John Hsane Hgyi (December 15, 1953 – July 22, 2021) was a Burmese

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

priest and

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pref ...

. He served as the Bishop of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Pathein The Roman Catholic Diocese of Pathein (Lat: ''Diocesis Patheinensis'') is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in Burma. It is headquartered in the city of Pathein. History The diocese was erected as the diocese of Bassein in ...

from May 24, 2003, until his death from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in July during the

pandemic A pandemic () is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. A widespread endemic (epidemiology), endemic disease wi ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

Biography

John Hsane Hgyi was born on December 15, 1953, in the village of Pyingadoe Mayanchaung to parents, Mahn Benedict Ja Aye and Daw Zita Chit Pan. He was a member of the

Karen people The Karen, kjp, ပ်ုဖၠုံဆိုဒ်, my, ကရင်လူမျိုး, , th, กะเหรี่ยง ( ), also known as the Kayin, Kariang or Kawthoolese, are an ethnolinguistic group of Sino-Tibetan language� ...

. He was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

as a

Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms ''priest'' refers only ...

on March 7, 1982. name=af He was appointed an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Pathein on March 22, 2003.

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

appointed Hsane Hgyi as Bishop of the

on May 24, 2003, and he was installed on August 24, 2003. Hgyi simultaneously served as president of the

Catholic Bishops' Conference of Myanmar The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Myanmar (CBCM), formerly the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Burma, is the episcopal conference of Myanmar (also called Burma). Composition The Conference consists of various commissions, agencies, councils and ...

(CBCM) from 2012 to 2014. At the time of his death in 2021, Hsane Hgyi was also serving as vice president of the

(CBCM) and the chairman of the Episcopal Commission for Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue. During the

COVID-19 pandemic in Myanmar The COVID-19 pandemic in Myanmar is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The virus was confirmed to have reached Myanmar on 23 March 2020. On 31 March 202 ...

, Hsane Hgyi reminded clergy and parishioners to take precautions to prevent COVID-19 infections. He issued a statement in June 2021, saying "We need to do prevention as there is no proper healthcare service and a lack of volunteers and healthcare workers at quarantine centers. The rate of infections is rising and the death toll has risen, so we must be very careful about the danger of the virus." However, on July 16, 2021, Hsane Hgyi, who also suffered from

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...

, reported feeling ill and began self-quarantining in his room. Bishop John Hsane Hgyi died from complications of COVID-19 in

Pathein Pathein (, ; mnw, ဖာသီ, ), formerly called Bassein, is the largest city and the capital of the Ayeyarwady Region, Myanmar (Burma). It is located 190 km (120 mi) west of Yangon within Pathein Township on the bank of the Pathei ...

, Myanmar, on July 22, 2021, at the age of 67. In addition to Bishop Hsane Hgyi, six other Catholic priests and

nuns A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

died from COVID-19 in Myanmar during the months of June and July 2021.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hsane Hgyi, John 1953 births 2021 deaths Burmese Roman Catholic bishops Burmese people of Karen descent Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Myanmar