affection for Virginia.
“In the last few days Virginia asked me to see the Rector, who willingly came to see her. She received him with good manners; then she asked to see him again and on that occasion asked him forgiveness for everything, at which he seemed well pleased. I must confess that this humiliation gave me great pleasure, since it can be of benefit to Virginia herself. Now she is in a good mood and joyful with everyone”.

[7108]

On 19th April, the Mother Superior wrote to me (Attachment XI).

“I delayed writing this letter for a few days because I had good hopes of giving Your Excellency some comforting news. I was not mistaken, because the good Lord has heard my humble prayer. Yesterday Virginia and I spent some time with the Rector who spoke to Virginia with truly paternal affability, and she answered with geniality and politeness. This gave me great satisfaction, because I had been very sorry to see her be somewhat brusque. I would hope, indeed I am certain that she will now continue as she is in future, and will always be happy. Be reassured, your Excellency, and please encourage her to persevere in her cheerfulness, for it will certainly do her good. I cannot do much, but for the little I can do, I will spare no efforts, for I have Virginia’s well-being more at heart than my own, because she is still young and can still do a lot of work in the Lord’s vineyard”.

[7109]

From this splendid testimony, Your Eminence must conclude that if my Superior General (who is so reserved and thoughtful) goes as far as to say that she has Virginia’s well-being more at heart than her own, because she can still do a lot of work in the Lord’s vineyard, it is a clear sign that she has a high opinion of Virginia, true esteem for her and firmly believes in her ; therefore the Superior General’s judgement of Virginia is diametrically opposed to that of Cardinal di Canossa and Fr Sembianti. And it is precisely in the interest and for the benefit of Central Africa that I defend this excellent candidate who can still do a lot of work in the Lord’s vineyard, and it seems to me that I would be a fool to do otherwise, because in Virginia there is capability, compliance, health, self-denial and heroic courage to die for Christ and for Africa, as I myself was able to see during the six years she spent here in Africa under my jurisdiction.

[7110]

When Fr Sembianti informed me in his letter of 16th February (Attachment VI) of the discussion he had had with Virginia about the sudden departure of Giorgio to Syria and the sinister and horrendous judgement he had formed, saying that Virginia had no vocation for any well-ordered religious community of good spirit (and Virginia stayed twenty years in the Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph to the complete satisfaction of her Superiors, General, Provincial and local), I wrote to Virginia to tell her to prepare to leave Verona, because there, under the burden of such sinister judgements from Cardinal di Canossa and Fr Sembianti, she would have no peace (of course I said nothing of this to her); and that with the next mail I would tell her where she could go in the meantime.

[7111]

On the day the mail had to leave, since I wished to write as I had promised, I reflected on where to send her, but found it very difficult to reach a solution: if I sent her to her family in Beirut, I had great fear that she would be in danger of perdition, given that there would be constant demands from the family and the brother, so suddenly expelled from Verona, would certainly not have spoken well of the charity of the Verona Catholics: if I sent her to another Institute, where could I find the courage to commend her from Africa, when she was being cast out from Verona and had belonged to another religious Congregation? And to send her to some enclosure to die of depression, as Fr Sembianti would like, that is not her vocation…

[7112]

I must confess, Eminent Prince, that I spent days in purgatory. In this way, I could not decide a thing. I then confided in my Principal Superior, or Provincial of Central Africa, Mother Teresa Grigolini, a superior woman in all respects and of eminent virtue, who has never met Virginia but knows all her virtues, qualities, the suffering she has experienced and her courage and self-denial, and she knows that her Superiors expected a lot of her, especially her goodness. She said to me: “Calm down, Monsignor; all these contradictions are things God has disposed for the good of this great soul who has suffered so much both here in Africa and in Verona, and for the benefit of our holy Mission, which will be able to have Virginia so much sooner. I myself will write to His Eminence and to the Rector to send Virginia to the Vicariate with no further ado; and I take full responsibility for Virginia, for her conduct, for her novitiate and for everything. Indeed, I shall tell Sister Vittoria (Sister Vittoria Paganini is the Superior of the Khartoum house, and she is a woman of great virtue, talent, a true missionary and a most able Superior) to write to His Eminence and to the Rector too, because she is so eager to have Virginia here. I am sure that Virginia will turn out to be a good religious, because here she is in her element and there is plenty for her to do”.

[7113]

“If this were not to be a success for us, either because after so much adversity she has lost her spirit, or for some other reason, I would speak frankly and would ask Your Excellency to send her elsewhere, outside the Mission. Sometimes those who are suffering, constantly burdened with so many calamities and crosses and especially when they lack an angel of comfort to encourage them, as Your Excellency would be, can lose their way and their original fervour, and become weak and demoralised; but I hope this has not happened to Virginia. Let us pray and trust in the Heart of Jesus, Our Lady and St Joseph, who have never abandoned us”.

[7114]

Such words comforted me; because this is the solution that is most practical and in conformity with Virginia’s vocation. I therefore showed my satisfaction and told her to go ahead and write; indeed I wrote about it to His Eminence. The answers received from both His Eminence and Fr Sembianti, overflowing with extreme aversion, convinced my two principal Superiors that in Verona they are acting with violent passion against Virginia and that, whether she is good or bad, they want to expel her from the mission and the Work. Now they are more than ever convinced that if nothing is done quickly to free Virginia from her critical position and if she is not brought to the Vicariate soon to be tested under these Superiors, Virginia could even go mad and be an unhappy woman for the rest of her life, of no use to herself or to anyone else. My Superiors in Africa have read and studied all the letters about Virginia from His Eminence and Fr Sembianti, as well as Virginia’s own letters. The Superior of Khartoum, Sister Vittoria Paganini, after reading some of Virginia’s letters said to me: “Virginia must be a great, frank and sincere soul and it is clear that her only aspiration is Africa, and it would be cruel and wrong to abandon her, but we must act fast to avoid this”.

[7115]

The proposal made by my Superiors in Africa, and especially by the Principal one, Mother Grigolini, is that which I bring humbly and prostrate to the feet of Your Eminence and will plead for, with tears and sighs, at the end of this Report in the name of justice and charity. May God hear my humble prayer! I will not sing the praises of my Principal Superior in Africa, Mother Teresa Grigolini (who is now in Kordofan), but will let the words of my Superior General in Verona tell you about her. She recently wrote me this (Attachment XII).

[7116]

On 21st May, my Superior General wrote from Verona:

“Your letter of 13th April brought me the comfort of hearing of Sr Teresa Grigolini’s good behaviour. Yes, Most Illustrious and Reverend Excellency, Sister Teresa is a really great soul, wrought by divine grace itself, and she well understands the sublime nature of her vocation. I must confess that from the moment I saw her, she inspired in me a feeling of veneration, to the point that I would have willingly served her, instead of… Now that she is in the field of action for which Providence destined her and can make full use of her zeal, I can imagine what she has become. Oh, what a generous soul! If only I could vaguely imitate her! But time has flown and nothing is left but a sterile regret”.

But the Superior General who says this is only 54 years old.

[7117]

As soon as Mother Teresa Grigolini returns to Khartoum from her visits to Kordofan and Jebel Nuba in November, she will go to Cairo to regulate the house properly in accordance with the feelings and wishes of the new Apostolic Delegate in Egypt, Mgr Anacleto and to confer with him. Then she will leave for Verona on business and to bring back with her to Cairo Sr Metilde Corsi, who is to be Superior in the capital and who was kept in Verona to assist the Mother General in her work. If this goes well, I will have her pass through Rome so that she may have the comfort of kissing the feet of the Holy Father and conferring with Your Eminence on the difficult, but most important, indeed the necessary participation of Sisters in the Apostolate of Central Africa; and let this excellent Superior of mine hear Your Eminence’s most wise answers and instructions on the conduct of all things. In fact, Your Eminence will be able to give this Principal Superior of Central Africa the orders you think best concerning Virginia. Those people in Verona are always scandalised that I show so much interest in Virginia. But I would do the same thing for any other Sister, even the humblest, if she were victimised and persecuted unjustly like Virginia, because that is my duty in justice and charity.

