Writings

[2380]
It is truly right to praise the Lord, and our good bursar St Joseph, who really wants to save the Africans. Twenty thousand lire is no slap in the face. The charity of our friends in Prague is admirable. I wrote to Mgr Bragato that for the purchase of the Caobelli house we need 20,000 lire, and asked therefore whether Their Majesties might help us to pay for the house; but at the same time I wrote to Negrelli to push for 20,000 lire, while in my heart I was content with 3,000 florins. Instead the Child Jesus, who is good, granted us the whole amount. Praised be Jesus. You see clearly, Your Excellency, that God wants the Work for Africa.
[2381]
I am therefore of the opinion that Your Excellency should advise the most venerable Rector of the Seminary to take measures to move the tenants out and to do what he thinks best to pay as soon as he receives the money, since we will gain a lot by paying right away. The Most Venerable Rector is most able in these matters and I believe that on the 16,600 lire with which he took over the house we will have made considerable profit by paying right away. In the meantime, I will correspond with Negrelli to see if he will send the money directly to Verona, or whether I will have to go and fetch it in Prague. Should that be the case, it would be good if I could deposit it in Vienna with some correspondent of Commendatore Trezza, from whom Your Excellency could receive it without losing a cent.
[2382]
Every day I ask God for 1. Crosses, 2. Good personnel, 3. Money. And see how the good Jesus also prepares crosses for the good of the Work.
[2383]
Here is a big one: Fr Stanislao is now complaining because he says I betrayed him, and he is now forced to return to Europe. He wrote me a letter which pains my heart. I foresee that we will end up losing these two men, not because we want to lose them, but because they want it. Perhaps it will be best to work with our own tools; but this saddens me very much because they are two good men. But I reflect objectively on what Mgr Ciurcia (whom I had asked to pacify Fr Stanislao and convince him to stay) wrote to me 10 days ago: “Do not hope that I will take a single step, or waste a single word to influence someone to stay who, even if he has all the best qualities, lacks the main one: not knowing how to be submissive”.
[2384]
It seems Fr Stanislao has obtained from Mgr Ciurcia some letters to authorise the Canon to hear the confessions of the Nuns: he entrusted the administration of all this to Ravignani, and he lives as an outside guest in the College (so he tells me) prepared to be the cellarer as long as he is wanted. I consider that, until I get back to Cairo, it would be most prudent not to give any news to the members of the Institute who generally have a high opinion of the two Camillians, or to the Associations to whom I have spoken in glowing terms of these two.
[2385]
This said, it seems to me appropriate to arm ourselves with patience and take things calmly. Then, if nothing in the content of the letter Fr Stanislao writes to you prevents it, I would think it good for Your Excellency to write Fr Stanislao a most soothing paternal letter, urging him to trust in God, because you will be seeing the General about not recalling them to Europe, and rather to await the end of the frightening events in Europe to arrange everything.
[2386]
I need all the calm God always grants me in a storm to have the necessary patience. The General and the Provincial of the Camillians declare that they have not a single man for Africa; and Fr Carcereri claims that we should entrust to the Camillians (after all the past and present fuss) such an important Work on account of two men alone, and place ourselves, canons and priests, as lodgers of the Camillians. The basic element is lacking: humility. There is also a letter from Fr Stanislao to Fr Artini: for Your Excellency to decide how to write, it would be good for you to know the content of the enclosed letter from Fr Stanislao to Fr Artini and then interrogate the latter on this issue.
[2387]
Anyway, may you do whatever the spirit of God suggests to you is best, about which a Superior like Your Excellency is informed directly by God. At the root of all this is that cursed egoism of monks and friars which dominates nearly all religious Orders: “The Order, then Christ and the Church”. It is a hard but unavoidable truth, known already in the time of the Apostles and of which St Paul speaks… The great good that is done is no great thing, says the friar, if it does not come from the Order.
[2388]
First comes the Church, then the Order. The Orders are nothing but the hands of the Church.
[2389]
However, in the midst of my grief I am overjoyed that your paternal heart should be consoled by the blessing from Prague. There will be other greater consolations; but be prepared for other greater crosses, for they are necessary to make things as God wants them.
[2390]
I only reached Munich tonight. When I got to Bolzano, its Most Reverend Prelate having told me that there were 4 Majesties in Merano, I immediately went that way. However, after having walked from the city up the mountain to the Imperial Prince’s castle, I was with the King of Naples in a room that was so hot that I caught a cold when I came out. After half an hour’s walk I went to pay my respects (not fruitlessly) to Princess Hoenzollern Sigmaringen, the aunt of the notus of Judaea, and stayed with her an hour in an even warmer room. I had to remain in bed at the good Capuchins in Merano; then I stayed a few days with His Most Reverend Highness the Bishop of Bressanone at his magnificent palace in the company of Mgr Cosi, the Vicar Apostolic of Shantung: there, with good firewood and tonics I was perfectly cured. Yesterday morning I stopped at Innsbruck to see Countess Spaur (who accompanied Pius IX in 1848) and a cousin of mine.
[2391]
I say nothing for now of Catholic Germany’s sentiments as regards Rome: I want to sniff around a bit more. It is certainly not what we in Verona believe it. Fr Curci spoke a great truth perhaps.
[2392]
We trust in God and in Him alone do we rest.
I would like you to send me the letter of the Bishop of Passau and the record of the Masses celebrated by the Rector for Munich. I have not yet spoken to anyone here in Munich, except with my friend Mgr Oberkamp, to whom I explained half the Munich business. Give my regards to our incomparable and holy Rector of the Seminary, Fr Vincenzo; a thousand respects to Marchese Ottavio and a happy festive season and new year from


