Daniele Comboni, MCCJ (15 March 1831 – 10 October 1881)[1] was an Italian Catholic prelate who served as Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa from 1877 until his death in 1881.

Comboni studied under Nicola Mazza in Verona where he became a multi-linguist and in 1849 vowed to join the missions in the African continent although this did not occur until 1857 when he travelled to Sudan.

He continued to travel back and forth from his assignment to his native land in order to found his congregations and attend to other matters, and returned in 1870 for the First Vatican Council in Rome until its premature closing due to conflict.

Comboni attempted to draw attention across Europe to the plight of the people living in poverty-stricken areas in the African continent and from 1865 until mid-1865 travelled across Europe to places such as London and Paris to collect funds for a project he started to tend to the poor and ill. His mission to Africa was strengthened with his appointment as a bishop in 1877 for it allowed him greater freedom to establish branches of his order in Khartoum and Cairo amongst other locations.

On 31 December 1854 in Trento[5] he received his ordination to the priesthood from the Bishop of Trent, Johann Nepomuk von Tschiderer zu Gleifheim.

He departed on 8 September 1857 with Giovanni Beltrame, Alessandro dal Bosco, Francesco Oliboni, Angelo Melotto and Isidoro Zilli who hailed from Udine.

[8] There were difficulties including an unbearable climate and sickness as well as the deaths of several of his fellow missionaries; this, added with the poor and derelict conditions that the population faced made the situation all the more difficult.

He carried out appeals throughout Europe from December 1864 to June 1865 for spiritual and material aid for the African missions from people including monarchical families as well as bishops and nobles.

[3] Comboni was the first to bring women into this form of work in Africa and he founded new missions in El Obeid and Delen amongst other Sudanese cities.

[6] On 27 November 1880 he traveled to the missions in Sudan from Naples for the eighth and final time to act against the slave trade and though ill, managed to arrive in Khartoum on 9 August in summer and made a trip to the Nubia mountains.

As of 2018, the men's order operates in about twenty-eight countries, including Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Brazil, Colombia, and the Philippines.

On 26 March 1994 the confirmation of his life of heroic virtue enabled Pope John Paul II to title him as Venerable.

[5] The miracle required for Comboni to be beatified was investigated on a diocesan level in São Mateus from 10 December 1990 until 29 June 1992 before it received C.C.S.

The miracle was 25 December 1970 healing of the Afro-Brazilian child Maria Giuseppa Oliveira Paixão who underwent a stomach surgical procedure for an infection that grew worse over time.

John Paul II confirmed on 6 April 1995 that this healing was indeed a miracle and beatified Comboni in Saint Peter's Basilica on 17 March 1996.