Writings

[3575]
If I felt acute grief on receiving the sad news of the death of that Great Prince of the Holy Church who for so many years directed the Sacred Congregation with prodigious activity and wisdom and was a powerful shield to me and a most wise guide in laying the foundations of the holy Work for the Regeneration of Africa, I felt a great relief in the depths of my soul, an ineffable consolation, when the venerable letter with which Your Eminence deigned to honour me on 17th March last announced to me that the Holy Father had designated Your Eminence as the successor of the never sufficiently lamented Eminent Cardinal Barnabò.
[3576]
Merciful God, in his infinite love for the conversion of peoples, did not delay in compensating for this great loss. Already the most sublime merits, the lofty and ever more important offices carried out for more than twenty years on behalf of the Apostolic See, and the eminent gifts of prudence, wisdom and zeal that make your career as a Prelate luminous and brilliant, are an inevitable and clear indication of the great deeds and salutary undertakings reserved for Your Eminence to fulfil in your new career as cardinal and the Head of that most important Congregation which governs the destinies and most vital interests of the Church and of God, in four and a half parts of the whole world.
[3577]
For this reason, after freeing ourselves of our debt of prayers for the soul full of merits of the illustrious Cardinal, who left us orphans, by means of two Offices with solemn Mass in each Station in the Vicariate, as well as 5 Masses celebrated by each Priest, I made it known by a circular letter that public prayers should be said daily to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, preceded by the V e n i C r e a to r , so that God might guide the mind of our adored Holy Father Pius IX, as He always has, to give the Catholic Missions in the two worlds an able pilot, the best guide, who would be worthy of his lofty office; and here, on the Thursday of the Ascension of our Lord, having received Your Most Reverend Eminence’s above-mentioned letter, after solemn Mass with the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, we chanted the Ambrosian Hymn rejoicing and thanking God who tests and consoles, but who never abandons those who trust in him.
[3578]
At this point therefore, prostrate at you feet as your humble though unworthy son, I promise and swear to Your Eminence absolute submission and perfect obedience, declaring that I will obey your authority, orders, wishes and opinions as those of God and of the Holy Father, of whom Your Eminence is the worthy representative. May Your Eminence kindly deign to accept this act of submission and perfect obedience which springs from my heart; and since I am firmly resolved never to undertake anything important without consulting the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda, and since the Apostolate of Central Africa is extremely difficult, I implore your great charity to assist me, because after the Holy See entrusted me with this arduous and laborious Vicariate, my companions and I are unanimously prepared to spend our lives to save the hundred and more million souls it contains.
[3579]
Our war cry is and will always be until our last breath: Africa or death! Furthermore, in all the houses of the Vicariate prayers are constantly said, morning and evening, for the Most Eminent Cardinal Prefect, for Monsignor the Secretary, and for the whole of Propaganda, which is the source of every good for the Missions and especially for Central Africa, the newest and neediest of all.
[3580]
I hope that the excellent Fr Carcereri will have submitted to Your Eminence the important matters with which I charged him, such as the slave trade, of which my Vicariate is the unhappy theatre, the importance of the new mission among the Nuba, the Vicariate’s situation and the bright hopes of seeing the holy Gospel very soon established in the heart of Africa. I therefore also charged him to compose and define the Convention with the Sisters of St Joseph, to explain to the Sacred Congregation the problem of the exaggerated usury current among the Catholics of the Vicariate, and once again to beg that the Friday after the Octave of Corpus Domini, sacred to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, should be for the Vicariate a Feast of Obligation, a Double of the First Class with an Octave.
[3581]
Since I have been very busy in recent months under the burning heat of the equatorial sun, I have not yet been able to draft a general Report on the Vicariate giving you important information which concerns it. But I hope in four days that I shall be able to send you a full Account of it, which together with the news you will have had from my Vicar General, Carcereri, will offer Your Eminence an exact picture and true impression of this holy Mission.
[3582]
Then, since the above-mentioned Carcereri announces to me that Propaganda was very pleased not only that the two Camillians Carcereri and Franceschini may continue to help me and my missionaries, but that they will be joined by other Religious of the same Order, I have therefore drafted, on the basis of the few ideas set out to me by Fr Carcereri, the enclosed Agreement between me and the Most Reverend Fr Guardi, which I humbly submit to Your Eminence. In drafting this document, I have presumed that it will be possible to assign 12 religious to the new Apostolate. The greatest expenses will be those of the journey and the building work. I have assumed responsibility for all these. In a country like Berber and Khartoum, where a sheep can be bought for four francs and a large ox for thirty, etc., one lives cheaply; therefore by designating 5,000 francs annually to the planned Camillian house in Berber, I know I have been reasonably generous.
[3583]
However, I am ready to make any modifications that Your Eminence may deem opportune, or that the Most Reverend Fr Guardi might wish for. So in order not to delay in concluding this important matter, or in case my signature is necessary for any modification which Your Eminence might like to make in the present Agreement, I delegate to represent me my most venerable Mgr Canossa, Bishop of Verona, whose signature I shall consider as valid as my own.
May Your Eminence kindly deign to accept the expression of my perfect submission and profound veneration, with which I have the honour to sign myself, kissing your Sacred purple, in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary,
Your Most Reverend Eminence’s most humble, obedient and respectful son

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

P.S. I have just received your most precious letter, n. 4 of 15th April. In three days’ time you will receive the brief Report on the Vicariate.

[3584]
Concurring with the desire Your Eminence deigned to express to me in your respected letter of 15th April last N. 4, I hasten to draft for you a concise and brief Report on the current situation of the Mission entrusted to me, which, together with the Report that Fr Carcereri, My Vicar General will have already presented to you, will be able to give you a clear impression of the importance of the Work that divine Providence has put in my hands. I think it appropriate first of all to begin with a few general notions on the condition of this laborious and enormous field of the Lord’s Vineyard.
[3585]
The Vicariate Apostolic of Central Africa is without a doubt the greatest and most populated in the world.
It borders:
In the North, the Vicariate of Egypt, and the Prefecture of Tripoli.
In the East, the Red Sea, the Vicariates of Abyssinia and the Gallas, and the Prefecture of Zanzibar.
In the South, the 10th degree of Latitude South, where the so-called Mountains of the Moon are generally supposed to be situated.
To the We s t , Southern Guinea and the Prefecture of the Sahara Desert.

