Writings

[1407]
On Tuesday morning, the 19th of this month, I shall leave the eternal city to come to Verona to fetch the African girls. I hope they have been calm until now, although the time we arranged for them has passed: but it is true that time is ours, but the way it is arranged is in the hands of God. From what I have heard in letters from Verona, it seems to me that the abundance of new developments has become prosaic from being poetic as it was, and it seems that religion is almost as ill-treated as elsewhere. We hope in God, who can do everything. Tonello’s mission having been successful with regard to the election of the Bishops, we hope that it will for the moment bear some advantage. Here in Rome it is generally calm. Near the Quirinal on the night of the 9th anniversary of the Republic, bangers were set off…But paper things do no harm: everyone was indignant: and Rome is peaceful.
[1408]
Yesterday evening I was received by the Pope and he gives a special blessing to you and to our Institutes. Last Sunday was the beatification of the Capuchin Blessed Benedetto of Urbino, a relation of my friends the Carpegna family. It was a moving celebration at the Vatican.
[1409]
I have visited the 80-year old King Ludwig of Bavaria several times, but he is as deaf as a post and skips from one subject to another, and one cannot do business with him because he doesn’t understand a thing, although he is highly intelligent in many fields. Your former school-fellow Fr Steccanella greets you; he is now at the Civiltà Cattolica. I am impatient to come to Verona for the African girls; give my greetings to Fr Beltrame, Fr Donato, Fr Cesare Cavet and all the priests, the women teachers and the Protestants, and the African girls and Betta, etc. Goodbye until the middle of next week, and pray for

Your most affectionate and humble

Fr Daniel Comboni

My greetings also to the old auntie

[1410]
It is 10 days since I arrived in Verona from the eternal city. If before leaving Venetia last November I was unable to come to Vicenza, it won’t be like that this time, I hope, for in two or three days I would like to be in your dear Vicenza. Fr Guella let me hope I would see him in Verona, where he had to go with a troop of college boys: but my hopes were in vain. Fr Clerici is away; if he were here, he would certainly ask me to send his greetings. I left Rome at 8.00 p.m. on the evening of Thursday, 21st February, and I reached Verona at 9.30 p.m. on Friday the 22nd, that is in 25 and a half hours! Our college has received a magnificent inheritance form Fregoso, that is 400 fields and about 30,000 florins: Fr Tomba says the Institute is guaranteed, but it will take a long time to obtain everything. Let’s suppose that it only amounts to half, since the proverb says: Denari e santità metà per metà (money and holiness, half and half); at any rate, it is a fortune.
[1411]
The Institute is making reasonable progress. I will take the African girls to Africa, to Cairo, via Rome where they will stay a month because I am receiving others from Venice and France, and I want to present them all to the Pope: I am somewhat disgusted because they do not want to grant me a woman teacher for only two months: obviously I would pay for everything, and the Institute will not have to disburse a farthing; but nothing is clear. Fr Tomba moreover is very kind to me: it remains to be seen what happens when I have taken the African girls. Much more (to say) when we see each other. Give Fr Tilino et alios my greetings. Pay my respects to His Lordship the Bishop etc., and to all my acquaintances.
A greeting with all my heart from

Your most affectionate friend, Fr Daniel

[1412]
I am most disturbed because the trunks have not yet arrived, whereas those from Padua belonging to the African girls from Venice which were sent to the same address, have been in Rome since Saturday morning. Please do all you can to send them as soon as possible to the Monastery of the Immaculate Conception in Via dell’Arco di S. Vito in Rome, because otherwise the African girls will not be able to change their clothes. Today we are visiting Conte Vimercati, the widower of the former Queen of Saxony and brother-in-law of the present, most learned Monarch of Saxony. He is a great benefactor. While I warmly recommend you to send the trunks quickly, I beg you to greet everyone and know I am always

