Vincenzo Cimatti

At the end of 1925, the Rector Major of the Salesians, Blessed Philip Rinaldi, decided to open a mission in Japan. He appointed Vincenzo Cimatti to lead a group of nine Salesian missionaries (including six priests and three coadjutors). The group left Italy and arrived in Japan on February 8, 1926, after a forty-day journey by ship.

The missionaries established themselves in the Kyushu region, notably in Miyazaki and Ōita. Vincenzo Cimatti was appointed superior of the mission sui iuris of Miyazaki in 1928. In 1935, Pope Pius XI raised the mission to the rank of apostolic prefecture, and Msgr. Cimatti became its first apostolic prefect.

To respond to the great local poverty, Vincenzo Cimatti actively supported the charitable initiatives of his confrere, Father Antonio Cavoli. Together, on August 15, 1937, they founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Miyazaki (today known as the Sisters of Charity of Jesus). This indigenous religious congregation is dedicated to the care of orphans, the elderly, and the sick.

In 1940, in a context of growing nationalism as World War II approached, Msgr. Cimatti resigned from his position as apostolic prefect to allow a Japanese clergy to take over. During the war years, despite the deprivations and the bombings in Tokyo, he continued to spiritually support his community. It was during this period of forced inactivity that he wrote a voluminous collection of spiritual meditations.

After the war, he founded the "Boys Town" in Tokyo to welcome and train orphans. In 1949, at the age of 70, he was appointed rector of the Salesian theologate and philosophate in Chōfu (in the suburbs of Tokyo), a position he held for nine years.

Alongside his ministry, Vincenzo Cimatti was a composer of exceptional fecundity. He composed approximately 950 musical works, including 18 sung masses, 48 operettas, and the first lyrical work in the Japanese language, titled Hosokawa Grazia. He organized nearly 2,000 concerts throughout Japan to spread Christian culture and fund his charitable works.

Msgr. Vincenzo Cimatti passed away on October 6, 1965, in Chōfu (Tokyo), at the age of 86. Throughout his life in Japan, he had expressed the desire to "become Japanese soil" upon his death.

In 1977, as part of the introduction of his cause for beatification, his remains were exhumed. His body was then discovered perfectly intact and flexible, as if he had just been buried. His mortal remains are now preserved and venerated in a crypt at the Salesian seminary in Chōfu.

The cause for the beatification and canonization of Vincenzo Cimatti was officially introduced by the Salesian Congregation. On December 21, 1991, Pope John Paul II promulgated the decree recognizing the heroic nature of his virtues, thereby conferring upon him the official title of Venerable. For his beatification to be pronounced, the official recognition of a miracle attributed to his intercession by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints is required.

Nicknamed the "Don Bosco of Japan," Vincenzo Cimatti embodied the Salesian preventive system characterized by gentleness, joy, and pastoral charity. He affirmed: "If one wants to be a missionary in Japan and does not become Japanese to the fingertips, one achieves nothing."

He used music as a universal language of evangelization. His artistic sensitivity was such that the Japanese press described his music as "more Japanese than that of the Japanese themselves."

His legacy continues today through: - The Cimatti Museum, founded in 1983 in Chōfu (Tokyo), which preserves his manuscripts, musical compositions, and personal items. - The Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus (co-founded with Father Cavoli), which has developed internationally and is now present in many countries across Asia, Europe, Africa, and Latin America.