CESATI, Filippo Maria. — Missionary of the Barnabites, b. in Milan in 1684, d. at Phuican on 2 Apr. 1725. After having taught literature at S. Alessandro (Milan) and served as prefect of the public schools in Lodi, together with Fr. On. Ferrari (q.v.) he was sent as an ablegate of Msgr. Mezzabarba (q.v.), the papal legate to the Emperor of China (1719–21); he was then assigned, together with Fr. A. Alessandri (q.v.), as judge and apostolic commissioner in Cochinchina, where, after four years of difficult work in that extremely poor and discordant land, he was elected apostolic vicar and bishop of Nabucco. However, the hardships of the mission led to his death before the papal bulls could be dispatched.
Two printed panegyric orations and *O n’ a mbasciata del Papa all’imperatore della Cina. Lettera del P...*, edited by A. di Prampero (Udine 1886), are extant of him. Manuscripts, letters, and an account of his journey from Rome to the East are preserved in the general archives of the Barnabites in Rome.