[7118]

I realise that I have made too long a digression, but I will now resume. I was telling Your Eminence how, after the dialogue between Fr Sembianti and Virginia in which he informed her of her brother’s departure for Syria, and following Fr Sembianti’s irrevocable sentence that Virginia could not stay in a well regulated religious community (sic), I wrote telling her to prepare to leave Verona. At the same time as the letter of 16th February (Attachment VI), Virginia had written to me that she was unhappy and disappointed because His Eminence and Fr Sembianti did not want her to be one of our religious, and that she was weeping night and day. So she had informed the Superior General of all this. She was dismayed by this information and on 26th April wrote me the letter I attach herewith (Attachment XIII).

[7119]

“Your letter of 15th March, telling me of your anxiety about Virginia and your deliberation, left me surprised and dismayed.
It is quite true that Virginia was upset by her brother’s departure; but I spared no measures to soothe her (all very well, but in the meantime her brother is in danger of eternal perdition; and Virginia is right to weep); and as you will have gathered from my other letter, she spoke to the Rector and seemed relaxed and affable, and that is the way she is at the present time.

[7120]

Yesterday she had a one-hour meeting with the Rector himself, and when she came out she looked happy (sic); (the Rector does all this to appease the Superior but, in agreement with His Eminence, he has condemned Virginia forever); so I beg Your Excellency to be in peace, for the case is not as you imagine it to be. (But in the meantime they have duped both the Superior and Virginia, and Cardinal di Canossa wrote what he wrote to Your Eminence; and Virginia is ruined as far as they are concerned. But I will never abide by such injustice and cruelty, even if it cost my life! The Heart of Jesus will help that unhappy and innocent victim, who does not deserve these tortures!)

[7121]

“Here she is respected by all, and by me as far as I can etc., etc. In a few days, the Rector wants me to make a trip out to Trent, and he wants me to take Virginia with me, and I shall do so willingly. Please comfort Virginia herself with some of your letters, and assure her that here she is well-loved by all”.
All this is fine: but how will they all respect and love her when they see those who joined after her being clothed in the religious habit, but not Virginia, because neither the Rector nor His Eminence want her? They want rid of her.

[7122]

Dismayed that I wrote to Virginia that she should prepare to leave Verona, the Mother Superior even wrote a letter to my father (this must have been a move by Fr Sembianti to aggravate things further and to have one more reason to claim that Virginia has no vocation), and even told him that I had written to the Superior that Virginia is unhappy and weeps night and day.
Here is the letter (Attachment XIV) written on 25th April.

“Most worthy Sir,
I do not know what Virginia has written to Monsignor for him to be so dismayed. He has written to me that she is unhappy, weeps night and day, is looked at askance by all the others (of course, because she is not allowed to attend conferences with the others, and when they see that she is not being allowed to be clothed in the religious habit, they will despise her all the more) and that for this reason he has decided to have her leave.

[7123]

Virginia was indeed upset by the departure of her brother; but I always did all I could to soothe her and after a few days, she appeared relaxed and joyful, as she is now, and she is respected by all the others (Virginia also wrote me that she is very pleased with the Superior and with all the others, and that they all treat her like a sister: but neither His Eminence nor the Rector want her to be a Sister or a missionary: doesn’t she have good reason to weep?) Yesterday, seeing her dismayed by the letter she had received from your most Excellent son in which he tells her of the idea of leaving Verona (and Virginia does not know where I will tell her to go) I urged her to write to you asking for advice, and I think it appropriate to add a few words myself to implore you, in your bounty, speedily to tell her all that your charity and prudence will suggest, because it is urgent etc.”

Since the Rector knows full well that my father, as I have said, deceived by the lies of the peasant Giacomo, or by what inimicus homo will have him believe, does not want Virginia to come to Africa, and since he knows that my father believes as the truth that the Superior and he (Fr Sembianti) are saints, he also knows that my father’s answer and advice to Virginia will be that she should stay for her whole life in Verona to be sanctified under those two holy souls: the Superior and Fr Sembianti.

[7124]

But I did not found the Institute for the Sisters to stay in Verona, particularly not those who have courage, health, enthusiasm and know the language like Virginia, but for them to come to Africa, to convert these poor unbelievers who do not know God.
And here I will tell you again how both my father, to whom Fr Sembianti wrote, and Fr Sembianti himself wrote to me that His Eminence and Fr Sembianti asked Virginia if she is prepared to remain for the whole of her life in the Verona Institute, and that Virginia answered “no”. At which my father was scandalised, and Fr Sembianti hammered in the point that therefore she has no vocation.

[7125]

But if Virginia is a scourge, unruly, suspicious, etc., why propose that she stay in the Mother House of Verona, and as a model, where there should be neither scourges, nor unruliness, nor suspicion etc.? And Virginia did well to answer with an absolute “no”. How can one expect her to be happy to be under a Fr Sembianti, who from the very outset, when he had not even become Rector of my Institute and without having seen Virginia outside the Community, was always opposed to her and hostile to her religious vocation?

[7126]

Eminence, I have four other recent letters from the Mother Superior in which she tells me that Virginia is good, happy, respected and well loved by all the others, that she herself has great love and esteem for Virginia and that she cares for her more than for herself, because she can still do great good and much work in the Lord’s vineyard and that she is taking good care of her etc., etc. but I fear I am boring Your Eminence, who must already be very bored by now.
I must still send you the summary of my reply to Cardinal di Canossa’s letter of 26th May which is Attachment III that I sent you, and I will do so.

[7127]

I am prepared to answer any animadversionem that Your Eminence might like to address to me on the matter, or that His Eminence or Fr Sembianti may have made.
However, it seems to me that I have said so much in these pages, backed up by documented evidence and proof that it will suffice for Your Eminence to be well informed on the Virginia affair. I therefore draw a line for now and conclude:

[7128]

The judgement of Cardinal di Canossa and Fr Sembianti (which differs completely from that of my Superior General in Verona, and is diametrically opposed to my own) is not based on the truth of the facts, but was conceived and pronounced without the necessary proof, which I too should have been given, and without reasonable motives. For example: His Eminence and Fr Sembianti say that Virginia is a trouble-maker. What has she done to be considered as such? Has she disturbed the Institute, the Community, the peace of the others? Instead, the Superior says that she is joyful and happy, that she is respected, esteemed and well loved by all. They also say that she is fickle: but instead, the story of her life which I briefly outlined for you, shows that since she was fourteen, when they made her leave the convent in Sidon and stay six months in her family to be married to a young man who visited her every day, she fled by night to become a religious and she perseveres in this same aspiration, and is unhappy precisely because they want to prevent me from making her so.

[7129]

Fr Sembianti says she is a liar; but he does not say what lies she has told, where, when, to whom or in what circumstances. He says she is suspicious; yes, but only of him, who from the beginning and always has given her good reason not only to suspect him, but even to be certain that he is opposed to her and does not want her either in the Institute or in the Mission, thus frustrating the major desire and aspiration of her life. He says that she does not show full submission to her Superiors. Into his hands Virginia does not fully submit. She knows full well that her destiny does not depend on the Mother Superior, in whose hands she would fully submit; but that it depends on Sembianti, in whose hands she has no reason at all to submit, because before he even saw her he was opposed to her major desires and the fervent aspirations of her heart, which are to be consecrated to God in the missions for Africa. Sembianti says she is two-faced.