Your most devoted Fr Daniel

[1413]
Today the 12 young African girls accompanied by Conte Vimercati, by the Archbishop Vicegerent of Rome and myself were received by the Holy Father in the Vatican gardens, and we were in His Holiness’ company for one hour and three quarters. I cannot describe the African girls’ joy. The Holy Father, after permitting them to kiss his foot and having given each a bunch of flowers, an orange and a silver medal, made them a speech regarding the mission to which they are going; and since I said that we would not be leaving until September, he agreed to grant the wish of Conte Vimercati, the widower of the former Queen of Saxony, to have a group photo of all my caravan with the Count and the Archbishop, which I will have taken on my return to Rome by the Pope’s photographer. Then the Pope with us three beside him, followed by the African girls showed them the lakes, the fountains and the views, etc., and many of them got sprayed, etc. I cannot describe the joyfully colourful scenes of these seven quarter hours. While the African girls ran screaming from the spray of water from a bronze warship which seemed to cross the sea in a fountain, a ship which from its thirty-four little cannons fired globes of water like cannon-balls, the Pope, turning to me said: “They seem 12 souls from purgatory, but of the ones which have not finished their time there”. It was a most intimate reception of the kind which the Holy Father usually grants to a sovereign. And he sends his blessing to you and to the Institutes. He talked a lot about our deceased Superior who, he said, was a holy man.
[1414]
I hope I shall be in Verona on Saturday. The African girls of the Institute greet you, one and all. Very many greetings to Fr Beltrame and to the priests, and we shall be seeing each other, please God, in four days.

Yours, most affectionately in Jesus,


Fr Daniel

[1415]
In the week after the Octave I gave a retreat to the African girls, who did it with great edification. I think they are very happy.

[1416]
I have the pleasure to announce to Your Most Reverend Eminence that the distinguished Mgr Canossa has opened a Seminary in Verona for our dear African missions, which in better times will be called the Institute of the Good Shepherd for the Regeneration of Africa; he also opened a female Institute to train good women missionaries, and they are given an education exclusively suited and most appropriate for the specific needs of the African apostolate. Taking another female Institute for Africa, it is necessary to pay the maintenance of 12 sisters of which only two or three will be used, because the others, for lack of proper training, are superfluous and most of the time useless.
[1417]
The devout and able African missionary, Fr Alessandro Dalbosco, my former companion, has joined me, thanks to the efforts of the Bishop. From the programme that I am sending you, Your Eminence will become acquainted with the Association that has been canonically founded in Verona to maintain the said Institutes and those which will be established later for the same African aims. In the terrible times we are passing through, since it is probable the zeal and benevolent attitude of individual benefactors of Institutes will slow down, for fear that their donations will be wasted by guilty perpetrators of illicit confiscations or suppressions, I have considered it right to make the most of the spirit of association which dominates our age, to seek the means of subsistence for the above-mentioned Institutes; aiming thereby to make Africa known, to arouse interest in its conversion, and to obtain from the mystical field of the Church and from Catholic countries sound vocations for the African apostolate. I trust that what has already been begun in Verona for Africa will meet with the approval of Your Eminence, who lives for the holy Missions alone.
[1418]
Full of trust in your goodness, I dare to beg Your Eminence to incite the most worthy Bishop of Verona to continue to give me his benevolent protection. With a burning zeal for Africa he combines a rare prudence, a steadfast constancy in goodness, and a deep knowledge of the spirit which must imbue an Institute of apostolic men. I would dare most submissively to implore Your Eminence to add a word of encouragement to reinforce the good dispositions of my Bishop, certain that you will be marvellously answered. He is of good stock: indeed, a month ago, Mgr Canossa’s uncle worked one of the most striking miracles in Venice, that same uncle who bore him in his arms and inspired in him the loftiest sense of piety and religion. Renewing my request to you, in the hope of soon having the honour to give you my respects in person, I kiss the Sacred purple and declare myself with all veneration,

