Writings

[3823]

I beg you to forgive me, dearest Madame, for my silence. I have been sent a multitude of crosses, illnesses, treacheries and immense labours, and would need 50 pages to give you the slightest idea of them. Nevertheless, amidst my crosses I never forgot to think of you, to pray for you and for Auguste. Oh, what joy I had at the news of Auguste’s marriage to Mademoiselle de Tanquerelle des Planches, who is indeed worthy of you! I can tell you that this fact has made forget my crosses.

[3824]

I am a witness, Madame, of the promises you made for this. I am quite familiar with your heart and know your soul inside out: you have well deserved this grace. The good Lord had to grant it to you; and Auguste, because of his devotion to his mother, has been blessed. I have greatly thanked God for this good fortune. Now we must pray that he has children and God will grant them to him.
As soon as I receive the beautiful chasuble you sent me (the only one to have been saved from the shipwreck in the cataracts, they tell me) I shall sing Mass in this chasuble for you and your children. Among the misfortunes and immense losses I have had, the good Lord has granted me many graces, including a miracle which saved all the Missionaries and the three Sisters of St Joseph from death when the imprudence of one of my Missionaries, instead of landing everybody at Aswan, made the boats enter the cataracts where one of them was wrecked and all was lost on the rocks.

[3825]
The Sisters and Missionaries should have lost their lives with the provisions and religious items. But, through the grace of God, only one farmer was drowned and perished. This same caravan, which left Cairo on 24th October, has still not completely reached Khartoum. It was a real disaster for my entire Vicariate, throwing me into great financial difficulties and creating immense losses, as well as delaying my affairs. All because of the imprudence and obstinacy of just one man. Fiat!
[3826]
May the good Lord be praised! I have had a loss of more than 30,000 francs. But in the midst of these great crosses and other even more terrible ones, the good Lord blesses this huge Vicariate which is the most immense and hardest Mission on earth, which is larger than the whole of Europe and inhabited by more than 100 million infidels. I have been able to build a superb house in Khartoum for the Sisters of St Joseph and another in Kordofan, then I opened and canonically erected the new Mission in Berber and have started to build the Mission in the Nuba territory to the south of Kordofan and Darfur.
[3827]
Our Mother General Emilie has further contributed to strengthening the house of her Sisters in my Vicariate. She has given me a Provincial Superior whom I requested with insistence, and who will go to my episcopal residence. This Mother is Sr Emilienne Naubonnet from Pau who has spent 30 years as a Superior in the East. She is an able and exemplary woman missionary, full of courage and dedication. She arrived three weeks ago in Khartoum where I have got to know her well; I am pleased.
Mother Emilie could not have answered my prayers better than by sending me Sr Emilienne. In Syria, she formed and educated nearly all the Arab Sisters, three of whom I even have on the Mission. They are real soldiers who win many souls, who are respected and feared by Turks and Africans.

[3828]
One of these good Sisters, seeing that I was not succeeding in winning over a man who had a concubine, went quietly along to the man’s house, abducted the concubine and brought her to our house, converted her, instructed her and I baptised her. Now she is a good Christian who comes to confession every Sunday. The man has come to me several times to reclaim his lover; I told him it was none of my business, that he should go to the Sisters. He went there several times, but in vain, because after a month the concubine asked the Arab Sister to tell him that she no longer wanted to stay with him, for she was a Christian. These Sisters are very useful in the Missions! I will write to you soon.
[3829]
I tell you in secret that the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda, at its session of 14th August, has raised me to the episcopate, but before I go to Rome for the consecration I must open and start the new Mission among the Nuba. It is an immense journey that I must undertake. I think I will be able to go to Rome next year. Needless to say that be it in Rome, in France or at the end of the earth, as soon as I have been consecrated a Bishop, I want to see you, to go to your house and spend a few days with you, with Auguste and his wife; and I hope Maria will be there. I will also speak to you of the most difficult and colossal Mission in the whole world. I wish to have a photograph of your daughter-in-law and have already asked Auguste for one. Give me some news about her birth, her education and the human circumstances which determined this event. I hope this girl will share her life with you.
[3830]
I wish you this good fortune. You have deserved this angel for you and for Auguste. Give my regards to Maria and to everyone I know in your family. Sr Emilienne, Provincial Superior of Central Africa, to whom I have spoken about you, takes the liberty of sending you her respects. Please give me news of Urbansky and in the hope of writing to you soon, I remain in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary with all my heart

Your most devoted Daniel Comboni


Translated from French.