[7130]

When I read this to my missionaries who know her, they laughed, because they said Virginia has her faults, but never that of being two-faced, and the one I had brought with me to Kordofan who had been Superior there since the time Virginia was there and she had worked under him for a year, said in Padua dialect: “Sembianti has spots before his eyes!” This man is Fr Giovanni Battista Fraccaro, a man of conscience, mature, and most experienced in the ministry, whom I brought with me to Kordofan from Khartoum to make him my Vicar General. Sembianti said that Virginia is restless and unruly. He even said this when Virginia wept at hearing him tell her that he had sent her brother away in the way he did. But the Mother Superior says quite the opposite, and the other sisters in the convent would not respect her and be so fond of her if it were true, as the Superior General says several times in the Attachments that I have sent you.

[7131]

Cardinal di Canossa says that Virginia is a scourge to the Mission; and he says this in Verona without providing the slightest proof. Instead, my Superiors in Africa, who are on the spot and know Virginia’s heroism, shown in the most critical situations of death, sickness and famine, etc. say that Virginia would be a true blessing to the mission. This is why they wrote several times to His Eminence and Fr Sembianti imploring them to agree to send Virginia here, assuming entire responsibility for everything. Is Mother Teresa Grigolini the kind of woman who would reject Virginia contemptuously, as His Eminence and Sembianti have done? These Superiors of mine would like to repeat their request for Virginia to Your Eminence: but I said no, and told them to pray and to leave things to God, and to Rome, which has the light of the Holy Spirit.

[7132]

The same applies to all the other accusations invented by Fr Sembianti’s imagination, as disposed by the Lord. He is a man suspicious by nature, as I noted on many occasions, who sees things on the dark side (as can be seen from attachment VI), who draws illogical conclusions, etc. although as a priest he leads a holy life and works for my Institutes with a zeal and diligence that touch me and bring me comfort. It is only in the affair of Virginia that we will never agree: to accept his judgement I would have to betray my conscience and say that white is black, truth is a lie and sin is a virtue. And I am a more competent judge than he. Because of Fr Sembianti’s obstinacy, should Virginia’s life be ruined? No, never.

[7133]

I have always saved souls, and I have never lost one. Virginia must become a saint through her vocation, saving many more souls yet. Therefore she must be removed from the supervision and jurisdiction of Fr Sembianti, and must be put to the test by anyone but Fr Sembianti, so as to establish whether she has a vocation.

[7134]

Lastly, Cardinal di Canossa, as can be seen from his letter, Attachment III, after having declared that he had spoken neither to Fr Sembianti (sic – this is a blatant untruth), nor to the Mother Superior, to pass his dark and sinister judgement on Virginia as given in the above-mentioned Attachment III, declares that it is he (His Eminence) who is making the judgement, and he alone, because of what he has observed. Well, on what motives, on what grounds does His Eminence base his strange and sinister judgement? Please open his letter, Attachment III, Your Eminence, and think about it. His Eminence bases his entire judgement on two points, namely:

[7135]

1. On snatches of other people’s words half-heard here and there.
2. From Fr Tagliaferro, whom His Eminence finds rather irreverent, and who did not look upon Virginia with favour because, with good manners like a real missionary, she implored him to dress like a priest and not like a peasant farmer as he does, and to behave and go to church like other priests, since he would soon no longer be able to because he was already 74.

[7136]

And on these two points Cardinal di Canossa, with inconceivable thoughtlessness writes to me who am a Bishop, who am fifty years old, who knows the world, who has seen Virginia working in Central Africa for six years (six years of Central Africa for a young Sister exercising the most difficult apostolate in the midst of sickness, hunger and thirst, etc. is a miracle. To stay here six years working in this very difficult vineyard requires greater virtue than to stay twenty years as a missionary in the Orient, in Egypt or in Europe). As I said, it is on these two very weak foundations that Cardinal di Canossa bases his sombre judgement of Virginia, and he writes it to me who, by the grace of God, have managed to do what I have done and cannot be all that stupid. It has been two months, Eminent Prince, that I have reflected on this strange manner of proceeding on the part of Cardinal di Canossa to the detriment of a soul that costs the blood of Christ, of a Christian virgin who has so many…

[four lines are crossed out here]

… merits for Central Africa where, to stay for six years in the midst of such extraordinary calamities stricken by plagues and famines, requires not just ordinary virtues, but heroic virtues and such solid, generous and sublime vocations are quite rare. In the face of such procedures on the part of His Eminence, I am confused and baffled. It is not the first time that he has acted in this way. But enough.

[7137]

On this matter, after much prayer and seeking the advice of a Friar Bishop (because as a friar in his advice he defends the rights and interests of the religious Order or Congregation and as a Bishop he defends the rights of the Church and the interests of individual souls), two years ago, I decided to accept Virginia in my Mission for Central Africa, informed the Mother Superior and she was delighted. I did this in full conscience and to a holy end, and I was fully entitled and had the authority to do it, because I am Vicar Apostolic of this Mission and because I am the Founder and supreme Head of the Institutes which serve Central Africa.

[7138]

When Virginia was received in the Mission, which she knows thoroughly, she was preparing herself to dedicate her whole soul to it under the direction of my Sisters in Africa, of whom she had heard so much good from her own companions in religion who, in Khartoum and Cairo, had lived with them three months in Cairo and one month in Khartoum. It was not per accidens that Virginia went temporarily to Verona to teach Arabic until this Institute could provide qualified teachers. She was not destined to do her novitiate in my Congregation in Verona because she was already roasted by the burning African sun, but in Khartoum or Kordofan under my able and excellent Superiors, Teresa Grigolini and Vittoria Paganini, where while being formed in the spirit of my Congregation, she could also be of great use to the Mission as an expert in Arabic.

[7139]

Now, Eminent Prince, should I give up my rights and duties as Vicar Apostolic, as Founder of my Institutes? Should I fall short of my duties and the sacred vows I made to those who fully trusted in me and my Work, and were dedicated to it heart and soul? Should I give in to a Fr Sembianti, who before he even saw Virginia, before he examined her gifts, before he was Rector of my Institutes, wanted her to be removed from the community of my Sisters, and who as soon as he was established as Rector, took no more than seventeen days to remove Virginia from the community to the little house? Am I to give up my sacrosanct duties and rights because of the obstinacy of a man who would not have approved Virginia’s vocation even if he had seen her work miracles?

[7140]

Oh, no! I will never give in, because one must not yield in the face of such injustices to the detriment of souls; I would rather die. It is only obedience that will make me yield, and I will certainly obey, though it will cost me my life, because it is real scorn that Fr Sembianti and Cardinal di Canossa are pouring on my dignity and character as a Bishop, Vicar Apostolic and Head of my Verona Institutes, and I have done nothing to deserve this. Indeed, I hope that God will reward me for what I have done for Virginia, as much and more than for what I may deserve for toiling all my life and dying for the salvation of Africa.

[7141]

I live now and have always lived only to save souls, and not to lose them, like these men have perhaps done by expelling Virginia’s brother in the way they did and putting him in danger of losing his soul forever.

[7142]

In addition, if I were to give in to the unjust claims of these men in Verona, Virginia would have the right of accusing me of betraying her, as she has already started to do in her letters (believing that I agree with Fr Sembianti, indeed that the order not to accept her as a Sister came from me). Instead, in view of all the trust Virginia has shown me, in my role as Bishop, Founder and Father, I cannot and must not betray her. Therefore, since she has not succeeded in becoming a religious in Verona because of Fr Sembianti’s absolute opposition, I have the duty and the right to put her sublime vocation to the necessary test here in the Vicariate, under persons I trust and who are not opposed and prejudiced like Fr Sembianti, and under persons who know the mission and are competent judges, such as my Superiors Teresa Grigolini and Vittoria Paganini and the Very Reverend Fr Giovanni Battista Fraccaro, Superior and my future Vicar General. He is a devout, prudent, just and upright man, as was seen during the four years that he was Superior in Kordofan, and as I know that he always has been, both in Verona where he was twice acting Rector, and in his Diocese of Padua where he served for seven years as a Parish Priest, as confirmed by the information received from the Bishop of Padua.