Your Reverend Eminence’s
humble, obedient and respectful Servant,

Fr Daniel Comboni

[1419]
Your sentiments for the venerable Father Provincial gave me great consolation, and I see that you show yourself worthy of the lofty destinies to which Providence has called you. I assure you that I will convey your sentiments to the Bishop about Fr Artini. I have always felt esteem and veneration for that worthy person, and neither I nor the Bishop ever believed that he was antipapista (against the Pope). It seems impossible to me that there could have been people who judged him as such; no, his innocence must be made known. We all have faults, but the merits of that worthy man make up for any blemish. You can be sure that this will be the subject of many of my talks with the Bishop, both here and in Rome.
[1420]
Once and for all I assure you I am doing ad litteram all that I said I would: also assure Fr Zanoni, whose lovely and most courteous letter Mgr said he would answer. All that you and I desired of him has been fully granted, and let us thank the Lord for it. Pray and pray to the Good Shepherd and to the Heart of Mary: si Deus pro nobis, qui contra nos? Give my greetings to everyone, whom I embrace in the Most Holy Crucified Christ. Charitas Christi urget nos: si isti et illi, cur non ego? Christus pro omnibus mortuus est iacta curam tuam in D.no etc. These are the sentiments that should inspire us. Farewell,

Your most affectionate Fr Daniel

[1421]
The rescripts of the four, that is your brother Stanislao, Tezza, Zanoni and Franceschini are already in my hands. Each rescript is conceived in these terms:

Ex Audientia SS.mi habita ab infro D. Secretario S Congregationis Episcoporum et Regularium sub die 5 Juli 1867 = Sanctitas Sua, attenta Religiosorum dispersione, benigne annuit arbitrio Episcopi Veronen. pro facultate Oratorum in enunciato Seminario dumtaxat ad proximum quinquennium retinendi sub sua absoluta dependantia ac iurisdictione etiam in vim Voti obedientiae: Contrariis quibuscumque non obstantibus.
Romae
A. Card. Quaglia Praef.s
L. Svegliati Sec.rius
(Sacra Congreg. Episcop. et Regularium)

[1422]
Please let the four know of the grace obtained. In due course, it will be obtained in perpetuum. I leave you in your wisdom to work out a prudent way of leaving the Camillians to enter the new Seminary. I have arranged their departure for Africa for early September. The Holy Father, in an autographic letter grants the Pious Association of the Good Shepherd for the Regeneration of Africa six plenary indulgences annually, in perpetuum. See how quickly this work was approved by the Church! Give my greetings and a warm embrace to those four beloved brothers of mine, and give Fr Peretti my regards. God knows how I regret the sorrow our venerable Fr Artini will feel: but love for the African people puts me above
everything else.
Goodbye, my dearest friend, pray for

Your affectionate friend,

Fr Daniel Comboni

I am leaving for Rome in the second half of the coming week and will be passing through Abano to communicate with the Bishop.

[1423]
His Excellency Mgr Canossa, Bishop of Verona, has just passed on to me the programme of the African Institute, which they sent him last year.

I learn with great consolation of the existence and the noble aim of the philanthropic institution. Reading its programme I am even more convinced of the truth that experience has taught me, that is, that wherever there is a great humanitarian aim, France is always in the thick of it. At the same time that Providence has called this noble nation to be the protectress of the Church in the whole world, he has also destined her to bear the torch of Catholicism and civilisation to regions still submerged in the shadows of death and to encourage apostolic Missionaries, the humble tools of this great work which is at the same time religious and humanitarian.

[1424]
I cannot sufficiently express my joy at seeing that the aims of this Institute is to civilise Africa which is the most unhappy and unfortunate part of the world. I am glad to tell you of my satisfaction, because having been dedicated to Africa for 17 years, I live only for Africa and breathe only for her good! From 1857 I have visited Central Africa as an apostolic Missionary in various tribes, mainly on the White Nile where I have several times been on the point of dying. There, seeing the wretchedness and unhappiness of these poor Africans, the nobility of the great good done by the African Institute can be understood. This is why, since my poor efforts are most intimately connected with the aims of the African Institute of which you are the worthy secretary, I take the liberty of presenting my Plan for the Regeneration of Africa, which is explained in this booklet I have the honour of sending you.
[1425]
The Plan is based on this principle: the Regeneration of Africa by Africa itself.