[3831]
Infinite thanks for the fine volume of Latin and Italian inscriptions in loving tribute to Frs Bresciani and Artini which form a compendium of the life and works of these two stars of the Verona clergy. It gave me the greatest pleasure that you should remember me in my smallness and send me such a splendid gift. But it would be most desirable, as a tribute of filial love, that the Camillians of Venetia should undertake another series of publications: 1. The printing of all the funeral orations of the incomparable Fr Bresciani, the founder, a model of sacred eloquence, especially in his portrayal of the heroes he commends. If this were done, I would subscribe to 12 copies. 2. The funeral orations for both the Fathers of the Venetian Camillian Family and especially Fr Bresciani’s oration. Having celebrated the greatest names of the homeland, he died without anyone giving him a funeral oration up to now. If it has not been written, it is never too late to do so, since this apostle of charity deserves it. 3. Finally, the publication of the life of Bresciani as well as Fr Artini: even if all was not crystal clear due to rather loose ideas in 1866, they are still both flowers of the Verona garden.
[3832]
In Berber they are all in perfect health and I have news every week. I am quite delighted that Fr Giovanni Battista Carcereri has decided to dedicate himself to the African apostolate: he is diligently studying Arabic and with real success. I have proposed to the Most Reverend Father General that he allow me to appoint him definitively as parish priest of Berber. In the meantime, I have appointed him parish vicar with the faculty of conferring the sacrament of Confirmation in all the great provinces of Berber, Taca, Suakin and Dongola. I have issued the Decree of canonical establishment of the Mission house in Berber. Within this month, I shall probably summon the good Fr Franceschini to Khartoum. I commend myself to your prayers and to those of the most devout Br Bonzanini and of all the fathers in Verona, to whom I send my cordial and respectful greetings. In the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary I remain your most affectionate and devoted

Daniel Comboni,
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[3833]
That all the works of salvation are born and grow at the foot of the Cross is a fact proved by the constant experience of nineteen centuries. The conviction of this, as it has strengthened my spirit in a thousand difficulties amidst which the Work for the redemption of Africa has put down it roots, so now, in these present disasters, brings me ever greater encouragement. The unfortunate passage of an entire caravan through the Aswan cataracts, a route never tried before by the Missionaries because it is unusual, longer and more expensive, was taken by Fr Carcereri to Wadi Halfa in preference to the route via Korosko so far used by all Missionaries with caravans of up to 700 camels. As a result, what remained of the crates of provisions, which were taken from Cairo in October of last year and were left by Fr Carcereri in Wadi Halfa, were singularly delayed and have not yet appeared in Khartoum. All this and other inconveniences have brought the Mission considerable harm, the consequences of which I would like to discuss at greater length.
[3834]
Yet the Lord, who casts us down and raises us up, while with one hand he offers me a cross which I accept with all the enthusiasm of a spirit that willingly accepts such a pledge of protection, with the other he shows me reasons to hope and be consoled. I firmly believe that the divine Heart of Jesus will in his infinite goodness and mercy put right everything that has gone wrong, since by his grace he has always and will always guide his holy work. Indeed, already after a safe journey of 55 days via Suez, Suakin and Berber, on 18th April last, he brought into Khartoum the Provincial Superior of the Sisters of the Vicariate, Sr Emilienne Naubonnet aged fifty-six, who has been a Superior for thirty years in the East, where she founded the houses of Saïda, Deir-el-Qamar and Beirut. After God, I am happily indebted to Your Eminence’s supreme bounty for the gift of this Superior who, as I have been able to observe in this period, since she is good and hardworking, equipped with common sense and experience, great courage and proven self-denial, will serve very well both in the regular direction of the Sisters and the progressive development of the Work.
[3835]
The Mission moreover is making very good progress, thanks to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. All the Camillians are gathered in Berber and are already beginning their work; work proceeds in Khartoum and Kordofan, and for a month already, work is also going on in Jebel Nuba for the preparation of the houses. As soon as I am able, I shall be going there myself to help the excellent Missionaries firmly to establish the new Mission there. Meanwhile, I cannot but express my satisfaction to Your Eminence at the courage and spirit of sacrifice of my two Missionaries there: Fr Luigi Bonomi, Superior, and Fr Gennaro Martini; who although they found among these tribes a terrain anything but easy, have deployed a truly admirable energy, always trusting in the protection and help of God who has shown that he wants his tents to be pitched there.
[3836]
The other two works, the conquest of Darfur and of the Equator, are still under way but with varying degrees of success. The first is already a fait accompli: His Excellency Ismail Ayub Pasha is already very busy creating five great provinces in this conquered territory. A large number of government officials have already left Cairo for this area and a new road which will provide a direct link between the city of Dongola and the capital of Darfur is also actively under construction. On the other hand, the conquest of the Equator undertaken by Colonel Gordon is not proceeding so successfully, because he has been abandoned by his officials and is not receiving troop reinforcements from the Government which cannot give support to the abolition of the slave trade that is one of the Colonel’s main objectives.
I have the honour of kissing the sacred purple as I remain in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary
Your Most Reverend Eminence’s most humble, respectful and obedient son,

Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic

[3837]
Two months ago, I gave the order in Europe to pay 3,000 francs in July to clear things with Mr Lorenzo. You will perfectly understand that in this affair I have treated you, my dear Mother, and your Congregation, as a generous friend, since to do good to the Congregation and rid myself at the same time of the nuisance of this wicked swindler, who has vexed and created problems for many Congregations and Missions in the East and in France and especially yours, I undertook (after consulting eminent persons) to pay you 8,000 francs, while, after my research and examination, I found I owed only 3,000 francs, as I declared in my promissory note.
Therefore, once you have received these 3,000 francs, please send me a declaration, written and signed by you, in which you declare having received 8,000 francs from me (5,000 in 1873 and 3,000 in 1875) in total payment of the debt I had with Mr Lorenzo, etc.

[3838]
You well understand that maybe no other Vicar Apostolic has perhaps ever shown you so much generosity as I have, and so you must supply me with good and able Superiors and Sisters for Central Africa. You have already begun to do so by giving me this good and able Mother Provincial, Sr Emilienne, who so consoled me in the midst of my great crosses. She has 30 years of Mission work behind her and 30 years as a Superior. She knows the Missions, she knows how to be a Superior, and in two sentences we understood each other perfectly.
This is a woman who is worthy of her position. As a result, gone are my problems with the other Superiors who did not know how to do their job too well, even though they had other virtues. With this one, everything is decided in a couple of words. I therefore thank you very much, dear Mother, for giving Sr Emilienne to Central Africa. I assure you that she will not die and that the good Lord will long preserve her for the Mission. Sr Germana wanted her to go immediately to Kordofan, but I opposed this. She will go there in winter.

[3839]
In addition to the other good Sisters you will send me (and for Central Africa you must choose the most virtuous, the healthiest and the ones most able to look after themselves), please be so kind as to send me the following:

1. Sr Arsenia, who is at the Mother House, looked after your cousin and is a cobbler;

2. Sr Coletta who is also at the Mother House;

3. Sr Emilia Chalhoub from Saïda, who is 26 and has been a religious for 8 years.

I am very pleased with Sr Eufrasia. Pray for me

Daniel Comboni


Translated from French.

[3840]
Among the blessings God has granted me, one for which I am most grateful is to have obtained for Central Africa a Provincial Superior for the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition, with the same powers as the Mother General. For this difficult task I was granted Sr Emilienne Naubonnet, born in Pau and 56 years old. She was a Superior for 30 years in Syria and Cyprus and founded the houses of Saïda, Deir-el-Kamar and Beirut. At the time of the terrible massacres of 1860, she took in hundreds of orphans and worked miracles of charity. In view of her age, I ordered that she should be sent to Khartoum via the Red Sea, Suakin and Berber. This route is very costly, but it is shorter and less tiring. Having left Cairo on 22nd February 1875, with an Arab Sister, Sr Emilienne reached Khartoum in perfect health on 19th April.
[3841]
The conquest of Darfur is a fait accompli. His Excellency Ismail Ayub Pasha, the Governor General who made this important conquest, has written to me that he will soon be returning to Khartoum after having finished the administrative division of this vast land into five provinces. I hope shortly to be able to found a Mission in the capital, El-Fasher or Tendelti.
Among the Nuba, our Missionaries are working to prepare the houses.

