Writings

[2315]
Since I fully understand your heart and your holy intentions, without further ado I write to ask you a question which requires an answer as soon as possible. Would it be possible for you to put together two or three of your young priests with four or five of your most skilled craftsmen and catechists and place them at my disposal so that I may take them with me to my male Institute in Cairo, Egypt, where there is a most comfortable house and a church already prepared? They would be part of my Institute, under my jurisdiction and I would take care of everything as regards the journey, food, clothing, language tuition and all that. But at the same time I would give them proper autonomy, so that eventually, with the help and assistance of others from your Institute in Turin, my Institute in Cairo could bring them gradually to the point of directing a special mission in Central Africa, to be entrusted exclusively to the Bosco Institute in Turin.
[2316]
You understand? I would like to help your Institute, with a part of the means God has granted me, gradually to take root in Central Africa. But since it would immediately encounter obstacles from the vast Order which has jurisdiction over Egypt, it is necessary to make it appear at once as part of my own, which already has a foothold in Egypt and to which a large mission in Central Africa will soon be entrusted.
[2317]
If, by next September, you could make available these two or three priests, the more the better, and the respective lay brothers, write to me at once, for with the Bishop of Verona (who is a real angel to Africa) we will make and finalise the necessary arrangements here in Rome. We can see to everything: you just need to prepare the candidates I have indicated and I will come and fetch them from Turin to take them to Egypt, only a few paces away from where the Holy Family lived during their seven-year exile in the land of the Pharaohs. I await your answer, which if as I hope is in the affirmative, with the permission of the Bishop of Verona, etc. will enable us to do the necessary paper-work and, in God’s name, to start the project I have conceived. My three Institutes in Egypt are going very well: there are 55 members: very many souls have been wrenched from paganism and brought into Christ’s flock. In the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, I remain most affectionately,

Your most humble and devoted friend

Fr Daniel Comboni

I hope you have received my Postulatum to the Council Pro Nigris Africae Centralis.

[2318]
I particularly treasured your very kind note, and I would give you a satisfactory answer telling you about my small Works were I not so very busy and had I the time. But since I am counting on coming to Lonigo next month or at the latest in September, I shall wait to tell you everything personally. You will see that however accustomed I may be to speaking foreign languages, I shall have a tongue long enough to blurt out my news to you in good Veronese dialect! I will only tell you that I have three Institutes in Cairo, one male and two female, that every week they win for Christ souls lying in the shadow of death and that during the coming year I shall be founding two more houses 1,400miles from Cairo, in the direction of the centre of Africa; that every day I see the sun, 125 francs are indispensable to me and I absolutely have to shell them out, without calculating additional expenses, journeys, etc; that the small Hospital I founded in Old Cairo for sick Africans sends many souls to heaven who would otherwise be bound for hell, that I have had to struggle against formidable obstacles, and thanks be to God the boat is going full steam ahead. As I told everyone in Rome and elsewhere, I do not even want to hear of difficulties or impossibilities. I have been taken for mad and will be taken for mad in the future. All such things are like water off a duck’s back to me; I want to forge ahead with my work, I want to establish the faith firmly in Central Africa, come what may. So pray and have prayers said for this intention, and God will reward you.
[2319]
I am very glad to have had such good news of your family. My goodness! If we go on at this rate la petite will become the mother of a tribe. Give her as well as my dear Doctor and la petite’s husband many greetings. How the news of your family cheered me; but I was equally saddened to hear the news du cancer of your Mother. It is a good thing the doctor did not take it into his head to use all his skill to take it out. I have seen cures of this disease. In my weakness I will pray to the Lord and before leaving Rome, I shall ask the Pope for another special Blessing for your mother. Today the solemn definition of Infallibility is taking place. At 8 o’clock I shall also be in the Vatican as a conciliar theologian of the Bishop. What a spectacle it will be!
[2320]
Tell Fr Luciano that I have no time to write to him but that I am thinking of him and love him very much. I am very poor; but I am sending a tiny souvenir, that is, a little medal of the Vatican Council blessed by Pius IX for you, a notre chère petite, for the two newly-weds of the Rosa family, for Gigia from Legnago and Agata Bronzini, to whom please give many greetings, as well as a small crucifix for your mother and a medal of the Council for Fr Luciano. Furthermore, little Friar Melotto gave me two Crucifixes which I had blessed by His Holiness for your Father, and to these I add another myself for the same old Melotto, because the friar told me that neither of the two was for him. Give my regards to all my acquaintances in Lonigo who are frequent visitors to the Rosa home and yours, have prayers said for the Conversion of the Africans and for me. I have sent my Italian Postulatum to Lonigo; read it and pray, especially for your most affectionate poor African

Fr Daniel Comboni


(2 p.m.) Today I took part in the 4th session of the Vatican Council as a theologian. All, except for two Bishops, an American aged 37 and a Neapolitan aged 53, said yes. 102 were not there, some were ill and some were absent to avoid saying yes. It was a sight worth seeing!