Your most humble son Fr Comboni

[2393]
I have waited in vain for the letter of the Bishop of Passau, on whom the shrine of Altötting depends. And yet it is necessary. I have not been able to conclude anything at all with the government of Bavaria. To begin with the Minister of the Interior and Religions was in Versailles, and did not arrive until the twelfth of this month. In the meantime I took lodgings with my friend Haneberg, Abbot of the Benedictines, Professor at the University and top Arabist in the world, who welcomed me like a father. I obtained precise information from the Nuncio, Mgr Meglia, Archbishop of Damascus and the Most Reverend Abbot Haneberg on the mood of the beas… with whom I would have to deal, and as an answer I was told seconda vix (a classification of our times).
[2394]
Nonetheless, when His Excellency the Minister Luts arrived, he received me kindly and promised to do everything he could to satisfy me and sent me with his recommendation to Baron Sussmayr, Councillor for Religions, who told me that it was impossible to grant Mass applications for abroad 1. Because it is expressly forbidden by the penal Code to give Mass offerings abroad and he showed me four very strict paragraphs decreed by King Maximilian. 2. Because the eighty thousand Masses from Altötting are not sufficient to help the poor churches of Bavaria. Nevertheless, realising that I had travelled all the way to Bavaria propter hoc, the Minister Councillor suggested that I urge Your Excellency to send a petition to the Bishop of Passau to ask him for one thousand florins in offerings for two thousand Masses, and the Bishop will then apply for support from the Head of the Government, His Excellency President Zwehl (the Councillor for Religions wrote the name himself in my note pad), and then he thinks that your request will be satisfied in the course of this year. I await the letter in Vienna.
[2395]
The Councillor himself and Abbot Haneberg sent me to another source in a Shrine in Munich which will be manna for the future. I introduced myself to the Director of the Herzog Spital, the Most Reverend Abbot Meixner who received me like a brother. He told me he had just sent his last Masses to Stockholm and Hamburg, but that he would prepare a good number for my return and that now and then he would send some to Your Excellency. The Bishop of Bressanone, Mgr Gasser, will also be preparing a fair number for my return. I now have at your disposal 1,000 Masses kindly offered to me by the Archbishop of Munich, for which I received 500 Bavarian florins this morning, which I hold at your disposal. Each mass comes to one silver franc 10 centimes. I have 10 sheets of 100 Masses each, as per the form enclosed herewith.
[2396]
Tomorrow I am going to Altötting, Monday to Salzburg, Wednesday to Passau, Thursday to Linz and Friday to Vienna. Although no one here in Germany expects an armed intervention by Prussia on behalf of the Pope, and neither does the Archbishop of Bressanone, nor the Nuncio, nor my friend the Munich correspondent of Unità Cattolica (and they are all certain that the Pope will in due course be liberated in an extraordinary way), all the same here is what the Archbishop of Munich told me: “I know for certain that the king of Prussia highly disapproves of the behaviour of the Italian government as regards Rome, he is very sorry, and has a great desire to do something for the Pope and to help him in accordance with his wishes; but he can do nothing for the time being: only when the war is over”.
[2397]
I have written to Cardinal Hohenlohe at Schillingfürst (Upper Franconia) begging him to intervene about the Altötting Masses: I went to Prince Hohenlohe his brother, that famous buffoon who wanted to persuade the Governments to interfere with the Council, I went to Princess Wittgenstein, his wife, who is the sister of Princess Campagnano, wife of Mario Chigi: but fine words, and no one lifted a finger. Fiat.
[2398]
I end this letter by telling you of the grief Fr Stanislao Carcereri’s letter caused me. It seems he is waiting for a definitive answer from Fr Guardi concerning his immediate return with Franceschini to Europe. That is what he tells me apertis verbis. But he cannot do this without a letter from Your Excellency, the immediate and direct Superior of the two Camillians. We have made plans based on five years, and without Your Excellency’s consent they cannot return. If they do return I will have an added reason to be convinced that certain friars are m…u…l…e…s, and that to avoid so much disappointment, we need to work with our own tools. Give my regards to Marchese Ottavio, the most Reverend Rector of the Seminary, Fr Vincenzo, and I kiss your hands

