Daniel Comboni, an Italian Roman Catholic bishop who served in the missions in Africa, was the founder of both the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus and the Comboni Missionary Sisters.
Daniel was born at Limone sul Garda (Brescia - Italy) on 15th, March 1831, into a family of cultivators. He was the fourth and the only survivor of the eight children of Luigi and Domenica, as all the others died in infancy. Hence, theirs was a close-knit family, poor in material things but rich in faith and human values.
Poverty forced Daniel to go away to school in Verona, in the Institute founded by Father Nicola Mazza. During the years spent in Verona, Daniel discovered his calling to the priesthood and was entranced by the mission of Central Africa, drawn by the descriptions of the missionaries who returned from there to the Mazza Institute. Comboni was ordained in 1854, and three years later, left for Africa along with five other missionaries of the Mazza Institute.
After a journey of four months the missionary expedition reached Khartoum, capital of the Sudan. Daniel soon realized the multiple difficulties that were going to be part of his mission. But labours, unbearable climate, sickness, the deaths of several of his young fellow-missionaries, the poverty and dereliction of the population, only served to drive him forward.
After witnessing the death of one of his missionary companions, Comboni, far from being discouraged, felt an interior confirmation of his decision to carry on in the mission: “O Nigrizia, O Morte!” - Africa, or death.
It was still Africa and its people that drove Comboni, when he returned to Italy, to work out a fresh missionary strategy. In 1864, while praying at the Tomb of St Peter in Rome, Daniel got a brilliant inspiration that led to the drawing up of his famous Plan for the Rebirth of Africa.
He undertook a tireless round of missionary mobilization across Europe, begging for spiritual and material aid for the African missions from Kings and Queens, Bishops and nobles, as well as from the poor. As a tool for missionary mobilization, he launched a missionary magazine, the first in Italy.
His unshakeable faith in the Lord and trust for Africa led him to found two missionary Institutes of men and of women in 1867 and 1872 respectively. These became known more widely as the Comboni Missionaries and the Comboni Missionary Sisters (Verona Fathers and Sisters).
Daniel took part in the first Vatican Council and got 70 Bishops to sign a petition for the evangelization of Central Africa.
On 2nd, July 1877, Comboni was named Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa and ordained Bishop a month later.
In 1877 and 1878 the missionaries were tormented in body and spirit by the tragedy of a drought followed by starvation without precedent. The local populations were halved, and the missionary personnel and their activities reduced almost to nothing.
In 1880, with unfailing determination, Bishop Comboni travelled to Africa for the eighth and last time, to stand alongside his missionaries. He intended also, to continue the struggle against the pernicious Slave Trade. One year later, overwhelmed by his labours, by many deaths in quick succession among his collaborators, by a wave of calumnies and accusations that were a bitter burden, the great missionary fell sick.
On 10th, October 1881, Daniel died in Khartoum, at the age of fifty. However, he was aware that his missionary work will not end with him: “I am dying”, he said, “but my work will not die”.
He was right. His work did not die. Indeed, like all great projects “which are born at the foot of the Cross”, it continues to live through the many women and men who have chosen to follow Daniel Comboni along the path of his arduous mission among people who are the poorest as regards to the Gospel, and the most abandoned, as regards to human solidarity.
Daniel Comboni was canonised by John Paul II on 5th, October 2003.
Other Saints of the Day
1. Saint Francis Borgia
2. Saint Cassius
3. Saint Cerbonius
4. Saint Gereon
5. Saint Tanca