[2321]
I send you the photograph of two of my Sisters in Egypt. Sr Maddalena, an Armenian, has just written tome for my name day, and begs me to bring her the life of St Aloysius Gonzaga and a relic of St Agnes and adds: “Papà, if you bring me these two things, I promise you that I will do all I can to be holy, with Maman’s help”. When she is 25 she will be a great missionary. I would send you the portrait of my Superior, but have no more.

[2322]
Your letter of the 8th of this month reached me during the period of the Holy Exercises, and I read it on 18th as soon as they were over. I am infinitely grateful to you and to your most devout sister Elisa for your sentiments full of charity and a divine spirit, as much in my regard as for anything to do with the salvation of souls, the goal on which all our desires are focused. I confess ingenuously to you that it gave me supreme pleasure to visit you in Brescia. From what I heard in Brescia, and from what I read of the function and explanations of the Rule of St Angela, I have formed a sublime idea of the eminently Catholic and pious Work to which you are consecrated, and which will certainly spread the holy zeal of this famous fellow citizen of ours, the honour of our homeland, even in the torrid regions of Central Africa, where superstition and error still prevail and Satan holds sway.
[2323]
It is necessary that we make a sacred prayer league and that the most Sacred Heart of Jesus be the centre of communication between us, between Brescia and Africa. We will pray ceaselessly in our community in the Institutes of Africa for you all; and may the generous daughters of St Angela Merici led by the two sisters raise fervent prayers to the Most High for the conversion of the Africans. This union of prayer will be a very strong action with which to besiege the empire of darkness that oppresses the unhappy descendants of Ham, and St Angela’s homeland will radiate that beneficial light which will shine on the tribes of Africa who are wandering in darkness, and conquer them for Christ. Today I received a most consoling letter from Cairo. This week too, many souls were won for God, including that of a 25-year old African girl, who died an hour after receiving Baptism.
[2324]
In order for our prayers to be effective, let us seek the treasure of the Cross. God’s wisdom has never been revealed in greater splendour than when he created the Cross.
[2325]
The Son of God could not show us his infinite wisdom more clearly than in making the Cross. The great Works of God are only born at the foot of Calvary. I would be very indebted to you if you would pray to the Heart of Jesus that he send me an abundance of crosses: it will be a sign that they will be followed by a great number of souls gained for the faith.
[2326]
I will also pray to Jesus to send you many little crosses. In heaven we will have profound knowledge of the philosophy of the Cross. So to arms: we will travel the way of charity and the Cross with giant strides, and we will only stop in heaven. I would like you to send me your news frequently. I shall do likewise. I hope I shall be in Brescia before long. In the meantime, let us pray for our Holy Father Pius IX. This is the hour of the power of darkness. After the darkness will come the light, and the Church’s triumph will begin.
[2327]
I send you the enclosed photographs. The first is Faustina Stampais. The 2nd is Sister Maria Bertholon of Lyons; the 3rd is Caterina Zenab, the daughter of an African king whom I clothed for the first time in the tribe of the Kish on the White River in Central Africa, took to Europe and then brought to Egypt. She is a great and most gifted missionary. I leave you both in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and remember this poor servant of the Africans and your devoted servant,