Your unworthy son Fr Daniel


In Passau I shall be dealing with the matter of Altötting with the Bishop; I will expect the letter in Vienna.

[2399]
The slighter the business I am doing for the mission, the more I hope to be able arrange for Masses.

The wounded, the prisoners, the widows, the orphans, Peter’s Pence and the total blockage of trade have all led to there not being any donors. I have felt the pulse of all the Crown Princes and Princesses of Bavaria, as well as the King’s, and barely earned 200 florins. I hope to have arranged by dint of preaching and insisting with the Ludwig-Verein Association to have 1,000 florins a year for Africa, on the condition that they receive an annual report on the progress of the Mission. So far these are words and sweeping promises from those who control the Association, but up to the present I have only 300 florins to show for it. I have sent everything to Cairo, because they are pestering me to death with pressing letters. However, I do not understand how in such poverty the fact could have occurred which Fr Stanislao informs me of in these terms: “Yesterday (19 January) the wine we had bought and paid for the whole year arrived from Greece. There were 1,584 ocks (more than 2,500 litres) and it cost 746 francs. God willed that we should lose a third of it or more at the front door. Spectantibus omnibus the bottom burst off one of the great barrels and flew quite a distance.
[2400]
May God’s will alone be done”. Here in Vienna Bishop Cosi, Vicar Apostolic of Shantung has knocked at the doors of all the Archdukes and has not even received a penny. Mgr Simor, the Primate of Hungary gave him 300 florins. I shall go and feel the pulse of that Monsignor: with the Archdukes I hope to do better than he did. As for Masses, the only resources are the Shrines, where there are few pilgrims at the moment because ten feet of snow are preventing their devotions. But I have made excellent arrangements with all the Shrines I have visited. I have precise notes of all the Abbots and heads of Shrines, for better times to come, etc. One will be sending 2,000 a year. In fact Your Excellency will be happy when I get back. But so far I only have (apart from the 1,000 from Munich) 500 more, that is 220 Austrian florins in bank notes of 44 soldi each from the Shrine of Maria Plain given to me by Abbot Albert V of St Peter’s in Salzburg: he will also be giving every year. I have everything planned in my mind, how I shall lure these Monsignors with honeyed letters. But I will tell you all in Verona.
[2401]
My discretion obliged me to show and insist on handing over the episcopal letters for Masses. Since I am also collecting for the mission, it is right that I should offer all the documentation for the Masses, lest it might be thought that I am using Mass offerings for the mission. So I only have two letters left. Please do me the favour, therefore, of having another 15 letters signed by the Rector of the Seminary; but not such long ones, because they do not read them; shorter ones. Please do this right away and send them to me in Vienna addressed to the Apostolic Nuncio.
[2402]
As I read your letter telling me that the two in Cairo were peaceful, I came back to life. I wept with consolation and thanked the Child Jesus (whose miraculous little statuette I carry with me, which is over 200 years old, was given to me by my nuns in Salzburg and has ornaments worth more than 60 florins, and will be the King of Africa). But an hour later I read the letters from Cairo, and returned to my grief, for the most part. Fr Guardi has written to Fr Stanislao that should there no longer be any hope of an agreement along the lines declared a thousand times, he would find no difficulty whatsoever in the fact that both should return immediately to Italy. So Fr Stanislao has decided to leave, but not before Easter.
[2403]
Perhaps Your Most Reverend Excellency’s letters might change things; but when a friar is a mule, I have little hope. Forgive me, but I must be open with my Father. There is no doubt that I might feel proud. God has made me bow and makes me bow to so many humiliations, mortifications and rejections that I can no longer have the temptation of pride. God is right, because otherwise the ass would raise its head, and…
Bless

