Writings

[5721]

Per te itur ad coelestia
O beata solitudo!

Episcopus Daniel Comboni
 

[5722]

I offer you my most respectful thanks for the kind permission you have granted me to come this month on business for my difficult and most important Vicariate, and to kiss the feet of the new Pontiff, our providential and most Holy Father Leo XIII.

[5723]

Although I am extremely tired, I hope to be able to be in Rome next week. In the meantime, I have the consolation of informing you that here in Verona I found two flourishing Institutes for the Missions of Central Africa, truly inspired by the spirit of their apostolate where the students are all prepared for sacrifice and martyrdom, an essential condition if they are to consecrate themselves to the conversion of Africa and to further our most holy task.

[5724]

I am quite disappointed that the four Sisters of St Joseph who had stayed in Khartoum decided to leave that mission (1) without allowing me the time to see to the needs of that important women’s Institute: they would not wait even a week. But, in truth, they were exhausted, and had worked very hard and with great zeal. However, my excellent representative Fr Luigi Bonomi was prompt in dispatching a telegram to Kordofan to have some of my Verona Sisters go down to Khartoum to take over the direction of the female establishment in Khartoum; and that excellent and able Superior, Sr Teresa Grigolini, has already written to tell me that she is leaving in a few days’time for Khartoum.

[5725]

The Institute of the Devout Mothers of Africa which I founded in Verona and was approved by the Ordinary of the Diocese, His Eminence Cardinal di Canossa has, by the grace of God, all the apostolic spirit it needs to operate properly in the arduous missions of Central Africa, and is developing in a way that will be sufficient for all the vitally important works that must be established and perfected in my Vicariate. Next week, five Devout Mothers of Africa will be leaving for Cairo and, in a short while, another five will be leaving for Egypt with me. Therefore I hope it will not be long before the Constitutions and Rules of the above-mentioned Institute can be presented to the Holy See for approval, once their precise execution and adequacy has been tried and tested in Central Africa.

[5726]

All the crosses and adversities the Vicariate has been through recently have only served to strengthen the spirit of the faithful members of this great work and to place the Vicariate in the right conditions for it to prosper in the future, because God’s Works are always born and grown at the foot of Calvary and, like Jesus Christ, they must tread the path of Passion and Death to reach the Resurrection “Nisi granum frumenti cadens in terram mortum fuerit, ipsum manet; si autem mortuum fuerit multum fructum affert.” John 13.

[5727]

I must also congratulate the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda for allowing the Jesuit Fathers to set foot in Egypt; I saw them in Cairo. What a sublime decision of Your Most Reverend Eminence! It will not take long to produce immense and inestimable fruit in all senses, because the Jesuits are the best missionaries in the Catholic Church, and the present Superior in Cairo is a holy and experienced Gospel worker.
Your most humble son kisses your Sacred Purple

+ Bishop Daniel

(1) They left Khartoum on 14th April.

[5728]

I would ardently have wished to get to Limone before going to Rome; but as far as I can see it is impossible, since important matters are calling me back to Rome, where I shall stay for a short time, and I will stop in Limone on my return.

[5729]

Tell our excellent cousin, Faustino’s wife, that her letter gave me great pleasure and that I want to get to know her. For your and my dear Eugenio’s Teresa I have brought two precious gold earrings, exquisite work done by my Central Africans. They would suit the ears of a queen; but for me Teresa is more than a queen, because she is the wife of Eugenio and then of Emilio, that is, of two of my dear ones. Give my greetings to Erminia whom I love so much, Pietro and his better half, Beppino, and all our folk in Limone and Riva and, when you write to Eugenio, give him my regards.
Your most affectionate cousin

+ Daniel Comboni

[5730]

In view of my deplorable state of health, my Missionaries and my good English doctor in Khartoum, Dr Lowe, urged me to make a brief trip to Berber for a change of air and to put the fever to flight.

[5731]

In Berber, I received the news from Cardinal Simeoni that the Mother General of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition had decided, together with her Council, not only not to send any more Sisters to the Mission, but even to withdraw those who are still in the Vicariate.

[5732]

In order to obtain a revocation of this order from the Mother General or, failing this, to take care of this important element of the apostolate, I requested and obtained permission from His Eminence to come to Rome. It is with great regret that I hear the Congregation of St Joseph of the Apparition is unable to come to my rescue, since there are no Sisters asking to go to Central Africa on account of the death of nine Sisters, lost by the Congregation in Central Africa in the last six years.

[5733]

Far from being discouraged by this small misfortune (the Sisters of St Joseph served my Mission with great dedication and much charity), I am convinced that our good Lord will help me to put all things right, especially with the Congregation of the Devout Mothers of Africa that I founded in Verona, and which is quite flourishing. Next week, five Sisters will be leaving for Egypt with two Missionaries and, when I return to the Vicariate in October, five more will be ready.

[5734]

My Mother Superior in Verona is preparing the Sisters for the apostolate of Central Africa and always preaching to them thus: “You must be ready to die every day for Jesus and for Africa; you are destined for the slaughter; I envy your fate, which I hope to share with you one day”.
And my Sisters from this Congregation, both those who are in Central Africa and those who are about to go and are here, feel they are going to Paradise for the joy of dying and suffering for Jesus Christ.

[5735]

Although I have suffered greatly, perhaps more than Job, I hope to recover my good health after the waters prescribed to me by the doctors in Cairo and Rome. His Eminence Cardinal Simeoni comforted me by telling me that for some time his greatest concerns have been for the African apostolate, and that he will do all he can to develop it.
Mr President, please send the cheque which the Central Councils have allocated for Central Africa to me in Rome (and not Egypt), to my address at Via Mastai, 18.
I remain all yours, your most devoted

+ Daniel Comboni
Bishop and Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa

Translated from French.