Writings

[3766]
It is a constant law of Providence that God’s Works are marked by the Cross. So it is no small comfort to my spirit, despite its great weakness, to see myself burdened by very heavy crosses. These crosses bring us immense strength, especially when we think that Jesus Christ himself saved the world by the Cross. Our beloved Holy Father Pius IX, too, brought such great glory to his Pontificate by the Cross that a very important English Minister said that the Catholic Church today, although unarmed, is the most formidable and colossal power in the world, while that charlatan Barabbas of Villa Severini has stupidly dared to proclaim that the Papacy has had its day. May Crosses therefore be blessed forever: the works of God are extremely solid, because they were born at the foot of Calvary.
[3767]
The caravan led by Fr Carcereri reached Khartoum on 3rd February, 103 days after it left Cairo, but only the personnel of the caravan arrived (except for the excellent Giuseppe Avesani, a farmer from Verona, who died by drowning in the Nile at Shellal), and they came on 19 camels via Dongola. All the rest of the baggage, trunks and provisions, sixty camel-loads, was left by Fr Carcereri in Wadi Halfa, that is, 40 days away from Khartoum. A large part of the provisions, all the religious items sent me from all over Europe were lost or ruined in the cataracts of Aswan, and if the rest of the provisions remain any longer in Wadi Halfa, they will end up being spoilt.
[3768]
One of the caravan’s boats, hit by the full force of the waves in the cataracts, broke on the rocks and sank to the bottom: however some of the lost cargo was fished out. The damage to the Mission, in addition to the other inconveniences, amounts to over twenty thousand francs, and perhaps over thirty thousand, which is quite disconcerting to me. But in St Joseph’s beard are hidden not only thirty thousand francs, but thousands and millions of guineas; so I have no doubt at all that this dear, holy Patron of the Catholic Church and of Africa will do his duty and compensate this African work of his divine Son. All our prayers are for this intention, especially in this month which is dedicated to him.
[3769]
No caravan of the Central African mission had ever had such a misfortune since 1846, when the Vicariate was established, to the present day. Both missionaries and traders, when they reach Aswan, have always brought their provisions and merchandise ashore and taken them to Shellal by camel: this has always been the way, because in taking the boats through the cataracts, one risks losing both people and goods. In the same way, all the Missionaries and traders reaching Korosko by boat have always taken the route through the Atmur desert as far as Berber, and never ever have the Missionaries taken the route via Wadi Halfa and Dongola, especially when they are heavily laden, because it is difficult to find camels in Wadi Halfa; and even when there are camels, that route is always longer, more expensive and tiring.
[3770]
All of us here have been unable to understand how Fr Carcereri could have thought of taking the boats through the dangerous Aswan cataracts, and wanted to take the uncertain route via Wadi Halfa, which he himself had never seen, thus straying from the proven system and route missionaries and merchants have always taken. As a result I am now faced with new expenses of several thousand francs to have the crates in Wadi Halfa transported to Khartoum. Perhaps I shall have to follow the advice of the Imperial Royal Austro-Hungarian Consul and the Governor of Khartoum, by asking my able Augusto Wisniewski (whom I have sent to Wadi Halfa where he cannot find camels) to have all the trunks loaded onto boats again and taken back to Korosko so as to take the old route through the Atmur desert and Berber. May God’s will always be done.
[3771]
As soon as the Missionaries arrived in Khartoum, I sent a new caravan to Kordofan to start the Mission in Jebel Nuba. As soon as I advised the great chief, he hastened to send his men to El Obeid, to accompany and lead the Missionaries to Delen. The small caravan, made up of two priests, two able and devout craftsmen and one of my trainee interpreters from the Nuba tribe, has already left El Obeid for this destination. With the help of the chief, it must prepare two establishments in the village of Delen, one for the Missionaries and one for the Sisters, as well as a chapel. So far I have had no news of the journey or of the arrival of the Nuba caravan in Delen.
