When did he decide he wanted to be a priest?
Father Cimatti is Italian, and before coming to Japan he devoted himself to evangelization in Italy until he was 46 years old.
He lived in his hometown of Faenza until the age of 15, then at the age of 16 he completed his novitiate in Forizzo,
Turin to enter the Salesian Congregation, and from the age of 17 to 46 he worked as a teacher at the Salesian College of Valsalice, Turin.
During the First World War he spent eight years at San Giovanni in Turin (as director of the oratorio),
all the while attending the Valsalice Academy of Turin to teach.
In Faenza, Vincenzo attended the municipal kindergarten and primary school until the second year, then studied at the Salesian School
from the third year of primary school until the end of secondary school.
It was here that his desire to become a priest was born.
When asked, "When did you decide you wanted to become a priest?" Father Cimatti replied:
"I had a very privileged upbringing. I saw Don Bosco when I was three years old. I was educated in a Salesian institution, and I always had the desire to serve the Lord."
Vincenzo was blessed with musical talent and a beautiful soprano voice, and he was often encouraged to do things that would benefit him,
both to help his poor family and to secure his own future. He was grateful.
I always politely declined, saying, "I promised myself a long time ago to dedicate my voice to God
and intend to enter the Congregation of Don Bosco and become a priest."
A black Sutan that he will wear for the rest of his life
At the age of 15, Vincenzo entered the Salesian Congregation in Forizzo, Piedmont, from 1985 to 1986, one of 137 novice monks.
From General Superior Michael Rua he received the black cassock that he would wear for the rest of his life. Father Terrone,
who had been helping with the formation of novices during that year, wrote the following about Vincenzo:
"Vincenzo, who was highly talented, always came first among the 137 novices. At celebrations he was often praised for his acting
and musical talents, but because of his humility and gentle manner he did not arouse any jealousy among the other novices.
Vincenzo used to say that pleasing people is a given, it's just a duty."
He devoted himself to evangelizing in Italy until he was 46 years old.
Cimatti spent 29 years at the Valsalice Institute of Turin, from the age of 17 to 46. At the time,
the Valsalice Institute was a high school, a normal school and a seminary.
Here Father Cimatti served as seminarian, neo-priest, school professor, principal and rector.
During his time as a seminarian, he had the opportunity to live with the now Venerable Andrea Beltrami, a seminarian who passed away in Valsalice (1897).
This seminarian's goal in life was "Sacrifice, Prayer, Work". In fact, these words summed up the whole of Father Cimatti's own life.
Regarding what Cimatti was like as a seminarian and then as a new priest, we quote the following two witnesses:
"He was a true teacher, always smiling and treating his students in a polite manner. He was a people pleaser and
to his students he was like an older brother, an 'angel of love and sacrifice.'"
After his ordination, "his words flowed from a soul that experienced and made God experienced."
Cimatti Museum Father Marsilio
June 6, 2021
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