Fr Daniel Comboni, Missionary Apostolic

[2328]
I should have left everything to come and see you and have a long talk about the important matter under discussion between me and Fr Stanislao; but now today I have no more time until the end of the Holy Exercises. They both write to me from Cairo that they are well, especially Fr Franceschini, who is thoroughly recovered with the baths in Alexandria: Fr Bernardo Girelli also writes and sends many greetings.
[2329]
This is the business: Fr Stanislao wants me to give the Order of St Camillus the whole male Institute and the female Institute of the sisters as its subsidiary, and he wants my missionaries to be like lodgers in Cairo. On the other hand, I am disposed to give one of the houses of the Maronite Convent and half of the young men and make a Camillian house by destroying my own. If I do not definitively hand over the male Institute to the Camillians, both Beppe and Stanislao will immediately leave Egypt and come to Europe. He must be joking: but this is a fantasy of my dear Stanislao, whom I love and esteem better than myself. I offer one of the two male houses we have to 2 Camillians as long as they are two: I will only give them both houses when other Camillians come. Fr Stanislao wants me to negotiate as though I expected to see 15 Camillian fathers in Cairo. He is a visionary. Beppi wrote to me in the same tone. In brief, I send you the letter confidentially, which you must keep strictly secret; and I beg you to give it back to me tomorrow evening via Bertoli. I would like there to be not only one house but a great Camillian Mission in Africa, and I would provide for its keep. But I do not want to establish it by destroying myself and my Institute of secular missionaries. After the Retreat, I shall come and see you to hear your opinion and your advice, and be certain that I shall appreciate it greatly: but silence.

Your most affectionate co-son


Fr Daniel Comboni

[2330]
I include Fr Stanislao’s last two letters, so that you can form the complete opinion which the matter with that beloved son of St Camillus deserves. Your paternal judgement carries great weight with me. You have a mind and a heart and can advise me and Fr Stanislao. What I cannot take is that Fr Stanislao believes or wants to believe that in Rome I prevented the agreement which Fr Guardi was prepared to make. Fr Guardi and Tezza know and are thoroughly familiar with the matter. In brief, may you, whom I have always believed and always venerated, please ensure that Fr Stanislao remains on the mission to wait for better times, both for the Church and for the mission’s resources, because with his faults Stanislao combines sublime qualities. With all my heart

Your most affectionate

Fr Daniel Comboni

Keep Fr Stanislao’s two letters, which I will come and fetch when I visit you.

[2331]
Following your wise counsel and your wishes, I have managed to establish the College of the African Missions in Verona in agreement with Mgr Canossa. For this purpose I have taken a large house adjacent to the Episcopal Seminary, which will be totally paid for in under six months and which is most suited to its purpose for many reasons. Thanks to the help of the most wise Rector of the Episcopal Seminary, God has granted me an excellent ecclesiastic from Verona to head the above-mentioned College. And since I would like him to have a sound foundation inspired by the most distinguished Establishments of the Foreign Missions and in the spirit of Propaganda, to which, as its offspring, the Verona College must belong, it would therefore be an excellent thing if the new Rector were to spend a year or more within the walls of the Urbanian College of Propaganda Fide, where he would be imbued with the maxims and the most appropriate system of apostolic education in order to bring its treasures to the Verona Institute. At the same time, he would become thoroughly familiar with his future relationship with the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide, with the due contribution on our part, of course. It seems to me that Your Eminence’s magnanimous heart could grant this grace whenever you consider it appropriate. For the moment I have two excellent ecclesiastics with me, one of whom is 30 and a Canon, who for four years directed with the utmost success a parish of more than 20,000 souls, and has been won for Africa by God and by my Postulatum to the Council. Another three young Priests are eagerly requesting the same grace; but we have not yet received all the information about them.
[2332]
I cannot find words to express my sorrow to you at the enormous crime that has just been perpetrated against our adored most Holy Father and the Holy Apostolic See by the most ferocious enemies of the Papacy. I lay at Your Reverend Eminence’s feet the act of my deepest condolences, so that, if you see fit, you may deign to make a humble offering of it at the throne of His Holiness also on behalf of my small Institutes in Egypt. I hope that the One who holds in his hand the hearts of Kings and of all creatures, will liberate our Holy Father and the Eternal City as soon as possible from the hands of Christ’s enemies, and mark the Church’s great and long-awaited triumph. I would be happy were I granted by sacrificing my life to alleviate the sufferings of our holy Pontiff-King, and wipe away even one of his tears; and for this I offer myself to Your Eminence in mind and body, glad to be able to suffer and die for the Vicar of Jesus Christ.
The stirrings that are taking place among Catholics and the whole complex of many things is awakening in me the firmest hope that the time is near when after a cloud of fleeting tribulation, the Holy Father’s heart will be consoled, Providence will mark the end of the terrible struggle between the revolution and the Papacy, and the voice of the Eternal Father will resound with the words: feci iudicium meum et causam meam… et periit impius… Vicit Leo de tribu Juda. Accept the regards of Monsignor the Bishop of Verona, and please accept the expression of my perfect obedience, profound veneration and gratitude with which I sign, for ever

Your Most Reverend Excellency’s most humble, obedient and affectionate son


Fr Daniel Comboni

[2333]
I have just read in the papers that on 1st November next the postage stamps are being changed in France, so I am taking the liberty of sending you a large number of stamps in my possession, in case they could be useful for the correspondence of the Propagation of the Faith in these last few days of October. I let you know that in a few days five Missionaries will be leaving for my Institutes in Egypt. May God preserve this noble nation which created the admirable Work of the Propagation of the Faith.

