Requiescat In Pace

Oldest Chinese priest dies one month before 111th birthday

HONG KONG (UCAN) : Trappist Nicolaus Kao Se-tsien, believed to be the oldest Chinese priest in the world, died in his sleep in the early hours of Dec. 11, a month shy of turning 111 on Jan. 15.

Dom Anastasius Li, abbot of Our Lady of Joy Abbey on Lantau Island here, told UCA News Father Kao was found dead in his bed at 6 a.m. by a confrere who used to help him get dressed for daily prayers and Mass at 6.30 a.m.

Father Kao had lived a contemplative life at the abbey for the past 35 years.

The abbot described the late priest as having died "in peace, as shown on his face." The Trappist community held a requiem Mass for him that very morning, he added.

The funeral and burial will take place in the abbey, according to Trappist tradition. The date has not been decided but is likely to be before Christmas, Dom Anastasius said.

Since Father Kao did not die in a hospital, his body will have to undergo a medical examination before burial, the abbot noted.

The death was the first at the abbey since Dom Anastasius became community superior in 2003. He said, "I feel sad and miss Father Kao, a dear brother in our community, although Father Kao had expected this day to come, to be united with God."

Two days before Father Kao's death, a relative had told UCA News the priest's relatives and close friends in Taiwan had planned to celebrate his 111th birthday in Hong Kong.

A Catholic laywoman from Fuzhou diocese, where Father Kao was born in mainland China, told UCA News she feels sorry to lose such a kind priest who had been blessed with longevity. Fuzhou, capital of Fujian province, is 1,640 kilometers southeast of Beijing.

Father Kao was born near the city in 1897, at a time when China was under the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). He was baptized in 1915.

After being ordained a priest in 1933, he served in the cathedral parish of Fuzhou diocese. He left the mainland in 1949 when the communists founded the People's Republic of China and spent the next 40 years preaching in Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. He lived through two world wars, as well as the Japanese occupation of China (1937-1945).

In 1972, at age 75, Father Kao left pastoral ministry to join the Trappist monastic community -- formally known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance -- in Hong Kong. He made his perpetual vows at the age of 100.

Father Kao once told UCA News that since 1932, he had been reciting the rosary 15 times each day for world peace. From 2004, two years after Pope John Paul II introduced the "mysteries of light," he increased this to 20 times a day. He said he used the same rosary beads for more than 70 years.

His guiding principles in life were tolerance, which he learned at a teachers' college in his youth, and mindfulness about death, which helped him remain aware of the transience of worldly goods.

He said he had seven secrets for longevity: prayer, exercise and abstention from smoking, alcohol, anger, annoyance and over-eating. He also revealed his seven secrets for eternal life: faith, humility, love, kindness, patience, enthusiasm and perseverance.

Father Kao underwent short periods of medical care in 2004 and eye surgery in 2005.

For many years here he woke up at 3:30 a.m. with the other monks for community prayers. He would spend the day praying, reading and sharing farm and household chores with other confreres, as well as making cookies to support the community.

He told UCA News on his 110th birthday that he had long prepared for his own death, when he would "return to the heavenly Father."

Nevertheless, time after time he had to give up his chosen burial site in the monastery's cemetery to younger confreres who passed away before him.

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