Cosmas Shi Enxiang

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Cosmas Shi Enxiang (* 1921 ; † January 30, 2015 ) was a Roman Catholic bishop and Apostolic Prefect of Yixian in the Chinese province of Hebei.

Life

Cosmas Shi Enxiang was ordained a priest in 1947. Because of his commitment against the regime-affiliated " Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association " he was imprisoned for the first time in 1954 and then spent the period between 1957 and 1980 in Chinese prisons and labor camps. While in the camp, he did forced labor in various jobs. He was forced to work in the Heilongjiang State Farms and also in the Shanxi Coal Mines .

In 1982 he was secretly ordained auxiliary bishop of the Apostolic Prefecture of Yixian before he was appointed bishop of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Prefecture in Yi County in 1995 to succeed the seriously ill Peter Liu Guandong . The bishopric has been officially vacant since 1961 and has only been occupied by underground bishops since then because of the persecution of Christians in China.

He was arrested again in 1983 and spent the next three years in prison. House arrest for three years followed. Barely free, he was arrested again in 1989, when the Bishops' Conference of Underground Bishops was constituted, and was not released until 1993. He was arrested again on April 13, 2001, and since then, despite regular inquiries from Chinese state institutions, neither church officials nor his family had heard from him until the authorities reported his death on January 30, 2015. In total, Bishop Cosmas Shi Enxiang had spent 54 years in prison for his belief.

The Catholic news agency Asianews had declared him and the imprisoned Bishop Jakob Su Zhimin , who had also been in prisons for over 40 years, "People of the Year 2011".

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b kath.net: Chinese underground bishop died in custody at 94 years of age , February 3, 2015
  2. ↑ a b ecumenicalnews.com: Chinese underground bishop, 94, dies in secret detention site, says relative , February 3, 2015 (English)
  3. ↑ a b c d catholic.info: Disappeared underground bishops of China named “People of the Year 2011” - 90 years imprisonment , December 30, 2011
  4. ↑ Beijing hides the body of bishop Cosma Shi Enxiang: too "dangerous". Asianews, September 2, 2015.
predecessor Office successor
Peter Liu Guandong Apostolic Prefect of Yixian
1995-2015 		Sedis vacancy
personal data
SURNAME Shi Enxiang, Cosmas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chinese Roman Catholic bishop and persecuted by the regime
DATE OF BIRTH 1921
DATE OF DEATH January 30, 2015