Daniele Comboni

Coordinates: 45°26′46″N 11°0′21″E / 45.44611°N 11.00583°E / 45.44611; 11.00583
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Saint Peter's Square
, Vatican City, by Pope John Paul II
AttributesEpiscopal attire
Patronage
  • Missionaries
  • Aid workers
  • Comboni Missionary Sisters
  • Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus

Daniele Comboni, MCCJ (15 March 1831 – 10 October 1881)[1] was an Italian Catholic prelate who served as Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa from 1877 until his death in 1881. He worked in the missions in Africa and was the founder of both the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus and the Comboni Missionary Sisters.

Comboni studied under Nicola Mazza in Verona where he became a multi-linguist and in 1849 vowed to join the missions in the African continent although this did not occur until 1857 when he travelled to Sudan. He continued to travel back and forth from his assignment to his native land in order to found his congregations and attend to other matters, and returned in 1870 for the First Vatican Council in Rome until its premature closing due to conflict.

Comboni attempted to draw attention across Europe to the plight of the people living in poverty-stricken areas in the African continent and from 1865 until mid-1865 travelled across Europe to places such as London and Paris to collect funds for a project he started to tend to the poor and ill. His mission to Africa was strengthened with his appointment as a bishop in 1877 for it allowed him greater freedom to establish branches of his order in Khartoum and Cairo amongst other locations.

Comboni was beatified by Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Basilica on 17 March 1996 and his canonization came on 5 October 2003.[2]

Life

Birth and ordination

Comboni in 1873 while in Africa.

Daniele Comboni was born on 15 March 1831 at

Austrian-Hungarian Empire.[4]

At the age of twelve, he was sent to school in

Bishop of Trent, Johann Nepomuk von Tschiderer zu Gleifheim.[6] Comboni made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land from 29 September to 14 October 1855. In 1857 – with the blessing of his mother – he left for Africa along with five other missionaries, also former students of Mazza.[3] His mother gave him her blessing and said to him: "Go, Daniele, and may the Lord bless you". He departed on 8 September 1857 with Giovanni Beltrame, Alessandro dal Bosco, Francesco Oliboni, Angelo Melotto and Isidoro Zilli who hailed from Udine.[7]

Missionary

Four months later, on 8 January 1858 he reached

Saint Peter's tomb in Rome on 15 September 1864 and it was while reflecting before the tomb that he came upon the idea of a "Plan for the Rebirth of Africa" which was a project with the slogan "Save Africa through Africa".[3] Four days later, on 19 September, he met with Pope Pius IX
to discuss his project.

Comboni wanted the European continent and the Universal Church to be more concerned with the African continent. He carried out appeals throughout Europe from December 1864 to June 1865 for spiritual and material aid for the African missions from people including monarchical families as well as bishops and nobles. Travelling under an Austrian consular visa,[4] he went to France and Spain before heading north to England and then setting off to Germany and Austria.[10] The humanitarian "Society of Cologne" became a main supporter of his work.[8] It was around this time that he launched a magazine – the first in his homeland to delve into the missions for it was designed to be an exclusive magazine for those in the missions.[9]

He established a male institute on 1 June 1867 and one for women in 1872 both in Verona: the Istituto delle Missioni per la Nigrizia (since 1894 the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus) and the Istituto delle Pie Madri (later the Comboni Missionary Sisters) on 1 January 1872.

