Writings

[7243]

I received today your registered letter of 31st August, also signed by the Very Reverend Father Vignola.
I was surprised by the general tone of the letter… and also scandalised… I don’t know if the weight of the dear crosses that Jesus sends me is contributing to this feeling and judgement of mine.
It seems to me that Virginia’s affairs, having been taken to Rome by you and by His Eminence, should await the authoritative judgement from there. Cardinal Simeoni has indeed written to you that for the time being Virginia should not go to Africa, but he has given me no orders about this.

[7244]

However, in order not to stand in the way of the respectable wishes of Fr Vignola who wants Virginia out of the Institute immediately, I order you to give Virginia 500 francs, and to send her immediately to Roveredo to Fr Bertanza and his sister, Teresina; so that Virginia will be peaceful until she goes to whatever other destination God will deign to assign her. I do not want her to go to her family in Beirut just now, as I already declared many days ago to my most venerable Superior, the Most Eminent Cardinal Simeoni.

[7245]

It is urgently necessary for her morale that Virginia leave the Institute, because she is too isolated, humiliated and cast down. You must manage to persuade her to go to Roveredo for the time being, and she will also find spiritual consolation there. I have now written to Fr Giovanni Bertanza that he should go and fetch Virginia or send someone else to fetch her. Thus the Institute of Devout Mothers will be satisfied.

[7246]

Let everything that God wishes come about. God never abandons the one who trusts in him. He is the protector of innocence and vindicator of righteousness. I am happy in the cross, which, when borne willingly out of love for God, gives birth to victory and eternal life.
Yours most affectionately

+ Bishop Daniel

Please give the enclosed to Virginia.

[7247]

The Work for the Redemption of Africa which I founded in Verona under the patronage of the Most Eminent Cardinal di Canossa has, as it were, drawn from nothing and prepared for the Apostolate of Africa the following institutions, which are indispensable if it is to achieve its most holy objective effectively and with stability.

[7248]

1. The Institute of the Missions for Africa which trains and prepares for the African apostolate priests, catechists, and craftsmen, for which I have given a suitable Rule which will in due course be submitted to the Sacred Congregation, to become a Congregation.

[7249]

2. The Institute of the Devout Mothers of Africa to form Sisters of charity suited to establishing in Central Africa all the Catholic feminine institutions, to which I have given a suitable Rule which, after an appropriate experience on the ground in Africa, I will also submit to the sanction of the Sacred Congregation or to that of the Bishops Regular.
These two Institutes, in addition to the advantages for their establishment, are provided with two houses and land, whose produce partially supports them.

[7250]

In Cairo, Egypt, I have founded:
3. An establishment for Missionaries of Central Africa, to acclimatise the Missionaries, catechists and craftsmen from the Verona Institute: and where they are trained with study and piety for the missions in the interior.
4.The Institute of the Devout Mothers
5. An establishment for Missionaries of Central Africa, where the members of the men’s Institute of Verona are acclimatised and trained with studies and piety for the missions in the interior.
6. The establishment of the Devout Mothers of Africa, where likewise they are acclimatised, etc. for the missions in the interior.

[7251]

These two establishments were built from the foundations by me on a piece of land given to me by the Khedive.
In Upper Nubia, in the city of Berber:
7. A men’s establishment where missionaries who come from Egypt via the Desert of Korosko or Suakin on the Red Sea can rest, and a haven of refuge for sick missionaries from Khartoum.
8. A women’s establishment for the Sisters with the same aim. The two houses for the establishments have a large vegetable garden bought and organised by me and are my property; and the missionaries and Sisters who pass through on their way to Berber care for the few Catholics there and save a few souls.

[7252]

In Khartoum, the capital of the Egyptian possessions in the Sudan;
9. A men’s establishment with:
The male house of Khartoum which was built by Dr Pro-Vicar Knoblecher in 1857. The women’s house, 109 metres long like that that of the men, was built by me in 1874. The garden which produces a net income of about 8,000 francs a year with the steam engine, was all my work. According to Gordon Pasha, who visited Abyssinia, Aden, etc. and according to the most important travellers who have visited the eastern and western coasts of Africa, the Catholic Mission of Khartoum is the greatest monument to European (Christian!) civilisation in Central and western Africa.


VI In the Kingdom of Kordofan

A. In El Obeid, the capital:

[7253]

10. A male Establishment, with the second residence of the Vicar Apostolic, a farming school, schools, an orphanage, a college or small Seminary for Africans, a shelter for slaves, a crafts’ school, etc., etc.
11. An Establishment of the Devout Mothers of Africa with the second residence of the Mother Provincial and a Novitiate for African candidates, schools, an orphanage, feminine crafts, a shelter for slaves, etc.
These two houses, with other store-houses rented out in the centre of the capital, a church, gardens and wells, were all bought and constructed by me. In a kingdom which has no rivers, wells are of greater worth than houses in Kordofan. They guarantee the survival of the Mission.

B. Malbes, to the South West:

[7254]

The converted Africans are poor, and after their conversion would be obliged to go and serve Muslims in contact with whom they would lose their faith, and the mission cannot afford their keep. Therefore, to provide for them and their families, and even more, for their souls, I bought many pieces of land in the plain of Malbes, stretching roughly one kilometre, at a distance of a day’s walk from El Obeid; we dug wells in them and founded a Catholic colony of Africans called after Pius IX, in which we settled the families of converted Africans, assigning to each family a piece of land to cultivate and sow, to provide the necessary to live independently for the whole year, at no cost to the mission.

[7255]

The Catholic Colony of Malbes, which now consists of 22 Catholic families, is destined to become a village, a totally Catholic town protected from the Muslims, and is helped to preserve the faith with the appropriate norms provided by me.
In this Colony we then built numerous very solid huts of branches and straw and a chapel.
12. A rest-house for missionaries from Kordofan and Jebel Nuba when they are ill and worn out by fevers, etc., as well as an agricultural school directed by a craftsman from the Verona Institute. Every Sunday and feast day throughout the year there is Mass and catechism.