Your most humble and unworthy son

Fr Daniel


Many greetings from the Archbishop of Salzburg, with whom I spent a long
time.

[2404]
Although the news from Fr Carcereri concerning the cousin of Fr Falezza may be exaggerated, although our Mother Superior in Cairo, who spent 13 years as the Superior of the girls’ School in Malta which became a refuge for wayward women, etc., etc. is vigorous and strong enough to hold down a madwoman, if that is what Fr Falezza’s cousin is, in any case to remove the disorder, if there really is one, or pro bono pacis with Fr Stanislao, if the disorder is exaggerated, at 2 in the afternoon of the 6th of this month I sent the following telegram to Cairo (which cost 19 florins and 10 kreutzer) to Fr Stanislao. “If you believe it necessary after consulting Fr Pietro Compagni immediately remove from the Institutes cousin Fr Michele with prudence”
[2405]
The letters I wrote Fr Michele from the Seminary (and he can show them to Your Excellency) state well enough how on the two occasions I saw this woman with him, I never noted in her a perfect conversion. However, since we are in the world to convert even the devil, if it were possible, considering that this woman was sent to me in the House of the sacred Heart of Mary, where there is a Mother Superior with the moustache of a German captain and who is strong when duty requires it, it did not seem to me a bad thing to try to do this soul some good. I do not see how the bad this woman does could compromise our Institute.
[2406]
I wrote to Fr Stanislao and the Mother Superior some time ago that she should be under supervision and not allowed out for many months, but allowed to walk on the terrace or in the garden: that if she absolutely wanted to go out, she should be dismissed. I do not understand what need there was to alarm the Vicar Apostolic and perhaps the friars, because the Institute has given refuge to a sinner, under the supervision of several Sisters. Poor world, if such things have to frighten us. Our Fr Stanislao has some fine qualities: but he is still young to the world and in some circumstances he is wet behind the ears. This is why I advised him with words and example always to consult his companions and Fr Pietro before deciding anything important. In any case I pray to Jesus about this matter, which I have entrusted to the King of Africa whom I have with me. The Apostolic Nuncio sends you his regards. I had lunch with him the day before yesterday and yesterday the poor man gave me 100 florins with the only obligation of praying for him a little.
Pray, Your Excellency, (my regards to Marchese Ottavio, Fr Vincenzo, Perbellini, the Vicar) for