[3772]
Since the excellent Mother General of the Sisters of St Joseph has sent from Marseilles to Cairo the Mother Provincial I had begged for, in the person of Sr Emilienne Naubonnet, well known perhaps to Propaganda for she was Superior in Syria for 30 years, I have sent an order by telegram to the Superior of my Institutes in Cairo that he is to send her immediately to Khartoum via Suez, the Red Sea and Suakin. At the same time I have sent a Missionary to receive her there and bring her through the desert of the Bisharin to Berber. Both the Mother Provincial and the missionary I sent have reached Suakin and are now already riding camels on their way to Berber.
[3773]
Fr Carcereri having told me that it is the will of Propaganda and his General that he should stay for a year in Berber, and since I understand clearly that this is Fr Carcereri’s own plan, I have deemed it good to give my consent. He therefore left with all his religious for Berber, where he has now been for some time. Thus the Camillians are already settled in the new house in Berber.
[3774]
On 22nd January, the Superior of the Sisters of St Joseph, Sr Genoveffa Nivelet, died in Khartoum. Among the new arrivals, one (the strongest), Sr Vittoria Maillé, is seriously ill: indeed, she was already ill when she arrived in Khartoum, and I fear that she too will soon be going to heaven. All the same, the climate of the Central African mission is better than the climate of so many other missions. We have to toil and suffer greatly, but we can live here: it is just a matter of discipline.
[3775]
The Sultan of Darfur with many of his sons was brought as a prisoner to Khartoum. In Darfur, he had more than 200 wives and concubines. The military Governor of Khartoum brought the Sultan and his sons, who are all black as coal, to visit me here in the Mission. He was amazed at the sight of our garden and especially of the new establishment I have built for the Sisters. The Sultan, talking to me about his being made prisoner, as well as other things, told me in Sudanese Arabic, which he speaks quite well, that: “God is the master of all kingdoms and of all things: one day he creates kings and tells them to command, the next day he makes them servants and tells them to obey. Yesterday I was a king; and my ancestors ruled over Darfur as masters of the life and death of all mortals; my dynasty ruled in Darfur for 467 years. Today, instead, I have suddenly become a servant, and I must serve far from my country. God is my master: God is right, because he wants it thus: God’s will must be done”.
[3776]
His imperial sons were astounded when I showed them a big photograph of His Excellency Ismail Ayub Pasha, Governor General of the Sudan and Generalissimo of the Egyptian army in Darfur. These black princes perfectly recognised in this large photograph the man who had made them prisoners and took possession of their capital and their country. At first they were amazed and said: “It really is Ismail Pasha”. Then they started laughing hysterically and repeating: “hua zato, hua bardo”. Then all of a sudden they slipped out of my reception room without greeting the host, and fled from the Mission. Some say the Sultan’s sons had thought they were in the presence of their enemy Ismail Pasha and that they fled from his presence.
[3777]
During Ismail Pasha’s absence, all the merchants of Khartoum have been very displeased with the present acting Governor General, Tuak Pasha, and long for the return of His Excellency Ismail Pasha, who will take a long time to come back to Khartoum because he has now been asked by the Khedive to organise the regular government of the newly conquered Darfur. The latter will be divided into five large provinces, or Mudirdoms, and it will be opened up to trade and communications with foreigners and Europeans. I hope it will not be long before we plant the Cross in its capital.
[3778]
I beg your pardon for having gone on so much. I would be glad if Your Eminence would kindly ask the Holy Father to give me a blessing so that I may joyfully bear the Crosses which afflict me and especially so that I may succeed in establishing the new Mission in Jebel Nuba. Before I leave for the Nuba territory I shall issue a Circular on the Jubilee or Holy Year.
Humbly sending you the expression of my profound devotion, I have the honour of kissing your Sacred purple and I remain in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary
Your Most Reverend Eminence’s most humble, devoted and respectful son