[2334]
Mr President, please offer my deepest respects to your devout family, to M. Abbé des Georges, to M. Abbé Laverrière, to M. Maynis, and pray for the poor Africans and for your

Most devoted servant,

Fr Daniel

My departure is arranged for next Saturday.
The value of the stamps is 108 coins of 4 soldi.
I express my warmest wishes for the Work of my Missions, the work par excellence of the Propagation of the Faith and may God preserve it for a long time.



Translated from the French.

[2335]
At last I have been informed that Your Excellency is in the territory of your sublime apostolate. I hope that you have perfectly recovered your precious health, and that Egypt and Africa have regained their most venerable Father for many years to come. Although I am your unworthy son, I am extremely glad about it. I shall now give you a brief summary in a few lines of my news since you left Rome until today, submitting to Your Excellency in all things, and in all things professing faithful obedience to you. The Postulatum signed by hundreds of Prelates was generally accepted with great interest not only by the Bishops but also by Eminent Cardinals and His Holiness; and after obtaining the approval of the commission appointed to examine the proposals of the Fathers, it was signed by the Holy Father on the evening of 18th July, and by several Bishops who inserted a very brief outline of it in the Schema Constitutionis super Missionibus Apostolicis on page 19, line 3. It goes without saying that almost all the Bishops had the kindness to receive me, that I was pleased to recommend the Postulatum to them, and that they co-operated in providing several good candidates for Africa.
[2336]
In the long and frequent conversations I had with His Eminence the Cardinal Prefect, I was warmly recommended to give a good impetus to the College for African Missions in Verona. This recommendation was instantly repeated to Mgr Canossa by His Eminence and rightly so, because otherwise, in Africa, without the support of an Institute in Europe, all would be built on sand. Our wittiest of Cardinals made my ears ring with these expressions several times: “Either bring me a certificate that guarantees you will live for 35 years, or put the College in Verona on a firm footing: in either of these two cases I will give you a mission in Central Africa: otherwise, if you don’t set up the College properly for me and an accident occurs that carries you off to the other world, there’s the fear that your Work will perish with you”.
[2337]
Now since I have not found a Saint who assures me I will survive from one day to the next, it is necessary to establish the College properly. Although I am deeply convinced of the servus inutilis sum, since I am only good at making messes, I nonetheless find His Eminence’s principle quite sound. Therefore after returning to Verona on 12th August with Monsignor Bishop, we purchased a large House adjacent to the Seminary of Verona, which for a thousand reasons suits our purpose extremely well. And at this moment there are only 13,600 francs more needed to pay for it. With the help of the most esteemed Rector of the Seminary, we shall be able to find an excellent Priest from Verona to be Head of the College; he will take up his post next March, to devote himself totally to the education of the African candidates. In the meantime the Postulatum is bearing good fruit, as we are receiving requests from good priests in many dioceses who want to devote themselves to the Work, and up to now we have accepted four of them, who will join the College in March, the time when the House will be cleared of all its tenants. In this way I hope in a short time to get the College going. I would have liked to place our new Director of the College in Propaganda for a while: but His Eminence Cardinal Barnabò does not judge this expedient hic et nunc, as he wrote to me on the 11th of this month from Rome.
[2338]
“I am pleased that you have succeeded in founding the Work of the African Missions there, placing some young men under the direction of the good Priest you name. However, you yourself should see how in this time of troubles and mourning that it is impossible to think of having the learned Priest come to Rome as you suggest, and that it would be right to be content with what can be done there. Be consoled in the meantime in doing good, and put the cause of the African Missions for which you have been striving so long into God’s hands. Meanwhile I wish you etc… Barnabò”.
[2339]
Meanwhile, in the hope that the Institute in Old Cairo does not need me, Mgr Canossa is keeping me in Verona, to make some trips with a pecuniary objective. However, if in any case Your Excellency should see fit for me to go to Egypt, a hint from you is sufficient, since I know well that Your Excellency has at heart, and in wisdom understands and sees better than me, the manner and ways of being most useful to the Work to which I am dedicated. M. des Georges writes to me very worried about the future of the Propagation of the Faith, in view of France’s sad misfortunes. I am infinitely grateful to Your Excellency for the generous aid you have allocated to me this year.
[2340]
I now have to submit to Your Excellency a more than serious matter which has arisen between me and Fr Carcereri, and which is causing me deep anguish. Every day I ask the Lord 1. for crosses, which are necessary in order firmly to implant God’s works and make them fruitful; 2. for male and female staff imbued with the spirit of Jesus Christ; 3. for the financial and material means to maintain his Work. Divine bounty has been supremely loving, especially in granting me the first grace.