[3586]
It is clear from this that the Vicariate of Central Africa includes an expanse of territory that is larger than the whole of Europe. Its population, according to the calculations of my most learned Predecessor, the Pro-Vicar Knoblecher, soars to ninety million souls (1). According to my subordinate opinion based on serious investigations and diligent studies, the population of the Vicariate exceeds a hundred million souls.
[3587]
Most of this immense, totally uncivilised population is divided into more or less independent tribes. Some are nomadic. Nevertheless there is no lack of enormous kingdoms and empires governed despotically as rigorously as the term implies. On the other hand, the tribes present a shadow of government that tends to be patriarchal. The head of the family has great authority; and in affairs of public interest and especially war, the chief of the tribe, who is generally the head of the most powerful and wealthiest family, has an absolute authority that is recognised and respected by all.
[3588]
More than a hundred languages, (not counting the dialects) are spoken in the Vicariate, all completely different one from another, more than Italian from German. There is no word in any of these tongues for writing and reading, since literacy is completely unknown. All the norms of government, laws and history are passed down by tradition. The late Pro-Vicar Knoblecher collected the numerals of a good forty-five different languages that are spoken in the Eastern part of the Vicariate, which I myself have seen and read. Now these precious writings have been lost. In 1859 we succeeded in compiling a large dictionary and grammar of the Dinka and Bari languages; and last year I began to collect many words of the Nuba language.
[3589]
All the languages of Central Africa, as far as I have been able to ascertain so far, are monosyllabic and Semitic in nature. The dominant language in the Moslem countries subject to the crown of Egypt is Arabic which, over the centuries, has taken root in the whole of Lower and Upper Nubia from Aswan as far as Khartoum: but the centuries of Moslem oppression could not make the original language disappear; it is called Berber, and spoken exclusively by the Baràbra.
[3590]
The peoples of the Vicariate are generally of the Ethiopian race, with the exception of those I shall mention later who are of Arabic origin. All the colours are present, from the Abyssinian, to pure ebony and coal-black. There are in addition tribes of a reddish hue and the colour of blood, like those of the Dor in the Centre and of the Abujerid on the White and Blue Niles. Then there are races of every height from dwarfs to giants. They are all warriors and from childhood are trained to use weapons which are normally spears and poisoned arrows, with very sharp tips, and finely carved sticks of ebony and sunt. These peoples are extremely frugal, and not usually, as is thought, inclined to the vice of lust, as those who have been wrenched from their native lands in Africa and condemned to living amidst Muslim corruption generally are. Their houses are usually rough huts, with a door exactly like the door of an oven; their beds are the bare ground, a few skins or an angareb. The climate is generally very hot.
[3591]
In the Centre there is regular rainfall for six or seven months each year. In Berber, Dongola, Khartoum and Kordofan, the rains fall from between three to four months; that is, during the three or four months of the rains, or Kharif, it rains abundantly eight or ten times. All the rest of the year the skies are perfectly clear. This is the reason why the houses of the mission must be solid and large: our lives depend on it. The Vicariate has many deserts of burning sand. Most of Central Africa however, is scattered with very fertile pieces of land, which if irrigated, with human work could produce immense riches. The hills that rise in some localities are rather small in comparison to the European mountains: almost all the Vicariate’s land consists of immense plains, rich in fertile grazing land and full of all kinds of animals. There are large numbers of elephants, hyenas, lions, tigers, panthers, snakes of an enormous size and other fierce animals. The roads are insignificant: the largest which are convenient to us are the ones always used by the Jallaba, that is, those on which the slave traders pass with the innumerable hordes of their victims: these routes are practicable for the missionary.
[3592]
The main Religion in the Vicariate is fetishism and idolatry in all its varied and strangest ramifications. But Islam predominates throughout the Northern territory of the Vicariate, in Nubia, Waday, Kordofan, the kingdom of Darfur, part of the Empire of Bornù, and among the nomadic Arab tribes who are the ramifications of the well-known emigrations of the 7th and 8th centuries which poured out of Arabia and gradually penetrated many tribes of the Interior. However, the followers of the Koran who people such a large part of the Vicariate are not as fanatical as those in Egypt and Asia.
[3593]
There are about 5,000 heretical Copts established in the Vicariate from the time of the Egyptian conquests, as government scribes, or traders and adventurers, and they have an Episcopal See in Khartoum which is vacant at the moment, for the reasons I mentioned to the late Eminent Cardinal Prefect in my letter of 20th October last year.
[3594]
There are also about 2,000 schismatic Greeks who live there, a small number of Lutheran and Anglican Protestants, and a few Jews, attracted by trade.
There are barely 300 Catholics in the whole Vicariate, of all rites. But when all the works of the Catholic apostolate have been organised in the Vicariate’s missions, then I am deeply convinced that our holy faith will progress by leaps and bounds. The Prussians (forgive me, Your Eminence, for this example of the modern persecutors of the Church and the Papacy) worked non-stop for five consecutive months to prepare their military strategies to hold the impregnable Paris under siege. Then, after bombarding it for a few days, they entered the proud capital of France, victorious. When we have prepared the bombs and machine-guns of well-organised Institutes of missionaries, Sisters and colleges, and when we have properly organised the schools, kindergartens, hospitals and the other Catholic works, we will open fire, and the colossus of idolatry will be tumbled by virtue of the Cross, like the mystical stone of Scripture, and Jesus Christ alone will reign.

[3595]
There is no doubt that when the works of the Catholic apostolate are wisely established among the interior tribes of the Vicariate, the preaching of the Gospel will achieve remarkable triumphs, so that we shall see the mass conversion of entire peoples to our holy Religion. Islam has never been able to take root among the Africans of Central Africa. The nomadic Arab tribes for many centuries and the Egyptian government for the last forty years have made unheard of attempts to gain the tribes of Africans for Mohammed; and even today the Governors of the Egyptian Sudan, as I could see with my own eyes, adopt the policy of sending the most fanatic of their muftis and ylemas and religion teachers to prepare the people by preaching the Koran to submit to the crown of Egypt, but their efforts have always been in vain. The Africans detest Islam.
[3596]
Moreover I am of the opinion that having properly organised our holy missions in the Muslim countries of the Vicariate, as in Khartoum, Kordofan, Berber, Sennar, etc., with the passing of a few generations, through public worship and the exemplary life of the Missionaries, the Sisters and the members of the Mission and through the foundation of charitable institutions, even this immense province dominated by Islam will bow before the Cross. Today the Catholic Mission exerts an enormous influence on the local Government, on every kind of Christian and on the infidels. One can in all truth say that the mission is the Sudan’s principal moral authority. However, the Head and the Missionaries need great prudence and circumspection together with steadfast resolution if they are to continue to withstand the impacts of brutal violence, especially with regard to the excesses of the most horrible slavery and trade in Africans, of which the Vicariate is the most unfortunate stage. The greatest obstacle to the conversion of these Muslim peoples is the brutal oppression which weighs heavily on them, and the torture and the arbitrary excesses of the minions of the Diwan of Egypt.
[3597]
The Egyptian Government has such possessions in the Vicariate that were they well organised and governed, in a few decades they could become a most flourishing empire. In fact, they occupy a large area in the eastern part, and some bits in the central part of the Vicariate, covering the immense expanse that extends from the Tropic of Cancer to the Equator. Leaving aside Lower Nubia, from Shellal to Wadi Halfa and a good part of the Atmur Desert that owes allegiance to the Governor of Esne in Upper Egypt, the possessions of His Highness the Khedive are divided into 14 Mudirdoms or vast provinces, each governed by a Mudir, who is always a Pasha or a Bey, and safeguarded by more than 30,000 Egyptian and indigenous soldiers, armed with guns and cannons for campaigns. These fourteen provinces all together depend on three Hoccomdars or General Governors with great authority, who live in Taka, Khartoum and Gondokoro.
[3598]
His Excellency Munzinger Pasha, a Swiss Catholic, is the current Hoccomdar or Governor General of the Eastern or Red Sea district, which includes the Provinces of Taka, Suakin, Gadaref, and Ghalabat in my Vicariate, as well as Massùa in the Vicariate of Abyssinia, which is subject to the Viceroy of Egypt.
[3599]
His Excellency Ismail Pasha Ayub, a Turk and the worst Muslim (although very courteous and generous to me) is the Hoccomdar or Governor General of the Provinces of Khartoum, Sennar, Fasogl, Berber, Dongola, Kordofan, Fashoda (the vast tribe of the Shilluk on the left of the White Nile) and Shakka on the Bahar-el-Ghazal at the 9th degree of Latitude North.
[3600]
His Excellency Colonel Gordon, an Anglican Englishman, who has tamed the rebels of China and is a distinguished cavalier, is Governor General of the White River and the Equator, and possesses the provinces of Gondokoro and Fatico. He has been charged by the Khedive to establish the Egyptian Government in the fruitful and densely populated lands located around the sources of the Nile.
[3601]
The activities of the first missionaries, including myself, from the establishment of the Vicariate in 1846 until 1861, extended to the Eastern part of the Vicariate where they founded the four Stations of Shellal, on the Tropic of Cancer, Khartoum, between the 15th and 16th degrees, Holy Cross between the 6th and 7th degrees, and Gondokoro, between the 4th and the 5th degree of Latitude North on the White Nile.
From 1861 to 1872, under the Franciscan administration, all the above-mentioned Stations were abandoned except Khartoum.
In the two years of its administration, the work of the Institute for African Missions in Verona has extended Catholic activity in the Centre of the Vicariate, founding the Mission of Kordofan, and effectively undertaking the exploration of the Nuba.

