O.C.S.O.
The Trappists, officially known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance ( la, Ordo Cisterciensis Strictioris Observantiae, abbreviated as OCSO) and originally named the Order of Reformed Cistercians of Our Lady of La Trappe, are a ...
(; 15 January 1897 – 11 December 2007), was a Chinese Trappist priest living in Hong Kong who had been the oldest living Catholic priest and also the oldest person ever to have had a cataract operation according to the
Guinness Book of World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
.
Biography
Born in
Fuzhou
Fuzhou (; , Fuzhounese: Hokchew, ''Hók-ciŭ''), alternately romanized as Foochow, is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian province, China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute t ...
, Fujian province, one of four brothers, Kao studied law at Xiamen University and later converted to Catholicism at the age of 18 while attending a school run by Spanish Dominican friars. He was trained as a teacher and studied law at night, but he ultimately decided to become a priest.
His life spanned parts of three centuries, two Emperors of China, and ten papacies. He stated that in 1912 he voted for
Sun Yat Sen
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radia ...
as China's president. His clerical life would bring him from China to Taiwan, Malaysia, and finally Hong Kong.
In 1972, he was at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. He lived a cloistered life, but regularly shared advice for a healthy and long life. He gave visitors a list of "Healthy Seven Nos": no smoking; no anger; no alcohol; no overeating; constant exercise; constant prayer; no rudeness. He was devoted to the
Blessed Virgin Mary
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...
throughout his life — he would say the
Rosary
The Rosary (; la, , in the sense of "crown of roses" or "garland of roses"), also known as the Dominican Rosary, or simply the Rosary, refers to a set of prayers used primarily in the Catholic Church, and to the physical string of knots or b ...
many times each day, and built six shrines to her in Taiwan, Mainland China, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
He stayed at
Our Lady of Joy Abbey
The Trappist Haven Monastery is a monastery in Tai Shui Hang (), Hong Kong. It is home to a number of Roman Catholic monks of the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance, or Trappists. It was originally named "Trappist Haven Monastery," ...
at Lantau Island for more than 30 years, where he died peacefully in his sleep on the morning of 11 December 2007, at the age of 110 years and 330 days. His body was buried in the Monastery's private graveyard.
See also
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Aging
Ageing ( BE) or aging ( AE) is the process of becoming older. The term refers mainly to humans, many other animals, and fungi, whereas for example, bacteria, perennial plants and some simple animals are potentially biologically immortal. In ...
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Longevity
The word " longevity" is sometimes used as a synonym for "life expectancy" in demography. However, the term ''longevity'' is sometimes meant to refer only to especially long-lived members of a population, whereas ''life expectancy'' is always d ...