[2341]
Ever since those two Camillians armed with the Pontifical Rescript came to Egypt, they have expressed tome their wish that in time a Camillian House should be opened in Africa, to help with the missions of Africa and in the service of my work. Right from the start I have always wanted to respond to their desires, for the true good of poor Africans. But I always wanted this to happen when my Institute of secular missionaries was well established and discreetly provided for, and when I could have sufficient means available to found the Camillian House, of course after receiving the approval of Propaganda, the Vicar Apostolic of Egypt, the Bishop of Verona, and the General of the Camillians.
[2342]
If in due course it should happen that my Institute were granted a Mission in Africa, it would be my intention to assign one or more tribes to the Camillians who are part of my Institute in Egypt even if, should the number of Camillians have increased, they were to want a mission of their own, without depending on us. This has always been my argument, since I sincerely desire to contribute in this way to the good of those souls, but always, however, on condition that the superior authorities should sanction the project.
[2343]
During my stay in Rome, good Fr Carcereri continued to press me in writing to implore his general to consent to the foundation of a Camillian house in Cairo, and he ended by insisting that the Camillians should be given my male Institute in Old Cairo, and the direction of the female one, with my secular priests as lodgers with the Camillians and subject to the Camillian Rule and Superior. I clearly understood Fr Carcereri’s aim; and since this matter depended more on Your Excellency and on Propaganda than on me, I limited myself to asking Fr Guardi to bless the two Camillians of Egypt, and to allow them to remain in my Institute until I had the means available to open a Camillian house in aid of the Africans.
[2344]
Fr Guardi constantly repeated to me that it was impossible for him to supply me with any candidates, since he was very short of them. Further, Fr Artini, Fr Carcereri’s Provincial in Venetia, in response to several requests of mine, always answered that he had no candidates for Africa. I thus discovered that the only Camillians whom the Order would have available were Carcereri and Franceschini. How on earth could I expose myself to the plan of founding a house with two Camillians, one of whom, Fr Franceschini, was then consumptive, according to what Carcereri wrote to me? However, in order not to contradict the latter’s ever growing insistence and fearing otherwise to lose such a good person for Africa, I offered Fr General 3,000 francs a year for the two Camillians in Egypt, and one of the two small houses of the Maronites in Old Cairo with the church in common, pending Your Excellency’s agreement, although in my heart I was convinced that this step was still premature; and I asked Fr Guardi to write to his two sons in Cairo and encourage them with affectionate fatherly words.
[2345]
I do not know what the Father General wrote to Cairo. I only know that 20 days later Fr Carcereri sent me a virulent and threatening letter to Verona, bitterly reprimanding me for not having come to any agreement with Fr Guardi, for betraying his hopes and for having deceived him; and he threatened me that if by return of post I did not send him a Document in which I ceded my male Institute to the Camillians, he and Franceschini would leave Cairo immediately and return to Europe.
[2346]
Such a spirit which shows little humility and religious respect for his immediate Superior made a sad impression on my mind. I calmly accepted this cross and invited Fr Stanislao to send me the Christian names and surnames of the Camillian priests he would have available, and to put down in writing the substance and conditions of the proposed cession of my male Institute. I thereby wished to gain time and let the offers proposed to me mature before I submitted them to Your Excellency and the Bishop of Verona, should they have proved reasonable. Here is the copy ad Litteram of the Contract that Fr Stanislao had the courage to present tome under the threat that they would immediately leave Egypt if I did not give my formal assent to it. In fact, since I replied that it is impossible in this very troubled period for Europe and for the Propagation of the Faith to agree to his demands, he took leave of me in his letter of 21st September which was the last time he wrote to me, except for a couple of lines by the last steamer, full of discontent and with little good spirit. Here is the Contract.
[2347]
Outline of the Contract for the concession of the male Institute for Africans in Old Cairo to the Order of the CC. RR. Ministers of the Sick on the part of Fr Comboni.
The Very Reverend Fr D. Comboni as founder of the said Institute, on his behalf and that of his successors in the governance of the Central Mission which the Sacred College of Propaganda will entrust regarding the above-mentioned Institute, and the Most Reverend Fr Camillo Guardi as the current Vicar General of the Religious Order on his behalf and on that of his successors in the Generalate of the said Order, mutually agree to accept the following conditions, which constitute the above-mentioned Contract of Concession.