[7143]

If, after at least a year of being tested under the immediate direction of the aforesaid, Virginia should not succeed according to the spirit of my Congregation (and I am quite certain that she will succeed perfectly), either because her enormous sufferings and afflictions have made her lose the spirit, or for some other reason, because sometimes adversity and crosses make one lose one’s bearings; if that were to be the case, since no one more than me, as the founder and initiator, can have more interest in the good progress of my Institutes and my holy Mission, it will be my absolute duty to send Virginia elsewhere outside the Vicariate and the Work, because only then, after a reasonable and unsuccessful trial in the mission, will my duties towards Virginia cease, and only as an act of charity will I be able to find her a place where she may proceed to assuring her eternal salvation.

[7144]

This is why, as I must now defend her rights, not only as a duty to my conscience, but also as a debt of gratitude for the immense services she rendered for six years continuously in Central Africa, in the most difficult and harsh circumstances of pestilence, famine, drought, sickness and death, throughout which she performed heroic acts of supreme charity and constancy for her age and her condition as a woman, and was three times at death’s door, I kneel at Your Eminence’s feet, with tears and sighs, humbly to implore you to give the appropriate orders to Verona for Virginia to be handed over to my Principal Superior in Central Africa, Mother Teresa Grigolini and myself, and for this venerable order to be communicated immediately to Virginia to calm her and take her out of that miserable affliction and oppressive uncertainty, which being at their peak, could lead to sad and deplorable consequences; telling her that my Superior and myself will soon arrange for her, in good conditions and company, before she comes to Africa, to visit her mother and family in Beirut so as to bring eternal salvation to her relatives, and especially to her chronically sick brother Abdalla, as she desires.

[7145]

I send this humble and heartfelt petition to Your Most Reverend Eminence while I am here on the battlefield in danger, and ready at every moment to lose my life for Jesus and for the non-believers, while I am oppressed by and immersed in an ocean of afflictions and calamities which are tearing my very spirit apart.
The day before yesterday I received news of the death of the most devout Fr Mattia Moron, whom I had ordained titulo Missionis, who had caught pneumonia in Cairo. We celebrated the office and a Requiem Mass for the repose of his soul.

[7146]

Before the catafalque had been removed, I received the news of the death of Fr Antonio Dobale, a graduate of Propaganda’s Urbanian College, struck down in El Obeid by a virulent typhoid fever. Therefore yesterday morning we celebrated the office and a Requiem Mass for his soul.

[7147]

In mid-morning, when the catafalque was still in its position, a telegram from Kordofan informed me that in Malbes, Sister Maria Colpo of the Devout Mothers of Africa had died an edifying and enviable death. Typhoid fever and dysentery had stolen her from the group of African women to whom she was teaching Christian devotion and fervour. Thus this morning we again celebrated the same funeral service and I ordered the catafalque to be left as it is, standing in the middle of the church.

[7148]

Here we have a lay brother, a most able blacksmith and teacher of this craft to the Africans, who is suffering from typhoid and is not yet out of danger.
This year for the first time ab immemorabili after so much rain there was not a drop of water in the wells, which means that, as we have done for the last ten months, until next year we shall have to spend eight or ten scudi a day on drinking and cooking water. For two years I have noted that the climate in Kordofan has become very bad; which is why I have serious worries about the necessary measures to be taken in the circumstances.

[7149]

This, ultimately, is the heaviest of the Crosses that we must carry. For us it is a comfort that great crosses are the true support and the mainstays of God’s Work. In addition I must confess that I have never been so strong as now in having true and tested Missionaries and Sisters; they are all firm, sound and unshakeable in their trials. We need a special blessing from the Holy Father and Your Eminence. I kiss the Sacred Purple.
Your most devoted son

+ Daniel Comboni
Bishop and Vicar Apostolic


Various Attachments follow (see vol. VIII, pp. 3155 ff.)

[7150]

I would like to beg you to inform me of the present whereabouts of a certain Delfina Vercellino, who was a postulant at my Institute of the Devout Mothers of Africa in Verona, and then went to Brescia, I think in 1876, commended to your charity. My Superior in Khartoum would like you to transmit the enclosed letter to Delfina. I would be immensely grateful to you for this great favour, because my Superior ardently wishes to have news of her.

[7151]

I would like to write so many things to Signora Bettina about St Joseph, the Sacred Heart and the life of Jesus Christ, which we missionaries and Sisters of Central Africa read and meditate upon every day. But I have no time at present and I am in great difficulties, because Jesus wishes it like that, that Jesus who, as the people of Verona say: “put the pips in cherries”. A few days ago we celebrated the Requiem office and Mass for one of my most devout Missionaries who had just died, and whom I myself had ordained a priest, namely Fr Mattia Moron, from Poland. Before we had even removed the catafalque, I received the news of the death of another Missionary of mine, Fr Antonio Dobale, a student of Propaganda whom I had redeemed in the East Indies and brought to Verona. He died of typhoid fever in El Obeid, capital of Kordofan. Yesterday morning, we celebrated the Requiem office and Mass for him.

[7152]

Just as we finished the funeral celebration, I received a dispatch saying that Sister Maria Colpo of my Institute had died at Malbes there in Kordofan. She died as a saint and a heroine, happier and more jubilant than a bride and groom on their wedding day. She was buried beside a baobab (Adansonia digitata), a tree that is 27 or 30 metres in circumference. What can I do? This morning, after celebrating the funeral rites for this fortunate Sister from Vicenza, I ordered that the catafalque be left intact, because I expect more kisses from our loving Jesus who has shown more talent (from a certain point of view and as it were) and level-headedness in building the Cross than he did in creating the heavens. In Kordofan, for ten months I have been spending 40 to 50 francs a day on dirty water so as not to die of thirst. This is the first year since time began that there has not been a drop of water in the wells after three months of rain. Ah, my Jesus! What a Cross for a missionary Bishop! But dear Jesus, we have little understanding and cannot see beyond our noses: if we could, we would be able to see the reason for all that God does and we would have to praise and bless him, because that is right in every way.

[7153]

In the tribes of Nuba, where the fashion is still to dress like Adam and Eve before the fall, I read, meditated upon and really enjoyed the life of St Angela published in 1871, and I had it read to my Sisters in this mission. Never in my life have I so appreciated the life of our great saint. What a generous love, sublime! And how well the author brings it out! St Angela Merici is a sublime model of charity for our missionary Bishops, for missionaries and for the Sisters of charity; and I would like all the Vicars Apostolic and all the Missions to have it and catch that holy fire which burned in St Angela.

[7154]

Oh, what credits you have earned with St Angela! Come! Give me just a crumb and pray for me and for my difficult mission! A thousand respects to their Lordships the Bishops, the Secretary Carmin., Bishop Capretti, Fr Rodolfo and the holy Fr Chiarini, I send my blessing and commend myself to you

+ Bishop Daniel,

Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[7155]

Jesus afflicts us and gives us the Cross. These days the catafalque three times without moving it from its place for the Requiem Office and Mass.
The day before yesterday for Fr Mattia Moron, yesterday for Fr Antonio Dobale, today for Sister Maria Colpo. May Jesus be ever blessed. If it is built on the Cross our work has a solid foundation. Do not send any Sisters or any of the newly arrived lay brothers (except for Domenico Polinari): but only Battista Felici.

