Fr. Luigi Brioni sx
In 1964 Azzolini, when given the opportunity to justify his missionary strategy in Sierra Leone wrote: “Let me say clearly that a catholic or non catholic mission in Africa cannot be conceived without scholastic commitments. It would have no prestige or strength, but the risk to be closed down. With our schools … we have created a true Christian atmosphere in this province, where, before us, even the name catholic was unknown.” (232)
At the end of December 1952 Azzolini wrote his second official letter to the Clergy of Makeni. Among other news and directives, he dared to say: “Let’s go ahead with courage and trust, because we are working for the greatest of Causes. The Lord is with us. The Immaculate Virgin assists us from Heaven. And Our Venerable Founder blesses us together with our great Patron, St. Francis Xavier.” (141) These words summarized well the heart of his spirituality and missionary commitment, prevailing in all circumstances.
To his Confreres he did not just give a missionary push (most of the times, unnecessary), but he was down to earth by recommending them “prudence in what concerns your health. The money we spend for some decent food is certainly not wasted, because it will be of benefit to your very work.” (141) In terms of money, Azzolini was always short of it for the many projects he desired to realize, but his lasting refrain was, Providence will assist us. (143, 147)
On December 8th, 1954, only four years after arriving in Makeni, Azzolini blessed his Pro-Cathedral, dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima. This Marian title could not have been better chosen in a Muslim country like Sierra Leone.
Father Calza left us a timely description of Azzolini’s personality in those early days of the mission. “Bishop Kelly of Freetown had written to Azzolini in answer to some of his plans: ‘Dear Father, patience. You are new to this place. Soon you will see that the sun of Africa will burn all your patience in your veins.’ But the sun of Africa seems to burn only the chair in his room. He is somehow everywhere. He has within himself something that compels him to burn the stages. He is a little man, with the skin pulled over his bones, the smallest of all of us twelve. All the others have had malaria … and accidents of all kinds. But he has had nothing wrong except indigestion from bananas three years ago.” One can easily imagine an Azzolini like this for many years to come.
To one of his Xaverian friends in Italy, in 1955, Azzolini confided: “I, thank God, am always well. But the work is plentiful, the needs many, the good to be done is without end, and we can never do what we would like. Now I am also worried, and not in a small way, for the health of the Fathers, who, I am afraid, are working too much … and from Italy there seems to arrive no sufficient help ... when we have magnificent possibilities for apostolate among the youth, who, because of our schools follow and listen to us …” (159)
Already in 1956, in his Prefecture, Azzolini could boast of “34 primary schools with 3.000 pupils, plus a magnificent Pro-Cathedral, a small seminary capable of 30 students, a convent for Sisters … 12 Xaverian Fathers and 5 Brothers … But we need secondary schools, we need Christian families, we need indigenous Priests. And we cannot waste time.” (170). Education, Christian marriages, vocations remained the focus of all his pastoral concerns during all his leadership.
Ten years after the arrival of the first four Xaverians in Sierra Leone, Azzolini openly gave credit to his Confreres when he wrote that “all of them are good and with spirit of sacrifice” (188). At the same time he strongly rejected the negative opinions that Xaverians in Italy were expressing regarding the slow pace of evangelization in the Makeni Prefecture. “I am sorry for this”, he wrote, “but when we arrived here ten years ago, one would realize what it means to start a Mission from nothing, without experience or guidance, in a world totally new and immensely different from … the Chinese world that our old (Xaverian) Fathers only knew. (Forgetting this) has created several misunderstandings and mistakes of evaluation. But patience! … now we can number (in the Prefecture) 1.900 Catholics from the 300 in 1952. Moreover we have an Institute of Sisters, a Seminary, a hospital, a Secondary School … 40 primary schools with 5.000 pupils and seven missionary residences … the Catholic Church, unknown ten years ago, is now appreciated, while the Christian spirit is taking hold among people that have only a pagan-Muslim background.” (188)
Later on, in a Xaverian publication, he would write: “ (Sierra Leone) is one of the most difficult Missions entrusted to the Xaverian Missionaries … We are the first to admit that our energies and work could perhaps have better results if applied to other regions. … but to abandon now the positions we have conquered with hard commitment would mean to betray the Catholic Mission in the world. The Missionary is first of all a sower and, if he does not experience the harvest joy, this does not mean his work has been in vain or useless; it simply means that his labour is that of the pioneer who opens the way to the harvesters.” (193)
In 1961, the year of Sierra Leone’s Independence, Azzolini remarked with satisfaction that the celebrations “were greatly solemn and with unanimous participation of the population, without any disturbing incident.” Obviously in connection with the Independence, on February 24th, 1962, Pope John XXIII elevated the Apostolic Prefecture of Makeni to a Diocese and nominated its first Bishop Monsignor August Azzolini. In less than 12 years the Church in the Northern Province had come of age!