[3602]
Khartoum’s climate is not as lethal as it was in past times, when a good 30 missionaries fell victim, and I myself was several times at death’s door. Plantations and other causes have improved the atmosphere of this capital destined to become a great Centre of power and trade as soon as the Sudan railway is built, which will remove the barrier of the Great Desert which now makes communication between Central Africa and Egypt so laborious and difficult. In Khartoum today one can live almost as in Great Cairo. The climate of Kordofan, like that of the countries of the Nuba and the Sources of the Nile as far as the Equator where we shall not delay in establishing our Holy Religion, is very healthy. It seems that God in his mercy has removed the greatest of the obstacles that stood in the way of these peoples’ redemption, a most deadly climate. Together with the equally important fact that communication routes are now being built in Central Africa, this is a new and certain proof that the hour of redemption has sounded for Africa.
[3603]
There is still one very serious obstacle that keenly and directly concerns the Catholic apostolate: the flourishing existence of the cruellest slavery which every year causes hundreds of thousands of victims. It is the horrible trade in Africans, carried on in broad daylight by thousands of minions secretly sponsored by the Egyptian Government; indeed, carried on by its very agents and Governors. But God will soon inspire extraordinary means to remove it; and our Holy Mission will powerfully contribute its force and moral strength which will not be impeded by any obstacle. It is the true mission of Jesus Christ who came into the world to set slaves free and give freedom to everyone and make them brothers and sons of the same Father who is in heaven. The mission’s glorious battle against the predominant slavery and the horrible scourge of the trade in Africans will be a powerful help in gaining Central Africa for the Catholic Church.
[3604]
Having given you this general information which I judged appropriate to bring to Your Eminence’s knowledge, I now come briefly to mention the present state of this most important Vicariate. To tell the truth, the means used to achieve what has been done were minimal, which is a great comfort to us since this is the ordinary rule of divine Providence which points to God as the sole author of every good.
[3605]
The greatest fruit that the Catholic Apostolate can effectively draw from the Vicariate is the conversion of the Africans who live in the idolatrous and fetishist tribes of the Interior. But we can also win souls in the Muslim countries where we are currently established, in which more than four fifths are idolatrous slaves groaning under the yoke of the Muslim families.
[3606]
To succeed in organising Catholic institutions in the idolatrous lands in the Interior so as to convert those peoples to the faith, it is extremely important that the establishments founded among those tribes should have a support base and that they depend on, so to say, the Mother Houses, that is, on the basic Missions established in safe territory under a regular government where there are also the Consuls of the European powers to protect their existence and stability.
Such are indeed the two basic and central Missions established in the two capitals, Khartoum and El Obeid, most important cities, the first with a population of 48,000 and the second of 100,000, which are wonderfully suited to our purpose.

[3607]
Khartoum is the centre of communications and the operations base from which gradually to bring the faith to the vast tribes and kingdoms which constitute the Eastern part of the Vicariate to beyond the sources of the Nile, at the 10th degree of Latitude South.

El Obeid is the centre of communications and operations base from which little by little to plant the standard of the Cross among the immense tribes, kingdoms and empires which form the Central and Eastern part of the Vicariate.

[3608]
For this reason, since I took possession of the Mission as Pro-Vicar Apostolic, I have taken special care to reinforce and consolidate the two principal and fundamental Missions of Khartoum and El Obeid, as I have several times mentioned in my letters to the Sacred Congregation. For this purpose I have temporarily set aside the great business of going in search of souls, since I think it more useful to establish the works of the apostolate soundly first. Now here is what already exists, and what I intend to do in these two primary establishments.
[3609]
In Khartoum in the male section there is the grandest and most perfect (stone) building in all the Sudan, 126 metres long and thus longer than the Propaganda building, with a vast adjacent garden that extends to the banks of the Blue Nile. It is the work of my Predecessor, Pro-Vicar Knoblecher, who spent almost a million francs on it. It is the residence of the Pro-Vicar Apostolic and the male missionaries: it has premises suitable for the arts and crafts schools, with storerooms for provisions and the items necessary for all the Stations depending on the Vicariate Apostolic. There is also an elegant chapel, which serves as a Parish church for the Catholics of this capital.
[3610]
Next to this colossal edifice, since January this year I have started to build a red brick establishment for the female Works, comparable to the grandiose male building and which should turn out to be of the same size, design and capacity (but without the arcades). At the present a quarter of the building has already been completed, because about 50 builders work on it every day; and by next July the Sisters, the girls’ orphanage and part of the schools will move into the finished section. The whole building will, I hope, be completed within a year; in addition to the funds from the European charitable Societies, I shall find of great use the donations of my special benefactors, the first of whom are Their Majesties Emperor Ferdinand I and Empress Maria Anna Pia of Austria, the sister of the Venerable Queen Maria Cristina of Naples, and his Most Serene Highness the Duke of Modena, her nephew.
[3611]
A beautiful and spacious church surrounded by trees and facing on to a vast square also flanked by trees, will separate the two grandiose establishments of the Missionaries and the Sisters. For this Work I have already made some preparations and contracted and paid in part for a million red bricks, having had firm promises of substantial subsidies for this purpose. I hope that the church will be completed in four years, and I need some European stonemasons to quarry and work the stones, which I shall order from Europe. Thus as well as the church, which will become necessary when the Sudan railway is completed, we will shortly have two enormous male and female establishments (which will be a great help in keeping up the mission’s prestige in these extremely materialistic countries), with a large garden that will supply most of the Mission’s upkeep. Each establishment will have its respective premises for the schools, training courses, orphanages and infirmaries for both sexes, and the refuge for slaves.
[3612]
Part of what I am doing in Khartoum is being done in El Obeid, but on a rather more modest and less expensive scale, since there is neither mortar nor stone there.

