Saint Daniel Comboni was born on 15 March 1831 in Limone sul Garda, Italy, and died on 10 October 1881 (aged 50) in Khartoum, Sudan, Africa. Venerated in Roman Catholicism he was Beatified on 17 March 1996, in Rome, by Pope John Paul II and Canonized on 5 October 2003, in Rome, also by Pope John Paul II. His feast day according to the Roman Liturgical Calendar is on 10 October.

Early life – He was born at Limone sul Garda, Brescia, Italy, into a family of cultivators and employed by one of the rich local proprietors. Luigi and Domenica, his parents, were very attached to Daniel, being the fourth of eight children, but the only one to survive into adulthood: all the others died young, six of them in their infancy.

Because of this tragedy, the family formed a very close unit, rich in faith and human values, but poor in material things. This poverty is the reason that Daniel went away to school in Verona, at the Institute founded by Father Nicola Mazza. During the years spent in Verona, Daniel discovered his calling to the priesthood, and completed his studies of Philosophy and Theology. Above all he was is entranced by the mission to Central Africa, drawn by the descriptions of the missionaries who returned from there to the Fr. Mazza’s Institute. On 31 December 1854, the year of the proclamation of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, Daniel was ordained a priest by Blessed John N. Tschiderer, Bishop of Trent.

Three years later he left for Africa along with five other missionaries of the Mazza Institute. He also had the blessing of his mother Domenica, who finally tells him: “Go, Daniel, and may the Lord bless you”. Mission to Africa After a journey of four months, the missionary expedition that included Comboni reached Khartoum, capital of the Sudan.

The impact of this first face-to-face encounter with Africa was tremendous, Daniel was immediately made aware of the multiple difficulties that were part of his new 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, never dreaming of giving up what he has taken on with such great enthusiasm. From the mission of Holy Cross he wrote to his parents: “We will have to labour 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”.

We will have to labour 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 at the death of one of his missionary companions, Daniel, far from being discouraged, felt an interior confirmation of his decision to carry on in the mission, as he wrote: “O Nigrizia o morte!”—”Either Africa, or death”. It is still Africa and its peoples that drove Comboni, when he returned to Italy, to work out a fresh missionary strategy. In 1864, while praying at the Tomb of Saint Peter in Rome, Daniel was struck by an inspiration that led to the drawing up of his “Plan for the Rebirth of Africa”, a missionary project that can be summed up in an expression which is itself the indication of his boundless trust in the human and religious capacities of the African peoples: “Save Africa through Africa”. An original missionary Bishop In spite of all the problems and misunderstandings faced, Daniel strove to drive home his intuition: that European society and the Church were called to become much more concerned with the mission of Central Africa.

He undertook a tireless round of missionary appeals throughout Europe, begging for spiritual and material aid for the African missions from Kings and Queens, Bishops and nobles, as well as from the poor, simple people. As a tool for missionary animation he launched a missionary magazine, the first in Italy. He was also the first bishop of Cental Africa.

His faith in the Lord and trust for Africa lead him to establish, in 1867 and 1872 respectively, two missionary Institutes of men and of women: these become known more widely as the “Comboni Missionaries” and the “Comboni Missionary Sisters”, also known as the “Verona Fathers and Sisters”. With unusual courage for those days, he was the first to bring missionary Sisters into the work in Central Africa. Daniel took part in the First Vatican Council as the theologian of the Bishop of Verona, and was able to get 70 Bishops to sign a petition for the evangelisation of Central Africa: Postulatum pro Nigris Africæ Centralis. The Postulatum was not discussed by the Council due to its premature end.

On 2 July 1877, Comboni was named Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa, and ordained Bishop in August 1877: this was seen as a confirmation that his ideas and his activities, which were considered by some to be foolhardy, if not crazy, were recognised as truly effective means for the proclamation of the Gospel and the liberation of the African continent.

In 1877 and 1878 he and the missionaries in Africa were tormented in body and spirit by the tragedy of a drought, followed by mass starvation that was considered without precedent. The local population was halved, and the missionary personnel and their activities reduced almost to nothing. Final African Mission In 1880, with unflagging determination, Bishop Comboni traveled to Africa for the eighth and final time, to stand alongside his missionaries: intent, also, on continuing the struggle against the pernicious Slave Trade, and on consolidating the missionary activity carried out by Africans themselves. Just one year later, overwhelmed by his labours, by many deaths in quick succession among his collaborators, and by a wave of calumnies and accusations that were a bitter burden, the great missionary fell sick himself.

On 10 October 1881, only 50 years old, he died in Khartoum, among his people. But he was aware that his missionary work would not end with him: “I am dying”, he says, “but my work will not die”. St. Daniel Comboni.