About the Bishop of the new Diocese, one Xaverian Father, well known for his intellectual honesty, summarized well our hero’s personality: “I have no doubt that, among the Xaverians in Sierra Leone, Azzolini was the best: for his devotion to the Holy See, as interpreter of our Venerable Founder’s spirit, for his missionary zeal, for his fatherhood and generosity, and for his extraordinary courage to face difficult situations.” (219).
About the future of the new Diocese Azzolini himself wrote: “There is plenty of work, the personnel is minimal, the sufferings many, but I greatly trust in the Lord …”Azzolini was ordained bishop in the Cathedral of “his” Parma on June 24th, 1962, taking the episcopal motto Caritas Christi Urget. Soon after, he returned to Makeni to a great welcome by all. In his words: “Authorities and people, catholics, protestants, muslims, pagans, all took part …” (223)
Evidently Bishop Azzolini continued his mission to the Diocese even more energetically than before. Now (in his 1964 report to the Holy See) he counted 72 primary schools with 15.000 pupils; 4 secondary schools with 700 students; a teachers college; 4.000 Catholics; one hospital and some clinics; 7 residential stations; 30 religious (Xaverians, Cluny and Clarissan Sisters, Dutch Brothers). These religious “give an incalculable contribution to the Diocese’s missionary apostolate.” (226) But they were still all foreigners. His plan for a diocesan seminary was there from the very start of his mission in Makeni and, in 1965, he could hopefully report to his Xaverian Family: “To speak of a seminary, and even more to plan its construction, almost at the very beginnings of our work, seemed to all a mere utopia. However I am convinced that the seminary could contribute powerfully in giving a greater conscience of its dignity to the black population.” (233) What a missionary insight for those days!
At the end of 1964, after praising the meetings and newly published documents of the Vatican II Council, at whose sessions he was faithfully (and, at times, impatiently) present, Azzolini made a very personal comment: “The humble and last and most hidden Diocese of the Catholic Church, the Diocese of Makeni, may she rejoice of this new outpouring of the Spirit in the Church of God and may she soonest be numbered among the ecclesial territories that are most vital and most worthy of redemption and salvation.” (231)
What kind of a Bishop was Azzolini in the 60’s? What was his personality, what kind of values did he live by? I find that the most honest sources for answers to these questions are the writings and stories of his Xaverian Confreres, who, alongside their many praises of him, did not hide their mild criticism or different opinions. Allow me to copy here a few of their comments about him:
“All were admiring this man of small height … that would not give up in front of any obstacle … even when sick … he was there, all for all. He used to repeat: ‘ I am Bishop: the Holy Spirit is on my side with the fullness of his gifts. And I am walking on the footprints of the Founder.’ … He was conducting his pastoral visits with scrupulous attention even to the small details … arriving to the Missions fully dressed up in episcopal regalia and sweating all over … He countersigned all the Mission’s registers. And to his clergy he used to repeat: ‘You, Fathers, are not only managers of the schools, but above all priests, formators, shepherds’” (Fr. Calza, 238-240).
“The Bishop was always bursting of holy zeal. He was running for, pushing, and encouraging the external structures (of the mission) at full steam, to arrive at the heart of people, who were enthusiastic of him because ‘he was a doer.’” (Fr. Zamponi, 245).