[2348]
1. The Order of Ministers of the Sick assumes a) full responsibility, b) the obligation to educate African boys according to the norms established by the Plan for the Regeneration of Africa, c) the free administration, d) and takes upon itself the aim of the male Institute for Africans in Cairo.
[2349]
2. It also assumes the spiritual and religious direction of the female Institute for African girls, with regard to the religious and moral aspect alone, and the religious services to the same, both as regards the celebration of the Holy Mysteries and as regards the sick and the deceased and such like.
[2350]
3. Fr D. Comboni reserves the right to make use of the two fathers Carcereri and Franceschini for the general good of the mission until the expiry of the five-year period established by the Papal Rescript of 5th July 1867.
[2351]
4. He also reserves the right freely to dispose of the African pupils at the Institute according to the specific and general needs of the Mission. However, the Order does not accept responsibility for their education except for those to whom it will give a certificate saying so; and this concerns studies as well as craft skills. This clause concerns those who are taken away from the Institute before having completed the necessary period to be established for education.
[2352]
5. Lastly, he reserves the right to be able to place secular pupils from his Seminary in the said Institute ad tempus, so as to acclimatise them and introduce them to the central Mission and to the study of languages. But during the time of their stay in the Cairo Institute, they will be totally subject to the general rules of the said Institute, will regard the Director as their own Superior, and will be requested to serve the Institute like the other Religious with whom they live in a community.
[2353]
6. The said Order engages not to give or to permit pupils any other goal than the general plan of the Work without the involvement and consent of the said Fr Comboni. It therefore reserves the right to accept and dispose of those whom it keeps at its own expense.
[2354]
7. Fr Comboni undertakes to provide for the Religious and pupils a suitable dwelling with its own church and chapel, and will ensure that these are where possible close to the capital and with a garden or arable land for the agricultural training of the pupils.
[2355]
8. He grants to the Religious and the pupils for their use and consumption the furniture, furnishings, linen, food and fuel which are currently in the Institute.
[2356]
9. Repairs or modifications to the house deemed necessary, will also be at the expense of Fr Comboni and his successors, since it must always remain the property of the Mission.
[2357]
10. The aforesaid Fr Comboni also undertakes to contribute from the donations he receives to the feeding, clothing and equipping of the number of 12 religious as required by canon laws, the sum of 6,000 francs (six thousand), half of which is to be anticipated in January, and the other half to be anticipated in July. The Religious Order is responsible for any number exceeding 12.
[2358]
11. The Society for Poor Africans in Cologne is guarantor for this sum for 10 years: and during this period Fr Comboni engages to realise the corresponding capital in property (what if, as His Eminence says, a mishap should carry off Fr Comboni to the other world?!!), while the Religious continue to receive only the income from the same, the amount of which is established by Article 1, while the mission retains the capital property – unless there are further agreements.
[2359]
12. He should also contribute 300 francs a year for the food, clothing and education of each pupil educated at the Institute, whether secular Missionaries, Africans, or the abandoned or infirm who are taken in. It is understood that guest Priests will also apply the Mass for the Institute according to the intentions of the Camillian Director. The said board and lodging is calculated every four months. Those who join or leave after commencement of the four month period, must pay the whole rate of same.
[2360]
13. These rates for board and lodging must be paid after every six months, that is, in equal amounts in January and July.
[2361]
14. With these contributions the Order is obliged to provide the Religious, pupils and guests with food, clothing, medicines, books and the necessary skills, linen, and all that is necessary for the Church and the house. It always retains its freedom to seek donations anywhere and to beg for them.
[2362]
15. Food for the pupils is specified as three meals a day with one dish in addition to soup at lunch, and wine and fruit are not obligatory. That of the missionaries will be the same as the Religious in all things.
[2363]
16. This contract will be binding and unbreakable for both parties from the day they both sign it. It should be formally approved beforehand, however, by the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide, by His Excellency Mgr. the V. G. Apostolic and the worthy society of Cologne, for what is respectively required of each in this Contract.
[2364]
17. Lastly, with regard to the contributions and to its implementation, the contract itself will definitively come into force on 1st January of next year, 1871.