St. Daniel’s Timeline

1831 — Daniel Comboni is born March 15th at Limone on Lake Garda in Italy 
1849 — Consecrates his life to Africa
1854 — Ordained a priest by Blessed John N. Tschiderer, Bishop of Trento on December 31st
1857 — Makes his first trip to Africa but returns to Italy because of extreme challenges from climate and disease
1864 — Launches a project designed to “Save Africa through Africa,” with full confidence that Africans will become the leading agents of their own evangelization
1867 — Founds the Comboni Missionary Institute
1870 — Approaches the First Vatican Council to petition the Bishops that every local Church be involved in the conversion of Africa  
1872 — Founds the Comboni Missionary Sisters and has no qualms about bringing them to Africa to work shoulder-to-shoulder and heart-to-heart with him
1877 — Is consecrated bishop and named Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa
1881 — Dies in Khartoum (Sudan, Africa) in the late hours of October 10th, worn out from sickness and never-ending ministry 
1995 — Is recognized for the miraculous cure of an Afro-Brazilian girl, Maria José de Oliveira Paixão that came about through his intercession
1996 — Beatified by John Paul II in St. Peter’s on March 17th
2003 — Is recognized for the cure of a Muslim mother from Sudan, Lubna Abdel Aziz, a miracle worked through his intercession. 
2003 — Is canonized by John Paul II in St. Peter’s Basilica on October 5th

The two institutes which Comboni started were a direct result of a challenge which a Cardinal in charge of Propaganda Fide, the Department in Rome which dealt with the Missions, had put to Comboni when he expressed the desire to go back to Central Africa. The Cardinal told him: “Either bring a medical certificate that assures me that you will live for another 30 years or start an Institute”. Comboni founded what are now called the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus and the Comboni Missionary Sisters.

In 1872 he was made Pro Vicar Apostolic; although he was still a priest he had the full authority of a bishop in an area which extended from the south of Egypt to the Great Lakes, ie including Uganda. In 1877 he was appointed Bishop, Vicar Apostolic of the area. His Episcopal See was in Khartoum and from there he planned to visit Uganda. Gordon Pasha, the Governor of Khartoum invited him to visit it, telling him he would meet all the expenses of the trip provided Comboni started a dispensary in Wadelai on the west bank of the River Nile, north of present day Pakwach.

Due to drought and famine in North Sudan and a journey back to Italy for health reasons and the situation of his Institutes, Comboni could not take up the offer to reach Uganda. On 10^th October 1881 he died of fatigue and fever in Khartoum at the age of 50.

Due to drought and famine in North Sudan and a journey back to Italy for health reasons and the situation of his Institutes, Comboni could not take up the offer to reach Uganda. On 10^th October 1881 he died of fatigue and fever in Khartoum at the age of 50. His dream of reaching the zone of the Great Lakes and Lake Nyasa died with him. From 1872 to 1881, 30 of his young missionaries died. From 1847 to 1881, there were 76 graves of missionaries who had died along the White Nile in their attempt to bring the Gospel message to the interior of Africa through the Nile Valley right up to Uganda.

These deaths had nothing to do with colonization; the missionaries died bringing Christ. Jesus had said: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age”. (Mt.28:18-20). The Berlin Conference was held much later, in 1884.

Cardinal Lavigerie, who knew the vastness of the territory entrusted to Comboni, submitted a plan in 1878 for the evangelization of those territories which had not yet been reached by the missionaries of Comboni. Pope Leo XIII approved the plan and so the sons of Lavigerie took responsibility for the evangelization of the territories south, east and north of Lake Victoria. In the north, not only Uganda but also a large part of southern Sudan was taken from the territory entrusted to Bishop Comboni.

Fr. Lourdel and Br. Anans landed in Uganda on 17^th February 1879. Fr. Livinhac and others followed. The great adventure started and reached the milestone of the deaths of the Uganda Martyrs between 1885 and1887.

The Mahdia and the Missions of Coboni

The intervention of Cardinal Lavigerie was providential because the institutes of Comboni suffered a serious setback in Sudan. Bishop Comboni died in the first stages of the revolution of the religious and political leader Muhammad Ahmad al-Mahdi. On 29^th June 1881, he proclaimed he was the expected Mahdi and urged his countrymen to join him as he rose in arms against the Turkish-Egyptian government of Sudan. While Comboni was dying, the Mahdi and his followers were heading for the Nuba Mountains, where the revolutionary movement attracted thousands of disaffected tribesmen.

Here they annihilated two armies sent against them and, marauding across the plains of Cordofan, laid siege to the capital, al-Ubayyid, which they captured. In November 1883 they obliterated an Egyptian relieving force commanded by General W. Hicks. In the course of the campaign, the rebels overran the missions started by Comboni at El-Obeid, Dilling and the farming settlement at Malbes. The missionaries were taken prisoner and subject to terrible torture: the sisters were brutally flogged in an attempt to make them deny Christ and accept Islam. The missions of Khartoum, Berber, and Scellal had to be abandoned.

After the killing of Gordon Pasha, England sent a military force led by Lord Kitchener who defeated the Mahdi in September 1898; Khartoum and Omdurman were free and the missionaries of Comboni could return to their deserted missions.

In January 1894 the whole of southern Sudan and northern Uganda was returned to the Vicariate Apostolic of Central Africa and Mgr. Roveggio was appointed Vicar Apostolic. After the defeat of the Mahdi he was able to take up his duties, based at Khartoum. He died of fever in Berber in 1902 and was replaced by Bishop Geyer. At this time, the establishment of missions further south and efforts to enter Uganda were impeded by the problems between Belgian and British authorities over the Lado Enclave.