Vincent Cimatti SDB was a Roman Catholic priest, bishop, prefect apostolic and Salesian provincial to Japan. He is founder of the

Caritas Sisters of Jesus Caritas may refer to: * The Latin term for charity, one of the three theological virtues Religion * Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of Roman Catholic relief, development and social service organisations ** Caritas Christi Health Care, a ...

. He is the brother of Maria Raffaella Cimatti, a member of the Hospitaler Sisters of Mercy, who was beatified by the Catholic Church in 1996.

Life

Vincent was born on 15 July 1879 in

Faenza Faenza (, , ; rgn, Fènza or ; la, Faventia) is an Italian city and comune of 59,063 inhabitants in the province of Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, situated southeast of Bologna. Faenza is home to a historical manufacture of majolica-ware glazed eart ...

Ravenna Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the cap ...

, Italy to James and Rosa Pasi, the youngest of six children. He was ordained a priest at the age of 24. He led a group of

Salesians , image = File:Stemma big.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms , abbreviation = SDB , formation = , founder = John Bosco , founding_location = Valdocco, Turin ...

to start a Salesian mission in Japan. He was appointed prefect apostolic in 1935. Cimatti died on 6 October 1965 in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. His body was re-exhumed in 1977 and found to be perfectly intact. His remains are kept in a crypt in Chofu. He was declared

venerable The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism. Christianity Cathol ...

on 21 December 1991 by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cimatti, Vincent 20th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests 20th-century venerated Christians Italian venerated Catholics Italian hermits Salesians of Don Bosco Venerated Catholics by Pope John Paul II 1965 deaths 1879 births