Stanislao Carcereri

Cairo, 15 Sept. 1870.

[2365]
This is the Contract proposed to me by Fr Carcereri. As Your Excellency can well see, if hic et nunc in the sad circumstances in which France and Europe and Rome find themselves I were to present such a contract for his approval to the Eminent Cardinal Barnabò it would cause him to laugh loud and long, and he would send me to S. Servolo in Venice as a madman fit to be locked up. It is God’s special Providence if this year we succeed in properly maintaining the little houses in Cairo and the new College in Verona. I must obviously think first of consolidating my male Institute with good and true missionaries from the College in Verona. On the other hand, while the said College has a bright future, while many good and suitable priests are asking to join – and they will be even more numerous after the Council – while the poor Camillian Order is quite run down (Your Excellency can certainly find out from Fr Bernardino Girelli); since out of the 4 or 5 Provinces in which it consists, according to what Fr Carcereri says, only the Provinces of Venetia and Romagna count for something. Now Fr Artini, the Provincial of Venetia, assures me that he does not have a single one who wants to dedicate himself to Africa; and Fr Guardi has several times told me the same thing with regard to the Province of Romagna.
[2366]
As far as I know, only Fr Tezza in Rome, with his three or four Novices, would be able to come; but with all this it appears clear to me that given the current circumstances, in Europe, in Rome, in the Camillian Order, and in my Institute, it would be better to let things remain in statu quo, and go ahead like this for a few years, until things work themselves out and are settled, and we can see more clearly.
[2367]
Nor should Fr Stanislao say that the five years of his Rescript are over in 20 months. Both Fr Guardi and the Bishop of Verona are reasonable. In these 20 months before the term of the Rescript is over, it will be possible to consider whether the plan of establishing a Camillian House is feasible. Should it prove so, as I hope, the Rescript will be extended and things will be done with calm and deliberation. But that hic et nunc the male and female Institutes should be handed over to two Camillians and expose me to the danger of being abandoned by my secular priests and the source drying up, does not seem to me to be worthwhile or advantageous either for the work or for the interests of my Institute, nor does it seem to me a splendid affair for the Camillian Order. I would very much like and long to see a Camillian House founded to help the Africans; but I would not like to see my own house destroyed for this. I want to make my male Institute in Cairo and my secular priests prosper and at the same time to have Fr Stanislao on the Mission, for he combines some very fine qualities with certain faults, and I would also like to see one or more Camillian houses.
[2368]
I have explained my opinion and my viewpoints, but am ready to modify and alter them completely according to the wise and profound judgement of Your Excellency, the Head of my Work in Egypt and the Father of my poor Institutes. I could never do anything against my opinion and conscience except if it were to seem otherwise to my Superiors, and especially to Your Most Reverend Excellency who sees to the heart of things and is able to predict the consequences. What I have very much at heart is to keep Fr Stanislao on the Mission. He has his faults; and one needs to be supremely prudent and cautious in opposing him in some things, given how easily he flares up; also he often loses his respect for his Superiors, letting them know his will, as he is now doing with Monsignor the Bishop of Verona; although the latter is Apostolic Visitor of his Order in Venetia and his Superior by virtue of the Papal Rescript and by virtue of other instances, he nevertheless had the courage to write along these lines a fortnight ago: “If Your Excellency does not promise me that as soon as possible the Institute for Africans will be ceded to the Camillians, and if my General, Guardi, does not write me that Your Excellency has made this promise, I shall immediately return to Europe with Franceschini”.
[2369]
This is the gist of the long letter to the Bishop, who is rather upset about it. Fr Carcereri has faults, I said, produced, I think more by the pericarditis or physical illness from which he is suffering. But he has such fine qualities, virtue, constancy, positiveness and self-denial that it would be a great sorrow to me to lose him for Africa. Therefore I address myself with warm recommendation to the heart of Your Excellency who is the father of both, and I beg you as forcefully as I am able, to keep Fr Stanislao for me, and to see that if we are patient a little while longer God, admirable in his Providence, will grant both his and my wishes. Until a month ago no one knew of this rift between me and him except Franceschini and Rolleri. However since I had to tell Fr Pietro everything (not knowing where Your Excellency was), today Fr Pietro also knows everything. Indeed, Fr Pietro and Fr Rolleri find Carcereri’s demands are justifiable, but I am sure that when they hear my side of the argument, they will find my reasoning justifiable, as did the two new arrivals, Canon Fiore and Ravignani, as well as Pietro Bertoli, who was a Camillian for 10 years. I nevertheless put everything in the hands of the legitimate Superior inspired by God by virtue of his mission, that is, Your Most Reverend
Excellency.