El Obeid has a fairly capacious house for the Missionaries with premises for the school, crafts and skills, and a small garden. A chapel serves as the Parish church, and there is a comfortable complex of separate accommodation where I have started a school for African boys, from among whom those of outstanding piety and excellent capacity who are called to an ecclesiastical career will be selected; this school is still in its early stages, but it is going very well and showing great promise. There are already 4 young boys there whom I hope to train as indigenous missionaries. There is also an annex destined for the abandoned sick, that is, for Africans thrown out by their masters because they are ill. Until now only three of them have died, after receiving instruction and baptism.

[3613]
On the other side of the imperial road, or Derb-el-Sultanie, is the Sisters’ Institute with its Orphanage and lodgings for women slaves and a private chapel. This establishment which has room for 70 individuals will be rebuilt and enlarged after the Kharif, that is, when the rains of next October are over, and it will be totally surrounded by a large wall of red sandstone (because it is now enclosed by a thorny hedge). In El Obeid too, I am preparing wood and sand in order to build a larger church. I hope it will all be completed by the end of 1875.
[3614]
I have not yet opened the public schools for boys in either Khartoum or El Obeid, neither have I judged it wise to yield to the pleas of many, even non-Catholics, because of the lack of sufficient teaching staff. The female school in Khartoum is open; but I have had to restrict the intake of pupils as the premises are not yet ready. In El Obeid a small public school for girls has already been opened by the Sisters: but I have ordered them to proceed slowly here too, since the number of sisters and African teachers is still limited and I would prefer them to be involved in teaching the catechism to the 17 catechumens who are now there. Every step must be pondered over: once a step has been taken, we must not retreat.
[3615]
Khartoum has 74 individuals who live totally at the mission’s expense, including the missionaries and the Sisters. In El Obeid there are 58.

Since the work I have in my hands belongs completely to God, for it is with God above all that we must deal with every important and lesser matter of the Mission: therefore it is very important that piety and a spirit of prayer should prevail among its members.

[3616]
Thanks to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, this Spirit of the Lord really does prevail. Every morning, after rising at 4.00 a.m. and at 5.00 a.m. in the winter, the missionaries spend three quarters of an hour in community meditation, in addition to the ordinary vocal prayers; and likewise in the evening they gather together in the chapel to recite the holy Rosary together, to make their examination of conscience, etc. The divine Office, spiritual reading and the visit to the Blessed Sacrament are done by each one privately. Each Wednesday morning there is an hour of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, ending with the Blessing with Sacred Ciborium, pro conversione Nigritiae, which I established in 1868 in our Cairo Institutes, together with the devotion of the Guard of Honour of the Sacred Heart.
[3617]
Every Friday morning the Prayers to the Sacred Heart are recited in the church by both Institutes together, and at 4.00 p.m. we make the Way of the Cross together in church. Then every first Friday of the month there is a retreat and the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament coram venerabile in homage to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, when we renew the Consecration of the Vicariate to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Lord of Africa. Furthermore, we have always publicly celebrated the month of March in honour of St Joseph in church, and of May, in honour of Our Lady, the Immaculate Queen of Africa, with a sermon every day and benediction with the Ciborium, as well as all the Novenas and Triduums in preparation for the main Feasts of Our Lord, of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the Patron Saints of the Vicariate.
These ordinary pious practices done as a community are most effective in preserving the spirit of the members of the mission, they strengthen them and enable them to support cheerfully the great sufferings, discomforts, difficult and dangerous journeys and crosses that are part and parcel of such an arduous and difficult apostolate.

[3618]
We have had 73 infidel adults baptised up to 15th May last, as well as a very sound conversion of a rich Albanian merchant who abjured the Greek schism in my hands, becoming a benefactor of the Mission; and of another rich schismatic Greek merchant from El Obeid who abjured with his wife in the hands of Fr Carcereri. But, as I said, these conversions are insignificant, since the time has not yet come to fire the cannons and machine-guns which are now being prepared in the Vicariate’s missions.
Male and female staff are still very scarce: but I have reason to hope that we shall shortly be strengthened with considerable reinforcements.

[3619]
…………..Male Establishments
1. Fr Daniel Comboni, born in Limone, Diocese of Brescia on 15th March 1831, member of the Institute of Missions for Africa in Verona, Pro-Vicar Apostolic.
2. Fr Stanislao Carcereri, from Verona, member of the Ministers of the Sick, 34, Vicar General.
3. Fr Pasquale Canon Fiore, member of the Institute of Verona, 33, Superior and Parish Priest of the Khartoum Mission, and ordinary Confessor of the Sisters.
4. Fr Salvatore Mauro, from Barletta, member of the Verona Institute, 39, Superior and Parish Priest of the Mission in El Obeid, and extraordinary Confessor of the Sisters.
5. Fr Giovanni Losi, from Piacenza, member of the Verona Institute, 35, Ordinary confessor of the Sisters in El Obeid.
6. Fr Giuseppe Franceschini, 28, member of the Ministers of the Sick, Chancellor of my Curia.
7. Fr Stefano Vanni, of the Verona Institute, 39, a pious and excellent missionary Priest.
8. Fr Vincenzo Jermolinski, Polish, a pious and learned missionary Priest, 29.
9. Giuseppe Khuri, 23, a pious and well-educated Maronite from Tripoli, Syria, Teacher of the Arabic language and aspirant to the ecclesiastical State in the establishment in Khartoum.

[3620]
Then there are 5 good and distinguished Teachers of arts and crafts, 3 in Khartoum and 2 in El Obeid, who are also most exemplary and of impeccable conduct. Of the 17 African students, there are 4 who aspire to the clerical state.
You will be better informed by Fr Carcereri with regard to the Cairo Institute directed by Fr Bartolomeo Rolleri my good and most pious Missionary, who studied at the Verona Institute, and about the people there.

[3621]
As for the female Institute directed by the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition, there are four Sisters in Khartoum and three in El Obeid, assisted by a cousin of mine who is already an experienced Sister, with whom I opened the female house in Kordofan for lack of other Sisters, and also 9 good African women teachers. For the requirements of the two principal Missions, we could do with at least 24 Sisters of St Joseph, who to my mind are excellent missionaries and most useful for the foreign missions: but it is a Congregation that does not have many members. Realising this several years ago, I was prompted to found the Institute of the Devout Mothers of Africa in Verona, giving it a modest income, to prepare missionaries for me for Central Africa. It now has a school and educational programme especially for the daughters of noble families fallen on bad times; and many novices there are preparing for the Apostolate of Africa.
[3622]
I intend to set up the first African house of my Verona Sisters, who are a great cause of hope, in Berber under the Camillians. Central Africa has room for everyone. I am satisfied with the Sisters of St Joseph, and I would like the Mother General to give me a large number of them, especially Arab; who, with less requirements, are most useful.

