Paul Francis Zhang Mingqian

Paul Francis Zhang Mingqian (; October 26, 1917 – July 24, 2005) was a Chinese Catholic priest, Franciscan, doctor, prisoner for faith. He was recognized as a legal bishop by both the Holy See and the Chinese government.

Biography He came from a Catholic family from Jingmen, Hubei. In 1938 he joined the Franciscan High Priest Seminary at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hankou. In 1944, he was ordained a priest and returned to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Yichang. In addition, he received a medical education and was a doctor.

In 1947, he founded a clinic in Jingmen, where he was also a parish priest. After the advent of Communist rule, he worked at the local hospital. In 1958 or 1959, the Catholic Patriotic Association chose him as its Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Yichang. On August 15, 1959, he received the episcopal consecration at the hands of the excommunicated anti-Bishop Hankou Bernardin Dong Guangqing OFM. Accepting sacra without the consent of the Pope, Zhang was excommunicated from church. In later years, however, he was reconciled with the Pope and received the approval of the Holy See.

During the Cultural Revolution, he was sentenced to reeducation through work, but thanks to his medical education, he avoided the camp and was punished while working in the hospital in Yichang. Released in 1978, he returned to the diocese, which he led until his death in 2005. At the same time, until 1982, he worked as a physician, transferring his earnings to the seminarians he initially taught personally. He also practiced afterwards giving medical advice to sick priests and the faithful.