[3842]
Colonel Gordon’s mission has not yet had the success of the Darfur expedition. He is encountering immense difficulties and since he is inexorably opposed to the slave trade, he is not receiving the help he needs; he has also been abandoned by most of his companions.

Daniel Comboni


Translated from French.

[3843]
As I wait impatiently for the remnants of the provisions and the crates left in Wadi Halfa by Fr Carcereri and which, 7 months and 10 days after they left Cairo, have not yet appeared in Khartoum, I would like to inform Your Eminence of a topic about which I have not yet spoken to you, that is, how the most important matter of my establishments in Egypt is faring.
[3844]
In 1867 I undertook the foundation of two Institutes in Cairo, one male and the other female, for the purpose of preparing candidates for the missions of Central Africa and to acclimatise missionaries and Sisters arriving from Europe. Propaganda knows well the early fruitful successes of this work, and especially the great importance of these two establishments for the good of the Vicariate of Central Africa.
[3845]
Given the initial usefulness, indeed the necessity of these two Institutes, for a few years I made use of two rented houses to accommodate the Institutes. But when the Sacred Congregation deigned to entrust the Vicariate of Central Africa to my Verona Institute and appointed me Pro-Vicar Apostolic in 1872, I thought of buying two houses, and since both the purchase and rental of houses in Cairo are extraordinarily expensive, requiring large sums, after mature thought, I submitted to His Highness the Khedive, through the Imperial Royal Austro-Hungarian Diplomatic Agent and Consul General in Egypt, a request that he endow me with a piece of land chosen by me in the best quarter of Cairo for the progressive building of the two planned establishments. Comforted by good words and generous promises, I left Egypt and came to the Vicariate.
[3846]
As often happens in Consulates, where there is not much zeal for religion, and in courts where there is much intrigue, my request stayed a long time on consular and viceroyal desks. To spur the matter on, I took advantage of Fr Carcereri’s trip through Egypt on his way to Rome. Indeed, in accordance with my orders, the said Father made an appeal to the Imperial Royal Austro-Hungarian Consul General, which he presented in March of last year before he left for Rome, in order to solicit a positive outcome to my request.
[3847]
Finally, at the end of July last year His Highness the Khedive, stimulated by the powerful recommendations I had obtained from the Imperial Court in Vienna, granted me the long-awaited land I had chosen, valued at 42,045.73 francs (forty-two thousand and forty-five francs, seventy-five centimes) according to the Engineers of the Egyptian government. This land is most suitable and is more than sufficient for the construction of the two planned preparatory establishments for Central Africa. It is not very far from the land the Franciscans have obtained to build a church, and was granted to me on the same conditions as the land given to the Franciscans, which involves submitting the plans of the building to the Khedive’s Administration and spending 50,000 francs on it within 18 months from the signature of the government approval of the submitted construction plans; at which time the Hoggiet or deed of property will be issued.
[3848]
Now the Reverend Fr Bortolo Rolleri, Superior of my Cairo Institutes and my Procurator General in Egypt, to my complete satisfaction, after hearing my views, accepted the land, presented my plan for the two establishments to be built in Cairo, and when it was approved by the Viceroy’s administration, he started the construction of both the Institutes and has so far spent 14,000 francs. I hope it will be completed in due course.
Today, in my drawing room where I receive visitors, the temperature is 42 degrees Réaumur.
I kiss your Sacred Purple
Your most humble, devoted and obedient son,