All the old Xaverians mention in their reports his goodness, generosity, hospitality, conviviality, and simplicity with all of them, so much so that one of his genuine pains was to find that one of them had come to Makeni but had not visited him! Fr. Rabito wrote about him: “The arrival of a new missionary was (for Bishop Azzolini) motive for great joy. He would talk to him immediately, with enthusiasm, of the plans for the development of the mission. He loved his missionaries; he was encouraging them in their efforts, leaving them with great breath of initiatives whether in the spiritual or developmental fields. … Every (possible) contact with people or individuals was for him a mission, the mission of announcing Christ in all circumstances.” (249).
Some of Azzolini’s close collaborators would mention that he was a bit of a misogynous person ((242), but others would disagree, a lady volunteer among them, who would herself testify that once, after working three full days for him, he put his hand on her head and said: “Josephine, you are very precious, you are a jewel.” (252).
The same lady would also confirm that Bishop Azzolini had a great sense of humour (251). Yes, we, his Confreres, can remember well that he liked so much to spend time in fraternal conviviality, at a meal together, for a drink, with the many stories of the mission, recalling also the old days of the Xaverians, both in Sierra Leone and in Italy. And he was so generous with his missionaries and collaborators, willingly sharing with them whatever he had at hand.
The Diocese of Makeni did not slow down in the 70’s. It would actually witness to a continuous development under the leadership of Bishop Azzolini, in spite of the many obstacles and sufferings that were coming from all sides, including coup d’états and all. But two events need to be mentioned here to understand the missionary strategy of Azzolini: the ordination of Joseph Sheku Kanneh as his first Sierra Leonean priest and the beginning of religious instruction directly to adults, without passing first through our schools. How happy and satisfied the Bishop was to see his efforts for indigenous priests crowned with success. And how happy he was, especially in the Limba areas, to meet adults desiring Baptism!
To continue ‘the conversion of the North’ Azzolini encouraged the training of Catechists for all outstations and villages in a capillary way. For him, Christ and his Church were supposed to be at home everywhere in Sierra Leone! For this reason he willingly turned the Makeni Teachers College - when it became available - into a Pastoral Centre, from where priests, leaders and faithful would depart to spread the Gospel everywhere.
Together with the spiritual and pastoral training activities, Bishop Azzolini greatly encouraged all kinds of social and charitable projects too, from the Catholic Relief Service to Primary Health Care, to the Leprosy Campaign, to the Polio Organization, to the Lunsar Catholic Hospital and the many clinics, to experiments in agriculture, crafts, and trades … without mentioning all the activities in support of the poor and needy. He really did care for the welfare of all people, and of the whole person.
In 1982, after the “open windows” of Vatican II , with all their fresh air and … insects, Bishop Azzolini, usually more conservative than creative, could honestly write to the then Superior General of the Xaverians: “I know I am old and I know that they have labeled me conservative. Of this I should not be sorry. It’s true that in the years past Xaverian Preachers and Lecturers have been sent to us to make our old system of apostolate more modern. … But, it is strange that some of them had marveled to see that the burdens and works (in the Diocese) are still and mostly on the shoulders of the old ones (Xaverian). These (Preachers) have left us with admiration for the (Mission’s) great development and activities.” (276-7).
At the end of 1986, already worn down with years and labour for the Kingdom of God, Bishop Azzolini passed the Diocese of Makeni on to another Xaverian, Father George Biguzzi, and retired to the Xaverian Mother House in Parma.
There he died on July 24th, 1992, and his body was soon brought back to Makeni to be buried in front of the Cathedral as it was both his wish and the desire of all those who knew him. In 1981, on the Golden Jubilee of his priestly ordination, he ended his Testament to his beloved Christian children with these words: “Finally, to all the people of God in the Diocese of Makeni, my heartfelt appeal that all be strong in the faith, giving Christian witnessing to all, without fear or shame, but with courage and firmness of being adopted children of God the Father, followers of Jesus Christ our Saviour, temple of the Holy Spirit and members of the Catholic Apostolic Roman Church. And may the Most Blessed Virgin bless you all.” (280).
These few pages on Bishop Augustus Azzolini can hardly give us a complete picture of all his spirituality, mission zeal, and works, but I do hope they have encouraged my readers to remember him as a ‘missionary saint’, with a total passion for God and souls, and still alive within both his Xaverian Family and the Church of Sierra Leone with his eternal love.