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa



[3779]
In my last letter I forgot to include the enclosed copy of the letter about the house in Berber I made with the permission of the writer, Fr Franceschini, who wrote it to inform his General about the new Camillian House in Berber.

[3780]
His Holiness Pius IX, our Pope by Divine Providence, having given us, although unworthy, supreme authority over the Vicariate Apostolic of Central Africa, and since we must therefore take the utmost care to accomplish with the greatest commitment the most serious task of our apostolate and diligently attend with all our strength to the eternal salvation of these peoples, having ardently offered daily prayers and supplications to Jesus Christ, our eternal and supreme Pastor, we have deemed that under our power and authority, the other illustrious Religious Families should come to help the beloved priests of our Institutes for Africans in Verona, to whom the Holy Apostolic See has entrusted the administration and care of the entire Vicariate of Central Africa.
[3781]
Among these Families, we have preferred the Congregation of the Clerics Regular, Ministers to the Sick, founded by St Camillus of Lellis, because we have thought that this particular Order, with its double charism of service to the Church and supreme charity, could best respond to the needs of the African regions.
[3782]
Therefore, having proposed to the Most Reverend Fr Camillo Guardi, Superior General of this Order, a specific Convention to this effect valid for five years, we have thought fit to entrust to these Religious, chosen and approved by the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide by means of an official letter, the spiritual care with normal parochial jurisdiction, only under our authority and dependency, and that of our Successors, over all the faithful of both sexes, of any nationality and rite living in the province of Berber in Upper Nubia, from Suakin to the Red Sea, from Taka to the northern border of Abyssinia and of the ancient kingdom of Dongola, as they are civilly constituted and united to our Vicariate.
[3783]
Therefore, since the above-mentioned Most Reverend Fr Camillo Guardi and the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide have bountifully deigned to approve these measures, and since the chosen and approved members of the above-mentioned Religious Order are already in our Vicariate, after mature and diligent research on each of these, having heard the opinions of some of the most venerable, experienced and highly esteemed members of the Verona Institute for the Missions, we have decided to consign the Mission house in Berber, which we founded, to the beloved Sons of St Camillus of Lellis and to proceed to the canonical establishment of this house for the Camillian Family.
[3784]
This is why we have decided in the Lord canonically to erect the above-mentioned house of the Mission of the Clerics Regular of the Ministers to the Sick in the city of Berber. As from today we hereby solemnly declare it erected in accordance with the form and the conditions contained in the above-mentioned Convention we proposed, accepted by the Most Reverend Fr Camillo Guardi and bountifully approved by the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide.

Given in Khartoum, our main residence, on 1st April 1875. ………………………..(L.S.)

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa


Paolo Rossi, Secretary.


Translated from Latin.

[3785]
“Seconding your intention expressed to me verbally in Khartoum last February, and communicated to me in writing in several of your letters from Cairo and Wadi Halfa, in which you said you wished to resign from the post of my Vicar General: considering this assignment to be hic et nunc incompatible with your new post of Prefect of the Camillian House in Berber, I hereby declare that I have definitively accepted your resignation from the aforesaid post. As a result, all the ordinary and extraordinary faculties related to this post, which I granted you in the Document I issued in May 1873 and either verbally or in writing on other occasions, cease from this moment.
[3786]
Similarly I hereby declare null and void all the faculties which, as my Vicar General, you granted to your Camillian confreres, while I reserve the right to grant them in future, by means of the proper Document, the powers and faculties I may deem appropriate…”

