Roman Catholic Cardinal. The son of a literature teacher who converted to Catholicism shortly before his death, Thomas Tien Ken-hsin converted to same faith from paganism at the age of eleven while being raised at the Puoli Seminary. Moving to the Seminary of Yen-chow-fu, he contracted tuberculosis and was told to leave the premises. However, following the advice of a priest, he stayed until being ultimately ordained in June 1918. After teaching in the mission schools for three years, he moved to the Shantung Province, where he performed his ministry in an area filled with brigands and warlords, proving himself fearless in the face of the grave danger in which he lived, choosing not to leave the province. Joining the Society of Divine Word in March 1929 in Holland, he took his final vows in 1935, having already been appointed by the Holy See as apostolic vicar of Yangku in February of the previous year. Named the first apostolic vicar of Yangku in July 1939, he received his episcopal consecration with the titular see of Ruspae the following October in Rome from Pope Pius XII. The latter created him cardinal priest in the consistory of February 18, 1946 with the title of Santa Maria in Via, becoming thus the first Chinese Cardinal. Apostolic vicar of Tsingtao as of November 1942, he was promoted to metropolitan see of Beijing on April 11, 1946. With the approach of the communist armies two years later, he left his episcopal city to Shanghai, then to Hong Kong and ultimately to the United States of America, where he resided at the mother-house of the Divine Word Fathers in Illinois. In spite of being already in declining health, he soon became an active promoter of the Church in China, visiting Europe to raise funds for a seminary in Taiwan and again in order to participate in the conclave with elected John XXIII to the papacy, against the advice of his doctors, having been involved shortly before in a serious traffic accident. Apostolic administrator of Taipei, Formosa, between December 16, 1959 and February 15, 1966, for months prior to his death he was confined to hospital bed, incapable of any form of active ministry. Suffering from paralysis of the stomach and the digestive area on July 22, 1967, he lapsed into a coma but the use of an oxygen mask caused a little improvement in his condition. Archbishops Giuseppe Caprio and Paul Yü Pin were along with other church dignitaries where among those who assisted him on his death two days later due to complications from pneumonia at St. Martin de Porres's Hospital in Chiayi, Taipei. A hospital which he oversaw its foundation in the Xindian area of Taipei City, after raising funds in West Germany, was named after him upon its inauguration in October 1968, a year over his death.