Joseph Xu Zhixuan ( zh, c=徐之玄; 7 July 1916 - 8 December 2008) was a Sichuanese Roman Catholic

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

of the Archdiocese of Chongqing, China.

Biography

Xu was born Xu Huafu ( zh, s=徐华富, t=徐華富, links=no) in

Dachuan District Dachuan District () is a district of Dazhou in northeastern Sichuan province. In 2020, it had a population of 945,191 inhabitants residing in an area of . It was called Da County () or Daxian, until July 2013, when it renamed to Dachuan District ...

Dazhou Dazhou ( zh, s= 达州 , t= 達州 , p=Dázhōu , w=Ta-chou) is a prefecture-level city in the northeast corner of Sichuan province, China, bordering Shaanxi to the north and Chongqing to the east and south. As of 2020 census, Dazhou was home t ...

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

, on July 7, 1916. From 1928 to 1934 he studied in small Catholic churches in both Ba County and Zhong County. From 1934 to 1939 he studied at Zhenye Middle School ( zh, s=震野中学, t=震野中學, links=no). After graduating the Wan County Institute of Philosophy in 1943, he taught at a Catholic church in Zhong County. He was ordained a priest in 1946. In 1947 he was accepted to the

Fu Jen Catholic University Fu Jen Catholic University (FJU, FJCU or Fu Jen; or ) is a private education, private Catholic university in Xinzhuang District, Xinzhuang, New Taipei City, Taiwan. The university was founded in 1925 in Beijing at the request of Pope Pius XI and ...

. After university, he went back to the Wan County Institute of Philosophy as a teacher there. In 1950 he entered the Beijing National Normal University. After graduating in 1953, he became a maths teacher at the Beijing No. 4 High School. In 1959 he was transferred to a state farm in

northeast China Northeast China () is a geographical region of China, consisting officially of three provinces Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. The heartland of the region is the Northeast China Plain, the largest plain in China with an area of over . The regi ...

Heilongjiang Heilongjiang is a province in northeast China. It is the northernmost and easternmost province of the country and contains China's northernmost point (in Mohe City along the Amur) and easternmost point (at the confluence of the Amur and Us ...

province to reform through labour. In 1971, the Chinese government allowed him to return home. He was rehabilitated in 1978, after the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

. In 1982 he became a priest at a Catholic church in Da County, and served until 1998. He was ordained assistant bishop of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Wanxian The Roman Catholic Diocese of Wanxian (formerly spelled Wanhsien; ; zh, t=天主教萬縣教區), also known as Diocese of Wanzhou, is a Latin Church, Latin Catholic Church, Catholic diocese located in Wanzhou, Chongqing, Wanzhou District (forme ...

on July 31, 1989. He was promoted to become bishop on January 16, 2001. He died on December 8, 2008, aged 93.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Xu, Joseph, Zhixuan 1916 births 2008 deaths Sichuanese Roman Catholics Roman Catholic bishops in Sichuan Roman Catholic Diocese of Wanxian People from Dazhou Catholic University of Peking alumni 21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in China