Bishop Nicholas Shi Jin Xian, 88, died on 16 September in Shangqiu (Henan, People’s Republic of China), the last of the Augustinian Recollect bishops in China and the last living religious to have worked in China before the take-over of Communism.
Nicholas Shi was born in 1921, just three years before the Order of Augustinian Recollects arrived at the Kweiteh Mission (present-day Shangqiu) in Henan.He entered the Augustinian Recollect minor seminary in his native municipality, where he also underwent the novitiate and made his profession January 16, 1940. After studying philosophy and theology, he was ordained a priest on July 29, 1948.
Shortly after Father Shi's ordination, in the wake of the events in China after the first half of the 20th century (Chinese-Japanese war, World War II, Civil War and the coming of the communist regime), Spanish missionaries were expelled and native religious were dispersed or sent to concentration camps and the mission was closed.
Expelled
When the Spanish missionaries were expelled (with the bishop, also Spanish, at the head), Nicholas Shi was appointed episcopal vicar. He exercised the ministry as long as he could do so, until he was finally prohibited from exercising any pastoral action. He first became an oculist, but later was consigned for three years to a brick factory to be "re-educated." He was imprisoned for two years and lived in miserable conditions suffering the public contempt of the authorities.
Nicholas Shi was born in 1921, just three years before the Order of Augustinian Recollects arrived at the Henan Mission (present-day Shangqiu). However, behind closed doors, he did not cease his pastoral work, undertaking constant visits to Christian homes and leading underground liturgical celebrations. His human qualities were appreciated even by those who guarded him.
Rehabilitation letter
Deng Xiao Ping's coming to power and the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1979 enabled Fr. Nicholas to get a "rehabilitation letter." He was assigned to teach English, a job he held until his retirement in 1986.
In the early 1980s he managed to contact the Spanish Augustinian Recollect missionaries in the Philippines, after almost 30 years of not knowing whether the Order still existed. The Augustinian Recollects themselves did not know if any Chinese religious in the mainland was still alive.
Retired from his teaching tasks, he returned to Shangqiu in 1980 to dedicate himself solely to pastoral work. He succeeded in having the civil authorities return to the Church all the properties they had confiscated since 1948. He re-opened the parish and contacted some of the Augustinian Recollect religious who were still in China after the dispersion. He also began to receive visits from foreign religious, once permission was granted for travel within China.
For years he engaged in negotiations with civil authorities, eventually gaining permission to have communities of men and women religious in his diocese. For his faithful, selfless and exemplary work, on 8 May 1991 he was made bishop of the diocese, which had no shepherd for 39 years.
Place of honor
Nicholas Shi deserves a place of honor in the history of the Order and in the Catholic Church in China. His kindness, discretion, ability to react and prudence led him to maintain a tense but respectful relationship with the authorities. His figure attracted many of his compatriots to Catholicism and the religious life.
He was a person of profound spiritual life, deep faith and uncommon intelligence. He was a person of profound spiritual life, deep faith and uncommon intelligence. Never having lived outside of China, he wrote in Latin, English and Spanish, and was able to translate official texts. When he made contact with the first Spanish religious, after almost 40 years without speaking, hearing or reading a word of Spanish, he had no problem writing letters and reports in this language with an astounding perfection.
His love for the Order of Augustinian Recollects in which he was formed, to which he belonged and which he re-established in his diocese, with a great vocational flowering, was a feature that all Augustinian Recollects recognize and thank him for.
His funeral will be held in Shangqiu on 22 September, at 8:30 in the morning.