Marseilles for Cairo where he opened a third house on 15 March.[6]

Among Comboni's early companions during his early years in Africa was Catarina Zenab, a Dinka who would go on to serve as a missionary in Khartoum later in her life.[11]

Episcopate and death

On 9 March 1870 he left Cairo for Rome and arrived there on 15 March where he took part in the

Bishop of Verona Luigi di Canossa; he formulated the "Postulatum pro Nigris Africæ Centralis" on 24 June which was a petition for the evangelization of Africa; this received the signature of 70 bishops. The First Vatican Council was terminated due to the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War and the dissolution of the Papal States before the document could be discussed. In mid-1877 he was named as the Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa and received his episcopal consecration on 12 August 1877 from Cardinal Alessandro Franchi. His episcopal appointment was seen as a confirmation that his ideas and his activities – which some deemed to be foolish – were recognised as an effective means for the proclamation of the Gospel. In 1877 and again in 1878 there was a drought in the region of the mission while mass starvation ensued soon after. The local population was halved and the religious personnel and their activities reduced almost to nothing.[6]

On 27 November 1880 he traveled to the missions in Sudan from Naples for the eighth and final time to act against the slave trade and though ill, managed to arrive in Khartoum on 9 August in summer and made a trip to the Nubia mountains.[9] On 10 October 1881 he died in Khartoum during the cholera epidemic at 10:00pm; he had suffered a high fever since 5 October. His final words were reported to be: "I am dying, but my work will not die".[3] Pope Leo XIII mourned the loss of the bishop as a "great loss".[6]

Legacy

St. Daniel Comboni Kindergarten in Eritrea.

Bishop Antonio Maria Roveggio (1850–1902) served as the order's superior sometime after Comboni died. The male order received the papal decree of praise on 7 June 1895 and full papal approval from Pope Pius X on 19 February 1910. As of 2018, the men's order operates in about twenty-eight countries, including Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Brazil, Colombia, and the Philippines.[12] The female order received the decree of praise on 22 February 1897 and papal approval on 10 June 1912 while in 2008 there were 1529 religious in 192 houses. That order operates in Europe in countries such as the United Kingdom, in Africa in nations such as Cameroon and Mozambique, in the Americas in countries such as Costa Rica and Ecuador and in Asia in countries such as Israel and Jordan.

Sainthood

The

Venerable.[5]

The miracle required for Comboni to be beatified was investigated on a diocesan level in

Saint Peter's Basilica on 17 March 1996.[9]

The miracle required for him to be sainted was investigated in Khartoum from 9 to 28 May 2001 and received C.C.S. validation on 3 September 2001 before a medical panel approved it on 11 April 2002; the theologians followed suit on 6 September 2002 as did the C.C.S. on 15 October 2002. John Paul II confirmed this miracle on 20 December 2002 and scheduled the date for Comboni's canonization in a

nuns prayed a novena to Comboni. The woman did not die, defying expectations,[14]
and was discharged from the hospital, completely recovered, on 18 November.

References

  1. ^ Daniel Comboni (1831–1881)
  2. ^ Canonization of three blesseds vatican.va, 5 October 2003
  3. ^ a b c d e "Daniel Comboni (1831–1881)". Holy See. 1 September 2003. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
  4. ^ a b c d "San Daniele Comboni", Commune di Limone sul Garda
  5. ^ a b c "San Daniele Comboni". Museo Africano. 22 April 2020. Archived from the original on 28 October 2022.
  6. ^ a b c d Public Domain Lenhart, John (1913). "Daniel Comboni". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  7. ^ "Combóni, Daniele", Treccani
  8. ^
    ISBN 9781134803132
  9. ^ a b c d Agasso, Domenico (21 May 2001). "Saint Daniele Comboni" (in Italian). Santi e Beati. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
  10. ^ a b c "Saint Daniel Comboni". Saints SQPN. 27 September 2016. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  11. ISBN 978-0-8108-5331-7
    .
  12. ^ "Where We Are", Missionari Comboni
  13. ^ "Bishop St. Daniele Comboni [Catholic-Hierarchy]".
  14. ^ "Una musulmana «abrió» la canonización de Daniel Comboni" [A Muslim woman 'opened' the canonisation of Daniel Comboni]. Zenit (in Spanish). 12 September 2003.

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia article Daniel Comboni.

45°26′46″N 11°0′21″E / 45.44611°N 11.00583°E / 45.44611; 11.00583

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