[3623]
In El Obeid, as well as the absolute ownership of two establishments exempt from tax, the Mission possesses a large and fertile garden, which I have spent a great deal on improving. However, in two years it will make two thousand scudos a year net, that is, more than 10,000 francs.
[3624]
Funds received from 26th May 1872, when I was appointed Pro-Vicar, to 26th May 1874, amount to 202,521 (two hundred and two thousand, five hundred and twenty-one) francs in cash, and more than 10,000 in kind and in goods. Whereas here in Khartoum I find myself with a small cash fund to continue building the female establishment; thanks to the Providence of my bursar, St Joseph, neither I nor the mission have a single pennyworth of debt, in Central Africa, Egypt or Europe, except for the 3,000 (three thousand) francs which I owe the Mother General of St Joseph, Sr Emilie Julien, by a voluntary obligation, and which I shall repay as soon as I receive the allocation from the Propagation of the Faith for the financial year 1873.
[3625]
In addition to being very expensive, the journeys between Egypt and Central Africa are utterly exhausting. The first expedition of 31 individuals led by me at the beginning of 1873, which cost me 22,000 francs including some provisions, took 99 days from Cairo to Khartoum. Fr Losi who came with four Sisters and three lay brothers took only 68 days: but Fr Stanislao with another missionary, took 75 days to reach Cairo from Khartoum, and the current Mother Superior, who arrived two months ago, took 82. It takes 12 days to travel from Khartoum to El Obeid, from Khartoum to Berber 8 days, from Berber to Suakin 13 days, from Khartoum to Gondokoro two months, etc. The distinguished Monsieur Trémaux will tell Your Eminence how tiring journeys in the Sudan are. He is a member of various scientific academies and of the Institute of France, and travelling from Egypt to Khartoum at the expense of His Highness the Viceroy of Egypt, thus with all imaginable comforts which a missionary would never have, he left these truthful words in the second edition of his beautiful work Egypt and Ethiopia, on pages 357–358:
[3626]
“The journey by boat and especially by sea is nothing compared to the journey overland in these regions (between Egypt and Khartoum). In fact, by sea, for example, one can do a hundred leagues a day, playing cards on the steamer; in the desert, on a camel, one can only do seven or eight leagues in the same time span, putting up with unheard of heat and every sort of deprivation. In this regard the Sudan is ten times as far as China, ten times as far as the Antipodes” (2).
[3627]
Fr Carcereri will have explained everything about the Mission among the Nuba to Your Eminence in detail. I think that in the Nuba mission and in others of the same kind, it will be very expedient to adopt more or less the system of the famous Reductions of Paraguay, conceived by the valiant Fathers of the Society of Jesus, who have made those countries a school of Christian perfection, a model for Catholic missions. The chief of the Nuba, the Cogiur Cakum, continues to send me ambassadors, and lately he sent me a large quantity of excellent honey as a present. After the Kharif, I shall start to send material to Jebel Nuba to build the Mission establishment.
[3628]
The most important matter of slavery and the trade in Africans now remains, a miserable spectacle which takes place on the stage of the Vicariate of Central Africa. I hope that Fr Carcereri will have explained everything to do with it properly to you, since this is the main reason why I sent him to Rome and Vienna. For my part, I will explain to you by letter, at leisure, the phases of this great scourge of humanity. I hope that the divine Heart of Jesus to which I have solemnly consecrated the Vicariate will, with his infinite charity, remove this terrible scourge from unhappy Africa.

[3629]
I have also settled everything for the proper administration of the Parishes: I have given orders in an appropriate circular letter that Mgr Valerga’s catechism be adopted as the doctrinal text for catechism in the Vicariate, since I find it most suitable for these countries.
[3630]
This is a brief sketch of the mission of Central Africa. We hope for all the blessings of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, especially after the Holy Father deigned to enrich a prayer I composed in Latin, pro conversione Chamitarum Africae Centralis ad ecclesiam Catholicam with three hundred years of indulgence; and a Plenary Indulgence for those who recite it for a month.
I beg Your Eminence to take unhappy Africa to heart, and to bountifully accept the expression of my deep obedience and veneration, with which I kiss your sacred purple, signing myself in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary
Your Most Reverend Eminence’s most humble, devoted and obedient son

Fr Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa


(1) Dr Ignaz Knoblecher Apostolischer Provikar der Katholischen Mission in Central-Afrika, Eine Lebensskizze von Dr J.C. Mitterrutzner, p. 10, Brixen 1869.

(2) Tremaux, Egypte et Ethiopie, deuxième édition, Paris, Librairie de L. Hachette et Companie, Boulevard St Germain 77.

[3631]
I would have expected everything, misfortunes of illness, changes in fortune, all kinds of troubles; but never would I have imagined that a spirited and lively young man in the flower of his youth and hopes, like Emilio, should so quickly succumb, leaving inconsolable two tender and incomparable parents like you, and a faithful and angelic wife like our good Teresina. I was not prepared for this grief. I loved Emilio very much, too much to even think of a misfortune; especially since he was the best, as it was he who lived with his parents and was their consolation and their solace. I share the full extent of your immense sorrow, and I identify myself with you, who with regard to paternal and maternal love are next to no one in the world; thus I feel your full sorrow within me, and am aware of the bitter grief the loss of your good Emilio will have caused you.

[3632]
Now what must you do? You must be brave: judge life and the world for what they really are and be convinced that we belong to God, and that we come from him and we must return to him. In a word, if you want to find true comfort, it is only found in Religion: and since, thanks to God, you have always loved and practised your holy religion, I hope that this will be your comfort; a real comfort that relieves and consoles the Christian and Catholic spirit, and renders it capable, like Jesus Christ, of bearing all the hardships and adversities of this life, which is merely the vehicle for eternity; although I feel the full pain of the loss of Emilio, I am nonetheless comforted by the thought that he was a good young man, with a good life and morality, who practised his religion, loved his neighbour in his actions and in truth, respected his parents who always recognised his sincere love and dependence. I wish all the young men of today were like Emilio; our modern society would be happier.
[3633]
In a word, Emilio was a good son, an excellent husband, a good Christian and a good citizen: so I have the firmest, surest hope that his soul will have been saved; I am certain of it. Thus with your eyes illumined by faith, find your comfort and great relief for your downcast heart in him; and only think that we are united to him by the bond of faith and love, and that after a few years of life, we will go and live together for eternity, with him and with God. So be brave, pray for him, be comforted by his honesty and good life, and think of God and the Virgin Mary, in whom you will find deep consolation.
[3634]
On the first day of the Semidouble, we will be celebrating a solemn office with a solemn Mass here in Khartoum, in my small cathedral; and I shall celebrate and have celebrated 100 Masses for him. Only this morning when I told the female community the news, my Sisters started to cry. They will pray and offer communion many times for Emilio, who, I am sure, will feel the salutary effects.
So take heart, revive your spirit, lift your eyes to heaven and learn from the loss of Emilio to be certain to save your souls, which are worth far more than the meagre and ephemeral goods of this life.
Remember, O my dearest Eustachio and Erminia (you know that I have always loved you both)
your ever most affectionate cousin