[2370]
Finally I open my heart to you on another point, and that is my present stay in Europe. Both Fr Pietro and the Superior of the Institute and others assure me that the Institutes are going well in Old Cairo: private correspondence from members of the Institute let me know that everything goes well in my houses, when money is not lacking. On the other hand, it is necessary to get the College of the African Missions in Verona off to a good start, and provide it with means and members of good character. The Cardinal Prefect links the very special importance of my work to this College. He is right, because everything hinges on it. Since my co-operation is all the more necessary for the College of Verona than for Cairo which is reasonably well provided with members, I thought, also on the advice of Mgr Canossa, that I would stay on here. But the first to command my person is the first to have the right to direct my steps: it is Your Most Reverend Excellency, as primary Superior of my Institutes in Cairo, which only exist and have the power to exist by the will and by the nutum of Your Most Reverend Excellency.
[2371]
It is therefore up to you to decide if I stay or return to Egypt. For the reasons mentioned above I would like to stay until Easter, because during this period I shall go to Vienna and Prague for financial operations, organise the Work of the Good Shepherd in Venetia, and then get the College going. But if Your Excellency does not appreciate this reasoning (even though His Eminence warmly recommended the College of Verona to me) and finds it appropriate or wishes me to return to my post in Cairo for no other reason than that it is God’s will, I will come to Cairo and do your will, which is certainly that of God. The Bishop of Verona is not very well and full of troubles and problems, and offers Your Excellency his respects, and Old Cairo greets you warmly. Enough for now. A thousand apologies, and your blessing and my respects to Fr Elia, Giulio, Belga and as I kiss your right hand with affectionate filial respect, I declare myself


your Most Reverend Excellency’s most humble, obedient and unworthy son,


Fr Daniel Comboni.

[2372]
My many occupations have prevented me from making a trip to Brescia and Guzzago: but before I leave for Germany I hope that we will see each other in Brescia. On the 29th of last month I embarked four missionaries on the Saturno in Trieste bound for Egypt, and they arrived safely in Greater Cairo. Among them was an excellent Canon from the Archdiocese of Trani, 30 years old, who was formerly the parish priest of 32,000 souls and did marvels in two terrible epidemics of cholera, which took 150 victims a day in his vast parish of Corato. It is a conquest made this year during the papal Mass at St Peter’s in Rome. While the Holy Father was saying the Our Father, the said Canon who was standing between me and a few Eastern Bishops 10 steps from the Holy Father, offered himself to me for Africa; and at the same instant, the Archbishop of Trani offered him to the Bishop of Verona for Africa. It was the first time I met him or heard his name. When I see you, I will tell you the interesting anecdote about when we met for the first time at that papal Mass. Called by me to Verona on the day of the Rosary, he threw himself at my feet renouncing his state as a Canon saying, “I swear perpetual obedience to you from this moment until death; use me like a piece of wood”. He is a little saint who will save thousands of souls.
[2373]
I have never missed praying every day, also at Mass, for you, your sisters and your daughter. But I would like you always to pray for us and for Africa. We are united in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus on earth, to be united in heaven later for ever.
[2374]
Pray the divine Heart for these three intentions:
1. That he grants me a great quantity of Crosses and thorns so that I can hardly breath, because no work of God can be founded without Crosses. 2. That I be granted assistants clad in the spirit of Jesus Christ and enlivened by his charity, both male and female, for the work. 3. A great abundance of financial and material means, in order to maintain our works.

[2375]
It is necessary to stride ahead on the ways of God and holiness, and not to stop until we reach heaven. Give my greetings to my beloved Fr Marino Rodolfi, to whom I will be writing shortly. In the meantime, I send him instead of the letter, the enclosed photograph of my Canon which I had to have taken for his Mother, who earnestly begged me for it. Give my respects to your sister at St. Angela Merici, and believe me in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

Your most humble and devoted servant,

Fr Daniel Comboni, Apostolic Missionary

Please say a word for me to Fr Marino Confortola.