Bishop Comboni and Arnold Janssen

Missionary Motifs

Comboni was born on 15 March, 1831 in Italy.  After ordination in 1854 he went to work in Sudan.  In 1867 he founded the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in Verona, Italy.  The Combonian Holy Mother Missionary Sisters of ‘Nigrizia’ (Africa), founded in 1876, were the first missionary sisters to go to Africa.  In 1877, he became Apostolic Vicar for Central Africa and then its first bishop.  He died on 10 October, 1881 in Khartoum, Sudan.  He wrote a position paper for Vatican Council I on evangelizing Central Africa by building up Christian villages and promoting local vocations.

Already when he was a teacher in Bocholt, an article had inspired Arnold to collect money for Comboni’s project to ransom slave children and give them a Catholic upbringing and thus build up Christian villages.  Arnold himself gave 50 taler with the understanding that the child would receive the name Arnold in baptism.  If possible the ransomed children were also to be given the donor’s surname, for instance, Arnold Janssen.  He collected enough money for the ransom of eight children and sent it to Fr. Noecker in Cologne.  Arnold also offered to provide for the further education of the child named after him, but to his request for further details he received no reply. 

Mutual recommendations

In 1877 Arnold reported in the Sacred Heart Messenger: “On 5 and 6 November we had the honor of receiving the Most Rev. Daniel Comboni, ordained bishop in Rome on August 15, together with his secretary and Fr. Noecker, President of the Negro Association in Cologne.  The gentlemen were greatly impressed by the important development achieved by the house in the short period of two years.  Msgr. Comboni said to the rector (in Latin): ‘You have received neither a small nor mediocre, but a very great blessing from God; believe me, I know about such things’.”  Fr. Blum still remembered Comboni’s visit after the passage of 24 years, in particular his magnificent mission sermon in Latin. 

Later, when deciding whether to found the sisters’ congregation Fr. Arnold considered Comboni’s advice most important.  During the 1877 visit he had explained that it was possible to invite the collaboration of other women’s congregations but that this brought a number of difficulties.  “Therefore he firmly advised me to found my own institute.  I could not make up my mind to make a start, however, until I had clearer signs from God.”

Two years after his visit to Steyl Comboni wrote at the end of 1879 asking Arnold to send as many missionaries as possible.  He said he was willing to accept sisters as well as priests and brothers from Steyl in his mission.  Arnold’s answer had to be negative. Instead he advised the bishop to open a minor seminary.  That had been the key to the success of the Steyl mission house.  “Open a school for the humanities and you will have a good foundation for your mission.” 

Comboni’s death in 1881 touched Arnold greatly.  In every issue of its tenth year of publication in 1883, the Sacred Heart Messenger published a series on the life and work of the great Africa missionary, also with a picture.  After his visit to Rome in 1883 Arnold visited Verona where, as he informed his brother John, “I was welcomed with genuine warmth.  They gave me Msgr. Comboni’s room and I slept in his bed.  They said they would erect a monument in his honor.” 

Common mission

At the time of Arnold’s beatification in 1975 the Superior General of the Redemptorists wrote to Fr. General Musinsky: “It was a special joy for me to discover that St. Alphonsus is a kind of spiritual grandfather of Arnold Janssen.  In the biography of your founder I saw that it was reading Bishop Comboni’s report on his mission that gave Arnold the first push to dedicate himself to work for the missions.  For Comboni this impulse had come from reading a booklet by St. Alphonsus on the Japanese martyrs and on the missions in general.  Through the two Blesseds of your Society may the divine Redeemer give fresh inspiration for an ever deeper understanding of your apostolic and religious mission in the Church.”

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