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[3635]
I have promised to write more often than I could manage. I have written you almost nothing; but I hope to be able to do so in the future. I have many things to tell you about the blessings which God is showering on my Vicariate of Central Africa, the largest and most densely populated in the world. After I had solemnly consecrated the Vicariate to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus with the consent of the Supreme Pontiff and the Holy Apostolic See, it seems that many obstacles are receding in this torrid land, which has been burdened for more than 40 centuries by the terrible curse of Ham. I say, I have a lot to tell you. But the many and serious matters of my most intricate office and my terrible fall from a camel in the middle of the desert between Kordofan and Khartoum have prevented me from writing to you until now.
[3636]
I begin by begging you to correct an involuntary error that appeared in your noble journal, the Libertà Cattolica on 1st May, N° 96, in the Religious News, in which it escaped from your pen that the Holy Father granted 300 days of indulgence for a prayer I composed for the conversion of Africa. It is not 300 days, but three hundred years that the Holy Father granted every time my Prayer is said. Therefore I am sending you the precious decree with its stamp, as it was sent to me by the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda. My aim in wishing to rectify this error, is that when the pious and devout readers of your magnificent Journal, and especially the members of the glorious Neapolitan Clergy read such an ample and generous indulgence, appreciating the great interest that the Apostolic See and our adored Holy Father Pius IX have taken in my arduous and difficult Mission, they will all recite it every day, and will have others recite it; and thus Africa for the great reason of the petite et accipietis will be converted.
[3637]
From your Neapolitan Dioceses many continue to flock to enrol in my sacred militia, and to come and share with us the efforts and sweat of the African apostolate. I am also sending you my Pastoral Letter on the slave trade, which still afflicts my mission.
[3638]
The Mission in Khartoum is endowed with two important Institutes, one of the Missionaries, and one of the Sisters of St Joseph, with their respective schools and orphanages.
Likewise the new mission in Kordofan is endowed with a school for African boys, some of whom are starting to train for the ecclesiastic state; an Institute of Sisters of St Joseph with lodgings for the women slaves, a school for African girls and an orphanage as well as an infirmary for castaway slaves.
When a slave is ill and considered not good enough for service, he is thrown out, frequently as food for the hyenas and dogs.

[3639]
After the rains I shall go to found the mission among the Nuba peoples South West of Kordofan, where no European has ever set foot. My capable Vicar General, Fr Stanislao Carcereri (who is now in Europe and will come as instructed to pay you a visit in Naples) first explored it on my order, and I hope that in a short time, all idolatrous people will bow their heads before Christ’s Cross, and become his fervent adorers. I then hope in two years to raise the banner of the Cross among the peoples who live at the sources (until recently mysterious) of the Nile. His Highness the Khedive of Egypt has sent there as Governor General of the White Nile and the Equator His Excellency Colonel Gordon, an Englishman who has already won glory for having repressed the rebellions in China and Mongolia. He is a Protestant but a true cavalier, a most noble gentlemen, a valiant soldier, a man of wisdom who has great esteem for the Catholic Bishops and Prelates, because he admired their virtue in China and Mongolia. He will greatly favour our Apostolate. He has invited me to follow him to the Equator: but now I still lack sufficient missionaries. As soon as I can, I shall certainly establish a mission there too.
[3640]
Your Neapolitans are a great consolation to me. Fr Salvatore Mauro, whom I have appointed Superior and Parish Priest of Kordofan, exercises his difficult office with great diligence and piety. He draws all his strength from his fervent devotion to St Jude Thaddeus. When I named him Superior and Parish Priest of that distant mission, he wrote that the real Superior I had chosen was St. Jude Thaddeus, and that he is only the vice-superior and procurator of St Jude Thaddeus. This suffices to rekindle his courage, and as I said, he gives me great consolation.
[3641]
Canon Fr Pasquale Fiore of Corato is Superior and Parish Priest in Khartoum: he is absolutely made to be a parish priest and has outstanding zeal combined with a rare and exquisite prudence. May the Lord send me many such missionaries.
[3642]
Goodbye, my sweet friend, most zealous director of that Libertà Cattolica which despite the delay of distance always reaches me very dear and comforting. Here I have no time nor the desire to look at the politics which are troubling your Europe. Here I am in a new world, awaiting its civilisation through the faith. It is certainly an honour for the Neapolitan Dioceses also to have their representative in the work here, in this difficult land. Encourage the activity of others because here the harvest is immeasurable.
Your most affectionate friend

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[3643]
I received your letter of 30th May and I am pained to hear that you were informed that the Sisters assigned to Central Africa must go to the Hospital. I had already been told some time ago that Fr Stanislao and the Mother General had agreed on this: but I wrote long ago to Fr Bartolo expressing my disapproval of this plan.
[3644]
I founded the two small houses in Egypt; and they are not to be closed except by me. Moreover I will never close them, if I am not constrained to obey a superior force. Fr Bartolo obeys orders he has received from Rome; and although you are obliged to obey Fr Bartolo as my Representative in Egypt, yet this time I give you this order: “Do not leave your post without a precise order from me, or without an order from the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda expressed to you directly, through Fr Bartolo, or the Mother General or the Apostolic Delegate. To anyone else who tells you to go to the hospital, ask perhaps whether you have been assigned to the hospital house or whether you serve Central Africa; and in this latter hypothesis, reply humbly and with full submission that it would be proper to await my orders.”
[3645]
I still cannot convince myself that such a serious decision should have been taken without consulting me. So I am waiting for the next post to arrive, and if there is no change in arrangements, I will send a dispatch to Fr Bartolo ordering him to suspend everything until he is given further orders.
The Mother General entrusted the Sisters to me to serve Central Africa, so that I take them to the Mission, and not so that they should stay in the hospital; this would dishonour me and I do not accept it. I have a mountain of reasons for not accepting this decision which Fr Stanislao must have taken for an excellent reason and with holy intentions but which, however, I cannot fathom. I repeat, stay at your post. I recommend you to be extremely prudent and I bless you. Give everyone my greetings and believe me
All yours.

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic

[3646]
Forgive me if I address these few lines to you because I do not have the strength to write to Mother General, who is not showing herself equal to her position with regard to my Vicariate which today is the most important in the world.
In the month of April Fr Stanislao wrote to me from Rome: “I have agreed with the Mother General on all the articles of the Convention for the Sisters: all the Sisters who are in Cairo or who will be leaving Europe for Cairo and subsequently destined to Central Africa, will go to the hospital for the full duration of their stay in Cairo and she will pay a daily fee for each Sister, etc.” I did not take this seriously and I have not answered. After a week I received another letter from Fr Stanislao in which he wrote: “I have agreed with Propaganda and with the Mother General about the Convention and at the beginning of July, the Sisters will all move to the hospital, etc.”