Your most humble and unworthy son


Fr Daniel Comboni

[2407]
I implore you as ardently as I possibly can to send me the famous booklet by Fr Curci in which he says that the Holy See must not count on Prussia, and which has caused such a fuss in Italy. It is for His Highness the Duke of Modena who has a burning desire to read it and has asked me to let him have a copy. Since he is preparing a subsidy for me and he is normally an important benefactor, I would like to satisfy him. I hope you will send it at once to the Dominican House where I am staying. I will take special care to provide Your Excellency with another copy. Accept the greetings of the Duke of Modena, who is a good and great Catholic. In the princely regions of the Archdukes of Austria there is a great aversion to the Emperor of Germany and to Prussia, and a great sympathy towards France now deprived of Bonaparte and its own mistress. It is hoped that God, as he punished the French Empire, will soon give a great lesson to the proud despotic colossus that is Germany. In these same regions there reigns a great fear that the proud Prussian monarch may soon be coming to give Austria trouble.
[2408]
Enough for now, because I have no time. I received the 12 Mass requests: I impatiently await the booklet by Fr Curci, that Your Excellency will manage to send at all costs. As I ask for your blessing, I remain

Your most devoted son


Fr Daniel Comboni, Apostolic Missionary


An Italian has donated to our Institutes in Cairo a piece of land 10 minutes away from Cairo and worth 6,000 francs. So I learn from yesterday’s letters. I do not know any details yet.

[2409]
As a frail veteran of the arduous Mission in Central Africa and ready to sacrifice my life a thousand times for the one hundred million and more Africans who in those scorched regions are still sleeping in the darkness of paganism, at the request of the Holy See, I drafted the Plan for the Regeneration of Africa, which aims to plant solidly the faith and civilisation among these vast tribes, in accordance with the magnanimous understanding Your Majestic Highness showed in promoting this sublime Mission and covering it with your providential sovereign protection. On the basis of this Plan, with the authorisation of the Holy See, I founded three Institutes for Africans in Egypt referred to in the attached Programm der Regeneration des Negerlandes, with the purpose of educating African boys and girls in the faith, morals, the sciences and the arts so that when their education is complete, they may return to their native lands to be apostles of religion and civilisation to their fellow countrymen, under the guidance of European missionaries already acclimatised in Egypt.
[2410]
The salvation and civilisation of Africa, which includes one tenth of the whole human race, could depend on this providential Institution. In order to house the priests, the nuns, the catechists, the craftsmen, the African teachers and the African pupils of both sexes in all three successfully established Institutes, I must pay 2,400 florins a year in rent for three houses, not possessing any property of my own. Furthermore, in view of the difficult times we are living in, I have great difficulty in covering the maintenance of the Institutes. Prostrate, therefore, before the throne of Your Majestic and Imperial Highness, the August Lord and Master of Africa, I implore ardently and with tears in my eyes, a generous subsidy from Your Imperial Majesty’s magnanimous generosity for the construction of the Founding Establishment for Africans in Cairo, for which I already possess an ample site five minutes away from the Railway Station, construction materials and food for the Institutes.
[2411]
The Holy Work to which I am consecrated is arduous, grandiose and most important. But with God’s help and under the glorious flag of Austria, which will fly over the immensity of Africa, twice the size of Europe, we shall succeed in the enterprise. I and my valiant missionaries are not afraid of dangers, difficulties, suffering and toils; and we shall persevere in this humanitarian enterprise for religion and civilisation.
[2412]
I enclose the Postulatum pro Nigris Africae Centralis, which was presented by the Holy Father Pius IX at the Vatican Council. Trusting that my humble prayer will be heard, I prostrate myself before Your Majestic, Imperial and Royal Highness’s august feet.

Fr Daniel Comboni

Apostolic Missionary in Central Africa
Founder and Superior of the Institutes for Africans in Egypt