[7156]

Please give this news on my behalf to Fr Vincenzo Marzano in Naples, because I have no time, and give him my warmest greetings.
Always pray to Jesus and his Most Sacred Heart for me; for I am crucified, so pray that I may truly always have more and more love for the Cross and the thorns that will convert Africa.
A thousand greetings to Fr Pietro, Fr Germano, the Frères and the Jesuits.
Most affectionately

+ Bishop Daniel

[7157]

I enclose herewith three final sheets with which I conclude the story of the Virginia affair and formulate my humble request. I put an end to it so as not to bore Your Eminence – already bored too much – any more, and because I think I have given a sufficiently complete idea of this business for Your Eminence to issue an authoritative judgement and settlement. I could say many other things on the matter, but I am too tired and jaded with it. However, should Your Eminence wish to send me any animadversiones, I am prepared to reply by return post.

[7158]

I will let you have a summary of my answer to Cardinal di Canossa following his multiform letter of 26th and 27th May which I sent you as Attachment III, but I must wait a few days because I am weak and have 26 adults to examine, who have been prepared by my missionaries and Sisters for baptism and whom I shall solemnly baptise on the feast of the Most Holy Rosary. So far, I have only approved 13, perhaps 14, among whom is a fervent Muslim girl who has been with our Sisters for two years. She is the daughter of the wife of a miralài (a military commander or general who died two years ago); after his death the mother entrusted her to us for her education, but prohibiting her from becoming Catholic. At about 13, seeing the life of the Sisters, although she was indignant about living with African girls who are still viewed as slaves here, the young girl fell in love with our holy faith, so deeply that after a few months she informed her mother that she wished to become a Christian. The mother flatly refused, mostly out of fear of the government from which she receives a pension. In brief: not only does this girl want to become a Christian, but she also wants to be a religious like our Sisters (we shall see), and she so pestered her mother that she finally consented, and the girl is beside herself with joy. I am not in the least afraid of the Turkish government, and I am prepared to engage in battle even with the Grand Sultan: but as a precaution, and also to claim from the government (which is Turkish, and therefore steals) a substantial sum of money that the father left to his daughter and which it has not yet paid, I summoned the Austro-Hungarian Consul to my reception room together with the mother, the daughter and the Mother Superior. I made them draft a legal document with six witnesses, declaring that the daughter, of her own free will, after two years of reflection, has decided to become Catholic, and that the mother is pleased and consents to her becoming Catholic; this was signed by both the mother and the daughter, and the Muslim mother (who seems not far from becoming Catholic), signed the document with the sign of the Cross.

[7159]

With this document here in the Sudan not only can we assert our rights but we can also prove that in becoming Catholic, the girl is not just protected by the Mission (which is the first and strongest moral power in the Sudan) but also by Austria. Openly baptising a Muslim in a public church is something that none of the Vicars Apostolic of Egypt have yet dared to do, because there has never been a revocation or abrogation of the death penalty against Muslims who become Christian and against whoever administers the baptism. This is why the Brothers of the Christian Schools in Cairo have already sent me five young Muslims who were in their service and whom they converted. I baptised them all in Khartoum. Last year too, the Franciscan Curate and the Jesuits in Cairo sent to me in Verona a young man of 22 from a good family in Aleppo who had sought refuge in Egypt for baptism.

[7160]

This is Beshir, who when he reached Verona was said by the peasant Giacomo, Stefano and others not to have the slightest intention of becoming a Christian, and whom I was forced to send to Rome with Alessandro, Virginia’s cousin, commending them to Fr Dionisio Sauaya, Via Frattina 17. He was placed in the Catechumens’ hospice and a month later was baptised and introduced to the Holy Father Leo XIII. He is now here in Khartoum as an excellent catechist in the mission, and is very devout.

[7161]

This girl is very fervent and I think that with God’s grace she will become like the one I have at the El Obeid Mission, that is, Bianca Lemuna, who is as white as a rose although she was born of black parents, and whom I described at length in an article published in the Annali del Buon Pastore in Verona and in the Osservatore Romano. This young woman, who is certainly the finest flower of virtue, faith and purity we have in the Vicariate, was converted, taught and prepared for baptism by that scourge of the Mission, the petulant, lying, unruly, capricious and restless Virginia Mansur who, according to Cardinal di Canossa and Fr Sembianti, has no religious vocation and will never be able to live in a well-ordered community with a religious spirit.

[7162]

I end this letter by sending you a visiting card from Cardinal di Canossa, in which you will see once again how the said Eminence deals with matters. I enclose it as Attachment XV.
Your Eminence will remember that last year in August, you ordered me to apply to Cardinal di Canossa to find a Vicar General who could help me to govern the Vicariate; and I know that in your illustrious charity you too appealed to the Bishop of Verona to help me in this Work. In short: the man found to be Vicar General was Fr Francesco Grego, Archpriest of Montorio, to the complete satisfaction of the Cardinal and of myself, and both I and His Eminence informed you that the matter was settled.

[7163]

But during the three months between the report from myself and the Cardinal to Your Eminence, and my own departure for Africa, some of my priest friends in Verona confided in me that this Fr Grego was very unhappy in his parish, that he had problems with some of the authorities and even with the most Eminent Bishop, who was actually preparing to replace the Archpriest of Montorio. It was during that period that the issue of my Vicar General came up, and so His Eminence was pleased to grant him to me. I knew nothing of these secret affairs, but when I went to see Fr Grego and told him to be ready to leave in three weeks, after laying down conditions for leaving his mother, sister and uncle, he asked me to commit myself to paying them a living of 3 lire a day and providing them with a house, and after hearing what I have said above on this, I decided not to accept him and wrote to the Cardinal telling him that I saw no clear vocation for Africa in Fr Grego and that I did not feel like paying 3 lire a day to the mother, the sister and the uncle, etc.

[7164]

His Eminence then answered me with Attachment XV in these terms:
“Did I not always say (except when he wrote to Your Eminence) that Fr Grego did not have a true vocation? It was a gamble. Let him stay here. I was losing little and I gain little now.
Cardinal di Canossa, Bishop of Verona”

I leave it to Your Eminence to comment. This was how Cardinal di Canossa kindly responded to Your Eminence’s trust and my humble plea, granting Central Africa as Vicar General a parish priest from Verona whom he did not mind losing from his diocese and whom he felt he was gaining little by keeping. Sic itur ad astra, I kiss the Sacred Purple.
Your most humble and obedient son

+ Daniel Comboni, Bishop and Vicar Apostolic


ATTACHMENT XV

[7165]

Important autograph by Cardinal di Canossa explained on page 27:
“Did I not always say that Fr Grego did not have a true vocation? It was a gamble. Let him stay here. I was losing little and I gain little now.
Next Sunday, please God, I will be celebrating in Verona and so will have the pleasure of seeing you and talking to you.
I send my greetings to you and everyone and also offer you the respects and thanks of all my relatives who are about to end their holiday. Yesterday, in the church of Valeggio, I most solemnly baptised, confirmed and gave communion to an Evangelical of about 40, to everyone’s great edification etc.
Grezzano, 9 November 80”

P. Scriptum.

[7166]

How can Cardinal di Canossa and Fr Sembianti (who, I repeat, are acting with good intentions) be so fiercely against Virginia?… I have thought about it, and have found the real reason.
It should be noted that when the Sisters of St Joseph were recalled from Africa, the first to leave were Sister Anna, namely, Virginia Mansur, and the Maltese Sr Maria Gius. Azzapardi, Virginia’s implacable enemy. In agreement with the other four Sisters who were in Khartoum, I entrusted these two Sisters to the lay brother Giacomo, who had fallen ill in Khartoum, and whom I was sending back to Cairo for health reasons.

