Bro. Francis Xavier Lee Chuan-Shou, SVD

 Lee Chuan-Shou was born on February 7, 1931 in Ding Xian, Hebei Province, China. At two years of age his mother passed away and he was cared for by his aunt. Because of the turmoil of those years, the family moved to Beijing. In 1947, he joined the Navy of the Republic of China. He was only 16 years old, but in his documents he changed his birth year by two years in order to be old enough to enter the Navy. During his long career in the Navy, he qualified as an electrician and received additional training in communication technology. His final posting was in the Southern Taiwan naval port city of Zuoying, near the port of Kaohsiung.

While in Zuoying, he met the SVD missionary, Fr. Joseph Meiners, SVD who had previously served in Fu Jen University in Beijing and had been a teacher of an aunt of Bro. Lee. While working at the German Cultural Center in Kaohsiung, Fr. Meiners was helping in St. Theresa's Church in Zuoying, where a group af members of the Navy were interested in the Catholic Faith. During this time, Lee Chuan-Shou wa baptised with a Christian name of Francis Xavier and soon after that he joined the Cursilio Movement where he was a very active member.

Because he was still single, Fr. Meiners invited him to join the SVD. He happily accepted the invitation. In 1974, he began working in the SVD section of Fu Jen Catholic University. He had to interrupt his work at the university for the Novitiate, which was held in Chiayi, under the direction of Fr. Tauch, with the help of Fr. Aloys Yang. He began on 15 August 1975 and professed first vows on 8 September 1976. On September 1982 after the second Novitiate with Fr. Tauch in Chiayi, he pronounced his perpetual vows as a member of the Society of the Divine Word.

Back to Fu Jen University, he worked hard gradually rising to the position of Division Head in the Office of Physical Plant of the University. He was active during the morning mass of the community, where he was in charge of the readings, which he did in his Chinese with the most correct accent of the people from Beijing. In 1994 he retired from the University, but continue to work for the SVD community at Fu Jen.

As with many veterans living in Taiwan, for many years Brother Lee was unable to return home. Only in the early 1980's, with the relaxation of the tensions between Mainland China and Taiwan, he was able to return to Beijing and once again met his family. He had a sister who was a journalist in Beijing Daily and a brother who was the principal at a school in Shenyang, in Manchuria (Liaoning Province, Northeast China).

In his last five years, Brother Lee's health gradually failed. While he was mobile to almost the very end, it was increasingly difficult for him to remember past events and acquaintances. During this time he remained with the Fu Jen community, cared for by the members of the community and dedicated lay helpers. In the early stages of his illness, the community would hear Brothe Lee singing to himself stanzas of Peking Opera; in the later stages we remember broad smiles and a short laugh.

After a brief hospitalization for pneumonia, Brother Lee passed away on October 9, 2007 at the Taipei Hospital in Hsinchuang. The funeral was in the Catholic cemetery in Sanxia on October 24, 2007, after a mass at noon in the Fu Jen University Chapel.