[2413]
I am still moved by the great meeting of the Arch-Confraternity of St Michael which took place yesterday in the great Hall of Sophienbad (as large as the church of St Nicholas with 28 galleries). After having lunched at the Apostolic Nuncio’s we entered the great Hall filled with the cream of the Viennese nobility, where Princes, Dukes, Marquises and Princesses were united in a single thought, the love of the Pope. Few Bishops and priests speak with as much skill and fervour on the Cause of the Church and the Pope as did these speakers. In a word they openly declared that Austria must rush to free the Pope, that Austria was once great because it was Catholic, and now it is in danger because it has forgotten its traditions, and that it is necessary for the Emperor, who is so loved by the Pope, to respond with the same love. The President spoke like an angel. Other speakers included Prince Fürstenberg, the brother of the Archbishop of Omütz, Prince Altgrave of Salm Clary, Czerny, Dr Graff from Innsbruck and Count Brandis of the Catholic Association of Upper Austria. The meeting, which lasted 4 hours, was concluded with the Papal Blessing given by His Excellency the Apostolic Nuncio. In Vienna there are eminent Catholics.
[2414]
The Cardinal of Vienna gave me a fine offering. I received another letter confirming what I told you of America. The letters from Cairo are better. It seems that Mother Caterina Valerio will get herself expelled from the Institute: Fr Stanislao tells me she is a real pain: among other things she had set up and pushed Domenico, the farm labourer of Montorio, to leave the Institute and become a Franciscan. So says Fr Stanislao.
[2415]
A thousand respects from the 4 Counts Thum, Francesco, Costantino, Leone and Federico, who has been in bed for a month because he fell on the ice. The Duke of Modena was a bit skinny: he only gave me 300 florins. But God will provide. In addition to the gold Napoleons sent to Cairo, I sent another 25 through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
[2416]
Yesterday was a good day, because I was able to talk plainly to St Joseph. I understand that one needs to be a bit daring with this blessed Saint. The Canon, Count Coudenhove (who was born in Verona in 1819) advises me to go to America, where he was a missionary: he says that with the interesting facts about our mission, English and German, I can pick up about one hundred thousand thalers. (That’s a lot!!) In any case, we must first see how the men in Egypt are getting on and I must go there. In the meantime, pray, raise your arms and bless your most unworthy son

Fr Daniel Comboni


[2417]
I enclose a picture of Our Lady of Altötting with the miraculous veil, who grants graces. Greetings from Fr Carlo Tomezzoli, to whom I gave a copy of your letter for Masses. He will try to find some, but each year he will send 200 or 300 surplus Masses to the Italian Church. He said he would write to you directly about this.
[2418]
Staying with me at the Dominicans’ is Mgr Pelami who is to become the Superior of the Seminary for the Foreign Missions in Rome. He will be coming to Verona after Easter. He was in the Conclave when Pope Pius IX was elected. We have become such good friends: he is a man who is comme il faut. I would like it if during his few days in Verona you could give him a fine welcome and let him stay in the Seminary, or suchlike. He is an intimate friend of the Nuncio’s. All my respects to Marchese Ottavio, Fr Vincenzo, Mgr. V.G., Mgr Perbellini, etc.

Fr Daniel


If you want the money for the 1,500 Masses right away, just let me know.

There are

1. 52 gold Napoleons
2. 4 francs and 25 centimes
3. 220 florins in bank notes

When I leave Vienna I hope to find more.

