In Pace Christi

Brother Manfred was born on 8^th June 1958 in Wasseralfingen, Baden-Württemberg, in the diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart. After secondary school, he completed a three-and-a-half-year apprenticeship as an industrial electrician in Wasseralfingen, which he completed by obtaining a professional qualification certificate. He immediately found a job, but after a year he decided to do 12 months of civil service at the hospital laundry in Aalen. It was during this period that Manfred began to deepen his life of faith and, gradually, came to understand that he wanted to spend his life serving God and the Church. He spoke about it several times with the parish priest, who directed him to the Comboni missionaries, who had a training centre for the brothers in Ellwangen, on Josefstal hill. Young Manfred immediately liked the house and the community.

On 15^th May 1978, he entered as a postulant and continued his professional training in the electrical sector. On 10^th October 1979, Manfred began his novitiate in Mellatz, where he took his first temporary vows on 9^th June 1981, and entered the scholasticate, the last phase of his formation. He enrolled in a two-year course of professional training at the technical institute in Tettnang, where he specialised in electricity and systems engineering, obtaining a master’s degree that qualified him to teach. In July 1983, he went to England, to Rickmansworth, where the Comboni Missionaries had recently taken over the management of a parish, and enrolled in a college to improve his English language skills. At the end of June 1984, he successfully completed the language course.

After a short family vacation, Manfred was assigned to the International Brothers Center (CIF) in Gilgil, Kenya, to complete his scholasticate with two years of study and practice. Here, on 11^th May 1986, he took perpetual vows. He was assigned to teach and train apprentices at the Polytechnic Village where he was appointed head of the electricity department. He remained there for nine years, loved and respected by students, instructors and the people.

Manfred had a nice way of dealing with apprentices and employees. And being a football fan, he organised football matches at weekends. He often went on excursions with the group of young Christian students (YCS), with the Bible in his backpack. On Sundays, he celebrated ‘Sunday liturgies of the Word without a priest’ with students in various schools.

In 1995 he returned to his homeland, assigned to the community of Graz (Austria) as head of the maintenance of the house and agricultural land. However, he dedicated most of his time to the Afrikahaus, a building built to welcome and promote students and refugees. At the time, in collaboration with Caritas, the ‘Afrikahaus Daniel Comboni Association for the Promotion of Students and Refugees from Africa’ was founded. The house offers accommodation until the refugees have obtained a residence permit in Austria.

Brother Manfred took care of the refugees like a mother and helped them in the sometimes difficult relationships they had with the police. He also started German language courses for them, but soon found himself forced to hire a retired teacher for this task. And of course… he organised many soccer tournaments.

On 30^th September 2001, Brother Manfred went to Germiston, South Africa, for the Comboni Year of Ongoing Formation. After the course, he received a new assignment: the Comboni Province of Mozambique. Without delay, he went to Portugal to learn Portuguese. In December 2022, he went to Mozambique. He would spend two periods there: from 2002 to 2014 and from 2020 until the end of his life.

In Carapira, the missionaries ran a technical school with an attached boarding school and Brother Manfred took over its general responsibility and administration. In 2014, he left this service to take over the management of the Centre for elderly and sick confreres in Ellwangen. It was the time when large groups of migrants were arriving: thousands of refugees filled the former NATO barracks, on the outskirts of the city, which became a first reception centre (LEA). Brother Manfred was immediately ready to help.

In 2020, he was able to return to the Carapira Vocational School as a teacher and formator. The school has now become an institute, it has had a significant improvement in the level of training. A class for industrial electricians has also been approved. The number of students has risen to 200. A group of girls and about thirty Muslims now also attend the institute.

2024 is the year of the 60^th anniversary of the foundation of the school (created on 25^th September 1964). Brother Manfred was eager to receive visits from former students, to hear their experiences and how their lives have changed thanks to the training they have received. The official celebrations were scheduled for the end of September. At the beginning of March, he took an early vacation in his homeland. He rested for a few weeks and then began a long series of conferences and meetings with missionary groups to which he presented his projects and asked for sponsorships.

He already had his return ticket for 5^th July in his pocket when, on the evening of 4^th July, the group Freundeskreis Matany (‘Friends of Matany’) from the city of Aalen held an outdoor barbecue evening for the missionaries of the Ellwangen community. Brother Manfred also attended so he could meet his confreres, the employees of the various offices and a good number of friends. At the end of the party, he hugged and said goodbye to everyone, saying how happy he was: “Tomorrow I will see my students. How wonderful!”

He did not delay in Ellwangen but went straight to Wasseralfingen, to the home of his brother Helmut who had offered to take him to Munich airport the next morning. In the morning, at the appointed time, seeing that he was not yet up, Helmut knocked on the door of Manfred’s room. No answer. He went in and found him dead on the bed. Everyone was immensely shocked and sad. He had shown no signs of premature death at 66 years of age!

The news immediately reaches Carapira, where the confreres and students were deeply saddened. They prayed for him and talked about him, especially his ability to be close to everyone, about the beauty of having had him close to them, about the ardent warmth of his charity, the kindness of his attentions, his admirable professional skills... In everyone, there was the certainty that Brother Manfred would still continue to take care of them now as their intercessor with God.

There was a short message from Gilgil. It was from John Michael Muya, former director of the Polytechnic Village: “May Saint Daniel Comboni welcome Brother Manfred into heaven and accompany him to the presence of the Father. And you, our dear and most humble Brother Manfred, faithful servant of the people and humanity, rest in peace. You have fulfilled your role as a missionary of Christ in spreading the Good News to the people. My tears flow uncontrollably for your death. But in my heart, I feel a deep gratitude to God for having met and known you. You were truly a great missionary of Comboni!” (Father Alois Eder and other confreres)