Daniel Comboni

[3787]
Late yes, but your most precious letter of 14th September last was faithfully conveyed to me. You, Very Reverend Sir, have not only been a gentleman, but you have behaved like the king of gentlemen. But I too am delighted not to have been in any way inferior to Your Most Reverend self as regards gentlemanly behaviour for, although it was absolutely impossible for me to provide a house in Berber worthy of accommodating a Religious Order instantly, due to the Work I had on hand and also because nearly all the Vicariate’s resources were in the hands of Fr Stanislao and the Superior of my small Institutes in Cairo to cover the expenses of the caravan Fr Stanislao was to lead to Central Africa, I nonetheless made sacrifices in excess of my means, for the greater purpose of immediately furnishing and erecting materially and canonically the Camillian House in accordance with your venerable wishes, repeatedly expressed to me in writing by Fr Stanislao Carcereri.
[3788]
In order to second your wishes also expressed to me by the aforesaid Father, I agreed that all the Religious should stay together in Berber for as long as I do not have absolute need of them. I will perhaps call to Khartoum only for a short time Fr Franceschini whom, having received your authorisation to make a visit to Verona, I would like to have accompany me from Central Africa to Europe when, once the Nuba Mission has been founded, I shall have to go to Rome. This will be soon, since my Missionaries have already arrived among these tribes and have already been well received by the chief and the population in Delen.
[3789]
Meanwhile, at the request of Fr Stanislao, on the 1st of this month I issued the Decree of canonical establishment of the Mission House in Berber, sending a copy to Propaganda; and in spite of the serious losses suffered due to the shipwreck of one boat in the cataracts of Aswan and due to the delay in receiving the rest of the provisions which, as I write today, are still in Wadi Halfa, more than 40 days away from Khartoum, all of which have left me short of resources; yet your paternal heart must have no doubt at all that your Religious Family in Berber will ever lack any of the things it needs. Divine Providence will help me, I hope, to support this first-born foundation of the Regular Congregations in the Vicariate.
[3790]
When I have the good fortune of going to the Eternal City, if God gives me life, I hope to be able to confer at length with you on many important matters concerning the interests and the greater good of your African Sons and their work. I was very pleased with Fr Alfonso Chiarelli.
[3791]
In application of Article IX of our Convention, I have my sights on Fr Giovanni Battista Carcereri as my choice for the future parish priest of Berber. To this effect, I have informed Fr Stanislao by a letter of the 11th of this month that I shall provisionally appoint his brother Giovanni Battista as Priest-in-charge. I therefore ask you, Most Reverend Father, to let me know if you agree that this priest (whom I have known for 30 years, and who with Fr Tomelleri and Fr Ragazzini was educated with me at the Mazza Institute in Verona) be chosen definitively as parish priest; in which case I would issue him the necessary licence. For many good reasons, which I am sure will not escape your wisdom, this choice seems appropriate to me.
[3792]
Finally, in response to the many letters Fr Stanislao wrote me from Verona, Cairo and Wadi Halfa, and to his intention, of which he informed me in Khartoum, to resign from the post of Vicar General in order to devote himself more thoroughly to the establishment of the Religious house in Berber, I have accepted his resignation, such an important office being really incompatible with his new position and long-term residence in Berber.
[3793]
Assuring you of all my careful and loving concern for your beloved Religious Family in Berber, with the most ardent desire to see you again soon in Rome, I offer you my veneration and thanks, and have the pleasure to remain wholeheartedly

Your Most Reverend Father’s most humble and devoted true servant

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[3794]
There being no obstacle to the canonical establishment of the Mission House in Berber, where there are already as many as five priests of the Order of St Camillus who are licensed by Propaganda, and two lay brothers, on the 1st of this month of April I issued the Decree of canonical establishment for the above-mentioned Mission House, of which I am dutifully sending Your Most Reverend Eminence a copy enclosed herewith as Appendix A.
[3795]
Likewise, since Fr Carcereri told me in a letter of 16th March that Your Most Reverend Eminence (having given him an Apostolic Missionary licence for Fr Giuseppe Franceschini, which I have seen) has asked me to examine the said Fr Franceschini on his knowledge of and attitude to the apostolic ministry; since the candidate was in Berber, I asked Fr Carcereri himself to carry out the required examination. This having been done on 2nd April, he sent me the enclosed declaration which, since I know the young religious’s good qualities for the Mission in Central Africa, I thought well to confirm by sending it to Your Most Reverend Eminence as Appendix B.
[3796]
All the trunks and provisions of Fr Carcereri’s expedition which survived the disaster of the Aswan cataracts are still in Wadi Halfa, more than 40 days away from Khartoum. Following the advice of the Imperial Royal Austro-Hungarian Consul, the local Governor and a few experienced merchants, I gave an order to my emissary Augusto Wisniewski that he should take these provisions and effects back as far as Korosko and take the Atmur desert route via Abuhammed and Berber. I hope to be able to receive everything in Khartoum in a month and a half.
[3797]
The Reverend Mother Provincial Sr Emilienne Naubonnet, in spite of her age and thirty years of mission work in Syria, safely crossed the desert of the Bisharin from Suakin on the Red Sea to Berber (a 15 day camel ride) and already left that city on the 7th of this month, so I hope she will reach Khartoum in a week’s time. She will have the sorrow of not finding Sr Victoire Maillé, who went to her eternal repose on the 2nd of this month.
[3798]
La scorsa domenica ebbi lettere da Gebel Nuba, ove sono felicemente arrivati i miei Missionari e cordialmente ricevuti da quel capo e dalla popolazione di Delen. Spero che il Cuore Sacratissimo di Gesù benedirà questa novella Missione.


