Who Are The Comboni Missionary Sisters

Founded by Comboni in 1972 with the name of Pious Mothers of the Nigritia (i.e. Africa), are an exclusively missionary Institute of women consecrated to God for the mission ad gentes, according to the prophetic intuition of Comboni who felt the need to integrate consecrated women in the evangelizing mission of the Church. They are present in Africa, North and South America and Asia. They come from 33 nations, work in 30 countries in four continents and are over 1500. Webpage of the Comboni Missionary Sisters: www.comboniane.org.

The Comboni Missionary Sisters are Committed:

to know more about the history of our Institutes , remembering with gratitude the wonders of God;
to know the people and the current life of our Institutes , communicating what we are and what we do, through the means we have for a greater sharing of our pastoral and missionary activities and projects, appreciating the efforts that are already being made;
to reflect together on the Comboni mission in the world today: new paradigms of mission, ministeriality (through specific pastorals) and interculturality. More than giving answers to the problems, we need to stop and reflect in order to offer visions to our Institutes;
to initiate ministerial, inter-congregational communities (or the Comboni family) , where one lives in the sign of mutual trust. Looking to the future, think about how the Comboni Family can be reconfigured to better bear witness to a work together;
to work together at the level of formation in the initiation of our candidates into the Comboni charism and spirituality, and by sharing courses and meetings of ongoing formation when possible (a letter on the subject has already been written and distributed to all formators of the mccj during the Assembly of Formation of Maia, Portugal in July 2017);
to deepen our Comboni spirituality and to encourage moments of discernment and prayer , listening to the Word and the signs of the times, on special occasions in the life of our Institutes, promoting meetings on Comboni spirituality;
to respond together to emergency situations or others that involve a common effort.
On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of the Institute of Comboni Missionaries and the 25th of the beginning of the configuration of the Comboni Lay Missionaries, we feel prompted by the Spirit to reaffirm the effort of collaboration.
In the certainty that what has been said above represents some of the possible paths on the path of collaboration, we invite you to be creative and generous, opening ourselves to the breath of the Holy Spirit who makes all things new and urges us to move forward with confidence: " The Spirit is the wind that pushes us forward, that keeps us on the way, makes us feel pilgrims and strangers, and does not allow us to settle down and become a 'sedentary' people " (Pope Francis, audience 31 May 2017).

History

Daniele Comboni was a missionary in Sudan briefly in 1858 - 1859. In 1864 he wrote a plan for the regeneration of Africa to focus the global Church's interest in the evangelization of the continent while emphasizing the African people themselves as agents of this evangelization.He established a male religious order, the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus, on 1 June 1867. Comboni attempted to affiliate the male order with a female congregation to cooperate in missionary action (the Virgin of Charity). The attempt to set up the female branch failed and was postponed, so Comboni spoke to the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition.With the support of these sisters and the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, Comboni founded the Institute of the Motherland of Nigrizia in Montorio Veronese in Verona, Italy on 1 January 1872. On 8 December 1874, the bishop of Verona, Luigi di Canossa, handed over to the first eight aspirants the constitutions. He reviewed and approved and allowed them to start the novitiate. Comboni returned momentarily to Verona to received the profession of the vows of the first two Sisters of his Congregation on 15 October 1876.The first Comboni sisters came to Africa in 1877. Comboni died on 10 October 1881, around the same time that the Mahdist War in Sudan began. The order struggled with both a leadership vacuum and the loss of eight sisters who were held as prisoners by the Mahdist rebels.Eventually, Maria Bollezzoli, who had joined the order on 6 September 1874, emerged as a strong first General Superior,and led the Pious Mothers through rapid development until her death in 1901. Throughout Bollezzoli's lifetime, the Comboni sisters were active only in Egypt, Sudan, and at their motherhouse in Verona. Between 1900 - 1930, they spread into Eritrea, and the African Great Lakes region.Between 1930 and 1960, they spread even more to additional African countries, the United States, Latin America, the Middle East, and created new centers for novitiate formation in Europe.