In 1964 Azzolini, when given the opportunity to justify his missionary strategy in Sierra Leone wrote: “Let me say clearly that a catholic or non catholic mission in Africa cannot be conceived without scholastic commitments. It would have no prestige or strength, but the risk to be closed down. With our schools … we have created a true Christian atmosphere in this province, where, before us, even the name catholic was unknown.” (232)
At the end of December 1952 Azzolini wrote his second official letter to the Clergy of Makeni. Among other news and directives, he dared to say: “Let’s go ahead with courage and trust, because we are working for the greatest of Causes. The Lord is with us. The Immaculate Virgin assists us from Heaven. And Our Venerable Founder blesses us together with our great Patron, St. Francis Xavier.” (141) These words summarized well the heart of his spirituality and missionary commitment, prevailing in all circumstances.
To his Confreres he did not just give a missionary push (most of the times, unnecessary), but he was down to earth by recommending them “prudence in what concerns your health. The money we spend for some decent food is certainly not wasted, because it will be of benefit to your very work.” (141) In terms of money, Azzolini was always short of it for the many projects he desired to realize, but his lasting refrain was, Providence will assist us. (143, 147)
On December 8th, 1954, only four years after arriving in Makeni, Azzolini blessed his Pro-Cathedral, dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima. This Marian title could not have been better chosen in a Muslim country like Sierra Leone.
Father Calza left us a timely description of Azzolini’s personality in those early days of the mission. “Bishop Kelly of Freetown had written to Azzolini in answer to some of his plans: ‘Dear Father, patience. You are new to this place. Soon you will see that the sun of Africa will burn all your patience in your veins.’ But the sun of Africa seems to burn only the chair in his room. He is somehow everywhere. He has within himself something that compels him to burn the stages. He is a little man, with the skin pulled over his bones, the smallest of all of us twelve. All the others have had malaria … and accidents of all kinds. But he has had nothing wrong except indigestion from bananas three years ago.” One can easily imagine an Azzolini like this for many years to come.
To one of his Xaverian friends in Italy, in 1955, Azzolini confided: “I, thank God, am always well. But the work is plentiful, the needs many, the good to be done is without end, and we can never do what we would like. Now I am also worried, and not in a small way, for the health of the Fathers, who, I am afraid, are working too much … and from Italy there seems to arrive no sufficient help ... when we have magnificent possibilities for apostolate among the youth, who, because of our schools follow and listen to us …” (159)
Already in 1956, in his Prefecture, Azzolini could boast of “34 primary schools with 3.000 pupils, plus a magnificent Pro-Cathedral, a small seminary capable of 30 students, a convent for Sisters … 12 Xaverian Fathers and 5 Brothers … But we need secondary schools, we need Christian families, we need indigenous Priests. And we cannot waste time.” (170). Education, Christian marriages, vocations remained the focus of all his pastoral concerns during all his leadership.
Ten years after the arrival of the first four Xaverians in Sierra Leone, Azzolini openly gave credit to his Confreres when he wrote that “all of them are good and with spirit of sacrifice” (188). At the same time he strongly rejected the negative opinions that Xaverians in Italy were expressing regarding the slow pace of evangelization in the Makeni Prefecture. “I am sorry for this”, he wrote, “but when we arrived here ten years ago, one would realize what it means to start a Mission from nothing, without experience or guidance, in a world totally new and immensely different from … the Chinese world that our old (Xaverian) Fathers only knew. (Forgetting this) has created several misunderstandings and mistakes of evaluation. But patience! … now we can number (in the Prefecture) 1.900 Catholics from the 300 in 1952. Moreover we have an Institute of Sisters, a Seminary, a hospital, a Secondary School … 40 primary schools with 5.000 pupils and seven missionary residences … the Catholic Church, unknown ten years ago, is now appreciated, while the Christian spirit is taking hold among people that have only a pagan-Muslim background.” (188)
Later on, in a Xaverian publication, he would write: “ (Sierra Leone) is one of the most difficult Missions entrusted to the Xaverian Missionaries … We are the first to admit that our energies and work could perhaps have better results if applied to other regions. … but to abandon now the positions we have conquered with hard commitment would mean to betray the Catholic Mission in the world. The Missionary is first of all a sower and, if he does not experience the harvest joy, this does not mean his work has been in vain or useless; it simply means that his labour is that of the pioneer who opens the way to the harvesters.” (193)
In 1961, the year of Sierra Leone’s Independence, Azzolini remarked with satisfaction that the celebrations “were greatly solemn and with unanimous participation of the population, without any disturbing incident.” Obviously in connection with the Independence, on February 24th, 1962, Pope John XXIII elevated the Apostolic Prefecture of Makeni to a Diocese and nominated its first Bishop Monsignor August Azzolini. In less than 12 years the Church in the Northern Province had come of age!