[7167]

During the two-month-long journey, Sr Azzapardi insulted and mistreated Virginia all the time while she cooked for and served everyone on the journey. Tired of this, Virginia answered back and once said that if she had found another caravan, she would have left her own and proceeded alone, because the Sister was insufferable. This is what she wrote to me and what Giacomo told me later, asserting that Virginia had the patience of Job. But at the same time, Sister M.G. Azzapardi was telling Giacomo so many stories about Virginia that Giacomo, while he partly heeded Sr Azzapardi, was scandalised by both of them and said that their constant quarrelling was the scourge of the Sisters of St Joseph, and that between them there was none of the concord and peace he had observed with the Sisters in Khartoum. This is partly true of the old Khartoum Sisters.

[7168]

With such a bad impression of the Sisters of St Joseph in general, and of those two in particular, Giacomo went to Verona. When he saw that Virginia had reached Verona with the Arabs, he told everything to the members of the Institute, and then to Fr Sembianti etc., and he added that wherever there was a Sister of St Joseph peace was lost, and he told all these people the calumnies he had heard from Sister Maria G. Azzapardi. This is why Fr Sembianti did not want to join my Institutes until Virginia was removed from the community, which is the situation today.

[7169]

But instead, what is the pure truth? Virginia and Sister Maria Gius. Azzapardi stayed together for two months in Cairo under my Superior of ten years’ standing, Sister Veronica Pettinati from Empoli, who daily witnessed the abuse and insults that Virginia was receiving from her Sister M. Gius., with whom she had lived for two years in Kordofan. Here is what my Superior in Cairo told me. I state this under oath; and Your Eminence can verify it, because Sister Veronica Pettinati, who is a good woman, is now in Italy: “Monsignor” she writes “I have now had Sr Anna (Virginia) here under me for two months. I have examined her, studied her, and I find that she is an excellent Sister. I have seen and heard all the insults and abuse she receives constantly from Sister M.G. I declare that it is a real miracle that Virginia has been able to stay for two years with that Sister. I could not have stayed with her for more than five minutes”.

[7170]

… I would have much to write about this Mission of Central Africa, but I do not have the time and am now going through cruel trials. A few days ago we celebrated the Requiem office and Mass for one of my Missionaries, Matteo Moron, a Pole whom I myself elevated to the priesthood. The catafalque had not even been removed when I heard of the death of another of my Missionaries, Antonio Dobale, whom I had bought in the East in 1861 and who was educated by Propaganda. He died of typhoid fever in the capital of Kordofan. Yesterday morning we again celebrated the Requiem office and Mass when a dispatch arrived announcing the death of Sr Maria Colpo, from my Institute in Malta [a slip for Malbes?-see 7152], a bit beyond Kordofan. She died as a true saint and as a heroine, going joyfully to the wedding of the Lamb. What must we do?

[7171]

Well, this morning I gave orders for the catafalque to be left in the church, since I expect more kisses from our loving Jesus who in his wisdom is showing us greater Crosses than he did when he created heaven.

[7172]

In Kordofan, for ten months now I have been spending 40 to 50 francs a day on buying dirty water to save people from dying of thirst. This year, for the first time since the creation of the world, after three months of rain, there is not a single drop of water in our well! Oh, my Jesus! What a Cross for a missionary Bishop! My sweet Jesus, we do not have enough wisdom to understand these things. If only we could understand why God is acting this way with us! But we must bless him and praise him, because everything he does is truly good.

[7173]

In the midst of the primitive tribes of Nubia, where they know no other fashion for dressing than that of our first parents before their fall, I read and meditated upon with great pleasure the life of St Angela, published in 1871, and I had it read and re-read over and over again by my Sisters who are on this Mission. Never has the life of a saint impressed me so pleasingly. What generous and sublime charity! Saint Angela Merici is a sublime model of love for the sisters of charity. I would like all Vicars Apostolic and all Missionaries to be able to read this admirable life so as to learn how to fill their hearts with the sacred fire that consumed the heart of Saint Angela Merici…

+ Daniel Comboni Bishop and Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

Translated from the French.

N.B. In the book the date is 30th August 1881, but that cannot be right because the news of the death of Sr Maria Colpo reached Khartoum on 27th September (see 7155).

[7174]

Due to illness I could not write as I had promised in my last letter N.16, to continue the story of Virginia, a postulant at my Institute at Verona. Now I am a little better and am back at work, not without great regret at having to worry and disturb Your Eminence with this affair, for I know you are dealing with matters of higher importance. But it comforts me to think that this is a question of justice and charity towards a soul consecrated to God, whom they are trying without reason to deviate from her true vocation, at the risk of her eternal perdition. The sublime spectacle, well known to Your Eminence, given to the world by the illustrious zeal and charity of the late great Pius IX, when he had the courage to indignantly defy the most powerful Emperor Napoleon III, refusing in Rome to hand over to a Jewish father his poor eleven year-old shoemaker son who had become Catholic, whom I myself accompanied from the Catechumens’ Hospice (whose President was then Mgr Jacobini, now Cardinal Secretary of State) to the papal audience, will, I am sure, bring courage to Your Eminence’s great charity in protecting the vocation of a Christian virgin who, in my humble opinion, is worthy of this in every way.

[7175]

For many years I have tried, through Mgr Darauni in Rome, through the Patriarch of the Maronites, through several Oriental Bishops and Superiors commended to me, to provide my African Institutes in Verona with a male and female Arabic teacher. They all made promises. But without spending 15 francs a day all included, I could not reach an agreement. That price was too high for me.

[7176]

When I answered Virginia in Beirut, as I mentioned in my letter N. 15, that I accepted her as a Sister in my Work, and that I also accepted to have her brother Giorgio, her sister Khatum and her cousin Alessandro in one of my establishments for them to be educated and prepared for their abjuration of the Greek heresy, I asked her to help me in my quest for male and female teachers of Arabic for my Verona Institutes. But since she did not succeed, she told me that if I went to Syria myself (as the Jesuits in Cairo, all coming from Syria, had told me) I would find not only male and female teachers, but also vocations of Arab Sisters. But she added: “Until Your Excellency can make a journey to Syria for the above purpose, you could appoint as an Arabic teacher my cousin Alessandro, who is qualified; and as a female Arabic teacher, I could come provisionally to Verona, and bring my brother and sister to prepare them there for their abjuration, and thus to acquire a better grounding in the principles of our holy faith than they would in your Cairo establishments. This way, Your Excellency will have only the expense of the male teacher’s keep”.

[7177]

After so many years of fruitless searching, it seemed too good to be true to reach this solution and thus to provide my Verona Institutes with male and female teachers as well as preparing three schismatics for their abjuration. Weeping, I thanked the Heart of Jesus, and ordered Virginia to leave with them all for Verona. She arrived there in September 1879.

[7178]

The Superior and the female Institute were delighted to have Virginia with her sister to convert to our faith. Not so the Vice Rector of the male Institute, Fr Grieff from Luxembourg (whom Fr Sembianti subsequently asked me to dismiss and who is now in America) and the lay brother Giacomo Cavallini (a man whose conduct is good but who is unintelligent); the two, having returned from Africa, had led people to believe that they knew Arabic; but with the arrival of the teacher Alessandro in the Institute, everyone understood that neither Grieff nor Giacomo knew the first thing about it. Those two greeted the Arabs with the greatest scorn and treated them so badly that if they had not been firm and incorruptible (thanks to Virginia who convinced them of the truth of the faith) in their wish to embrace Catholicism, they would have gone back to their heresy in Syria.

[7179]

In vain Fr Mainardi, the 70 year-old Rector who had been a Jesuit for 17 years, tried to remind them of their duties. They had already made their secret plan to have the Arabs, both male and female, expelled. Since I was the only one who knew Arabic, I was often in the company of the Arabs, and every day I would go for some recreation to the female Institute where I would summon the Arab women to the garden (always in the company of the Mother Superior however, and never without the Superior, although I was the Founder and Superior General), which is how these men, without my realising it, in collusion with the gardener who serves the convent, a certain Stefano, brought an accusation against me to the Cardinal Bishop, saying that I was paying attention only to the Arabs and that I (founder and master of the Institute) was spending too much time in the female Institute with Virginia, to whom I was showing partiality etc.