[3647]
This time too, I did not believe it, because Propaganda does not interfere in these matters and leaves all this to the heads of Missions; but I wrote to the Superior in Cairo, Fr Bortolo, that I do not accept this decision and that should Propaganda order the Sisters to be moved to the hospital, I will present such reasons that it will grant my prayers, to leave my Sisters in my house in Cairo. Already Monsignor Delegate has several times repeated in Cairo that to avoid big expenses, I should settle the Sisters in two rooms of the Good Shepherd and Scubra for two francs a day, and I answered him that my Sisters are not penitents, etc. It seems that the Delegate himself may have conceived this idea of the hospital.
[3648]
Some time has gone by and then in two letters, Fr Stanislao writes to me: “The Convention with the Mother General was agreed upon and stipulated with full accord. The Sisters of Cairo will move to the hospital by 1st July”. In the meantime, I have heard nothing about this from Propaganda. Therefore the matter depends either on the Mother General or on Fr Stanislao, to whom I gave clear instructions to get rid of the 10 or 12 African girls who are of no use to my Vicariate, but to leave the Institutes intact for the acclimatisation of the Missionaries and Sisters who come from Europe until there is another Delegate who allows us to do good to the Africans in Egypt, because Mgr Curcia and the Franciscans hinder us, and have forbidden us to concern ourselves with Africans in Egypt.
[3649]
Last Sunday Fr Bortolo wrote to me: “Seeing that the Mother General no longer writes nor gives the appropriate orders for the Sisters to move into the hospital (which I would be sorry about), owing to the orders and conventions between Propaganda, Mother General and Fr Stanislao, I have told Sr Veronica of Rome’s decision, and that at the beginning of July they must move to the hospital, etc.” Dear Mother, I was thunderstruck. Then I received a letter from Sr Veronica sadly telling me what Fr Bortolo had told her.
[3650]
Then I became angry: I prepared a telegraphic dispatch for Fr Bortolo in which I ordered him not to carry out this mad decision to put the Sisters in the hospital (because I believe that Propaganda has nothing to do with this plan, for otherwise I would have been told to rent my Sisters to the hospital, instead of preparing them for Central Africa) and to await my orders.
I then wrote to Sr Veronica and ordered her not to move from her post without orders from me.

[3651]
After all this, I beg you, dear Mother, to tell Mother General that I do not accept this decision and that the Sisters who are destined for Central Africa must join my house, spend the period of training and acclimatisation in our house and not in the hospital or at the Good Shepherd, because she entrusts her Sisters to me to work on my Mission; she should have complete trust in me to look after them, feed them, direct them well, and thanks be to God, the Sisters entrusted to my care have never lacked bread.
[3652]
Now why does she want to put the Sisters destined for Central Africa in the hospital? I will never allow it while I have a house in Cairo, and I will always have the house in Cairo, regardless of whether we rent or own it. The reasons for my refusal are innumerable and serious and if the Delegate continues to oppose this, I hope to obtain justice from Propaganda. I have many reasons for refusing what the Mother General wants, to put the Sisters in the hospital (that the Mother General could have come to this seems impossible to me), etc.
Please accept, my good Mother, etc. May God bless you.
Your most devoted, etc.

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa


Translated from the French.

[3653]
With the aim of helping to spread the Gospel among the infidel peoples of Africa, the following convention was stipulated between the Most Reverend Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa and the Most Reverend Father Vicar General of the Ministers of the Sick, to be submitted to the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda.

I. The Most Reverend Father General of the Ministers of the Sick, following the impulse of his love for the peoples of Africa, who are the neediest and most neglected in the world, makes available to Propaganda for the Vicariate Apostolic of Central Africa in addition to Frs. Carcereri and Franceschini, other Religious of his who feel inclined towards the demanding and difficult Apostolate of Africa and who are of proven virtue and have already professed the four solemn Vows proper to the Order of St Camillus de Lellis, and by so doing do not harm in any way the activity of their Holy Institute for the benefit of the poor who are sick and dying; that indeed they should not only dedicate themselves with unreserved zeal to the spiritual assistance of the latter, but in addition should contrive, with time and their full commitment, to establish a small Hospital for the same, for both their spiritual and physical assistance, since this is the primary goal of their Institute.

[3654]
II. The said Religious will be presented to Propaganda by the Fr General, and having been approved by the usual examination and equipped with the licence of Apostolic Missionaries, they should leave for their destination.
[3655]
III. Once they have reached the Mission, these Religious, one and all, should be totally available to the Pro-Vicar Apostolic to assist his Missionaries, so that he can appoint them as he best pleases to assist in the various Missions of the Vicariate, assigning them, for the time he deems fit, to any office from the lowliest to the loftiest, such as Assistant Teachers, Parish Priests, Confessors of Nuns, Local Superiors, Vicars General, etc., etc. All this however should be understood within the following limits and on the following conditions: 1. That the Religious allocated to Africa depend on their Fr General as has been done in all the other Religious Orders which have Foreign Missions. 2. That the Pro-Vicar and his Successors may also dispose of the Religious according to the needs of the Mission, as has been said, but however, always consulting and in full accord with their Superior, and never single individuals. 3. Finally that this is meant with regard to the external exercise of the Ministries proper to the Mission, and not with regard to the internal and strictly religious discipline, for which they must depend exclusively on their Superior.
[3656]
IV. All individual Religious, during the time that they are living separately in the different Missions of the Vicariate, are bound by obedience to their local Superior and to the observance of the Rule of the house to which they belong for the time being.

V. The Most Reverend Fr General will assign a Superior representing him to the body of his Religious destined for Central Africa, who should above all be responsible for supervising them, so that one and all may preserve the religious spirit of the Institute of St Camillus de Lellis and develop its salutary effects for the sake of the conversion of Africa.

[3657]
VI. The most reverend Pro-Vicar Apostolic will provide for them, as soon as possible, a sound house furnished with what is necessary, with a chapel, a pharmacy and a small orchard or garden in the healthy city of Berber in Upper Nubia, where the Religious will live together when they are not occupied in assisting the central Missions, in order to live the religious life, make their Spiritual Exercises and refresh the eminently sublime spirit of their Holy Institute.
[3658]
VII. The House in Berber will be an exclusively Camillian House, and as far as possible will promote spiritual good through its school and assistance to the sick; it will have ordinary parish jurisdiction not only over the city and province of this name, but also over the province of Suakin on the Red Sea and of Taka on the north-eastern border with Abyssinia, as well as temporary jurisdiction over the province or ancient kingdom of Dongola, that is, until the Sudan railway is completed, and taking care of Christians of all nationalities and rites.
[3659]
VIII. Whenever the Camillian Superior is working for the Pro-Vicar Apostolic or assisting in another Mission of the Vicariate, he will have himself represented in the Camillian house of Berber by another Religious whom he trusts and who has been approved by the Pro-Vicar Apostolic, to carry out the
spiritual and temporal direction of the Camillian Work in every respect, according to the norms established in the Constitutions of his own Order.

