Writings

[4655]
Sacra Congregatio Eminentissimorum Cardinalium ad aedes Vaticanas die 2.a huius mensis me Episcopum et Vicarium Ap.licum declaravit; et Summus Pontifex Pius IX die 8°. huius confirmavit sententiam Eminentissimorum, et me elegit Bishop and Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa. Since whenever the Pope sees me, both in conversation and in the hall, he always says here is our African, etc., the Most Eminent Cardinal sent to the Most Holy Auditore begging him to confer upon me the title of Bishop of Carthage. This was formerly an archiepiscopal title and the previous Archbishop was Mgr Heinald; but after Algeria was raised to a Metropolitan see, it became an episcopal title.
[4656]
However, I must wait about eight or ten days for the Brief and I shall then write and tell you if it is Carthage, and the date of the Consecration. I have been suffering from a cold for a few days, but today I shall visit the Cardinal who officially announced my promotion to me. A thousand respects to the Most Illustrious Angelo the Secretary and to all the Lateran Fathers, Gasser, etc.
[4657]
I do not feel much like writing today. Please notify Steiner of my promotion. I shall write later to the Eminent Cardinal Archbishop of Vienna.
Tuissimus

Daniel, Bishop-elect
and Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[4658]
With this humble petition, I warmly implore Your Eminence’s excellent bounty to kindly deign to grant my vast and most remote Vicariate 3 trunks of sacred vestments.
[4659]
The stations of the Vicariate are more than a 15-day journey from one another; in Central Africa sacred vestments do not keep as long as elsewhere. Trunks ordered in this way for the celebration of Holy Mass are very useful for missionaries who are forced to make gruelling journeys across scorching deserts, interminable jungles and winding rivers; one of these trunks will serve for the Mission of Khartoum, one for that in the Kingdom of Kordofan, and the other, for that of Jebel Nuba.
[4660]
Full of trust that my prayer will be heard, I kiss your Sacred Purple, and I am, with the deepest respect
Your Most Reverend Eminence’s most humble, devoted and obedient son,

Daniel Comboni
Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[4661]
I have the honour of telling you that on the 2nd of this month, the feast of the Visitation, the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda elected me Bishop and Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa, and that on the 8th, the Holy Father Pius IX deigned to confirm the Eminent Cardinals’ proposal. His Eminence the Cardinal Prefect has given me the official communication.
[4662]
I beg you, Monsignor, to send a short note to the Reverend Father General of the Trinitarians asking him to give me 5,000 francs in gold, so that I can withdraw from him the bill of exchange you did me the honour of sending, which I transmitted to him as a document. I would also like you to explain to him that the 5,000 francs are in gold because he has only given me 5,000 Italian lire. It was he himself, this holy and venerable religious, who told me to write to you.
[4663]
Since he did not give the money to me but to my banker, Brown, my friend, I thought he had given me 5,000 francs.
[4664]
I commend myself to your holy prayers to sustain my unworthiness in the very demanding and difficult episcopate of Central Africa.
In the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary I have the honour of declaring myself
Your most devoted

Daniel Comboni
Bishop-elect and Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa


Translated from French.

[4665]
I have finally arrived at my goal after three years of troubles, suffering and mortal anguish which my enemies, as God’s love arranged, procured for me. I forgive them with all my heart; my triumph is complete.
[4666]
On the 2nd of this month the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda appointed me Bishop and Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa and on the 8th of the month, the Pope approved and confirmed my nomination. I shall be consecrated by His Eminence Cardinal Franchi in early August.
[4667]
I therefore hope to see you next month, with my dear Auguste and his dear wife whom I am impatient to know personally and of whom I have heard so many good things. I am also dealing with your special Audience and the favours. The Pope celebrates Mass seated in a chair because of his bad leg; he has great difficulty in walking.
[4668]
Please give my warmest regards to my dear Auguste. And you, dear lady, whom I have never one instant forgotten in my prayers, please excuse me for my long silence, since I am always immersed in pain and business and worried about finding the means to sustain my thirteen Institutes which I founded in ten years, spending almost two million; but what has most upset me are the crosses and the hostility of religious.
[4669]
I have also learned much from the shining example of your faith, your perseverance and your superhuman fortitude in trials which are truly edifying. You are a mother beyond compare. The good Lord, who has seen your faith and piety, has heard you and you will soon see a family growing, which will be your consolation. Remember me to Auguste and to his wife, as I remain
Your most affectionate

Daniel Comboni
Bishop-elect and Vicar Apostolic


Translated from the French.

[4670]
I must certainly deserve in your eyes to be a vis-de mèmòla, while I kept silent for so long without fulfilling my promises. But if you knew the details, you would withdraw the vis-de mèmòla, and you would say that I was a man crucified, not totally lacking in judgement, and deserved the compassion of reasonable persons.
[4671]
First came the anguish of the duel to death and of the struggle until ten days ago with my friends. The head, or Gr. Or. has been in Rome for a month (haec inter nos).
[4672]
The efforts for the pilgrimages, given my widespread acquaintances, the good services done for many and above all for the great benefactors qui ad limina fuerunt, my ailments, the bills of exchange of more than 50,000 francs from Africa paid with sweat in the last two weeks (but on Monday St Joseph sent me more than 46,000 francs and 18 centimes in a single go and many more from Germany and other places), the Governance of my very thorny Vicariate from a corner in Rome, and the death of my Sister Provincial, veteran of the Oriental missions where she had been Superior for 34 years (this still saddens and torments me now) and a thousand other crosses, all this should excuse me in your eyes.
[4673]
God’s Works are born, grow and mature at the foot of Calvary, and the cross is the seal and the hallmark of Works of God. To muster some strength, I went to Nocera de’ Pagani and from there to Naples to pray at the tomb of St Alphonsus de’ Liguori which restored my courage. I said Mass at the Tomb of St Matthew the Apostle, the first to bring the Gospel to a large part (the Ethiopian part) of my Vicariate, and on that of St Gregory VII, homo tribulatus propter iustiam. But God witnessed my sighs.
[4674]
On the 2nd of this month the Sacred Congregation of the Most Eminent Cardinals gathered solemnly at the Vatican proclaimed me Bishop and Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa; and the Holy Father, Pius IX, proclaimed me Bishop and Vicar Apostolic on the 8th, confirming the Sacred Congregation’s decision; the day before yesterday, my Most Eminent Cardinal Prefect of the Sacred Congregation gave me the news officially. Never was a case so rigorously discussed and examined at the Congregation as mine.
[4675]
But God is the patron of innocence and justice and truth. I shall be able to tell you the day of my consecration when I have received the Brief.
The Most Eminent Franchi was a true Father to me.

[4676]
In Rome I made the acquaintance of the devout and scholarly Priest, Fr Luigi Soave. Please send him this note. Give this news to the Bishops, to Sartori and to my acquaintances in the divine Vicenza: give my greetings to Fr Consolaro and to everyone, commend me to the prayers of Fr Farina, the angel of the Diocese of Vicenza, and believe that I am
All yours, most affectionately,

Daniel, Bishop-elect
and Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa


[4677]
Many good wishes from me to your father and sister. Fr Paolo sends you his regards.

[4678]
I received your most precious letter with the petition to the Holy Father which I immediately presented at the Vatican. I hope it will have good results. Thank you for having the kindness to give me this chance to please you.
[4679]
I announce to you that on the 2nd of this month the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda, at the General Assembly of the Most Eminent Cardinals at the Vatican, and the Holiness of Our Lord Pius IX, appointed me Bishop and Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa.
[4680]
The promotion to the honour of the Episcopal dignity of a poor son of a rag-and-bone man of Limone, born in the caves and who lived in the shadow of S. Carlo and for many years ate the proverbial polenta and squaquaciò of Upper Tacuso, is something to be wondered at; it is the realisation of St Paul’s words that God chose the weak of this world to confound the powerful, the base, etc. and so forth.
[4681]
Give many greetings for me to Fr Guella, Signor Tommaso and his wife, and when you see the Stigmatine brothers, give them my regards and commend me to their prayers.
In the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, I declare myself with all my affection
Yours most affectionately and devotedly in the Lord,

Daniel Comboni
Bishop-elect and Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[4682]
When I returned from Kordofan to Rome I brought two young African boys with me from the interior tribes of Central Africa. I had in mind to enrol them at the Pontifical Urbanian College, so that they might be imbued with the apostolic spirit at its true source, in order to be apostles among their fellow countrymen later.
[4683]
Daniele Sorur and Arturo Morsàl, bought and baptised by me and taught by my missionaries, are two boys about 13, with outstanding intelligence and memory, and with honest habits. They are eager to be apostles among their brethren: I kept them for a year at my Institute in Verona, so that they could join Propaganda for Latin studies. According to the judgement of the Rector and Professors of Verona, they have the makings of very successful apostles in their unfortunate homeland.
[4684]
Young Daniel Sorur’s father, who wanted to prevent his wife and children from being stolen and abducted as slaves, was killed by jallabas; and I was present when his mother, a former slave, came to the mission to reclaim her son so that he might become Muslim; he said no, because he had to think of saving his soul and becoming Christian. He was 9 at the time.
[4685]
I implore the excellent goodness of Your Eminence to deign to accept these two flowers from the African garden for the coming academic year.
As I bow to kiss your Sacred Purple, I sign with the deepest respect,
Your Eminence’s most devoted, respectful and obedient son,

Daniel Comboni
Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[4686]
I wanted to write to Your Excellency on 3rd May to congratulate you when your most devout sister, foundress of the Daughters of the Sacred Heart, was made a Venerable: but I was disheartened to hear from a most venerable Cardinal that Your Excellency never wanted to lift a finger to promote the Canonisation of that holy foundress, flower and ornament of Christian Virgins.
[4687]
However, I never gave up the idea of carrying out this act, which I now accomplish with this letter in which I have the honour of announcing to you that the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda, at its General Assembly of Most Eminent Cardinals gathered at the Vatican on the 2nd of this month, the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, deigned to appoint my small and unworthy self as Bishop and Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa. Our adored Holy Father Pius IX, on the 8th of the month, deigned to confirm the decree of the Sacred Congregation.
[4688]
Under the administration of my predecessor in the Vicariate Apostolic of Central Africa, 36 out of 40 missionaries died, and I was one of the survivors.
[4689]
Then the Seraphic Order sent 53 missionaries there, and lost 22, victims of charity and the lethal African climate, and all the others returned to Egypt, to the Holy Land or to Europe.
[4690]
Since 1872, when I was appointed Pro-Vicar Apostolic, not one of the 19 missionaries I brought there has died, thanks to the mercy of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and of St Joseph, to whom I solemnly consecrated the entire Vicariate, and thanks to the suitability of my Plan for the Regeneration of Africa, which came to me in a flash on 18th September 1864, just as I was leaving St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican where I had taken part in the solemn Beatification of Margaret Mary Alacoque. The Sacred Congregation and the Holy Father have seen my Vicariate as stable and lasting, and therefore considered the time was ripe to organise it properly and give it a Bishop.
[4691]
Oh! How I long for some excellent candidates for it from our city and Diocese of Brescia: but I was frightened to hear from my friend Marinoni, Superior of the Seminary of the Foreign Missions of Milan, that in the 27 years he has lived in his Institute, he had never had a single seminarian from Brescia. However, I do not yet despair. Having solemnly proclaimed my war cry: “Africa or Death”, I hope to have some yet.
[4692]
My Vicariate is the largest, most densely populated, demanding and difficult in the world. Its territory covers an expanse far larger than the whole of Europe, it contains a tenth part of the entire human race, that is, more than a hundred million infidels, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus must convert them all.
[4693]
Why shouldn’t I have a few Brescian brother priests, who share the efforts and labours and death with me for the salvation of those souls, the most unfortunate on earth? I commend myself to Jesus, to Mary, to St Joseph and to Your Excellency.
[4694]
I beg you kindly to greet with respect your baculum senectutis, that angel Mgr Carminati, and Mgr Corno, his worthy Coadjutor, whom I had the honour to meet at the Vatican during the Celebrations for Pius IX’s Episcopal Jubilee.
As I kiss your Sacred Ring, I have the honour to sign myself in the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary
Your Most Reverend Excellency’s most humble, devoted and obedient servant and son,

Daniel Comboni
Bishop-elect
and Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[4695]
After the grace of the gift of faith God gave you in Africa, the greatest gift God has offered you is certainly the one he is offering you now, which is your acceptance by the Holy Father Pius IX into the most sublime Institute in the world, the Pontifical Urban College of Propaganda Fide, to be trained for the Apostolate of Central Africa. Here in Rome, under the influence of the Holy Apostolic See, you will drink in that spirit which must form you as true apostles of your brethren who lie in their millions in darkness and in the shadow of death.
[4696]
I therefore invite you with all my heart to be equal to such marked graces by leading a holy life, by studying what is prescribed for you diligently, and by abiding by the holy rules of the famous College which are the fruit of the experience of more than two centuries and were conceived by many Supreme Pontiffs.
[4697]
You will therefore come to Rome next week, in accordance with the orders of your Rector, Fr Antonio. You will attend my Episcopal consecration and enter the holy Institute of Propaganda filled with the desire to become holy, subsequently to sanctify and save from death your brothers and sisters in Central Africa.
In the meantime I bless you with all my heart,
Your most affectionate Father,

+ Daniel Comboni
Bishop of Claudiopolis i.p.i.
Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[4698]
I have not forgotten you, my dear friend, and if I haven’t answered the couple of lines you sent me on 12th May, it is because I was exhausted with the efforts of the pilgrimage, since I helped many people and have been immersed in a thousand troubles and afflictions caused by my enemies in Propaganda. Then I did not think it wise to advise the Superior of Nice to go to Egypt in the great summer heat, because things were not properly prepared.
[4699]
I have spoken to Mgr Torroni and he tells me over and over again that the Apostolic Delegate of Egypt, Mgr Ciurcia, has nothing against your settling in Egypt, although he has learned from a reliable source that the current Prefect in Upper Egypt is very angry and has said he will never let anyone except Franciscans occupy the slightest space in his Prefecture.
[4700]
But you are not a man to fear difficulties and how right I think you are. I therefore wrote to Duret that it would be best to go to Egypt when I go, that is, between September and October, and in the beginning, to stay at my house in Cairo. From there, either I myself or one of my Missionaries will accompany him to Upper Egypt and the Suez Canal.
[4701]
Once settled in Egypt, and to be in a stronger position, you must see that he is equipped with letters of recommendation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the General Consulate of Egypt. Other than my Work, he will have beside him the Brothers of the Christian Schools and the French Sisters, who have great influence with the people and with all honest persons.
There are mission posts there which are available.

[4702]
Rome has the wisdom of the Holy Spirit and it is in the light of this wisdom, which protects innocence and ensures that justice and truth always triumph, that on the 2nd of this month, the Sacred Congregation appointed me Bishop and Vicar Apostolic, and my enemies inciderunt in foveam quam fecerunt.
Pray for me
Your faithful friend,

Daniel Comboni
Bishop-elect and Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa


Translated from French.