Writings

[1664]
Two days ago your most precious letter of 3rd June reached me from Cairo. It filled me with consolation because it contained the tones of a St Ignatius to his sons and to tell you the truth I felt, and feel, an ever greater desire to suffer and to bear the cross; your soothing words full of the Spirit of the Divine Pastor have so powerful an effect on me. I really needed that dear letter of yours, which I kissed over and over again, to prepare my spirit to bear with staunch resignation and in the love of Jesus the terrible blow that your ever so kind letter of 15th August dealt me. I received it this morning and am hastening to answer it with the peace of mind, sincerity and truth that a missionary and man of God must have with his Superior, that a son must have with his father.
[1665]
As I have always written, the female Institute developed just like any good European Institute. From the first day, with fully reciprocal agreement between us, I established what division the narrowness of the quarters allowed and which was sufficient to guarantee decorum and reputation, both of ours and the women’s. This separation is more thorough than in Lyons, in the most respectable African Mission and Diocesan Seminaries, in which the Sisters do the cooking and housekeeping for the missionaries. But since I saw that in Egypt I had to be careful and had more to fear from the Franciscans (who do not view mixed institutions favourably) than from the local people, in all things I called upon the most venerable Franciscan parish priest, Fr Pietro, and was only satisfied when I received his full approval. I submitted everything to him, also to ensure that I was guaranteed as regards the Vicar Apostolic.
[1666]
From the very beginning I established that Fr Zanoni, being the eldest, with a white beard, should be the one to head the female Institute right away. His having been the Prefect of his Order in Mantua, the fact that he had always been the object of high esteem and had a good reputation in Venetia as well as a white beard seemed to provide me with sufficient motives to trust him and dedicate myself more exclusively to external relations and keeping an eye on the younger ones. I think that any wise man in my place would have done the same. Most venerable Father, I and all the others were mistaken. Since a doctor’s visit in Cairo costs one gold Napoleon and as Fr Zanoni has a good knowledge of medicine, so it was that, after discussing the matter with the Most Reverend parish priest (who had himself called Fr Zanoni several times both to the Poor Clares and outside to practise medicine), I allowed him to practise medicine in our two small Institutes, and immediately informed Mgr Ciurcia of this.
[1667]
Until May everything proceeded with enviable harmony among us all: everything developed very well in accordance with human prudence and the spirit of Jesus Christ. The Lord allowed us to be visited by a storm-cloud of diseases and the terrible Egyptian smallpox: so, quite naturally, we had to ignore a few of the established rules. In allowing Fr Zanoni to practise medicine, the intention was of course that he should do so in the way that is suitable for religious. But the poor man took a few too many liberties and allowed himself some very indecent confidences. Having observed some irregularities on his part from the month of June, I immediately told him so and warned him with the charity of Jesus Christ. Finally I had to withdraw his authorisation. It is clear that the poor man was not used to such things, because after my warning, wishing to deny and find excuses, he committed such imprudent and childish actions as to furnish me with every reason to confirm my judgement. As I consulted Fr Carcereri with the utmost precautions, and we both agreed, Fr Zanoni suspected him of spying on my behalf and developed a deadly hatred for him, to the point that they were no longer on speaking terms. In a word, we discovered everything, which I shall sum up as follows: “Zanoni, under the pretext of visiting them medically (which I would not allow a doctor to do to me, over my dead body) visited in verendis et in pectore several very good African girls, to whom, when they hesitated, he showed the Crucifix, etc.”. In a very short time, when we had moved house, everything was resolved and now the Institute is functioning very well under a most appropriate Rule which I submitted to the parish priest, who will see to it.
[1668]
For some time already Zanoni had been telling me that Franceschini was showing some tender feelings for the good and most devout Petronilla. Apart from having asked Stanislao to keep an eye on him whenever they could see each other in church, I myself was all eyes. I can assure you Monsignor, that there is nothing in it and there never was. Franceschini is a most devout and able lad, who is sweet, good and full of the religious spirit and will become a true Camillian missionary. As for Stanislao (speaking of internal affairs, for diplomacy can only be learnt through experience) in this situation he showed good judgement and the heart of a saint. Monsignor, I am quick to see holiness in others, but here I speak with a true knowledge of the situation. Stanislao is a true priest and religious and everything Zanoni may say or has said to the contrary about him is false.
[1669]
Everything remained in the family; and in all prudence, everything ended there. Since this is a serious matter, I wanted to know everything before I wrote to you. I had already written you a long letter when I caught such a terrible eye infection that I thought I was going to lose my eyesight. As soon as I had recovered, since Fr Zanoni saw that he had lost his reputation in the Institute and that with the present elements he could do no good, he asked me if he could go to Jerusalem and Europe. As I was without resources we decided, the Vicar Apostolic and I, that I woul dmake a trip to Europe. I therefore asked Zanoni to remain until my return (because for the two eldest missionaries both to go away within 7 months would have looked too odd, etc.). That is why I decided to wait until I reached Verona to open my heart to you, so that we could decide together the most prudent quid agendum in future, and bring Fr. Zanoni back with his dignity, and that of the Institutes, intact.
[1670]
To justify his return, it seems that the poor father is exaggerating circumstances and the poverty of the Institute. It appears that he wants to save himself by ruining the others. But the Lord watches over the innocent and the Work which is all his. It is totally false that debts will leave us high and dry. I have such great credit in Egypt that I could run up as many debts as I like: but I am afraid of debts and do not want them to have any part in our Work. The only ones I have made are with secure and good people. At the moment I write, I do not owe even a single cent in Egypt, because with the 3,000 francs I sent yesterday there is still enough to live on for a month. With what I have and what I will receive from the Associations, as I sincerely hope, the two small Institutes in Cairo are provided for. Cologne has just given me 5,000 francs, and to show in fact to what extent I am in credit with Cologne, I am sending you the Yearbook for this year.
[1671]
I say no more for now because I am in an ocean of grief. Your letter, its content, are even like thorns in my heart, which is already torn by other crosses. Fiat! I thank you warmly because, apart from venerating in you a true father, I have the grace of having a wise doctor. Christ on the Cross, Mary of Sorrows, these are my beloved comforts. Since God has given you an immense zeal for the souls of humanity, I hope that he will not attenuate your courage in persevering with this holy and most difficult enterprise which will bring us even greater crosses than the ones we have now. Monsignor, bless this poor