[2419]
Yesterday, at last, I got to know about the progress of my petition which I handed personally to His Majesty, which he very kindly accepted. Since it contains a request for His Majesty to help me in the building of a Founding Institute in Cairo, His Majesty, indicating his favour, sent an order to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to hear the views of the Imperial Agent and Consul General in Egypt and see what funds would be needed for the construction; then the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was to present a Report to the Emperor giving him the total. His Excellency Councillor Gagern of the Ministry is working energetically in our favour, as is His Excellency Councillor Braun, Chief of the Private Imperial Cabinet. I seems, therefore, that everyone is well disposed towards us because I had recommendations from eminent personalities.
[2420]
But the final outcome will to a large extent depend on the Report from the Austrian Consul General in Egypt. Since he will be discussing the matter with His Excellency Mgr Ciurcia, the Apostolic Delegate, I have written to both these persons to commend myself to them and I have ordered Fr Stanislao to take good care of the matter, and to stress the importance of the land we have been given, etc. I would say that a warm recommendation from Your Most Reverend Excellency to Mgr Ciurcia could be most useful. I therefore ask you to send a good letter on the matter to Mgr Ciurcia, but no later than Saturday the 25th of this month, because it will thus still be in time for the Brindisi steamer so as to arrive appropriately on the following Saturday. The thing is that if we obtain a good subsidy of about ten or 15 thousand florins for the House in Cairo, that will be another piece to our Holy Work. If you write to Alexandria via Brindisi by midnight on Saturday, the letter will reach Brindisi on time.
[2421]
Commend our Institutes to Mgr Ciurcia. The fact is that when the Report of the Consul in Egypt reaches Vienna, I am told by those who defend my interests in the Foreign Ministry, His Majesty the Emperor, either himself, or through Beust, will provide me with a warm recommendation to the Viceroy of Egypt: thus we will also make the Khedive (whom Unità Cattolica calls bad) do plenty for our Institutes: and the Bad Man does not play around, but he is more generous than any European Sovereign.
[2422]
I was able to meet Beust: he read the Plan in German with interest and told me: Das ist sehr interessant. He spoke to me like a Catholic, though he does not believe in anything. Give my regards to the Rector of the Seminary. Since things are taking forever, I have thought it best to send you the 220 florins for 500Masses, given tome by The Most Reverend Prelate Mgr Alberto V Eder Abbot of the Benedictine Monastery at St Peter in Salzburg. Next week you will be able to write to him in Italian to thank him so much and asking him to send more in future.

I kiss your hands and please bless

Your poor and most unworthy son


Fr Dan. Comboni

[2423]
It’s either nothing or too much. I feel that to be fully understood I would have to write a very long letter: but fiat! you will have to understand me well.

Here at the Dominican House, which has granted me courteous and generous hospitality, there is a great and most learned Prelate who has asked me to help him in a certain matter. On the grounds of our friendship and for many other reasons I need not mention, it is essential that I succeed in this. At all costs the aims sought by this most worthy Monsignor must be achieved, whatever impression the idea itself may make.

[2424]
The man who seeks the successful outcome of this affair is a great Catholic of singular wisdom and piety who, in a thousand ways, has defended most especially the cause of the Pope and the Gospel maxims through the Catholic press, and has a thousand times shown himself to be a well deserving champion of the Church, of Catholicism and of the truth, especially in Austria. He is Monsignor Sebastian Brunner, Protonotary Apostolic of the Holy Roman Church, mitred Prelate and Domestic Prelate of His Holiness, Doctor of Theology, Doctor of Philosophy, Councillor of the Consistory of the Archdiocese of Agram, Dean of the Doctors of Philosophy at the University of Vienna, member of the faculty of theology in Salzburg, member of the Accademia Tiberina, of the Sapienza and of the Arcadia Accademia in Rome, etc., etc., etc. With all these titles, which according to the most learned men in Vienna, were well deserved, I believe Mgr Brunner desires something which is good, useful, dignified and worthy of support from men of good intentions, on the understanding, of course, that the aforesaid most respectable Monsignor will cover all expenses.
[2425]
The reasons for the request are given in Appendix A, that is, that there is a venerable Bishop of a great diocese, most learned, etc. to whom University Authorities should confer the degree of Doctor of theology ad honorem. The titles this most learned Bishop possesses are superabundant and there is no point in listing them. The question now is how to come forward and accomplish the necessary procedures in Padua to achieve this purpose. Not having anyone I fully trust in Padua at the moment to whom to entrust this affair, I turn to you, who are so close to Padua and have in Vicenza Monsignors and scholars who can help you. Should this arrangement be possible (and I think that the Paduan University should be highly honoured to confer on the great Bishop of a great diocese a title that it gives to simple priests), the said Mgr Brunner would immediately come to Venetia to produce, act, negotiate, etc. And since this is a most influential and high-level personality in Vienna, you will then be able to have a most learned and authoritative Monsignor as a friend for any event or service in the interest of the good of mankind. I will say nothing now of my affairs. I will only say that Palazzo Caobelli in Verona has now been purchased with gold Napoleons for the new College of the African Missions. All my respects to the Bishop, whom I have kept informed as he told me to. Greetings to everyone in the College, with all my affection,


Fr Daniel Comboni