CESATI, FILIPPO MARIA. - Barnabite missionary, born in Milan in 1684, died at Phuican on 2 April 1725. After teaching literature at S. Alessandro (Milan) and serving as prefect of the public schools at Lodi, together with Fr. On. FERRARIENSIS (v.) he was sent as deputy of Msgr. Mezzabarba (v.), pontifical legate to the emperor of China (1719-21); he was then appointed, together with Fr. A. ALESSANDRO (v.), judge and apostolic commissioner in Cochinchina, of which, after four years of difficult work in that extremely poor and discordant country, he was elected apostolic vicar and bishop of Nabucco; but the hardships of the mission brought about his death before the bulls could be dispatched.
Two panegyrical orations by him have been printed, as well as Un'ambasciata del Papa all'imperatore della Cina. Lettera del P..., edited by A. di Prampero (Udine 1886). Manuscripts and Letters, and an Ragguaglio of his journey from Rome to the East, are preserved in the general archive of the Barnabites in Rome.