[3799]
Even His Excellency Ismail Pasha, Governor General of the Sudan and Commander in chief of the Egyptian army in Darfur empire wrote to me from its capital on 10 Safar (17 March) giving me excellent news of this new conquest, asking for my news and showing himself to be of excellent disposition. He is organising this vast kingdom he has conquered into five great Mudirdoms, or Provinces, and then he will return to Khartoum.
[3800]
Colonel Gordon, now appointed Ferik Pasha, has left Gondokoro and established his main residence at Lado, three hours further north. He has been abandoned by nearly all his coadjutors, who are returning to Europe, it is said, because of his great strictness. But the most likely reason is because he is a soldier and wants order and punctuality, under him nobody can steal.
Moreover, he is terrible and uncompromising with the slave trade, which has completely disappeared from the places which surround his residence: but it is in full force some distance away from Lado and the banks of the White Nile, which his scant troops cannot reach.
I have the honour of expressing my deepest veneration and respectfully kissing the Sacred Purple, I remain in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary,

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

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[3801]
I received your letter of 18th February yesterday, together with three issues of your most devout journal most sweetly entitled Kleiner Herz-Jesu-Bote (Little Messenger of the Heart of Jesus).
[3802]
I send many thanks for your attention and charity and to my most devout benefactors who, through you, have shown mercy for this most arduous Mission in Central Africa, and for the African children.
[3803]
Every day we pray in public and in private to the Heart of Jesus, to whom I have consecrated the whole Vicariate with the approval of the Supreme Pontiff Pius IX and of the Holy Apostolic See, for you and for the benefactors of Catholic Germany, for the intrepid Bishops, priests and faithful of Rhineland and German Prussia, whose faith, steadfastness and heroism are an example to the world, to the Angels and to mankind. We Missionaries in Central Africa, although weakened by our enormous work, do not consider ourselves worthy to be called the disciples of the most courageous men, both ecclesiastical and lay, of Catholic Germany. Your example fortifies our spirit and inspires us to bear greater sufferings for the salvation and redemption of the blacks of Central Africa. Courage therefore! Our triumph will soon console both you and the Church of Christ. The Heart of Jesus is with us.
[3804]
In 30 months, that is, since September of 1872, the Most Reverend Fr Noecker, parish priest of Cologne has given my Vicariate 40,000 (forty thousand) francs and the task of buying some children.
[3805]
But I have not received the French version of what you deigned to tell me in your letter; so I still do not know today any of the special conditions and intentions of the most devout benefactors. The most illustrious and reverend Fr Noecker, together with the members of the Pious Association of Cologne for the redemption and education of African children (with whom I have been in contact for fifteen years), is and has always been most precise and faithful in transmitting the money and the intentions of the benefactors of the black people of Central Africa. I appeal to your charity so that when you collect for me and for Central Africa you will deign to send it to the most reverend Fr Noecker, President of the above said Association, for thus your offerings will reach me certainly and punctually.
[3806]
The reasons for which I did not receive that letter in French may be numerous:
1. The post from Alexandria to Cairo or, in a single word, from many parts of Egypt or Nubia, is not like the post in Europe. Therefore many letters sent to me in Central Africa or written by me to Europe have been lost. This has earned the Egyptian Government complaints from me or the Imperial Royal Austro-Hungarian Consul. Letters and writings are transported on camel-back, and Arabs are very far from being civilised and are still primitive.
2. The reverend Fr Carcereri, who once was my Vicar-General, is an excellent writer and editor and is very well educated, but (to tell you the truth, confidentially and secretly) he is an appalling administrator and very inexperienced in business. While I stayed for two years in El Obeid in Kordofan, he received all the letters sent to me from Europe and he was very negligent in forwarding them to me.

