HONG KONG (SE): Trappist (Cistercians of the Strict Observance) Father Maurus Pei passed away on June 27 at the age of 85 after seven decades of consecrated life. A funeral Mass was offered at the chapel of Our Lady of Joy Abbey and he was laid to rest on July 4 at the abbey’s cemetery in Lantau Island.
Father Pei was born in 1935 in Zheng Ding, Shijiazhuang (Hebei, China). He entered Our Lady of Joy Abbey as a child oblate in 1945. However, he remained in mainland China and was ordained priest in 1982, making his solemn profession in 1985.
He re-joined the community in Hong Kong in 1995. For a short period, he also served as the prior of the Abbey. At the time he died, he had lived monastic vows for 35 years and was 37 years a priest.
A series of interviews by Teresa Maries Moreau with Father Pei and other surviving priests from the mainland China in 2011, detailed a riveting tale of communist persecution in China and the monks’ subsequent flight to Hong Kong. The interviews were published in the American newspaper, The Remnant, during April, May and June 2011 under the title, Enemies of the State: Catholic Priests in Communist China.
