Lent 2025 Week Five — Chinese Catholic Dom Pierre-Célestin Lu, O.S.B. [Lu Zhengxian] (Lou Tseng-tsiang 陆征祥, 1871–1949): The journey of life is full of surprises.

by Father Rob Carbonneau, C.P., Ph.D.

Lu Zhengxian (Photo credit: Anthony E. Clark Private Collection)

Let us reflect on six ways that we might learn from the experiences of this notable Chinese Catholic.

First: Lu was Born in Shanghai in 1871; he was familiar with Protestant Christianity and Confucian philosophy. Education led him to enter the Chinese Foreign Service in 1893 and assigned to St. Petersburg, Russia. There, in 1899, he married Bertha Bovy (1855-1926), a Belgian, and eventually converted to Catholicism.

Meditation: No matter our age, taking time to listen to formative years of a person allows us reflect on the importance of family and the myriad of opportunities that shape our life journey.

Second: Lu mourned the death of his Chinese Catholic mentor Xu Jingcheng (b. 1845), who was beheaded during the Boxer Uprising of 1900. Still, Lu continued to serve as a diplomat in the Qing Dynasty until its demise in 1911.

Meditation: Mourning and enduring life during times of sorrow can be a genuine struggle, especially if it also impacts our friendships and the country of our birth.

Third: From 1912 to 1919 Lu continued to apply his talents to assist China through this troubled decade.

Meditation: Routine is important: we wake up and do our best with the gifts we have and contribute to society.

Fourth: After World War I ended in 1918, Lu found himself as lead China diplomat at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference at Versailles, France. Incensed by the unfairness of the conference towards China, Lu refused to agree that China sign the Versailles Treaty.

Meditation: One never knows when the moment will occur to take personal or public stand in life.

Fifth: From 1922 to 1927 Lu represented China’s in a variety of capacities in Switzerland. However, grieved by the death of his wife in 1926, in 1927 Lu made the decision to gain comfort from his Catholicism, and become a postulant at the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Andrew’s Abbey in Bruges, Belgium, accepting the new name of Dom Pierre-Célestin Lu. In 1935, he was ordained a priest. He traveled throughout Asia giving lectures in support of Chinese war effort amid the devasting the Anti-Japanese War, 1937-1945.

Meditation: In the face of world political and social instability, it is all-important to identify our moral compass. Nurturing this value provides us with capacity to act with wisdom and prudence, to ensure self-respect and promote the common good of all.

Sixth: In August 1946, Pope Pius XII (1876-1958) appointed Lu the titular abbot of St Peter’s Abbey in Ghent, Belgium. In 1949 Lu died of natural causes in Bruges.

Meditation: Being open to religious belief, spirituality and prayer allows us to see our journey in life as a dialogue with God, embracing the sacred tenets of world religious traditions to gain personal and social peace.

To be inspired by the life of Dom Pierre-Célestin Lu, O.S.B., read his 1948 autobiography Ways of Confucius and of Christ: From Prime Minister of China to Benedictine Monk. With an introduction and notes by Joshua R. Brown. Ignatius Press, 2024. https://ignatius.com/ways-of-confucius-and-of-christ-wcwcp/

Father Robert Carbonneau served as Executive Director of the US-China Catholic Association from 2014—2017. At the Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History, he is historian and curator of the Passionist China Collection (PCC), an archive of over 10,000 photos and 60,000 documents, photographs, reports, films, and correspondence that reveal the twentieth century Passionist-based mission in Hunan, China.

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