About the Bishop of the new Diocese, one Xaverian Father, well known for his intellectual honesty, summarized well our hero’s personality: “I have no doubt that, among the Xaverians in Sierra Leone, Azzolini was the best: for his devotion to the Holy See, as interpreter of our Venerable Founder’s spirit, for his missionary zeal, for his fatherhood and generosity, and for his extraordinary courage to face difficult situations.” (219).
About the future of the new Diocese Azzolini himself wrote: “There is plenty of work, the personnel is minimal, the sufferings many, but I greatly trust in the Lord …”Azzolini was ordained bishop in the Cathedral of “his” Parma on June 24th, 1962, taking the episcopal motto Caritas Christi Urget. Soon after, he returned to Makeni to a great welcome by all. In his words: “Authorities and people, catholics, protestants, muslims, pagans, all took part …” (223)
Evidently Bishop Azzolini continued his mission to the Diocese even more energetically than before. Now (in his 1964 report to the Holy See) he counted 72 primary schools with 15.000 pupils; 4 secondary schools with 700 students; a teachers college; 4.000 Catholics; one hospital and some clinics; 7 residential stations; 30 religious (Xaverians, Cluny and Clarissan Sisters, Dutch Brothers). These religious “give an incalculable contribution to the Diocese’s missionary apostolate.” (226) But they were still all foreigners. His plan for a diocesan seminary was there from the very start of his mission in Makeni and, in 1965, he could hopefully report to his Xaverian Family: “To speak of a seminary, and even more to plan its construction, almost at the very beginnings of our work, seemed to all a mere utopia. However I am convinced that the seminary could contribute powerfully in giving a greater conscience of its dignity to the black population.” (233) What a missionary insight for those days!
At the end of 1964, after praising the meetings and newly published documents of the Vatican II Council, at whose sessions he was faithfully (and, at times, impatiently) present, Azzolini made a very personal comment: “The humble and last and most hidden Diocese of the Catholic Church, the Diocese of Makeni, may she rejoice of this new outpouring of the Spirit in the Church of God and may she soonest be numbered among the ecclesial territories that are most vital and most worthy of redemption and salvation.” (231)
What kind of a Bishop was Azzolini in the 60’s? What was his personality, what kind of values did he live by? I find that the most honest sources for answers to these questions are the writings and stories of his Xaverian Confreres, who, alongside their many praises of him, did not hide their mild criticism or different opinions. Allow me to copy here a few of their comments about him:
“All were admiring this man of small height … that would not give up in front of any obstacle … even when sick … he was there, all for all. He used to repeat: ‘ I am Bishop: the Holy Spirit is on my side with the fullness of his gifts. And I am walking on the footprints of the Founder.’ … He was conducting his pastoral visits with scrupulous attention even to the small details … arriving to the Missions fully dressed up in episcopal regalia and sweating all over … He countersigned all the Mission’s registers. And to his clergy he used to repeat: ‘You, Fathers, are not only managers of the schools, but above all priests, formators, shepherds’” (Fr. Calza, 238-240).
“The Bishop was always bursting of holy zeal. He was running for, pushing, and encouraging the external structures (of the mission) at full steam, to arrive at the heart of people, who were enthusiastic of him because ‘he was a doer.’” (Fr. Zamponi, 245).
