COMBONI MISSIONARIES
OF
THE HEART OF JESUS
Canonization of
Bishop Daniel Comboni
October 5, 2003
ROME
Daniel Comboni
Saint - and One of Us
St. Daniel Comboni
Canonized by Pope John Paul II on October 5, 2003 in St. Peter square, Rome.
"Our Work is based on faith. It is a language that is little understood even among the good of this earth, but the Saints understood it, whom alone we must imitate"
Vatican website
Pope John Paul II canonized three great missionaries in a packed St Peter’s Square: Daniel Comboni (1831-81), founder of the Comboni missionary fathers and sisters, Arnold Janssen (1837-1909), German, who created the Society of the Divine Word and two religious congregations, and Giuseppe Freinademetz (1852-1908), Tyrolese, a Verbite missionary in China. People came from every corner of the globe for the occasion: Africa, Asia and Latin America. During the two-and-a-half hour rite the Holy Father remembered how “in addition to human promotion, evangelization also always implies the explicit proclamation of Christ. This is the example and this is the precious inheritance of these three new saints, especially for their religious families. The first task of any missionary institute is mission ‘ad gentes’; this task must always come before social or human intervention, however necessary these might be”. The Pope then turned his gaze towards Africa, “a land rich in human and spiritual resources, which is still scarred by many difficulties and problems”. John Paul II continued: “May the international community actively help Africa to build a future of hope: I entrust my plea to the intercession of Saint Daniel Comboni, exceptional evangelizer and protector of the dark continent”.
A Missionary Who Aimed "to Save Africa Through Africa"
John Paul II on Oct. 5 will preside over
the canonization of Daniel Comboni, a missionary famous for his plan for the
regeneration of the African continent.
Daniel Comboni was born at Limone sul Garda, Italy, on March 15, 1831, into
a family of farmers. He was the fourth of eight children of Luigi and
Domenica, but the sole survivor. All the others died young.
The family's poverty obliged Daniel to go away to school in Verona, to the
institute founded by Father Nicola Mazza. There, Daniel discovered his
calling to the priesthood, completed his studies, and applied for entrance
to the mission in Central Africa, drawn by the descriptions of the
missionaries who returned from that continent to the Mazza Institute.
Comboni was ordained in 1854. Three years later, he left for Africa together
with five other missionaries of the Mazza Institute.
After a four-month journey the missionary expedition reached the Sudanese
capital of Khartoum. Father Comboni quickly became aware of the difficulties
of working in Africa, problems that included the climate, disease and
widespread poverty.
Yet he was undeterred. From the mission of Holy Cross he wrote his parents:
"We will have to work hard, to sweat, to die: but the thought that one
sweats and dies for love of Jesus Christ and the salvation of the most
abandoned souls in the world, is far too sweet for us to desist from this
great enterprise."
After witnessing the death of one of his missionary companions, far from
being discouraged Father Comboni felt the urge to carry on in the mission.
"Africa or death!" became a rallying cry for him.
On a return visit to Italy, he worked out a fresh missionary strategy. In
1864, while praying at the tomb of St. Peter in Rome, he was struck by an
inspiration that led him to draw up his Plan for the Rebirth of Africa, a
missionary project that can be summed up in the expression "Save Africa
through Africa."
His intuition told him that the whole of European society and the Church
were called to become more concerned with the mission in Central Africa. He
went all over Europe begging for spiritual and material aid for the African
missions from kings and queens, bishops and nobles, as well as poor, simple
people. As a tool for missionary promotion he launched a missionary
magazine, the first in Italy.
In 1867 and 1872, respectively, he founded two missionary institutes, for
men and for women: the Comboni Missionaries and the Comboni Missionary
Sisters.
He took part in the First Vatican Council as the theologian of the bishop of
Verona, and got 70 bishops to sign a petition for the evangelization of
Central Africa.
On July 2, 1877, Father Comboni was named vicar apostolic of Central Africa,
and ordained bishop a month later, confirming that his ideas and his
activities -- considered foolish by some -- were recognized as truly
effective means for the proclamation of the Gospel and the liberation of the
continent.
In 1877 and 1878 Bishop Comboni and his missionaries suffered through
drought and malnutrition. The local populations were halved, and the
missionary personnel and their activities reduced virtually to nothing.
In 1880, the bishop traveled to Africa for the eighth and last time, to
stand alongside his missionaries, to continue the struggle against the slave
trade, and to consolidate the missionary activity carried out by Africans
themselves.
A year later, exhausted, and beset by calumnies and accusations, the great
missionary fell sick. "I am dying," he said, "but my work will not die." On
Oct. 10, 1881, at age 50, he died in Khartoum.
Bishop Comboni was beatified on March 17, 1996. Last Dec. 20 the Holy See
published the decree recognizing a miracle obtained for Lubna Abdel Aziz, a
Muslim mother of Sudan, through the intercession of the missionary bishop.
So the doors opened for his canonization.
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