Historical and biographical review of some of the main figures of the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine of the Order of Augustinian Recollects from its foundation to the present day.
José Wang was born in 1921 to a peasant family in Chion Ku Zhi, Shandong, China. His childhood was overshadowed by the Sino-Japanese War. In 1932, he entered the Augustinian Recollect Seminary of Kweiteh in Henan, professing his simple vows in 1940 and his solemn vows in 1943.
During the peak of the Second World War and the Chinese Civil War, the seminarians were relocated to the Dominican convent in Rosary Hill, Hong Kong, where he was ordained a deacon. He would remain grateful for this time with the Dominicans throughout his life.
In 1949, he moved to Manila and was ordained a priest on 3 March 1950. Shortly after, he returned to China to find the seminary and mission house occupied. With his superiors’ permission, he moved to his birthplace.
This marked the beginning of thirty-five years marked by periods of incarceration, conditional freedom, or forced labour, with restrictions on his ministry, control over his life, and a constant search for employment for survival.
His freedom was taken, but not his smile. Isolated from his family, Recollect confreres, and the faithful, he lamented his solitude. He gradually regained some freedom starting in 1986.
Even during confinement, he never ceased his pastoral work. Starting that year, he undertook his most productive task: organizing the Diocese of Heze, which had been in ruins for decades, and aiding Christians in returning to religious practice. He later revealed that he celebrated over ten thousand baptisms during those years.
When the opportunity to reconnect with the Recollects outside China arose, he eagerly met with them and invited them to visit Heze.
He spent two months each year at his residence, dedicating the remaining ten months to visiting his widely scattered faithful by bicycle. Nicolás Shi, a fellow sufferer in persecution and episcopacy, said of him:
A zealous missionary, he travelled from town to town, committed to preaching the Gospel and administering the sacraments. He seldom spent days at his residence, always embodying humility and gentleness, showing little concern for clothing and food.
On the feast of the Immaculate Conception in 1996, he was ordained bishop of Heze; however, his episcopal appointment was not publicly revealed until 2000.
Fray José lived a life reminiscent of the ancient prophets: impoverished, persecuted, incarcerated, devoid of mercy from his persecutors—who he always forgave—and cherished by the faithful. One of his accusers once admitted to him:
“Then, I used to think that you were really a criminal; but now I can see that I was wrong: what you are is a good man.”.