[3807]
Fr Carcereri, who left Khartoum on 10th December 1873 for Europe, visited Italy, France, Germany and Austria on business for the Mission. Returning to Egypt, he proceeded to Khartoum. Now he is Superior of the Mission house in Berber. In Europe, before the month of July last year, he personally received many letters from many of my benefactors in Italy, Germany and Austria and with these he received money, clothes, books, vestments and sacred vessels, but he did not inform me in detail of each item, except a few things.
[3808]
From Berber, he has now sent me many letters dated April, May and June of last year. He also sent me some old letters from Cairo, some from Wadi Halfa, from Aswan and Dongola and yet more with food supplies he brought to Cairo and which have been stuck in Wadi Halfa because he could not bring them to Khartoum for the lack of sixty camels.
[3809]
Fr Carcereri went to Cologne in June last year, where he received 20,000 francs from Fr Noecker. It is certain that the Association for Africans or the Most Reverend parish priest Fr Noecker gave him all the required notes according to the intentions of the benefactors, as is always done.
[3810]
In these circumstances, I shall willingly fulfil the conditions and wishes expressed in your letter I have just received; I will redeem the ten Africans in Kordofan Mission. Your reverence will be so kind as to send me the names of the children, as requested by the benefactors or by you. We have already redeemed many children at El Obeid with money from the Cologne Association, and next month, when I am going to Nuba territory to found a Mission as requested by the Holy Apostolic See, I shall administer the sacraments to 25 or 30 children redeemed last year. Be so kind therefore, most honourable Sir, as to send me, by return post, the names of the children redeemed by the benefactors in Westphalia.
[3811]
Forgive me for writing to you in Latin; I am not sleeping due to all I have to do and I am exhausted. That is why I am not writing in German because it would take longer and I would have to use a dictionary. You can write in German though, because I understand it quite well. If you want, you can also write in French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian or Latin; languages spoken by westerners.
[3812]
My collaborators: the Superior of Khartoum and my Vicar General, Fr Pasquale Fiore, my Secretary Fr Paolo Rossi and Fr Losi, Rector of the Mission in Kordofan will faithfully forward all your letters to me. The same goes for Fr Bartolomeo Rolleri, the Superior of the College for Africans in Cairo.
Please send me your most beautiful journal Kleiner Herz-Jesu Bote for March, April and the following months because it is a fine compendium of the history of the Apostolic Missions. I thank you for that.

[3813]
When I find a little time I will write to you about my Vicariate which is very large and is the most populated in the whole world, and whose peoples lie in the darkness and the shadow of death.
[3814]
Please thank my benefactors as much as you can and, if possible, send me the names of the most venerable ones so that they may be mentioned in our prayers. As far as money is concerned, please be kind enough always to send it to Mr Noecker.
In the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I remain

Your absolute servant in Christ

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa


Translated from Latin.