[3660]
IX. The Choice of the Religious who is to exercise the office of Parish Priest will be made by the Pro-Vicar Apostolic with the knowledge and agreement of the Fr General, possibly ensuring that the said office is entrusted to a member who is not the Superior of the Religious House.
[3661]
X. The Pro-Vicar Apostolic will annually assign the Camillian House of Berber the sum of 5,000 (five thousand) francs from the income which the Vicariate receives from the Charitable Societies in Europe, to be paid to the Superior in advance in one or two instalments at the beginning of each year. This payment will begin on the day when a suitable number of Religious are in residence, which will happen as soon as the house and chapel dedicated to St Camillus de Lellis are ready. This annual allocation will last for five years, the necessary time in which to become familiar with the Camillian activity, the approximate number of Religious the Order can supply, the cost of living and the necessary expenses for the maintenance of the house and the Camillian Works. After five years, a new Convention will have to be stipulated by the Pro-Vicar Apostolic and the Camillian Superior and submitted to Rome, based on practical and reliable notions of every aspect so as definitively to establish the necessary conscientious allocation of resources for the Camillian house, which will be effected, as far as possible, in property, or according to what is judged best by the two parties.
[3662]
XI. This annual fund will serve for the food and clothing of the Religious while they are living in Berber and for visits to localities dependent on Camillian jurisdiction, as well as for the maintenance or improvement of the house in Berber and the maintenance of the annexed church or chapel, or expenses of worship. Furthermore, Religious who are assisting in the other Missions of the Vicariate live at the expense of the house to which they temporarily belong.
[3663]
XII. All the journeys of the Camillian Religious from Europe to Egypt and to the Station of the Order in Berber, and from the latter to the various internal Missions in the Vicariate, as well as the return journeys from the central Missions to Berber, are provided for by the Pro-Vicar Apostolic.
[3664]
XIII. The Camillian Superior, in agreement with the Pro-Vicar Apostolic, must gather his Religious at the most appropriate time once a year for a period of at least 20 days or thereabouts, so as to see whether they are preserving the religious spirit of the Institute, and to rekindle their Apostolic zeal by means of special Spiritual Exercises and the devotions of the Order.
[3665]
XIV. Should the Camillian Superior, in agreement with the Pro-Vicar Apostolic, judge it expedient to visit his Religious in the various Central
Missions, the Pro-Vicar Apostolic is responsible for covering all the expenses of the journey and his upkeep.

[3666]
XV. The Religious, while they live in the Camillian House and its dependencies, apply Holy Mass according to the placet of their Superior. On the other hand, while they are living as assistants to the Missions in the interior, they apply Masses according to the intentions of the Pro-Vicar Apostolic or of the Superior of the house to which they belong, except for two Masses a month, which the Religious may apply for himself or as he wishes, in addition to the Mass obligations imposed specifically on Camillians by their Order, according to its statutes or general directives.
[3667]
XVI. Every year before the end of September, the Superior of the Camillian house will present an exact report on the functioning, development and administration of the Camillian House and Work to the Pro-Vicar Apostolic, who will then pass it on to the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda, adding his own observations. The Superior himself will do the same to the Most Reverend Father General, especially as regards the progress and conduct of the individual Religious.
[3668]
All this for the greater glory of God and the salvation of unfortunate Africa “in unitate spiritus et vinculo charitatis”, respecting the authority of the above-mentioned Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide, and the decrees and rules in force for the governance of the Holy Missions. Amen.

+ Luigi, Bishop of Verona, Representative of
Mgr Comboni Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa.

Camillo Guardi, Vicar General of the CC. RR. Ministers of the Sick

I agree and approve as above.
On behalf of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda,
nulla osta for the application of the present Convention.

Rome, from Propaganda, 24th August 1874.

Alessandro, Cardinal Franchi, Prefect.

[3669]
Although it has only been a few days since I had the honour of writing you, on receiving just now from Fr Carcereri the signed copy of the Convention between me and the Reverend Mother General of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition for the regular arrangement of this venerable Institute in my Vicariate, I cannot refrain both from expressing to Your Eminence my sincere satisfaction and from assuring you that it will be my most special concern not only to support and continue to foster the spirit of their vocation in every way in these excellent African daughters of St Joseph, and to guide them wisely for the best spiritual benefit of this vast and difficult Mission; and likewise to study every possible way to ensure that, one and all, they never lack anything they need, even if it were necessary to double the expenses and the subsidy already established by the Convention. These good Sisters expose their life as we do, and dedicate their whole selves to the glory of God and the salvation of unhappy Africa; thus they have a right to every possible assistance and fatherly concern; and, with the Lord’s help, this will never be lacking on our part.
[3670]
I am keenly concerned, as is mentioned in the Convention, that a good and wise Sister be delegated by the Most Reverend Mother General to represent her in this Vicariate that is so remote, with whom I can discuss the destination, changes and interests of the Sisters in Central Africa. This Sister must always be Superior of the house in Khartoum, where the Pro-Vicar Apostolic normally resides. I therefore insistently implore the notable bounty of Your Most Reverend Eminence to deign to warmly encourage this Most Reverend Mother, who has expert knowledge of the foreign missions, to choose one of her best Sisters for this important office who is really equal to her mission, and to send her to me as soon as possible. I am preparing a residence which will be worthy of her position.
[3671]
I end my letter by declaring conscientiously to Your Most Eminent Reverence the high esteem and veneration that I profess for these Sisters, considered from the viewpoint of missionaries in the lands of infidels, and the preference that I give to the Arab Sisters among them with regard to my mission. Without possessing that vigorous, profound ascetic constitution and that very wide basis of instruction that we admire in the holy Daughters of the
Scholasticas, the Chantals, the Mericis and the Dames of the Sacred Heart, these excellent Sisters of St Joseph are highly commendable for their simplicity, tireless zeal, and aptitude for all the offices of women missionaries, and for their heroic courage in facing dangers of any kind, long and perilous journeys and death itself, in order to fulfil their ministry well.

[3672]
Then they are all (speaking of those I have known) of irreproachable habits, flawless morality, and such as to be able with God’s help to face and withstand the very dangers of human corruption among the infidels, to correct their excesses, to triumph over the most depraved souls, to shower the good fragrance of Christ over them and make the purity of Christian morality respected. St Joseph’s providential protection and the deep love and trust they feel for this dear Saint who is their father, contribute magnificently to these good effects, as do their frequent practices of piety, their continuous instruction by the Missionaries, and the fact that they keep the spark of their Mission’s loftiest aim ever alive in their midst, that is, the glory of God and the salvation of souls which cannot be obtained without serious mindfulness of their own sanctification.
[3673]
In the next letter I will speak to you of the most calamitous journey just completed by the Prussian Dr Nactigal (who is now here in Khartoum) in five and a half years from Tripoli to Khartoum, through the empires of Bornù, Waday and Darfur, that are under my jurisdiction, and of the interesting information he gave me about these peoples, and the millions of slaves who are still groaning under the reign of Satan. This Governor General of ours, Ismail Pasha, who wrote me a fine letter praising our houses in Kordofan, is now attacking the Sultan of Darfur.
I kiss the Sacred purple,
Your most humble and obedient son

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa