Writings

[5522]

I am writing a few lines to you because I am worn out with fevers, troubles, efforts and a broken heart. Works of God, by the adorable law of Providence, must come into being and prosper at the foot of Calvary. The Cross and martyrdom are the life of the apostolate in infidel nations; and, through the Cross and martyrdom, I am sure that Central Africa will be converted to the true faith.

[5523]

Although I am physically exhausted, by the grace of the Heart of Jesus my spirit is sound and thriving; and I am resolved, as I have been for 30 years (since 1849), to suffer all and give my life a thousand times for the Redemption of Central Africa and the Africans.

[5524]

As I mentioned briefly in my last latter, n. 8 of October last, a tremendous and absolutely lethal epidemic, the consequence of the terrible famine and the very heavy rains that followed the great drought of almost 20 months, has devastated Central Africa. In one territory of the Vicariate (from Khartoum to the east, west and south), two or three times the size of the whole of France, more than half the population has died; in the city of Khartoum which has doctors and medicine, more than a third of the population died; and in some localities and villages I visited, not only has all the population died, but in addition, all the livestock and even the dogs, which are the only providential defence and security of these lands.

[5525]

From Berber to Khartoum, I visited several villages with the Verona Sisters, as well as the cities of Shendi, Mothamma, etc. I found more than half the population dead, the rest like walking skeletons, and naked women like corpses who were feeding themselves on grass and hay seed; I distributed grain and money, not without having baptised a number of children and babies of both sexes in articulo mortis. Since August, by making enormous sacrifices, I have bought 20 sacks of corn flour in Khartoum at an exorbitant price, to send to the missions in Kordofan and Jebel Nuba, where for the past six months and more they have had nothing else to eat but dokhon (a kind of millet), and very lean meat, etc., when they can get some. I have put to work all the traders who are still alive in Khartoum, many Sheikhs and the Government itself, to rustle up 15 camels for Kordofan. It has proved impossible until now, when we are in January 1879, because most of the camels have died and camel drivers are not to be found, either because they are dead or ill from starvation.

[5526]

What else? Since the Mother Superior of Kordofan died last August and only three Sisters were left there, two of them have asked their Mother General for permission to leave for health reasons. For more than three months they have been in possession of the obedience to return to Marseilles; I sent for them to come to Khartoum, but they are waiting for camels for the journey, and because of the lack of camels and drivers, are still in Kordofan today. With the impending departure from Africa of the two above-mentioned Sisters, only four Sisters of St Joseph will be left in the Vicariate; which is why, to meet the urgent needs of the two important Missions in Khartoum and in the Kingdom of Kordofan, on the advice of the Superior in Khartoum, I have sent for the four Sisters of St Joseph who are still here (until now, my entreaties to Mother General for her to send me more, especially Arab sisters, have been in vain). I have assigned to Kordofan the 5 Sisters of the Institute of the Devout Mothers of Africa which I founded in Verona, who were in Berber and whom I brought here 20 days ago on the steamer given to me by Gordon Pasha; I shall send them to Kordofan as soon as I can get hold of some camels.

[5527]

The tremendous epidemic also ravaged our mission in a frightful way. For six years, since I was put in charge of the Vicariate, no missionary priest had died in Central Africa, thanks to the appropriate system of my Plan. After the tremendous drought, the rains and the epidemic, three of my priests have died, including the right arm of the holy Work of Central Africa, the devout and excellent Fr Antonio Squaranti, formerly Superior of my Institutes in Verona. I had brought him to the Vicariate last year to be the General Administrator of its property, intending to make him my Vicar General later, had his health permitted.

[5528]

I sent him on a visit to Berber, above all to remove him from the threat of the epidemic as soon as I realised after the rains that it was imminent and since it was his first year in Central Africa; but after he had been 40 days in Berber, when he heard that all the priests in Khartoum had succumbed to the fever, that many mission members had died and that I was the only one of the priests still standing and was having to act as Bishop, parish Priest, Superior, Nurse, etc. , etc., he decided to come to my aid and left Berber by boat. He reached Khartoum a fortnight later, more dead than alive, because he had fallen victim of the fever and the epidemic during the last 4 days of the journey. Our treatment for a good 12 days was no use: burning with love and fully resigned, he flew to eternal repose, leaving me in deep sorrow. In addition to the three Priests and two Sisters who died, I have also lost more than half the lay brothers of great piety and eminent virtue who, full of merits, were stricken by the epidemic and flew to heaven.

[5529]

After these deaths some of the mission’s priests and lay persons from the southern provinces of Italy were seized by a fearful panic; in addition to a Neapolitan priest and a lay Roman, who left the mission suddenly, and no prayers or orders were able to put them off (they had not been trained at my Verona Institute: all those who came from that Institute remained faithful and constant and are all prepared to die for Christ on the battlefield), two other Neapolitan priests and a lay Neapolitan asked me to return home temporarily. On the other hand, the others from the Institute of Verona, and especially the Superiors of Kordofan and of Jebel Nuba, the surviving lay brothers from Verona and five Sisters, Devout Mothers of Africa, all from Verona, far from being daunted, are in fact giving even me courage.

[5530]

Then the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition, especially the Arab Sister Germana Asuad from Aleppo, worked miracles of charity in the violent storm: without a thought for their own lives and all sacrificing themselves for Christ.
Debilitated by so many efforts and troubles, at last even I fell ill; for a month and more I have been troubled by fevers and can hardly stand.

[5531]

Do not be frightened, Your Eminence, by this bad news of Central Africa. The Catholic apostolate has never been exempt from sacrifices and martyrdom. The Resurrection followed the passion and death of Jesus Christ. The same will happen in Central Africa. Fevers occur. A blessing from the Holy Father and from your Eminence
for your most humble son

+ Daniel Comboni
Bishop and Vicar Apostolic

The famine continues.
Temporal things are my last concern. God will take care of everything, just as St Joseph does, and that is enough.

[5532]

Ardently longing for a fervent Blessing from the Holy Father as a comfort for my troubles, I have allowed myself to profit from the first Anniversary of his Exaltation to the Chair of St Peter to present him with my homage, to tell him of my crosses and to implore his Apostolic Blessing for me and for the Vicariate. Therefore I beg your Most Reverend Eminence to kindly deign to humbly present the enclosed letter at the feet of His Holiness and to obtain the desired Blessing for me.

[5533]

I was really pleased to receive your revered letter of last 29th November, as well as those sent to me through the two Priests of the College of Sts Peter and Paul, in which you recommend that I and all the Vicars Apostolic should write a concise but full Report of the history, progress and situation of all the Vicariates Apostolic, which is to be printed for the convenience of the Eminent Fathers who make up the Sacred Congregation, the better to formulate their very wise decisions in the future on various matters concerning each Mission.

[5534]

If this extremely wise order prompted by Your Eminence’s zeal and sagacity is useful to all the oldest and best known missions in the world, for those of Africa, and especially of Central and Equatorial Africa, it is most useful and important, because they are less known, far more difficult and rougher than all the others. Therefore as soon as I can muster a little strength (because I am visited by fevers every two or three days) and have a little respite from my serious and very demanding tasks, I will devote every attention and all care to doing this important job, which will be followed by a very important report on the Nyanza Lakes, about which in my opinion, at least at the moment, Europe lacks any really correct and true information.

[5535]

Also in due course, Propaganda, after the well-digested and thought-out information of the most zealous Missionaries of Algeria, will have a clear and correct notion of the Regions of Nyanza Victoria – where I hope they will be able to put down firm roots – and after my report on the important region of Nyanza Albert. By oxen or on foot and a stretch of river that takes only half a day on Gordon Pasha’s steamer, Nyanza Albert is only 28 hours’ journey from the former Station of Gondokoro where I stayed in 1859, while from Nyanza Victoria to Nyanza Albert it takes 20 days or even a month, a terrible journey made even more dangerous by the age-old enmity of the two powerful kings of Uganda (to whom Lake Victoria belongs) and of Unyoro (to whom Lake Albert belongs). Nonetheless my excellent friend H.E. Emin Bey, to whom I have warmly recommended these good Missionaries of Algiers, has good friendly relations with them, at least for the moment.

[5536]

I will provide all the information I can, based on my long studies and experience of Africa, about the above-mentioned Lakes and the vast territory of my Vicariate, a large part of which I will willingly cede to the powerful and numerous body of the magnificent and providential Institution of the most worthy and venerable Mgr Lavigerie.

[5537]

With regard to the two Roman members of the College of Sts Peter and Paul, I have ordered them to stay in my Cairo establishment for at least a year, to acclimatise themselves and to learn Arabic; and the news I have from that Superior is good, except that they are getting on a bit in years. In general, I hope this College will send me a lot of candidates for Central Africa, but I would like them to be young, at least younger than 35, and not to dread either the heat or death. They should be keen to suffer greatly for Jesus Christ; in a word, I hope that their love for Jesus and for the poor African souls will be greater than all their affections on earth and in the world. I have also made this clear to the excellent and devout Rector of that providential establishment.

[5538]

The day before yesterday, 5 Sisters of the Institute of the Devout Mothers of Africa who were in Berber, left Khartoum on a magnificent boat given to me free of charge by the remarkable kindness of H. E. Gordon Pasha, Governor General of the Sudan: they will sail up the White Nile as far as Duèn, where they will proceed on camels, obtained for me by the above-mentioned Gordon Pasha, to the capital of Kordofan.

[5539]

The three Sisters of St Joseph there will come to Khartoum in the next few days. Two of them have the obedience for Marseilles; so only four will be left in Khartoum; I hope that the new Mother General will hasten to send me others.
As I have no time now, I shall tell you about the new conversions in Kordofan and in Jebel Nuba in another letter; a small gain for those who don’t know what a difficult new mission means; but a great one for those who do know what a mission in Central or Equatorial Africa means.
In the meantime, as I kiss your Sacred Purple, I declare myself
Your Most Reverend Eminence’s most humble, obedient and devoted son,

+ Daniel Comboni
Bishop and Vicar Apostolic

[5540]

Although my health is very much impaired because I am frequently prey to fevers and am not insensitive to the weight of so many crosses, nonetheless may my trust in God be ever firmer and sounder (since the cross is the seal of God’s Works); however, I do not want to neglect to inform you of what it is right for the Sacred Congregation to know.

[5541]

Khartoum is one of the thirteen episcopal sees of the Patriarchal Church of the heretical Copts; and when 22 years ago I came to Khartoum for the first time, I found there an heretical Coptic Bishop, who in matters of knowledge and ecclesiastical conduct was a complete ass; and although we invited him to join the true Church, he always answered that his Church was ours and that if his Patriarch were reconciled with the Pope he would be the first to follow him, as long as he could keep his dignity or be given even more.

[5542]

He died in disgrace in one of the schismatic monasteries of Egypt; the See of Khartoum was left vacant for a good 18 years. But when the heretical Coptic Patriarch knew that the Catholic Church had sent a Bishop and Vicar Apostolic to Khartoum, he hastened to appoint a Bishop immediately, in the person of a monk of the convent of St Macarius. He arrived in Khartoum the other day, and came to see me and we have struck up a sort of friendship.

[5543]

He is a man of about 58, pious and good, who is constantly praying, reasonably learned in Sacred Scripture but otherwise very ignorant. With regard to Catholic interests, therefore, he can be neither hot nor cold, because our Mission is the only true power in Central Africa which is recognised as such by the local government, Muslims, pagans and heretics of all sorts.

[5544]

Likewise, as Your Eminence knows, the schismatic Coptic Bishop died in Abyssinia. He was the only pastor of the million and more heretical Abyssinians who live there. Since the election of that Bishop depends on the Patriarch of Alexandria resident in Cairo, and on the Khedive of Egypt who habitually pays a thousand pounds sterling for support, and since the Khedive had recently waged a relentless war against King John of Abyssinia which he lost, and was forced to pay the king a large sum, the Khedive told the Coptic Patriarch that he absolutely would not send the Abyssinians the Bishop they requested because they were his enemies; and so the matter remained until early this January.

[5545]

But what has Gordon Pasha been doing? Since there are certain negotiations pending between Egypt and Abyssinia, and since it was established that representatives of King John should come here to Kadaref (8 days away from Khartoum, where I shall soon be establishing a mission, my envoys having returned to Khartoum) to meet Gordon Pasha, representing Egypt. Therefore this diplomatic encounter between representatives of both parties took place two weeks ago, and Gordon Pasha, in order to ensure the success of the negotiations, took it upon himself to have the Khedive appoint the Bishop of Abyssinia, and have him accompanied to the episcopal See via Ghalabat at his expense.

[5546]

The Khedive confirmed by telegram that the Bishop would be appointed and sent.
Valiant King John also obtained the submission to his sceptre of Menelik king of Shoa, where Mgr Massaia is. Some time ago he sent gifts to the Holy Father and offers real protection to the good Capuchin Fathers and Mgr Massaia. However Menelik, King of Shoa, is still king, but has to pay a tribute. Every year he pays a substantial tribute to King John, who is a great warrior. Now there is a true friendship between these kings. In spite of everything, Gordon Pasha told me that our Vicar Apostolic, Mgr Touvier, is highly esteemed by the Government of King John, and that he will lose nothing.

[5547]

Since he is not very familiar with the Church’s affairs, in answering the Abyssinian Ambassadors’ request for a Bishop, Gordon Pasha asked them “But don’t you have a Bishop in the person of Mgr. Touvier, a man who is highly esteemed, etc.?” Then they answered him (they were accompanied by a relative of the king and two Abyssinian priests), that it was not the Pope who had to send the Bishop, but that he had to be consecrated and sent out by the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria.

[5548]

Since famine and death have taken away many hands from work, the famine will last for some time in certain parts of my Vicariate. But this is the last thought to cross my mind, because my General Administrator there is St Joseph. Having had a sorry Administrator during my absence, whom I have already sent home, and since my holy and excellent Administrator Fr Antonio Squaranti died on me, I myself am seeing to the general administration until 12th May this year: according to the agreements I made with St Joseph last year on the third Sunday after Easter, the feast of the Patronage of my dear Bursar, St Joseph, the perfect settlement of our finances has to take place, not only of the Vicariate but of its General Office in Egypt, run by the Superior pro tempore of my Egyptian Institutes (the debts add up to more than 70,000 francs). However, while I am in charge of the general administration, I am training in this field a good and excellent missionary priest of mine who is here with me in Khartoum. Once the finances of the Vicariate and of the whole Work are restored so as to leave him without a penny of debt, I shall hand the general administration over to him and he will manage it under my supervision. St Joseph is the king of gentlemen; I trust him absolutely.

[5549]

His Most Reverend Excellency Mgr Bianchi, Archbishop of Trani, who has always been a true friend to me, told me confidentially and for my own good that since he had been to Rome recently to pay his respects to the Holy Father, visiting many Cardinals as well as distinguished figures, he was given to understand there that it was not at all approved that I should now be spending large sums on useless building work.

[5550]

To avoid ambiguities, I declare to your Eminence straight away that since my arrival in Africa as Bishop and Vicar Apostolic, neither I nor my deceased Administrator, Fr Squaranti, until this 23rd January, as I write to you, have ever spent a single farthing on construction work. The person who spent more than sixteen thousand francs on unnecessary building here in Khartoum, flouting my absolute prohibition which was communicated to him from Rome in 1877 in many letters written by me and by my secretary, Fr Paolo Rossi, currently Superior of the African Institutes in Verona and who has seen your Eminence several times, was the person formerly in charge of the general administration as my substitute, whom I have sent home.

[5551]

I believe it appropriate to let Your Eminence know of this so that should you hear a rumour in Rome that I am spending money on building, you can have it replaced by the pure and undiluted truth.
I shall certainly embark on new buildings, and important ones; but only when they are required for the good of the Work and when the necessary funds are available, in accordance with the rule taught by the Gospel on the occasion of the narrative about the one who volens turrim edificare etc. And furthermore, St Joseph will always preside over them.
In the meantime I kiss your Sacred purple, and sign with the deepest respect as
Your Most Reverend Eminence’s most humble, devoted and obedient son,

+ Daniel Comboni
Bishop of Claudiopolis
Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

[5552]

I read the preface to the Piccolo Ambrosiano, the Milanese Calendar for 1879, with great interest, and it touched me to the quick in the full sense of the term. The story of L’Osservatore Cattolico, the ideas developed in those magnificent outlines, the pure untrammelled aim of the Works of L’Osservatore Cattolico, I liked it all exceedingly. They are my ideas and my feelings clearly and plainly, but I could not have expressed and developed them so well. They express what the sincere Catholic ought to believe and think amidst the hazy horizons and confusion of the modern spirit: they are the expression of the upright thinking of the king of all periodicals, Civiltà Cattolica, a stupendous and sublime Publication that in itself alone is enough to glorify that admirable Order which directs it with such wisdom.

[5553]

And although I may be a subscriber to a great many other periodicals (because I want the Institutes and the many establishments I direct to think properly today, and I thank God that they all do), including Civiltà Cattolica, la Voce della Verità, l’Unità Cattolica, la Libertà Cattolica, etc., etc., etc., not to mention the German, French and English Catholic journals, since I am also a Lombard by birth and interested in religious matters in Lombardy and in events in my dear homeland, I appeal to your extraordinary kindness to ask you to make me a subscriber to L’Osservatore Cattolico and to your Publications, that is, to the Leonardo da Vinci to which I already subscribe, and to the Popolo Cattolico which I ask you to send to my father, Mr Luigi Comboni in Limone at S. Giovanni on Lake Garda, who will regularly forward it to me in Africa after my family has read it.

[5554]

So please send l’Osservatore Cattolico, the Missioni Cattoliche, the Leonardo da Vinci directly to me in Sudan; and the Popolo Cattolico to Limone on Lake Garda in the Province of Brescia. Then as I have seen an announcement that subscriptions for all Catholic journals are accepted at the Libreria Ambrosiana, I beg you to take out a subscription for me to the English Catholic journal, the Tablet, I think in London, and have it sent to me here in Khartoum.

[5555]

When you write to the Bishops of S. Calocero, Hyderabad, Hong-Kong and Honan and to Marietti, commend me to their fervent prayers, because my mission is the thorniest and the most demanding of all.
Worn out by the enormous efforts, anxieties and burning fevers which have ruined my health, I have not yet been able to give the Missions Catholiques a true picture of the havoc and devastation caused by the famine: hunger, thirst, epidemics, and death which are ravaging my Vicariate. But please God I shall do so as soon as possible.

[5556]

The famine, hunger and thirst which have brought a ferocious epidemic and mortality, have been far more terrible and disastrous than the hunger and famines in the Indies and China.
In one part of my Vicariate which extends from Khartoum, three times the size of Italy, more than half the population perished after the rains in the three months of September, October and November alone. In many towns and villages of a vast territory, all or almost all are dying, and corpses are left unburied for some time; and in many localities and large towns not far from Khartoum not only have all the inhabitants died, but also the camels, livestock and even the dogs, the providential security of these lands.

