Every October 10, the Catholic Church celebrates Saint Daniel Comboni (1831-1881), missionary and founder of the “Company Children of the Sacred Heart of Jesus”, an institute that would later adopt the name “Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus” in honor to its founder.
Twenty-one years ago, on October 5, 2003, Pope Saint John Paul II celebrated the canonization mass of this great missionary. During the homily, the Pilgrim Pope recalled how much “there is a need for evangelizers who have the enthusiasm and apostolic zeal of Bishop Daniel Comboni, apostle of Christ among Africans.”
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“He used the resources of his rich personality and his solid spirituality to make Christ known and make him welcomed in Africa, a continent that he loved deeply,” added the Pontiff.
Africa, hope of the Church and the entire world
Saint Daniel Comboni was born in Limone sul Garda, Brescia (Italy) in 1831, into a humble peasant family. He began his studies in Verona, at the San Carlo College, and then went to the Institute founded by Father Nicolás Mazza. There he studied philosophy and theology, and it was also there that he became interested in missions in Central Africa.
He was ordained a priest in 1854 and a few years later, filled with the missionary spirit that God aroused in him, he left for Africa. There he found a reality characterized by material poverty and spiritual misery, with people who did not know God and who at the same time lacked the basic conditions to live with dignity.
Comboni, back in Italy, decides to do something to help those children of God for whom it seemed that no one was willing to do anything. Daniel, in response to such a great need, began to ask for resources for the African mission, first traveling to different places in Europe and then even asking for help among the bishops attending the First Vatican Council, an event in which he participated.
Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus
Daniel Comboni was the founder of two missionary institutes, one for men and the other for women: the Children of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Pious Missionary Sisters Mothers of Africa (Comboni Missionaries and the Comboni Sisters, respectively). Later, he would be named Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa and consecrated bishop in 1877.
Bishop Comboni, alongside his spiritual brothers, went through countless adventures and difficulties: the death of several of his missionaries, illness, cruel droughts, famine, and the siege of modern slavers. Finally, his enemies leveled all kinds of false accusations against him, which the bishop faced with patience and charity.
However, Bishop Comboni remained firm, faithful to the Cross of Christ and his Church. While his health was with him, he worked towards the consolidation of missionary activity in Central Africa. He died on October 10, 1881.
New mission fields
Currently, Comboni Missionaries work in various missionary works around the world and their presence in Africa is maintained even in conflict zones, or where Christians suffer persecution.
On the other hand, the Comboni Missionaries have penetrated the soul and the Catholic popular culture of several generations through their agile publications: “Aguiluchos” and “Misión sin Fronteras”, magazines with which they make known the missionary work in the world of today.
ACI Press and San Daniel Comboni
The ACI Prensa team has a special affection and gratitude for Saint Daniel Comboni and his spiritual children. Our agency was founded on March 13, 1980 by a Comboni missionary, the German priest Fr. Adalberto María Mohn, who died in 1987.
Saint Daniel Comboni, pray for all the missionaries in the world and for the new mission fields!
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Central Editorial
The Catholic Information Agency – ACI Prensa, is part of the news agencies of the ACI Group, one of the largest generators of Catholic news content in five languages and which has belonged since June 2014 to the EWTN Global Catholic Network family, the largest Catholic television network in the world, founded in 1981 by Mother Angelica in Irondale, Alabama (United States), and which reaches more than 85 million homes in 110 countries and 16 territories.