most affectionate and afflicted son of yours

Fr Daniel Comboni, Apostolic Missionary

I have already dealt with the Masses. Carcereri will write to you. Our Institutes have already won more souls in six months than the Franciscans in two years (Haec inter nos). Fr Artini knows Zanoni very well.

[1672]
It is with the greatest surprise that I learn that our good Fr Franceschini has not obtained the grace from Rome that is needed for him to be promoted as soon as possible to the priesthood. From the horizon I see before me, I am inclined to think that some reason must have led our most venerable Father, the Bishop of Verona, to delay his request. As I know this young man quite thoroughly, a worthy son of St Camillus who is full of religious spirit, and as I can answer for him in conscience, I take the liberty of asking you to send humble and warm pleas to the Bishop for him to deign to hasten the grace from the Holy See so that he may be immediately ordained priest by the Vicar Apostolic of Egypt. Franceschini deserves such a grace, and there is no circumstance or motive whatsoever for it to be delayed.
[1673]
It seems that the Lord in his infinite bounty has prepared a thorny mortification for you, which has also been troubling my spirit for some time. The enemy of humanity is always ready to disturb God’s work. But take courage, dearest Father. The God-Man showed his wisdom in no better way than in making the Cross. The cross is the real comfort, the support, the light, the fortitude of just souls. It is the cross that forms great souls and makes them capable of undertaking and performing great things for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
[1674]
So lift your spirit on the sacred and adorable altar of the Cross, and remember that if Your Reverence Paternity had done nothing more than bring up in the Religion and educate in the spirit of Jesus Christ a Carcereri, a Stanislao (and I believe I may add a Tezza), you would have done enough. I am able to make this proposition. I know well enough your three sons with whom I have had the joy of sharing the toils of the Egyptian apostolate.
[1675]
I am certain that you too know Fr Zanoni thoroughly, and therefore I refrain from expressing my judgement on him. If I must reproach myself for some fault (anyone can make a mistake) it is that of having too much trust in him. But I also have an excuse for this, because Your Reverence Paternity knows how easily one can be dazzled by his white beard, and by the reflection that for years Zanoni has enjoyed the trust of many very distinguished personalities and fulfilled honourable duties in the illustrious Province of Lombardy-Venetia of the venerable Camillian Order. Raising your eyes to heaven and pressing the most sweet treasure of the Cross of Jesus Christ to your breast, prepare our dear Fr Tezza and the good Savio for their forthcoming departure to Egypt.
[1676]
Trust in the great Crucified God and in our Mother, Queen of Africa and Mother of consolation, because despite the dragon of the abyss which rampages there in wretched Italy against the most venerable Institutions, the time will not be far away when the Cross of St Camillus will shine brightly among the tribes of unfortunate Africa which are still in the darkness and shadow of death. The Cross will sustain the spirit against the blows of human vicissitudes. Carcereri, Tezza and Franceschini will be three brave champions of the African apostolate who will comfort the great heart of their Very Reverend Father, which is made to enjoy the fruits of these choice plants from his garden, the worthy object of his paternal labours.
[1677]
I would like my remarks about Fr Zanoni to remain between you, the Bishop, Fr Tomelleri and, if you see fit, the good Tezza. I will then tell you in person what my conscience dictates and when I have sufficient knowledge of the matter, although our dear Fr Stanislao will keep you well informed. In the meantime, please give my greetings to Fr Peretti, Tomelleri, Tezza, Savio, et omnes, I kiss your hands and declare myself in all respect and veneration,

Your Reverence Paternity’s
most humble and affectionate servant and son

Fr Daniel Comboni, Apostolic Missionary

[1678]
Do me the favour of writing to Stanislao with the first Italian steamer for him to send me immediately to Paris a note of all that our chapel needs. I have found everything in France, I hope: but it is best to check everything.
[1679]
Be ready for next month: you, Savio, Ferroni and Rolleri who, together with three African girls and myself, will be off to eat fresh dates in Great Cairo. Dearest friend, we have a sublime mission to fulfil which is worthy of Christ’s true priests and of the real sons of the heroic St Camillus. Have courage therefore: let us not be disheartened by the mere gusts of a storm. We have the true spirit of Jesus Christ and we seek only his glory and the salvation of souls, so forward. Crosses will keep us company, but we will suffer with Christ and St Camillus.
[1680]
I long to reach Paris, to read the long and detailed letters from Stanislao, and perhaps from Zanoni, and to have news from Cairo. I leave this morning, stopping for just two hours in Strasbourg. Pay my respects to the venerable and dear Fr Provincial, to Tomelleri, Peretti, Bresciani, Carcereri, etc. and receive a most affectionate embrace

from your Fr Daniel

[1681]
With the next French steamer I shall write to Your Most Reverend Excellency telling you everything in detail because it is impossible for me to do so with this one, having just arrived in Paris this morning from Bamberg and Munich. Although my affairs went quite well in Germany and provided me with 400 gold Napoleons, my mind is all the more afflicted by the news I found in the many poste restante letters I had in Paris. The most serious is the sinister and iniquitous behaviour of Fr Giovanni Battista Zanoni who finally, thank heaven, has left. While I shall await the next steamer to tell you all, for now I limit myself to referring you to our venerable Fr Pietro, who knows the latest on all these matters, and to begging humbly to be forgiven for not having explained to Your Most Reverend Excellency in Alexandria what was really going on and what could have been foreseen at that time. I wanted and was prepared to explain to you the whole affair of the misguided Fr Zanoni: but I lacked the courage to do so when I saw how very busy Your Excellency was.
[1682]
In the meantime someone wrote to Rome that I have not established a proper separation between the female Institute and ourselves, and since Cardinal Barnabò informed me of this in a letter forwarded to me from Egypt and which I received this morning, I consider it a necessity to rent half the Maronite convent that the new Superior and parish priest offered us. I have therefore asked Fr Carcereri to consult Fr Pietro on this matter and, if necessary, to seek Your Most Reverend Excellency’s advice, to have this transfer made immediately; even though in both the Maronite houses, as in this one, a suitable separation has been made, comparable to that in the Seminary for the African Missions in Lyons and the Institute of the Sisters of the Apparition in Rome, where Mme Emilie Julien lived from 1856–61 with her Sisters on the 1st and 2nd floors of the Casa Castellaci when Monsignor, his brother and 9 children were living on the 3rd floor.
[1683]
His Excellency the Archbishop of Munich (whose strong recommendations provided me with 1,000 francs) holds you in highest esteem as do Messrs Baudri and the members of the Holy Sepulchre in Cologne. Renewing my pleas for your generous forgiveness and your special moral support in this present storm which seems to be brewing over our two new small Institutes; trusting fully in our beloved Jesus, for whose glory alone I mean to labour and suffer, I kiss your sacred vestments and declare myself in all gratitude and respect,

Your Most Reverend Excellency’s
most humble and obedient son

Fr Daniel Comboni

[1684]
Having estimated that by communicating with the Sacred Congregation the President of the Pious Association of Lyons would delay a decision on my Petition all the longer, I decided to respond to the invitation to speak at the General Congress of the Catholics of Germany in Bamberg, so as to join my brother Fr Alessandro Dalbosco in presenting the Africans’ cause.
[1685]
Reaching Paris only yesterday I found the most precious letters nos. 3, 4 and 5 that Your Eminence deigned to send me. While I thank you warmly for the useful and precious warnings all three contain and which I shall be mindful to heed with efficiency, I am answering the two most important points covered in your ever venerated last letter: 1. the answer Your Eminence sent to the President in Lyons; 2. the cohabitation of myself and my companions, of which you were told, with the Sisters and the African girls, to which Your Eminence deigned to allude with special and paternal bounty as long ago as 4th August.
[1686]
The first point constitutes for me a much heavier cross to bear than the one which Victor Emanuel wanted to burden me with, and of which it will be much more difficult for me to acquit myself than the latter. I have good reason to believe that the answer you gave the President has deprived me of my reputation with this illustrious Council and has shown me up as a real cheat, so that in future I shall have neither the courage to approach it nor the hope of ever receiving any help from it. And what compounds my grief even more is that I fear that such an answer will also have put to flight my venerable Superior, the most worthy Vicar Apostolic of Egypt, who had so warmly supported me with a special recommendation.
[1687]
Your Eminence thought it your duty to declare to Lyons the true state of things. And what is the true state of things you have declared?… I am indeed unfortunate, O Eminent Prince, because without knowing or wanting to, you specifically declared two things which could not be further from the truth. In every action I have always been open and truthful; and I have always informed Your Eminence of the steps I was taking, even when I was afraid of not acting with wisdom and prudence. It seems to me impossible that what I told you about the Good Shepherd Association could have escaped your most tenacious memory. Here are the two things:
[1688]
Ad primum. Your Eminence has confirmed the erroneous opinion of the President in Lyons that the Association of the Good Shepherd is aimed at maintaining the African establishment in Cairo; and you confirm this to such an extent that you then deign to remind me: “if the Sacred Congregation desires the civilisation of Africa, it cannot allow the means for this to be procured at the expense of the most worthy Pious Association”. It would be enough for Your Eminence to deign to read through the 1st article of its General Constitutions to convince yourself that the Association of the Good Shepherd exists for the sole purpose of maintaining and multiplying European preparatory Institutes, that is hic et nunc the new minor Seminary in Verona, a task which is completely outside the sphere of the Pious Association for the Propagation of the Faith’s activity (which only helps missionary establishments in partibus Infidelium), which also excludes the Foreign Mission Seminaries in Milan, Lyons, Paris, London, etc. The Paris one has its own assets, Lyons supports itself with daily collections and London, with extraordinary collections in America.
[1689]
To found the Verona Institute I calculated that in these difficult times private benefactors would never donate to Church establishments in the just fear that, in the turmoil of a revolution, everything could be swallowed up by the laws of confiscation. Making use of the right of association, theoretically recognised even by liberal governments, I therefore started the Association of the Good Shepherd, whose purpose is to support Seminaries in Europe to educate seminarians for the African apostolate, just as the one in Paris forms apostles for India, China and Japan. I mentioned this foundation in my 1866 report to the Sacred Congregation, made at Your Eminence’s request. Before founding this Association I thought about it for two years; I consulted eminent persons, Bishops, and men who are most knowledgeable about associations of this kind and I received encouragement from them all. The same applied to Mgr Canossa who was greatly encouraged, and it seems to me that Your Eminence also showed me your approval several times. Hence Your Eminence can see that the Association of the Good Shepherd has nothing to do with, and can in no way be a disadvantage to the Pious Associations of Lyons and Paris, just as the 53 Associations of a similar kind blessed by the Church and which flourish in Germany, Belgium and France have nothing to do with them. I trust in the Lord that the Association of the Good Shepherd will contribute before long to providing good apostles for Central Africa.
[1690]
Ad secundum. Your Eminence declared to the President of the Lyons Association that the Association of the Good Shepherd has only been awarded 40 days of Indulgence by the Bishop of Verona, without noting that it was enriched by the Holy father with 6 Plenary Indulgences, and this by means of a rescript in his own hand, which as soon as it reached me at 4 p.m. one day in June, the 25th I believe, I had the honour of showing Your Eminence in the evening. You read it from beginning to end and showed that you were most pleased with it. As for the enclosed report printed in Verona, until today I was convinced that I had presented it to Your Eminence last November: but as I now see that you have not mentioned it, I suspect that, disturbed as I was by the storm unleashed upon me by the Vicegerent, I must have forgotten to give it to you, and I do apologise for this.
[1691]
To these two points I add another painful observation. Your Eminence declared to the President in Lyons that the Programme was printed at Propaganda without your knowledge, that I have dealt in particular with Cavaliere Marietti and you went into other details, so that, from your precious account, it seems as though I did not carry out this business with due sincerity and resorted to some subterfuge to have it printed. The plain truth is that since the Programmes had to be printed with some additional changes from the Verona edition, I myself suggested to the Vicegerent that it should be printed in Rome and I backed this by saying that things printed in Rome have more credit abroad. In my determination I was driven by a stronger motive to use the Rome presses: not I, but the Vicegerent was to pay for the printing, as he had promised me. Indeed, the Monsignor himself gave me the money to pay Marietti.
[1692]
All these things, together with other details that Your Eminence saw fit to set forth and to quote to the President in Lyons, where I had been extremely well received, have hurt me very much. Just as I have suffered and am suffering great prejudice from Your Eminence saying from time to time that Fr Comboni is a madman, fit to be bound, etc., because this kind of thing has held back some illustrious benefactors who were prepared to help me, and cooled
the interest of very many who had originally given strong indication that they were taking a great interest in the Work I had conceived. This is not a complaint, O Eminent Prince; it is just a cry of profound grief at seeing that, after so many efforts and risks to my life, after so much study, travelling and expense on my part alone, without troubling Propaganda, after 15 years of intense suffering and labour for a Work which is most difficult in itself and that so many have abandoned (even though nothing was achieved despite so much sacrifice), it seems tome that Your Eminence is treating me with some severity.

[1693]
I deserve more than this, because I am a great sinner and am in debt with God. I therefore thank you with all my heart, because Your Eminence (who in other circumstances has done me so much good) as Head of all Missions is helped and guided by God. Therefore in thanking you sincerely I have pleasure in repeating: hic ure, hic seca, hic non parcas, ut aeternam parcas.
[1694]
After all this I venture to add that if in your profound wisdom Your Eminence could find a moment to clarify the above-mentioned points to the President in Lyons, and also to encourage him to give me some help right away for the two small Institutes in Cairo, and to recommend that he should support them in future through the Vicar Apostolic as a diocesan Work in Egypt, in the same way as the Frères, the Poor Clares and the Sisters of the Good Shepherd receive help, you would be showing me the greatest charity and helping me in a moment of great need.
[1695]
Think of how many crosses have afflicted me in one year: I do not know how I endured: God’s grace is great. Just think that only last August three adult women were baptised, and one Muslim on his death-bed. Should Your Eminence not think it appropriate to hear my humble plea, I thank you all the same: it is a sign that God does not want this, may His most holy will be done. God will think of another way of freeing me from such dire straits: Maria adiuvabit.
[1696]
On the second point concerning our alleged cohabitation with the Sisters and the African girls, I shall reply tomorrow. As long as certain enemies report to Propaganda, I have nothing to fear, because the Church is not deceived, sooner or later She learns the truth. While I ask you to forgive me for what I have dared to say in this note, I kiss the sacred purple and declare myself with all respect

Your Most Reverend Eminence’s
most humble, unworthy and afflicted son in Jesus Christ

Fr Daniel Comboni

[1697]
I am now going to discuss the alleged cohabitation of myself and my companions with the Sisters and the African girls which Your Eminence, in a singular gesture of paternal bounty has deigned to call to my attention in your latest revered letters, which I only received the day before yesterday in Paris.
[1698]
When I reached Cairo with my caravan on the eve of the Immaculate Conception last year, I housed the Sisters and the African girls in the European Hospital with the Sisters of St Joseph, while we were charitably given hospitality by the Franciscan Fathers and the Brothers of the Christian Schools. This lasted 10 days, until I rented the Maronite Convent of Old Cairo. The convent consists of two houses, one to the east and the other to the west of the church, which are completely separate from one another and which open onto the desert. In 1838, the Maronites bought another house to the west of the church, which they linked to the convent with a great wall. This house has its own door to the west, diametrically opposite the exits of the other two houses. This is where some oriental Sisters already lived. All three houses communicate with the church through as many doors which open onto a great courtyard. The Maronite friars live in the first house when they go to Old Cairo, I lived in the second house with my companions and the Sisters and the African girls lived in the third. To go into the courtyard, the latter had to pass through a locked inside door and then along a corridor on the ground floor which is also closed.
[1699]
Although I was not satisfied with this separation, because I am Italian and not French, (since this was a provisional arrangement) I also called in for advice our Franciscan parish priest Fr Pietro da Taggia, a venerable old man with a delicate conscience, and he assured me that the matter would be acceptable, with no kind of damage to our reputation. In fact, the separation in these two houses is certainly equal to that to be found in the African Seminary in Lyons and many other establishments of excellent repute that I have visited, in which the Sisters do the cooking, as the Sisters and African girls did for us.
[1700]
We lived in these two houses until 15th June, when I took a house larger than the above-mentioned houses, belonging to Mr Bahhry Bey. This has two large apartments and two floors which are served by a great staircase leading to a garden, to which is annexed another small garden of date trees divided by a high wall, where the chapel is located. The Sisters and the African girls are on the first floor; we are on the second. The Sisters have the 1st garden and the exit facing the Nile; we have the 2nd garden and the exit facing the town. Although our stay was completely provisional, until I managed to take another house for us, even while in Bahhry Bey’s house, before we entered it I called the Franciscan Fr Pietro and the Coptic parish priest to see if it was appropriate as provisional accommodation, and both found it most convenient as a dwelling. In fact there is more separation here between the Missionaries and the Sisters than there was in Rome when the Sisters of St Joseph lived on the first floors of the Casa Castellacci, while the Archbishop of Petra lived on the top floor with his brother and his large family.
[1701]
Finally it turned out that because the new Superior of the Maronites offered us his religious house on the best of terms, I definitively accepted, and now the Sisters and the African girls are in the Bahhry Bey house and the male College and my companions are in the Maronite Monastery, which are as far apart as Propaganda and Piazza Venezia.
[1702]
Ever since I had the idea of setting up these Institutes, I have always wanted them to be run according to the spirit of the Lord and in a manner appropriate to God’s work, so that their established purpose may be reached. The beginnings of a foundation are always arduous and clumsy and time is always needed to achieve a well-regulated arrangement. What is done in the first year is always a provisional affair: the slow passage of time, as with a mustard seed, gradually develops God’s work. During this provisional stage, after some reflection, I authorised three things: 1. Since everything is expensive in Egypt, and especially manual labour, I and my companions in the due and proper way acted as builders, blacksmiths, carpenters and painters, etc. even in the female house, to reorder it and save it from degradation. 2. Since a doctor’s visit in Old Cairo costs 8 scudi and Fr Zanoni, the Camillian, had a good knowledge of medicine which he had studied and practised for 15 years in the great hospitals, etc., I allowed him to practise medicine in the female Institute, but only as regards the prescription of a few remedies and never in tasks inappropriate to the dignity of a priest and religious; because, for such things, an able doctor from the Turkish hospital always came. I informed the Delegate of this. Zanoni was consulted several times by friars, Coptic priests and Poor Clares, and he was of service to many poor Turks: his name is blessed in all this. 3. I entrusted the immediate inspection of the female Institute to Fr Zanoni because he had a white beard and was 49, had previously directed nuns, had honourably served in the Venetian Crocifera Province, had been the Prefect of the Camillian House of Mantua and generally had a good reputation in Venetia. A man of prudence in my situation would have done the same.
[1703]
Having established appropriate rules from the beginning and set up the strictest vigilance, I supervised everything, including Fr Zanoni (because, O Eminence, I no longer trust anyone, not even my father, having been cheated even by Archbishops and friars), and things proceeded very well. The two small Institutes enjoyed and still enjoy a great reputation as regards morality, and have an excellent reputation among the Christians and the Turks and have been visited by laymen, priests, friars, nuns and Bishops and no one has ever made the slightest comment. It is certain that I would never have been content until I had found two houses half a mile from each other.
[1704]
In March we were struck by an onslaught of illnesses and especially by smallpox, which raged until July. All the Sisters were sick as well as nearly all the African girls, two African boys, Fr Franceschini and myself. The Mother Superior was in bed for three months and convalescing for one, three African girls and one boy died. As is natural in such disarray rules are observed up to a point, and I was very busy seeing to everything.
[1705]
It was during this calamitous period that Fr Giovanni Battista Zanoni (who was always in excellent health) abused of his delicate position, and choosing the moment that I was away in Cairo for financial matters, one at a time and on different occasions, he made several African girls strip naked on the pretext of treating them and saving them from death. When these girls refused or ran away, he stopped them and, holding the crucifix (incredible!) he begged them in the name of God for the love of the Crucifix and for their health, to let themselves be examined. Indeed, he managed to examine them in parts that it is not proper to name. In addition he had a special fondness for Maria Zarea, one of the African girls who wanted to be a nun, which changed into hatred when she realised and did not want to see him any more. Despite his 49 years, and his cunning, despite the exceptional conditions the Institute was in, Zanoni was unable to escape my vigilance. With the greatest care I proceeded to the most scrupulous enquiries, as well as putting on his guard Fr Carcereri, a religious of great conscience and enlightenment: and I discovered the absolute truth of the matter. Only God knows what a burden this cross has been to me. When I called Zanoni to redde rationem he had the courage to deny everything with reasons so childish that they would have convinced me of the truth, if I had not known it already. Fr Carcereri himself found the same thing.
[1706]
After this, I took the Bahhry house and, having occupied it in the above-mentioned way, I established rules that made any improprieties impossible. As soon as Zanoni fully realised his position, his lost reputation, the impossibility for him to remain in my Institute, being also greatly irritated at seeing his two Camillians opt for the truth by approving my actions and highly disapproving his behaviour, to save himself, he thought up the insane plan of discrediting the Institutes, dealing a mortal blow to them, me, Franceschini and Carcereri. It is for the latter especially that he harbours a deadly hatred, although he was treated by Carcereri as more than a brother.
[1707]
I do not know what steps Zanoni actually took. It seems tome that he tried to insinuate his ideas to the Delegate, to some Franciscan Fathers and to the Father who directs the Sisters of St Joseph at the Hospital, with whom I do not get on very well. I think he wrote in his way to Fr Guardi, and perhaps to Your Eminence. I think he wrote to many people in Verona and led them to believe that he is returning because of lack of funds.
[1708]
Whatever he did, I have put all my trust in God: Jesus is the only friend of those who are afflicted. If the other younger missionaries had failed at some point, I would have doubts, and feared that I had failed to provide a proper separation: but an old man of 49!!! Ah! I think Zanoni did not reach this point all of a sudden. One reaches iniquity step by step. The fact is that Zanoni left Cairo having had false medical certificates made for himself and with a thousand swindles. He was the healthiest and strongest of us all. The female Institute is now progressing very well and has an excellent reputation among Christians and Turks, and it is pursuing its mission of bringing infidel souls out of darkness. Already on the feast of the Assumption three African girls were baptised, as I had hinted to Your Eminence last June.
[1709]
I will write to you again on the Zanoni affair. The past is always a lesson for the future. The Delegate will have informed the Sacred Congregation about what happened. Your Eminence will see that in this new storm the enemy of human health has again sought to do me harm, and you will understand that the tempests bearing down upon me are so many that it will be a miracle if I can endure the burden of so many crosses. But I feel so full of strength and courage and trust in God and the Blessed Virgin Mary that I am sure that I will overcome everything and will prepare myself for other greater crosses in the future.
[1710]
I already see and understand that the Cross is such a friend to me that I have for some time chosen it as my eternal and inseparable Bride. So the Cross will be my beloved bride and my wise and prudent teacher, Mary will be my dearest mother and Jesus my all. In their company, Most Eminent Prince, I fear neither the storms of Rome, nor the tempests of Egypt, nor the turmoil of Verona, nor the clouds of Lyons and Paris. Slowly and surely, walking on thorny ground, I will succeed in establishing and giving life to the proposed Work for the regeneration of Africa, which has been abandoned by everybody, and which is the hardest and most challenging work of the Catholic apostolate. Though unworthy of being heard, I commend myself to Your Most Reverend Eminence. May you be my master, physician, teacher and father. I have no other concern than that of soundly establishing the little Seminary in Verona and the two small Institutes in Cairo. Fr Alessandro del Bosco is a pearl for the Verona Seminary. He tells me that Fr Rolleri is a good missionary: little by little we shall do everything. I see now in practice that what Your Eminence had the kindness to tell me and write to me is in fact coming true: “with time”, as you said, “slowly, with prudence and prayer”. I would add the Cross; but I seem to hear Your Eminence reply: “the cross which comes from God, not the one due to one’s own foolishness”. Finally I offer you my deepest veneration and gratitude, as I ask you to forgive me for everything. I kiss the Sacred purple and remain

Your Most Reverend Eminence’s
most humble, obedient and respectful son

Fr Daniel Comboni

I send this letter through the Apostolic Nuncio because it touches on
delicate matters.

[1711]
An extraordinary circumstance has prevented me from writing until now. I am glad to know that you are going to Orleans, for that is the strongest reason for me to go there, but I have been so busy assisting the venerable Countess Havelt right up to today that I have not been able to decide on my trip to Orleans. Now that the Lady is in heaven, I think I might. Write to me at once in Paris to tell me the day you will be reaching Orleans and where you will be staying, because I will certainly come. I need you, your direction, for so far, since my return from Germany, I have not earned a penny and I can spend nothing. Goodbye. All my affection to the whole family.
Your most affectionate friend

Comboni
[1712]
Fr Zanoni’s war is horrible. He has written to Rome, etc., etc. But the Good God will reach him. With the blackest lies the only thing that triumphs is injustice. He has tried to ruin me in Rome and Verona and then with the Apostolic Delegate. All this because I performed an act of justice by doing my duty and declaring that he had done a bad thing and acted wrongly. But, dear friend, Comboni fears nothing, neither tempests in Rome, nor storms in Egypt, nor clouds in Verona: with me I have Jesus and Mary and that is enough for me. What I have suffered and what I still have to suffer are not enough to weaken my heart: the Work for the conversion and the regeneration of Africans will be founded, despite all hell’s obstacles, for the horns of Jesus Christ are harder than the devil’s. Courage, and God will be with us.
Goodbye my friend.

Your most devoted Fr Daniel Comboni


ranslated from the French.

[1713]
Since I received in Paris a letter from His Eminence the Cardinal Prefect dealing with the answer the Cardinal gave to the Council of Lyons on the matter of the reported cohabitation of myself and my companions with the Sisters and the African girls, I thought of sending Your Most Reverend Excellency a copy of the answers I gave His Eminence on these important points. But now, since these are too long, I have judged that Your Excellency would prefer a short summary, as I await my next visit to submit everything to you and account for my actions.
[1714]
As regards the first point: His Eminence’s answer to Lyons. I fear he did not give much support to my cause because he confirmed the Council’s opinion, that the Association of the Good Shepherd was designed to support the establishment for Africans in Cairo, and allowed himself to declare that this work is not approved by Rome and carried with it only an indulgence of 40 days conferred by Mgr Canossa. To this error I replied that it would be enough for His Eminence to examine the Programme of the said Association and the List of Plenary Indulgences issued in his own hand by Pope Pius IX (copies of which I personally gave the Cardinal in October of 1867) to realise that the Association of the Good Shepherd has the sole purpose of maintaining the Verona Seminary and that it was awarded six Plenary Indulgences by His Holiness Pius IX. In any case, according to what I was told by one of the most active members of the Council of Lyons, the Most Reverend De Georges, Superior of the illustrious Carthusian Seminary, the Association for the Propagation of the Faith will always take into account Your Most Reverend Excellency’s venerated recommendation and will support my Institute as a diocesan Work in Egypt, because the Council knows full well that our most respectable Cardinal made a blunder.
[1715]
As regards the second point: our alleged cohabitation. I gave His Eminence an exact description both of the two houses forming part of the Maronite Convent and of the new Bahri house, to which we moved on June 18. I pointed out that in the Maronite house there was more separation between the missionaries and the Sisters than there is now or ever was in the respectable Seminary in Lyons, in which the Sisters, being in the same house with their own separate quarters, do the cooking, etc. for the African seminarians, and that there was more separation than in any female convent in Germany, where the confessor and chaplain live in the convent itself with only doors as separations. As regards the Bahhari house, there is more separation between the two vast floors of that building than there ever was in Rome at the Casa Castellaci, in which from 1852 to 1862 the Mother General and the Sisters lived on the first and second floors and Monsignor with his brother and nine children lived on the third. I pointed out to His Eminence that our present position was something provisional, because it has always been my intention in better times to take two houses at least half a mile from one another and that, my being at the beginning of such a foundation, this thing would be acceptable to all human prudence.
[1716]
I have realised that the person who started all this fuss must certainly have been poor Fr Zanoni who, seeing himself deprived of his reputation and knowing that it was absolutely impossible for him to remain in my Institute (for what he had done, and which Fr Stanislao Carcereri must have told you, and about which I am extremely sorry), tried to justify his departure by dealing a blow to my Institute, to me and the other two by discrediting us in Rome as well as in Verona and wherever he could. He did this after my departure. Due to his writing to the Father General of the Stigmatines, Fr Guardi, a close friend of our Cardinal’s, and because he wrote in his own way and with great malice, I had to suffer greatly at the hands of His Eminence who with every good reason did not support me with the Council in Lyons.
[1717]
I have one sin I must reproach myself for. That is not having opened my heart to Your Excellency right away and having led you astray about Fr Zanoni. Your Excellency would have immediately found a remedy, and all would have gone well. But partly because Fr Zanoni’s departure would have prevented my own, which was necessary in any case, and partly because talking about the matter which would have sent Zanoni away was so difficult for me in my oppression, I could not resolve to do so. I hope that in your more than paternal heart Your Excellency will be kind enough to forgive me, because from now on I will not let myself be halted by any difficulty and in me you will find a son. Anyway, I am impatient to return to Egypt. Here in Paris things are slow because everyone is in the country. In any case I hope to leave Europe in the early days of next month.
[1718]
If the Lord helps me, I am confident that I will receive a subsidy from the Holy Childhood, a small one from Mgr Soubiranne, and from the ministry of funds for the orient and something from the Institut d’Afrique of which I am honorary President since last year. The Duchess of Provence sends you her regards, and Baron Havelt, whose guest I am, as grand patron of the Missions offers you his respects.
I kiss your sacred ring and, commending myself to you who have been more than fatherly to me, I remain

Your Excellency’s humble and devoted son

Fr Daniel Comboni

[1719]
I have been in Paris for some days now and will not leave without seeing you. I was hoping you would come to Paris in October, but I am told you will be staying in Quimper throughout November. Well, I shall come to see you in that month. I will be happy to see you and today I am trying to see Madame Maria. I always think of you, of dear Auguste and of all your dear family.
[1720]
I was lately ministering to the Baroness Havelt and was there when she breathed her last. I was there many nights, gave her the Papal Blessing, and Absolution eighteen times; she has gone to heaven. I am happy to listen to Désiré giving me good news of my dear Auguste. A unique and incomparable mother such as you has to be heard by the Good God. Your maternal devotion and love reaches the Good God more powerfully than any prayer. However we shall always pray. Please give my compliments to M. Auguste and to my dear boy, Urbansky, of whom Désiré gives me good news. Goodbye, my venerated Madame; I am impatient to spend a day with you and my dear Auguste. With these sentiments, I have the honour to remain in
the Sacred Heart of Jesus,

Your most affectionate Fr D. Comboni


Translated from the French.