ENGLISH

“At your word I will put down the net”

Fr Cavoli thought of not only visiting the poor and sick, but of leading them to a more human existence. So he planned to open a place that would take them in. War seemed imminent, and the Congregation had financial restrictions, so he found it difficult to make this idea understood. Supported in this major decision by his Superior, Fr Cimatti, he was finally able to open the Hospice on 18 December 1932. In October 1933 he left for Italy where he spent a year going around giving conferences on his evangelizing activities in Japan, and collecting funds to support the Hospice.

Girls came from all over Japan wanting to serve in the Hospice for free and make it their abode. This group of girls was called the “Daughters of Charity” at the time. Fr Cimatti urged Fr Cavoli to found a Congregation to support and run the Hospice. After a period of discernment, Fr Antonio welcomed this suggestion and began work on founding a female Religious Congregation inspired by the life of the Daughters of Charity.

Thus, the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Japan was founded on 15 August 1937, and the first two Sisters made their vows on 31 January 1939. Fr Cavoli set about drawing up the Constitutions and seeing to the formation of the Sisters. In 1941, given the war, foreign aid had completely ceased. To continue the work of the Hospice, the Sisters had to work with utmost dedication, even at the cost of their own lives. The current growth of the Congregation is due to the sacrifices made by these first Sisters.

In this way the duties of those good women increased and became diversified: prepare meals; keep the house clean; do the washing; look after the old and paralysed; do the humblest sevices; take care of the children; hoe the garden; milk the goats, continue the visits to families; and all was done with that serenity and perpetual Japanese smile that rose, like a continuous hymn, to the Heart of Jesus, fount of true charity.

(Autobiography, Towards the beginning of the Work)



I was still of two minds. But on the third occasion, I feared I might be lacking in obedience, and bowing my head, I replied with the words of St. Peter: "If you say so, I will let down the nets.” (Lk. 5:5). However, I was far from imagining what a cross I had accepted, with that word of consent, and at the same time, what an amount of good the future Congregation would accomplish, and how much consolation it would bring me in my old age.

(Autobiography, The idea came from the apostolic heart of Mgr. Cimatti)



Because of the excessive amount of work, and the nameless privations, six graves were dug in the Catholic cemetery .. for six Sisters.

(Autobiography, There is no greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends)



The Sisters of the Caritas Congregation, during the long war years, because of the conditions described above, had developed a spirit of work, abnegation and sacrifice, sublimated by a spirit of uncommon faith and heroic charity, which were truly exceptional. And their condition of workers in the midst of extreme poverty had helped to keep them bound together in humility and simplicity.

(Autobiography, Expansion)