All the old Xaverians mention in their reports his goodness, generosity, hospitality, conviviality, and simplicity with all of them, so much so that one of his genuine pains was to find that one of them had come to Makeni but had not visited him! Fr. Rabito wrote about him: “The arrival of a new missionary was (for Bishop Azzolini) motive for great joy. He would talk to him immediately, with enthusiasm, of the plans for the development of the mission. He loved his missionaries; he was encouraging them in their efforts, leaving them with great breath of initiatives whether in the spiritual or developmental fields. … Every (possible) contact with people or individuals was for him a mission, the mission of announcing Christ in all circumstances.” (249).
Some of Azzolini’s close collaborators would mention that he was a bit of a misogynous person ((242), but others would disagree, a lady volunteer among them, who would herself testify that once, after working three full days for him, he put his hand on her head and said: “Josephine, you are very precious, you are a jewel.” (252).
The same lady would also confirm that Bishop Azzolini had a great sense of humour (251). Yes, we, his Confreres, can remember well that he liked so much to spend time in fraternal conviviality, at a meal together, for a drink, with the many stories of the mission, recalling also the old days of the Xaverians, both in Sierra Leone and in Italy. And he was so generous with his missionaries and collaborators, willingly sharing with them whatever he had at hand.
The Diocese of Makeni did not slow down in the 70’s. It would actually witness to a continuous development under the leadership of Bishop Azzolini, in spite of the many obstacles and sufferings that were coming from all sides, including coup d’états and all. But two events need to be mentioned here to understand the missionary strategy of Azzolini: the ordination of Joseph Sheku Kanneh as his first Sierra Leonean priest and the beginning of religious instruction directly to adults, without passing first through our schools. How happy and satisfied the Bishop was to see his efforts for indigenous priests crowned with success. And how happy he was, especially in the Limba areas, to meet adults desiring Baptism!
To continue ‘the conversion of the North’ Azzolini encouraged the training of Catechists for all outstations and villages in a capillary way. For him, Christ and his Church were supposed to be at home everywhere in Sierra Leone! For this reason he willingly turned the Makeni Teachers College - when it became available - into a Pastoral Centre, from where priests, leaders and faithful would depart to spread the Gospel everywhere.
Together with the spiritual and pastoral training activities, Bishop Azzolini greatly encouraged all kinds of social and charitable projects too, from the Catholic Relief Service to Primary Health Care, to the Leprosy Campaign, to the Polio Organization, to the Lunsar Catholic Hospital and the many clinics, to experiments in agriculture, crafts, and trades … without mentioning all the activities in support of the poor and needy. He really did care for the welfare of all people, and of the whole person.
In 1982, after the “open windows” of Vatican II , with all their fresh air and … insects, Bishop Azzolini, usually more conservative than creative, could honestly write to the then Superior General of the Xaverians: “I know I am old and I know that they have labeled me conservative. Of this I should not be sorry. It’s true that in the years past Xaverian Preachers and Lecturers have been sent to us to make our old system of apostolate more modern. … But, it is strange that some of them had marveled to see that the burdens and works (in the Diocese) are still and mostly on the shoulders of the old ones (Xaverian). These (Preachers) have left us with admiration for the (Mission’s) great development and activities.” (276-7).
At the end of 1986, already worn down with years and labour for the Kingdom of God, Bishop Azzolini passed the Diocese of Makeni on to another Xaverian, Father George Biguzzi, and retired to the Xaverian Mother House in Parma.
There he died on July 24th, 1992, and his body was soon brought back to Makeni to be buried in front of the Cathedral as it was both his wish and the desire of all those who knew him. In 1981, on the Golden Jubilee of his priestly ordination, he ended his Testament to his beloved Christian children with these words: “Finally, to all the people of God in the Diocese of Makeni, my heartfelt appeal that all be strong in the faith, giving Christian witnessing to all, without fear or shame, but with courage and firmness of being adopted children of God the Father, followers of Jesus Christ our Saviour, temple of the Holy Spirit and members of the Catholic Apostolic Roman Church. And may the Most Blessed Virgin bless you all.” (280).
These few pages on Bishop Augustus Azzolini can hardly give us a complete picture of all his spirituality, mission zeal, and works, but I do hope they have encouraged my readers to remember him as a ‘missionary saint’, with a total passion for God and souls, and still alive within both his Xaverian Family and the Church of Sierra Leone with his eternal love.