(ANS - Oita) - At the end of January, the Vatican Library and four Japanese Historical Institutes signed an agreement to translate and catalogue the so-called Rolls of Marega, a collection of about 10,000  documents that describe the presence and the persecution of the Catholic community in Japan from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. This archaeological treasure has come to light thanks to a long thread that started with a Salesian, Fr Mario Marega, continued with Fr Vincent Cimatti and was rediscovered thanks to the Salesian Cardinal Raffaele Farina.

The Rolls of Marega, which obviously owe their name to the Salesian who found them, come from the civic archive of Bungo in the Prefecture of Oita, Japan, where Fr Marega lived and worked for many years. An astute and passionate collector, he gathered about 10,000 documents written on rice paper. They are of great value  - the oldest of them even records the arrival of Christianity in Japan in 1549 , thanks to the Jesuit missionaries.

These documents were recently discovered during the renovation of the Vatican Library that occurred between 2007 and 2010. "We began studying what kind of documents there were and how many – at first we did not realize how much was there" said Cardinal Farina, Librarian and Archivist Emeritus of Holy Roman Church, in an interview with Catholic News Service.

In the same interview , Cardinal Farina thanks Delio Proverbio, an Oriental scholar of the Vatican Library, and the retired bishop of Takamatsu, Bishop Francis Xavier Mizobe who is also a Salesian, for bringing him to discover how extraordinary the documents found in the Vatican were.

To complete the enquiry as to how these important documents came from Japan to the Vatican Library we have to consider a further link, also part of the Salesian network. Very probably, the man who made the contact between Fr Marega and the Vatican  and who brought at least some of his discoveries to Rome, was the Venerable Fr Vincent Cimatti, first superior of the Salesians in Japan, 1935-1945, and Prefect Apostolic of Miyazaki Prefecture, which included the Prefecture of Oita.

Among the more than 6,000 letters of Fr Cimatti in the Salesian Digital Library  one was found written by the Venerable and sent to Fr Marega, which reads as follows:

5 August 1938

Dear Fr Marega,

In my audience with the Holy Father, I presented him with the Kojiki [8th century Japanese historical chronicle - were this to be indeed the case, the collection we are referring might be more stunning than people are really letting on, since it is the oldest extant chronicle in Japan! But it is clearly a copy], which he obligingly took a look through. He told me to send you his sincerest congratulations.

For his part he would examine it further and have it given a place of honour in his dear Vatican Library. He sends you a very special blessing and encourages you to work really hard in this field of apostolate too, which indirect though it may be, is no less important and fruitful (and if you think it useful, have this published in the newspapers. Up to you what form you present it in).

I also gave a copy to Fr Ricaldone [ the then Rector Major- ed. ] – he has expressed the wish that it be printed by SEI - with explanations from Fr Candela and myself included.

Rest assured regarding the things you are after: camera, tape-recorder, things for the house, Hebrew Bible, maiolica [Renaissance ceramics] ...

Published 06/02/2014