[7180]

His Eminence listened, but never said a thing to me. The layman Giacomo then went as far as bringing sadness to my father in his old age – he is 78, God-fearing, not once in his long life has a single week passed without his going to confession and receiving communion several times – in secret (without telling me a thing), and told him that I was being too familiar with Virginia, and that she could do me harm. My father, a truly holy man, who over the 17 days that Virginia stayed in his house at Limone with my most devout cousin, had, with that same cousin, proclaimed that Virginia was a real saint and so he believed up to March 1880, when Br Giacomo told him the contrary, has been advising me to get rid of her, quoting St Hilarion, St Anthony Abbot and the saints and the Scriptures at me, telling me that with women one must take every precaution (and my father is right in that; and I always have, but this did not prevent me from bringing many to the faith and to piety, whether they were Protestant, unbelievers or Christian, etc., and I consider myself happy to have fulfilled my vocation as a Missionary in Verona, in Vienna, in Dresden, in Berlin, in Paris, in London, in St Petersburg, as well as in Egypt and Central Africa).

[7181]

In Rome too there are two Protestant women who now live as devout Catholics, and whom God won for the faith through me. They are Maria Kessler and Ernestina Talkenberg, from Saxony.
But there is more. The above-mentioned Fr Grieff (first thought to be a saint, but who was a hypocrite and a turncoat, a trickster) longed to become the Rector of my Institutes, as Fr Sembianti was to discover when he asked me to let him leave the Institute; and since Grieff (whom I myself had described to Fr Sembianti as very good, on the authority of a devout Oratorian in Verona who had been his confessor, Count Antonio Perez), had known for certain that I was negotiating with the Superior General of the Bertoni Fathers to have Fr Sembianti as the Rector of my Institutes, he went secretly with the two above-mentioned laymen, Giacomo and Stefano, to see both the General and Fr Sembianti to blacken the image of the Arabs and especially to tell them of my supposed partiality for Virginia. As a result, the Bertoni Fathers went to seek advice from Cardinal di Canossa (who, while he never deigned to consult me or hear me on the matter, as Bishop, Founder and Master of my Institutes, deigned, as I was told, to consult and hear the opinion of the two peasants Giacomo and Stefano) who decided (without even consulting the Mother Superior, who as she told me, suffered greatly for Virginia and for me, due to this humiliation) that Fr Sembianti should accept to be Rector on condition that Virginia, her sister, her brother and her cousin were expelled from the community. This is just what the two peasants wanted.

[7182]

I was in Rome when I was informed with certainty of this decision. To be sure of securing Fr Sembianti as the definitive Rector of my Institutes and for the good of the Work, I made this great sacrifice to the Lord and accepted the great humiliation of having my judgement scorned, etc. and although I knew what sorrow and humiliation this would cause the Arabs, and especially wretched Virginia, I gave the order from Rome for all four to leave the Institutes and to move into a small house, an annex belonging to me, separate from the convent, giving the first floor to the two men and the second to the two women. I hoped later to find a more charitable solution for these four unfortunate souls.

[7183]

It is incredible how distraught Virginia was by this measure. After living for nearly twenty years in a religious community with Sisters, for ten years as a Sister herself, and in such a happy community as the Sisters of St Joseph in the East, seeing herself confined alone to one room with her sister, where she could only see her Superior once a day, she spent her nights and days continuously in tears; but with resignation and trust in God, her only comfort, and in Our Lady and St Joseph, to whom she was always most devoted.

[7184]

From Rome, I wrote to the Archpriest of S. Luca, Dean of the parish priests in Verona with 37 years of experience, who is also the uncle of my ex-Vicar General, Fr Bonomi, now Superior of the Dar Nuba Mission, asking him to visit and bring comfort to Virginia, and also to send his three nieces, Fr Bonomi’s sisters.
He went, and so did they, for four months. This old priest was able to tell me that Virginia is a woman of eminent virtue, of good judgement, level-headed and shrewd, a real saint. He spoke to Virginia many times and at length, whereas Cardinal de Canossa spoke to her only four times and very briefly. But instead His Eminence listened to the two laymen, he never talked to the venerable parish priest, who for thirty years has had two convents of nuns in his parish where he is spiritual director, and who is perhaps the best preacher in Verona on Jesus Christ crucified.

[7185]

After about 40 days, I returned to Verona. Since I found these four Arabs distressed and not talking to anyone, as an Arabic speaker, I frequently went to comfort them, instruct them and confirm them in their intention to convert. Because of this, spied upon all the time as I was by the two laymen, possibly sent by Fr Sembianti and His Eminence (it’s sheer madness), accusations against me were made to the Cardinal, as before, of being too close and partial with the Arabs and especially with Virginia. Furthermore, they all rejoiced and revived when they saw me, in just the same way as my Missionaries, Sisters and converts rejoice here in Africa when they see me, which is natural, because they know that I am their father and sacrifice myself for their good.

[7186]

When I reached Verona from Rome and visited Virginia, who was really suffering the pains of purgatory with this tremendous isolation from the community, being able to go only for five hours a week to teach Arabic, she said the following things to me; it is the pure language of truth and I could only answer that she should confide in God, who is the champion of truth and justice.

[7187]

“Monsignor, you received me in your beloved Mission of Central Africa, which I love so much that I reached the point of leaving my own beloved Congregation of St Joseph to join it; and, trusting you who are the head and founder of the Devout Mothers of Africa, I made every sacrifice to be a Religious of Central Africa and lend my feeble efforts for the salvation of those poor souls who are the unhappiest and most neglected in the world. You accepted me, called me to Verona to teach Arabic and I obeyed. But here, they have expelled me from the community and do not want me here at all. I thought that you were the Superior and Founder of your Institute, and that you had the authority to command.

[7188]

But what I see is quite the opposite. Oh Monsignor, you have no authority or control over the Institute, or else it is you who does not want me in your Institute or in your Work. If I have done something wrong, let them tell me, and I will do penance; if I have done nothing wrong, why expel me from the Institute? In any case I am the unhappiest person in the world, and I have been betrayed by you, whom I believed to be my Father, who had truly accepted me in your holy Work. But it does not matter; the Lord will help me as he has always done. I will go out to serve and to suffer all my life, but I hope to save my soul. And since I see that here, there is not only an aversion to me, but also to my brother, my sister and my cousin whom neither the Rector, nor the Cardinal, nor Giacomo, nor Stefano can abide, and to whom they even deny a greeting, I ask you to help us by enabling all four of us to return to Beirut, and God and Mary will be there for us too”.

[7189]

To these words, in which Virginia spoke the truth, I answered that I am not convinced that they should return to Syria before abjuring, because perhaps once in Syria among the schismatics, they will not be able to do so, and that would be another sorrow for Virginia. But I decided to send the brother and the cousin to Rome and Virginia and her sister to Sestri, where I was intending to send the three Sisters who were destined for Africa, even before Fr Sembianti became the Rector.

[7190]

It is natural, O Eminent Prince, that Virginia should have acquired an aversion for Fr Sembianti and viewed him with wariness because she knew and believed him to be the author of her expulsion from the Institute. And Virginia was quite right to view him in this way, although Fr Sembianti is a worthy Religious and I will always be happy to have him at the head of my Institutes, because he is a man of God and a gentleman; though he is not yet very experienced, is headstrong and stubborn as all saints are and timid and not yet very self-confident, I am still certain that he will train good candidates with an excellent spirit for Central Africa who will do well on the Mission. But Fr Sembianti was prejudiced from the start against Virginia by Grieff’s artful devility, with the help of the two good but stolid laymen. And Your Eminence knows well how powerful sinister first impressions can be even on good souls. I have sometimes seen the most deplorable examples of this in friars, and even in excellent Roman prelates, because I have a good knowledge of the world and of the anatomy of the human spirit. Fr Sembianti acts in conscience; and Virginia is not wrong if she views, and has always viewed Fr Sembianti with wariness as I will show below.

