(OSV News) — The Diocese of Hong Kong announced the death of Trappist Father Benedict Chao, who, prior to his death at 108 years old, was the oldest Trappist monk in the world.
According to a report by Asia News published Aug. 9, the diocese said Father Chao passed away July 31 at the Abbey of Our Lady of Joy, the monastery where he lived on Lantau Island, Hong Kong.
With his death, Sister Sebastiana Yamaguchi Teruko of the Imari Abbey in Japan is now the oldest Trappist religious in the world at 107 years old.
Trappists are formally known as members of the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance and follow the Rule of St. Benedict. Acknowledging Father Chao’s death, the religious order’s website stated that Father Chao’s death renewed their “reverence for those whose long lives continue to be offered entirely to God in silence, prayer, and work.” In addition to Sister Sebastiana, the order’s website lists three other centenarian members, all 103 years old.
Communist persecution survivor
Father Chao was among the last of the Trappist monks who survived the Chinese communist persecution. Born in 1918 in Chengting, located in China’s northern Hebei province, he entered the Abbey of Our Lady of Joy.
The monastery, which was founded in 1928 in the same province where he was born, first suffered persecution during the Second Sino-Japanese War, when several monks were imprisoned or killed, Asia News reported.
Father Chao was ordained in 1949, the same year of the Chinese Communist revolution, when the monks were forced to leave the monastery. Monks across the country were deported, beaten and killed during this period.
Cheese-making in Utah
For a time, he and other Trappist monks were able to flee to Canada, where they lived at the now-defunct Monastery of Notre-Dame-des-Prairies in Manitoba. Later, they lived for a brief time at the Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity in Huntsville, Utah, which closed in 2017.
During their time in Utah, Father Chao and his fellow monks learned cheese-making, a skill they would bring with them to their final home.
He and his fellow Trappists eventually regrouped in Hong Kong on Lantau Island and reestablished the Our Lady of Joy Abbey. The skills they learned in Utah inspired the monastic community to produce milk, butter and cheese.
In 1974, Father Chao was elected as the monastic community’s prior, which he served until 1998, Asia News reported.
His funeral is expected to take place Aug. 14.
Junno Arocho Esteves is an international correspondent for OSV News. Follow him on X @jae_journalist.