Daniel Comboni

[3849]
On the 7th of this month, seven and a half months after leaving Cairo, the materials and provisions of Fr Carcereri’s caravan finally arrived in Khartoum. But very little, in fact almost nothing, arrived in decent condition. As a result of this the mission has lost more than 30,000 francs. But blessed be the Lord. I had for some time been readying myself for this not inconsiderable cross, and so for some time I had been thinking about how to set things right. Our dear St Joseph, Bursar of the Vicariate of Central Africa, has already begun to put things right again, since at this very moment I already have the honour of writing to Your Eminence that not only have I successfully maintained all the Stations of the Vicariate and the Houses in Egypt for both the missionaries and the Sisters, but also, after supplying the Camillian House with furniture and necessities and having renovated and prepared it, I have already given the yearly 5,000 francs allocated to the Camillians for the year 1st March 1875 to 1st March 1876, and their Administrator has given me a receipt. Furthermore I have enough money to found the new Mission in Jebel Nuba, without being left with even a centime of debts, either in the Vicariate or in Europe, since I have also paid the last debt of 3,000 francs I had assumed with the Most Reverend Mother General in Marseilles, which I indicated in my last year’s annual Report to the Sacred Congregation. May Your Eminence’s most pious heart therefore allow me to exclaim with heartfelt gratitude: “Long live St Joseph, protector of the Universal Church, and Bursar of Africa”.
[3850]
Your Most Reverend Eminence will have heard of all the good done for Central Africa by the Eminent Committee of the Society of Mary in Vienna which, for over 20 years, has abundantly supported the Vicariate with considerable sums of money. Although it now collects only a few donations, these are always of benefit, and after the Holy See entrusted the Vicariate to me, each year it has increased its allocations. The existence of this Eminent Committee in the Austrian capital is of supreme interest to this Vicariate, since it now ensures the lofty protection that His Apostolic Majesty the Emperor Franz Josef has assumed for the Vicariate, and remains a monument in the face of the liberal Austrian Government which is as lame as all the other European Governments, as opposed to the Emperor, who wanted the foundation of the Committee and the Protectorate of Central Africa.
[3851]
The existence of this Committee is therefore of supreme interest to the mission. Its President is His Most Reverend Excellency Mgr Kutschkar, Bishop of Carré and Vicar General of His Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop of Vienna. But the soul of the Committee since its foundation in 1851 was the most noble Baron Spens-Booden, ex-Section Chief of the Ministry for Religion, who died on 14th March this year. Now it is indeed true that the said Committee met on 20th April and replaced the most valiant late Vice-President with another excellent person, Mr Steiner, the husband of the incomparable Baron Spens-Booden’s daughter: however a recommendation from Propaganda would be a powerful encouragement to the members of this illustrious Society. I therefore implore Your Most Reverend Eminence to write to the Nuncio in Vienna, Mgr Giacobini, inviting him to manifest his grief at the death of the most worthy Baron Spens (whom the Holy Father had made a Commander of the Order of St Gregory the Great three years ago) and to say that Propaganda is very concerned that the Society of Mary should prosper for the good of Central Africa.
[3852]
I shall be sure, at the first opportunity, to go to Vienna, to reinforce the Vienna Committee with new and influential Hungarian personalities (since in Hungary the clergy is charitable and rich, although obstinate), so that it may provide Africa with abundant subsidies.
[3853]
As soon as the vestiges of my caravan arrived from Wadi Halfa, I immediately prepared a new 26 camel caravan, which I sent off to Kordofan last week. Ten of these camels are to wait for me at Tura-el-Khadra on the White Nile six days away from Khartoum; and tomorrow morning with a steamer made available to me by the Government I shall be leaving with Missionaries and Sisters for Tura-el-Khadra, where I shall proceed by camel to Kordofan and to Jebel Nuba, to found the mission. Work is proceeding apace there; and since there is much work to do, I have called for Fr Franceschini and the excellent Fr Chiarelli, whom I have known for many years, from Berber, and they have been here in Khartoum for several days. I shall take these two with me.
[3854]
Since the foundation of the Mission in Jebel Nuba is important, I would like a special ad hoc blessing from the Holy Father, who is a great saint and a walking miracle of our times.
Humbly requesting Your Most Reverend Eminence’s blessing, I kiss the Sacred Purple and remain in veneration,
Your Most Reverend Eminence’s most humble, devout and obedient son

Fr Daniel Comboni
Pro-Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa