| Nicholas Kao Se Tseien | |
 | |
| Birth: | 15 January 1897 Fuzhou, Fujian, China |
| Death: | 11 December 2007 Lantao Island, Islands District, Hong Kong |
| Age: | 110 years, 334 days |
| Country: |  CHN HKG
|
| Unvalidated | |
Nicholas Kao Se Tseien (15 January 1897 – 11 December 2007) was a Chinese-Hong Kong supercentenarian whose age is currently unvalidated by the Gerontology Research Group. If his age were true, at the time of his death at the age of 110 years, 334 days, he would have been the second-oldest man in Asia (behind Tomoji Tanabe), the oldest Roman Catholic priest in modern times, and the oldest person to have undergone a cataract operation.
Biography
Nicholas Kao Se Tseien was born 15 January 1897 in mainland China, and was raised as a Buddhist. At the age of 18, he converted to Roman Catholicism, and was ordained as a priest in 1933.
When China fell under Communist control, he fled to Malaysia, and moved between Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, and finally settled in Hong Kong. He often visited the poor, and was quoted as saying, "The rich will take the initiative to find me, because they believe I will bring money to the poor there."
He originally refused to undergo surgery for the cataract in his eye, but he was forced to by his superiors, despite his comment that he did "not want to look at the world."
He died in his sleep on 11 December 2007, a month before he would have turned 111.
References
- Cina: Il prete più anziano del mondo sarebbe un trappista Radio Vaticana, 18 January 2007 (Archived)
- 隱居大嶼山修道最長壽的香港人110歲人瑞逝世 Apple Daily (蘋果日報), 12 December 2007
- 熙篤會高師謙神父 一百一十高齡安息 Kung Kao Po, December 2007 (Archived)