[7191]

I went to Cardinal di Canossa to get the wretched conditions of the Arabs improved, and that was when I greatly praised Virginia, whose Bishop and Director I had been for six years and whom I knew thoroughly. He answered me that if he ordered that the Arabs return to the Institute, Fr Sembianti would resign. In all the religious Institutes of northern Italy there are devout teachers who live in the religious communities; and this could have been the case for Virginia, of whom the Mother Superior always said she was pleased with her modesty, humility, obedience and charity, such that Virginia was a servant to all.

[7192]

I shall always love and revere Cardinal di Canossa because he gave me great moral support in establishing my Work. But he has given me and submitted me to so many humiliations in the last twenty months that would have been enough to kill any good man, though I do not resent them because I am prepared ad plura et maiora tolleranda for the love of Christ and Africa. Attachment III, which I send you now, is full of false accusations quite far from the truth, as I demonstrate in the answer I wrote to His Eminence (to that nasty letter Attachment III, which I enclose) so that Your Eminence may know everything, even what Cardinal di Canossa has not told you, in the certainty that the truth will shine forth and that Your Eminence will be sure in your judgement. But where Cardinal di Canossa inflicted terrible humiliation on me was in writing that he regretted having spent 600 lire to go to Rome to get me made a Bishop, as you can see from Attachment IV which, for the sake of brevity and so as not to bore Your Eminence, I have inserted in front of Attachment III, written in His Eminence’s own hand. And out of courtesy, I shall try to refund him the 600 lire which he claims to have spent to make me a Bishop (my God!); since that will please him.

[7193]

He has never given a single cent to Africa, or anything to anybody, because he left his rich inheritance to his noble family when he became a Jesuit: and he lives today on his income as a Bishop, and what is left over he wisely distributes to the poor and good works of the Verona diocese. But he has never given one cent to Africa (the late Pius IX and a few Cardinals believed for a while that His Eminence gave large amounts of money for Africa); indeed, even the letters written for me and for my Work to Rome or to some powerful benefactors (who out of respect for His Eminence gave me thousands of francs) were always paid for by me or by my representatives, even the ones he wrote to Your Eminence against Virginia and against me. To cap it all, one month ago (as a result of my letters from Kordofan to one of my benefactors in Piacenza) the Bishop of Piacenza sent 2,240 lire for me to Cardinal di Canossa; and Fr Sembianti wrote to me that His Eminence gave him 2,239 lire and 80 cents because he had withheld 20 cents for the stamp on the letter thanking the Bishop of Piacenza.

[7194]

I blush at writing these things, but I feel deeply offended at seeing Cardinal di Canossa acting inside my Institute without listening to a word from me who, besides giving it the Rule, maintain it entirely with thousands of scudi a year through great sacrifices and the sweat of my brow. But I offer it all up to the Lord, because everything is disposed by God for the good of the Work and for our perfection.
Three months after Virginia moved into the little house, separated from the community, seeing her visibly sickening day by day, after consulting the doctor of the Institute who told me to remove her from the wretched atmosphere that surrounded her, I sent her to Sestri Levante, where my Sisters had already gone.

[7195]

I will not mention the heroism in virtue and patience shown by Virginia as regards her sister Khatum (whom she instructed and converted to Catholicism) who had been through such sad times:
1) because she was still under the effect of having seen with her own eyes in 1860, like Virginia, her father and elder brother having their throats cut;
2) because at the age of eight in Beirut, she fell from a third floor and part of her brain squirted out a metre away. For this reason, if she found the door open, Khatum would leave the convent and Virginia was forced to run after her in the public streets. Sometimes she would go to Fr Tagliaferro’s orchard and like an idiot would pick a peach, a fig or some other fruit, and Fr Tagliaferro would reproach Virginia for not looking after her sister properly, etc., etc.

[7196]

It is certain that Virginia behaved well in Sestri, as proved by the testimony of the Superior (Attachment II), which I sent Your Eminence. But this did not matter at all to my dear stubborn Fr Sembianti, who came to Sestri with me to draw up the Agreement and to decide on the whole business, and who spent all his time with the Sisters to whom he gave souvenirs, and he never said a word to Virginia, as I saw myself. This is why Virginia said to me: “You will see, Monsignor, that when I go to Verona and you will have left for Africa, this dear friend of yours (I had told Virginia that Fr Sembianti is my true friend, not in words, but in deeds, because he has devoted himself with so much zeal and love of God to being the Rector of my Institutes) will send me away, because he cannot abide me, he hates me. You are too good, but that is what I think. I am going to Verona and will die there”.

[7197]

As the Cardinal wrote last year to Your Eminence, Virginia applied, and was accepted, to enter the Devout Mothers of Africa in Verona. In November last year, a few days before I left for Africa, she went from Sestri to Verona and joined the Institute as a Postulant.
What happened there, and how Virginia behaved will be the object of my next letter.
I kiss the sacred purple and remain Your Eminence’s
Unworthy and crucified son

+ Daniel Comboni, Bishop and Vicar Apostolic

Attachment III

[7198]

Letter in his own hand from Cardinal di Canossa, in which he paternally makes many false accusations against Mgr Comboni (to all of which Mgr Comboni replied and the summary will be transcribed and sent to the Cardinal Prefect).
He describes Virginia in the darkest terms, and then declares that in passing his sinister judgement, he did not consult or hear the Rector, let alone the Mother Superior of the Institute, but formed his opinion by himself:

[7199]

1. From the half-spoken words of others here and there.
2. From Fr Tagliaferro (a 74 year-old priest and ex-friar), who has not been to confession for 30 years and whom Virginia urged to dress and live as a priest, also to honour the one who helped bring the Sisters to the convent, namely Mgr Comboni.

Attachment IV
Note in his own hand by Cardinal di Canossa which informs Mgr Comboni that he regrets having spent 600 lire on going to Rome to make him a Bishop (my good Jesus!) Mgr Comboni will always be grateful for the benefits received from His Eminence the Cardinal of Verona.

N.B. Letter N. 15 to Cardinal Simeoni is dated 3/9/1881 (N. 1114).
We do not have letter N. 16;
letter N. 18 is dated 17/9/1881 (N. 1122).
It may therefore be presumed that this letter N. 17 was written between 3rd and 17th September 1881.

[7200]

I take the liberty of offering Your Excellency a small map of Dar Nuba which I drew after an exploration I made with my missionaries over these mountains. Our aim was, at the request of His Excellency Rauf Pasha, the worthy Governor General of the Sudan, to study the very important question of slavery and to propose practical and efficient remedies, which I did to His Excellency’s full satisfaction.

[7201]

Dar Nuba will become a very important region for the Egyptian government and at the same time it will be a strategic position to facilitate the introduction of civilisation over an extensive part of other lands in Central Africa.

[7202]

This map was drawn with the utmost diligence after visiting, pass by pass, more than fifty mountains inhabited by one of the most interesting and likeable races in Central Africa.
In addition, we have written a dictionary of 3,500 words in the Nuba language.

[7203]

Near the Nuba region, there is a people living on nine mountains which is called Nyuma and whose language is completely different. This people, still inaccessible to the Egyptian government, receives us with open arms because, they say, missionaries never do any harm and always do good. But after the Nuba have experienced the benefits of the government which will free them of the Baqqarah brigands, I am sure that the Nyuma too will open their doors, which have so far been closed, to His Excellency the Khedive…

[+ Daniel Comboni]

Translated from French.