Simon Zhu Kaimin

Simon Zhu Kaimin, SJ (; 30 October 1868 - 22 February 1960) was a Chinese Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Jiangsu. He was also a member of the Society of Jesus.

Name His given name is Ximeng . His Zi is Mingde . His Hao is Jiqiu and Kaimin .

Biography Zhu was born in 1868 to an upper class Catholic family in Shanghai.

In 1883 he studied Latin at the Dongjiadu Catholic Church and then studied theology at Xujiahui Catholic Church . He joined the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) at age nineteen. He was ordained a priest at age twenty-nine. Zhu did domestic missionary work in China.

In 1926, Zhu and five other Chinese priests (Philippus Zhao Huaiyi, Melchior Sun Dezhen, Joseph Hu Ruoshan, Odoric Cheng Hede, and Aloysius Chen Guodi) were consecrated in Rome and became the first Chinese Catholic Bishops in modern times. The Holy See framed these consecrations as an important moment for indigenizing the Catholic Church. After leaving Rome, the new bishops toured Italy, France, Belgium, and Holland where crowds of local European Catholics greeted them.

Zhu was the Vicar Apostolic of Haimen, which had the biggest Catholic population of any of the territories for these six.

The Propaganda Fide believed that Zhu's upper class background would help him obtain respect from Chinese civil authorities.

He returned to China in March 1927 and founded Xilei Middle School that same year.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, he actively raised funds to support the fight against the Empire of Japan.

At the beginning of 1949, he lived in Shanghai. He returned to Haimen in 1955. In 1958 Matthew Yu Chengcai was proposed as the new bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Haimen, Zhu reported the result to the Holy See. On January 15, 1959, Zhu was labeled as a rightist by the Communist government. Zhu was placed under house arrest. On November 15, 1959, Matthew Yu Chengcai was consecrated as bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Haimen in Nanjing, but it was not recognized by the Holy See.

Zhu died in 1960. He was buried in the Tomb of Yuangongsuo . In 1966, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution, his tomb was completely destroyed by the Red Guards. He was rehabilitated on May 15, 1980.