(ANS - Rome) – Today 6 October 2015 is the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the Venerable Bishop Vincent Cimatti, great missionary and founder of the Salesian presence in Japan.

From Faenza in Emilia-Romagna, he comes from a family of saints: of the three surviving children, he is venerable; his sister, Sister Maria Raffaella of the Congregation of the Hospital Sisters of Mercy, was beatified on 12 May 1996; and his brother Louis, a Salesian Brother missionary in Latin America, died in the odour of sanctity. When he was only three, Vincent lost his father. A few days later he was carried by his mother to the parish church where Don Bosco was preaching. "Look, Vincent, look at Don Bosco!" she said, holding him up over the heads of the people around. He became a Salesian at the age of seventeen and a priest at twenty-four.  Vincent acquired several qualifications: a diploma in composition at the Conservatory of Parma, a degree in agriculture, philosophy and pedagogy in Turin. For twenty years he was a teacher and brilliant composer in the college in Valsalice.

At Christmas 1925 the Rector Major Don Rinaldi sent him as a leader to found the mission and the Salesian work in Japan. He was to work there for forty years. He won the hearts of the Japanese with his polite charm and his artistic talent and especially with his goodness. He conducted concerts with great success. He reached out to the poor, the young, the old, the sick. He opened orphanages, oratories, professional schools and set up a publishing house in Tokyo.

In 1935 the mission in Miyazaki-Oita was raised to a Prefecture Apostolic and Fr Cimatti become the first superior with the title of Monsignor. "Why do you want to poison my blood?” he wrote immediately to Turin. “Let me work in peace without any frills. Can you imagine Don Bosco with tassels and red edging?" When his friends in Italy posted him a Monsignor’s outfit, he sent it back.  "Sell these and send me the money for the poor." Then he became Provincial.  After the terrible ordeal of the war, he rebuilt the mission with renewed courage. Later he resigned to make way for younger people. He died aged eighty-six on 6 October 1965. He said: "I want to die here to be buried in Japanese soil". He was declared venerable on 21 December 1991.

To mark the occasion of his fiftieth anniversary coming after the bicentenary of the birth of Don Bosco, Fr Gaetano Compri, guardian and apostle of the memory of Bishop Cimatti, has edited a new publication: "Don Cimatti, teacher of life. As he lived, so he wrote ". The title draws attention to the holiness of life which distinguished this great son of Don Bosco. He was able to embody the Salesian charism in Japan and earned the name "The Don Bosco of Japan". This book is not a biography, but a collection of his teaching and his spirituality, based on the most significant parts of his letters. There are 338 entries, placed in chronological order, with a few words giving the context. It is a document of faith and spiritual direction on various topics of life, following the spirituality of St Francis de Sales and Don Bosco.

Published 6/10/2015