May I also send you my programme for the Work of the Good Shepherd for the Regeneration of Africa, which the Pontiff Pius IX has just approved.
[1426]
With the support of his Excellency the Bishop of Verona, we have been able to open two Institutes in Verona, a male one and a female one, for the purpose of forming and training candidates for the African Missions. I hope that Providence will bless these small houses.
[1427]
Meanwhile, during the month of October, I shall undertake a very important and interesting expedition to Africa, for the purpose of founding two houses in Cairo for the centre of Africa: one for men and one for women, on the basis and as a result of my Plan. This expedition will consist of seven Missionaries, four Sisters and fourteen black women teachers: these are all from the White Nile and the neighbouring tribes; they have been in Europe for ten years and are versed in all the feminine crafts; they have the qualifications of school mistresses in France. They are destined to teach the little African girls in Egypt, and to travel in their native land in order to pass on to those tribes the advantages and benefits of the civilisation which they have received from European culture.
[1428]
My Plan is to form good Missionaries in Europe, good women Missionaries and courageous craftsmen who will settle in the coastal regions of Africa where the climate is bearable for Europeans and for the indigenous people. We will form missionaries, good family women and skilled African craftsmen destined to move back to their native villages after their instruction, to found civilisation there in accordance with the system outlined in my Plan.
[1429]
This is the bond that unites me with all affection to the African Institute. As my small houses in Africa progress, we will strive to be useful to our Institute. Thus I hope we shall give one another a hand for our common aim, the regeneration of Africa. I therefore beg you to have the Annals of the African Institute sent to me now in Verona or after the month of October, in Cairo.

Fr Daniel Comboni

[1430]
I send you a resumé of the letter for Vimercati. I hope that you will permit us to ask the Count for a gift of 1,000 scudi after having mentioned that you would be satisfied with a loan. This is the minimum that he gave to other Institutes, and to the Seminary in Milan.
[1431]
Trust in Providence, Monsignor; and be assured that beneath the mantle of your authority, we shall find all the money necessary. We have an Association approved by Pius IX; we have a tongue to insist with, a pen to write with, the courage to be rejected, all the things contained in the famous petite in order to be totally sure of obtaining the accipietis. It is a special grace of God that Mgr the Vicegerent has retired: he would not have given anything, but at most anticipated money to be reimbursed later from the Association’s income. This favour would have cost us dearly, no less than making us the slaves of his ideas which do not always conform to Your Most Reverend Excellency’s perspicacious and upright judgement.
[1432]
In addition it would have been damaging to Africa, because Mgr Vicegerent is in fact contrary to calling on other Institutions in the future, to multiply the helpers of the Work for Africa and develop it. He holds as an article of faith that the Institute inspired by St Thérèse is the only one in the world destined to save all souls, and that it will rise gigantic upon the ruins of all the other Institutions, which, he says, will all crumble. No, God is the author of all the Institutions approved by the Church; and they all, according to their own charism, contribute to founding, maintaining and bringing about God’s Kingdom on earth.
[1433]
The only obstacle that Mgr Vicegerent can set in our way is the title of the Association of the Good Shepherd alone, which I had called of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and Monsignor made me change the name to that of the Good Shepherd. If he should really object, we could get the Holy Father to grant our Work to be called: The Pious Work of the Princes of the Apostles, Peter and Paul, etc. It would be a tribute to the Princes of the Apostles on the solemn occasion of the 18th centenary of their glorious martyrdom; it would be the Work par excellence, of the great era of Peter and Paul’s most splendid triumph. It would be like the seal of the graces obtained for the Church and for Africa in this year of glory and triumph by the power of the Princes of the Apostles, who regardless of the name, would be the special Patrons of the great Work of the Apostolate of Africa. I submit these reflections to your wisdom; and in the meantime I kiss your sacred vestments, and declare myself with all my heart

Your most unworthy son,

Fr Daniel Comboni