1941 - Cesare Mencattini

July 12, 1941

Qimen, Henan

Cesare Mencattini.

The years of the Second World War were ones of carnage and death for the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) in China. Cesare Mencattini was martyred for the faith on July 12, 1941, while later in the same year (November 19th) four more PIME foreign priests were slain in Henan Province: Barosi, Zanardi, Zanella and Lazzaroni. The following year Osnaghi and Teruzzi were added to the list of martyrs in China.

Cesare Mencattini was born in Bibbiena, Italy, in 1910. At the age of 17 he rang the doorbell of the PIME seminary at Agazzai, in the Italian province of Arezzo, and asked the chancellor, “Will you take me? I want you to make me a missionary!” Despite his youth, Mencattini impresses the seminary leaders with his dedication to study and his willingness to surrender all to Christ. On September 22, 1934, he was ordained a priest of the Catholic Church. The young Italian wrote home:

“I have a feeling that I will go to China, because that’s where most of the assignments are destined this year. And this is really where I want to go, because it is currently the place where there is the greatest hope to crown our lives with the tiara of martyrdom.”[1]

His feelings proved correct. After a tearful goodbye to his friends and family at the Milan train station, he started the long journey to the Orient. On September 10, 1935, Mencattini set foot in China for the first time. After nine months studying Chinese he transferred to the ancient city of Kaifeng in northern Henan Province, which was the regional headquarters for the mission.

Soon after arriving in Kaifeng, Mencattini wrote home telling of the desperate scenes he had encountered in war-torn China:

“Immense populations live here in desolation and misery in regions which extend for hundreds of kilometres. We missionaries could not reach everyone, even if we had wings. We’re limited to doing very little in comparison with the immense work there is to accomplish. The inhabitants of these areas are reduced to the most extreme poverty, the result of brigands’ passing, war, and the flooding of the Yellow River. Along the roads you see groups of vagabonds, who don’t even have a hole in which to spend the night nor sufficient clothes to guard against the cold, which is so intense here in Henan.

You can’t imagine what it’s like for us missionaries to live here. Not only are there the physical sufferings, which are very real, but we also have the feeling of being alone in the midst of these people who regard us with indifference and disdain. We’re often the object of insulting words. When they see us walking by, for example, they say, ‘Here comes a European dog.’ If only they knew how much good we wish them and the sacrifices we have made and are making in order to live in their midst!”[2]

Despite the numerous challenges, Cesare Mencattini gradually came to feel at home in China. His life was truly one of self-sacrifice. In giving his life for the betterment of others, he gained a heart full of peace and joy, even in the midst of the most dire circumstances. In June 1936 he wrote to his brother:

“I am happy to be a gypsy priest, without a church, without a rectory, without benefits, but rich in souls, lacking in clout but renewed by grace! My Christians are poor but truly good! They are so attentive when I speak of the goodness of God and eternal life! Then they all kneel on the bare earth, under the stars, to pray…. T

ell me, if this is not true happiness! After having lived for six days in ratholes with beds of mud, this room of mine is worth more to me than the salon of His Majesty the King of Italy…. I assure you that I am truly happy, because I have a contented heart; content that I have left my loved ones in order to turn all my affections toward God and toward the many poor people who are so dear to me.”[3]

In 1939 China was locked into a complicated, messy three-way war between the Japanese, the Nationalists, and the ever-expanding Communists. The result was complete chaos in many parts of China, with a fourth factor, mobs of bandits, plundering areas where a vacuum of authority had ensued. In this atmosphere of anarchy Mencattini narrowly escaped death several times. On three occasions the Communists shot their pistols at him, the bullets grazing his head once and his back on another. Two of his Chinese catechists, however, were abducted and later decapitated. Despite all the difficulties, the PIME missionaries gave no thought to fleeing their post. Mencattini wrote to a friend back home:

“The opportunities for doing good are so great here! Many of the poor have no one else to help them…. We have no fear of death here. We would really be leaving nothing behind in this poor world. All of our strength, energy, and health must be dedicated to the Chinese, until we can do no more.”[4]

Cesare Mencattini’s martyrdom came when he travelled by bicycle from his home base in Hua Xian to the nearby town of Qimen to celebrate Mass on July 12, 1941. He was accompanied by two fellow priests, Angelo Bagnoli and Leo Cavallini. A military faction hid near the marketplace and opened fire on the priests. Mencattini was seriously wounded, but died only after being bayoneted. Strangely, the live of the two other priests were spared. One of the priests shouted to the soldiers that they were Christian missionaries and received the reply: “We know.”

1. Mariagrazia Zambon, Crimson Seeds: Eighteen PIME Martyrs (trans. Steve Baumbusch. Detroit: PIME World Press, 1997), 54.
2. Zambon, Crimson Seeds, 54-55.
3. Zambon, Crimson Seeds, 55-56.
4. Zambon, Crimson Seeds, 60-61.