Daniel Comboni was born in Limone sul Garda (Brescia) on March 15, 1831 into a farming family who served a wealthy lord in the area. His father Luigi and mother Domenica were very close to Daniel, the fourth of eight children, who almost all died at an early age. They formed a unified family, rich in faith and human values, but poor in economic means. It was precisely the poverty that drove Daniel to leave the country to go to school in Verona at the Institute founded by the priest Don Nicola Mazza.
During these years spent in Verona, Daniel discovered his vocation to the priesthood. He completed his studies in philosophy and theology and he especially opened himself up to the mission of Central Africa, attracted by the testimonies of the first Mazza missionaries returning from the African continent. In 1854, Daniel Comboni was ordained a priest and three years later he left for Africa, together with five other Mazza missionaries, with his mother's blessing who said to him: "Go, Daniel, and may the Lord bless you."
After 4 months of traveling, the missionary expedition that Comboni was a part of arrived in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. The impact with the African reality was enormous. Daniel immediately realized the difficulties that his new mission entailed. Fatigue, an unbearable climate, illnesses, the deaths of many young missionary companions, poverty and the abandonment of the people pushed him more and more to go forward with so much enthusiasm and to not give up from what he had initially began. He wrote to his parents from the mission of the Holy Cross: "We will have to work hard, sweat, die, but the thought of sweating and dying for the love of Jesus Christ and the health of the most abandoned souls in the world is too sweet to make us give up on this great undertaking."
After witnessing the death of one of his young missionary companions in Africa, Comboni felt interiorly confirmed in the decision to continue his mission instead of being discouraged: "O Nigrizia, o morte," Or Africa, or death. And it was always Africa and its people that drove Comboni to develop a new missionary strategy when he returned to Italy once. In 1864, when he was gathered in prayer at St. Peter's tomb in Rome, Daniel had a striking inspiration that led him to develop his famous Plan for the Regeneration of Africa, a missionary project summarized in the phrase "Save Africa with Africa," which was the fruit of his unlimited trust in the human and religious abilities of the African people.
In the midst of many difficulties and misunderstandings, Daniel Comboni sensed that the European society and the Catholic Church were called to take greater consideration in the mission of Central Africa. For that reason he dedicated himself to tireless missionary work in every corner of Europe, asking for spiritual and material aid for the African missions from kings, bishops and lords as well as from poor and simple people. As an instrument of missionary work, he created the first missionary magazine in Italy. His unwavering faith in the Lord and in Africa led him to the founding of the Men’s Institute and the Women’s Institute of his missionaries, respectively in 1867 and 1872, which were later better known as the Comboni Missionaries.
As the theologian to the Bishop of Verona, he participated in the First Vatican Council by having 70 bishops sign a petition in favor of the evangelization of Central Africa (Postulatum pro Nigris Africæ Centralis). On July 2, 1877, Comboni was appointed Apostolic Vicar of Central Africa and was consecrated Bishop one month later. In 1877-1878, together with his missionaries, he suffered in body and spirit the tragedy of an unprecedented drought and famine which cut the local population in half and exhausted the missionary staff and activity. In 1880, with his constant determination, Bishop Comboni returned to Africa, for the eighth and last time, alongside his missionaries determined to continue the fight against the scourge of slavery and to consolidate his missionary activity with the Africans themselves.
A year later, he became ill due to his hard work, the frequency and recent deaths of his collaborators and the bitterness of accusations and slander. On October 10, 1881, marked by the cross that never abandoned him as a faithful and beloved bride, he died at only fifty years old in Khartoum among his people: "I die," he said, "but my work will not die." After being beatified on March 17, 1996, he was canonized by St. John Paul II on October 5, 2003.
During the homily, the Pope emphasized: "All the peoples will see the glory of the Lord". The Responsorial Psalm, which we have just sung, emphasizes the urgency of the mission "ad gentes", even in our time. We need evangelizers with the enthusiasm and apostolic outreach of Bishop Daniel Comboni, an apostle of Christ among the Africans. He relied on the resources of his rich personality and solid spirituality to make Christ known and welcomed in Africa, a continent he loved deeply. How could we fail, also today, to turn our gaze with affection and concern to those beloved peoples? Africa, a land rich in human and spiritual resources, continues to be scarred by many difficulties and problems. May the international community actively help it build a future of hope. I entrust my appeal to the intercession of Saint Daniel Comboni, an outstanding evangelizer and protector of the "Black Continent."