[3815]
Having been burdened with important and urgent tasks and pressed with visits of all kinds, I have so far been prevented from sending you news on the situation and condition of our mission. I implore your forgiveness. The good Lord has this time given me an excellent secretary, filled with the apostolic spirit, in the person of Fr Paolo Rossi, former student of our African Institute in Verona, through whom I shall soon be able to send detailed reports on the blessings which the Heart of Jesus has granted this Central African Vicariate of ours to the Cologne Association, to whose efforts this immense Vicariate owes its resurrection and its existence.
[3816]
With this letter I am sending you in advance the agreements I have signed with both the Superior General of the “Clerics Regular Ministers to the Sick” and the Mother General of the Congregation of the “Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition”, which have been approved by Propaganda in Rome. I also enclose the very recent “Decree” of canonical establishment of the mission house in Berber. All the Fathers of the Congregation of St Camillus de Lellis, also known as the “Clerics Regular Ministers to the Sick”, at the request of their Prefect, the Most Reverend Fr Stanislao Carcereri, must stay in Berber for a year. The exceptions are Frs Franceschini and Chiarelli who, together with a veteran of the missions, the Reverend Mr Wisniewski from the Diocese of Ermeland in Prussia, are standing by to visit the Nuba peoples under my personal leadership. Under the leadership of Fr Luigi Bonomi from our Verona Institute, I have also already sent four lay brother coadjutors there. When they arrived two months ago in the first village, Delen, they were welcomed by the chief with great kindness. They will be building two houses there: one for the Missionaries and one for the Sisters of St Joseph.
[3817]
Another recent arrival in Khartoum, via the Red Sea and Suakin, is the reverend Mother Provincial, Sr Emilienne Naubonnet, who has already spent 30 years as Superior of the missions in Syria and who first went to the East with the V. Rev. Massimiliano Ryllo, a priest of the Society of Jesus who died in 1848 as the first Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa and whose earthly remains are buried in the garden of the house I have just built for the Sisters. Already for two years I had been sending repeated entreaties to the late Cardinal Barnabò requesting a Mother Provincial of Central Africa to direct the religious Institutes of the Sisters, and now this favour has been granted to me, both by the new Prefect of Propaganda, His Eminence Cardinal Franchi and by her Superior General. She is a strong 56 year-old woman, endowed with a robust spirit and with singular experience and ability; if God wills she will be most useful to the Vicariate.
[3818]
The Missionaries who left Cairo on 24th October 1874 arrived in Khartoum on 3rd February this year, but the things they were bringing, provisions and items for the mission, have not arrived. All these were left in Wadi Halfa for four months and have since been in the capital of Dongola, almost everything having gone to waste. This loss, which amounts to nearly 30,000 francs, was caused by two mistakes on the part of the leader of the caravan. Indeed, instead of taking the usual route which merchants and missionaries have taken since 1847, via Korosko and Berber, he went via Wadi Halfa and Dongola, which is too long, dangerous and expensive. Instead of passing the Aswan cataracts with the boats empty while the luggageis carried past these cataracts overland by camels and the travellers by donkeys as all missionaries have done since Knoblecher, he crossed these danger zones with the boats loaded and therefore without following the rules of prudence, thus exposing the missionaries and Sisters to the great peril of drowning, and it was only by a miracle that they were saved from certain shipwreck.
[3819]
But unfortunately, one boat with provisions and church vestments broke up and sank, taking our dearest confrère Giuseppe Avesani to his death in the waters. For this reason and due to these serious losses, I am now unable to go to Kordofan and Jebel Nuba. Although at the moment this fact fills me with grief, I do not want to lose heart. Rather I shall be able to say with the Patriarch Job: “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; what has happened is the Lord’s will. Blessed be the name of the Lord!”
May the divine Heart of Jesus give us life and strength. My cordial greetings and may you remember with love
your most grateful friend

Daniel Comboni, Pro-Vicar


Translated from German.

[3820]
I am now at the head of the most enormous Mission in the whole world, surrounded by the largest and heaviest of crosses. In the midst of my pains and my labours, inflamed by an immense heat, I was brought great and ineffable consolation by the news sent to me by Mother Emilie Julien of your happy marriage to a dear angel, Mademoiselle de Tanquerelle des Planches the niece of Cardinal de Cheverus, who has now become your dearest wife. Oh, my dearest friend, this news has filled me with true consolation and brought me solace, both because it is happy news and because it fulfils the wishes of your incomparable mother. We have sung a solemn Mass for it in my little cathedral, to give thanks to God for this great good fortune.
[3821]
My dear Auguste, this is the fruit of the great prayers to heaven your admirable mother said and had said in the whole world. Even in the most distant regions of Central Africa I myself have never missed a single day in praying to God that he may give you a companion on earth and you may be sure that prayers were said in Asia, in America, in Australia, in Rome and everywhere for this, since your incomparable mother, with her heroic faith and unique perseverance, well deserves to be heard. For many years she shed so many tears, sighed so many sighs and even had the August Majesty of Pius IX pray for this good fortune. So our incomparable God was forced to hear her powerful motherly prayers.
[3822]
Give thanks, my dear Auguste, to the good Lord first of all, to the Holy Virgin and to Pius IX and then to the faith of your incomparable mother who has brought you this good fortune. Make certain, dear friend, that you and your worthy bride carefully serve God and bring happiness on earth to your good mother who has deserved it through her faith, her perseverance and her motherly love.
Dear Auguste, please give my affectionate greetings to your wife, whom I hope to meet before I die and please send me her photograph by post. Here is my address:

Mgr Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa
via Egypt Khartoum in the Sudan

On 16th July I shall say Mass in Kordofan for you, your wife and your mother.

Your friend Daniel Comboni


Translated from French.