[5557]

In the kingdom of Kordofan, the three establishments I founded have not known what wheat bread is for a good eight months, and live on Dokhon (Penicillaria). My Mother Superior in El Obeid, in the last few days of her life, asked me insistently for a bit bread and water, as a last restorative. It was impossible to find it at any price, and she died. We pay more for dirty, brackish water for drinking and cooking than for wine in Italy. In brief, my problems are enormous, and only St Joseph, my bursar, can remedy them.

[5558]

But what wrings my heart is that everyone, the missionaries and the Sisters as well as the coadjutor brothers, has fallen ill, and many have died of the epidemic, especially here in Khartoum, including the right arm of my work who was Superior of my Institutes in Verona and then my general administrator here: Fr Antonio Squaranti, whom you certainly met, for he went to Milan several times. There was a period when of all the priests, I alone was still standing, and had to serve not only as Bishop, but as everything… and as a nurse to them all. But that is enough because I feel weak.

[5559]

Pray for me. The cross is the one true comfort, because it is the hallmark of a Work of God. After the Passion and death of Jesus Christ, the Resurrection took place. The same will happen with Central Africa.
As regards the payment of the above-mentioned subscriptions, I enclose a voucher for my banker in Rome, Brown et Fils, the papal bankers by whom you can always have yourself paid, in Via Condotti, near S. Carlo, where there is the Milanese Seminary. When something for Central Africa is offered through the Catholic Missions, please send it to my above-mentioned Banker as Propaganda always does, and has just done, as Cardinal Simeoni tells me. Mr Brown is a friend of Mgr Agnozzi.
Please give my greetings to the good and devout Scurati and to all in S. Calocero, whom I love as brothers, and now in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, I declare myself
Yours most affectionately in the Lord,

+ Daniel Comboni
Bishop and Vicar Apostolic

[5560]

I have been ill for a long time, although I have the greatest trust in God for whom alone I sacrifice my life in the most difficult but most glorious Mission in the world, since it concerns the lowliest and most unfortunate people called to the faith, and for which the Congregation of St Joseph deserves so much, on account of its generous sacrifices.

[5561]

I have not the strength to write. I am too shaken, by my health and by my affliction with the losses I have borne. But God has given me his Cross, he will give me consolation. In four months the famine and the epidemic have wrought unheard-of disasters. Central Africa has never suffered so many misfortunes and deaths. In many places not only has the whole population died, but also the livestock, the camels, even the dogs, which are the providential guardians of public security in this country. But God will bless our sacrifices.

[5562]

Sr Germana has been an angel of comfort to everyone. Ah, I would like to have 50 Sr Germanas! Her faults are many, as you know, but with all that she has a heroic level of love and a great ability and lovely way of gaining souls.
Sr Maria and Sr Anna are to leave any day now: I think tomorrow. Four Sisters are staying here. I have been awaiting your decision for a long time. You know mine, from the many letters I have written to you. The climate has not done as much harm as is generally believed. Sr Arsenia died because she fell off her mule, Sr Teresa because she fell off her camel, Sr Giuseppina and Sr Maddalena had long been consumptive, and living in Africa extended their lives. None of the other Sisters (except Sr Genoveffa) had been acclimatised in Cairo. The caravan of Sisters Severina, Maria, Anna and Ignazia is intact because it spent the summer in Cairo and undertook the journey in the good season.

[5563]

In addition, good and able Superiors and a Provincial are needed in Khartoum.
Lastly, you know my intentions, but I do not know yours and fear you may be discouraged; however, the Heart of Jesus will be a total support to you.
I am getting a bout of fever, please greet all the Sisters in Rome and the Secretary for me and pray for
Your most devoted

+ Daniel Comboni
Bishop and Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa


Translated from French.