T'ien Keng-hsin (24 October 1890-24 July 1967), the first Chinese to become a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

The second son in a family of five children, T'ien Keng-hsin was born in Changch'iuchen, in the Yangku district of Shantung. His native place was a prosperous commercial center which was known for its uncommonly large variety of temples and shrines. Little is known about T'ien's mother except that her maiden name was Yang and that she came from Kochiachuang. His father, T'ien K'o-liang, the son of a prosperous merchant, was a shengyuan, a teaching scholar, and a poet. He supervised T'ien Keng-hsin's early training in the Chinese classics.

In 1896 T'ien K'o-liang began teaching Chinese at the Po-li-chuang Minor Seminary, a training center supported by Chang Ch'iu-chen's small Roman Catholic community. He was baptized in 1898, a year before his death. In 1901, at the age of 11, T'ien Keng-hsin was baptized, at which time he took the name of Thomas. The rest of the family converted to Roman Catholicism in later years. Beginning in 1904 T'ien studied in local Catholic seminaries for 12 years. He later characterized this educational experience as labored and considerably hampered by inept teaching and inadequate textbooks. Moreover, at its conclusion his ordination into the priesthood almost was sacrificed to the vagaries of illness and inner doubt. When tuberculosis caused him to be absent during the last critical months of his training, an unsympathetic bishop—possibly interpreting these lapses as signs of indecision as much as illness—threatened to deny him ordination. However, he finally entered the priesthood in June 1918.

From 1919 to 1929 Father T'ien served in seven different districts of the Shantung diocese. Local problems were compounded by dilemmas arising as a result of the First World War. At one point, all German priests were threatened with expulsion from Shantung and were assembled at a transfer center for evacuation, only to be returned to their posts at the urging of Chinese priests and parishioners. Foreign national interests were reflected in conflicts between French and German orders. Moreover, some foreign priests in Shantung tended to be contemptuous of Chinese priests. In two districts Father T'ien founded and administered schools. By appealing to Catholics in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia, he raised about China Si 0,000, which enabled him to establish many training classes, to provide needy students with room and board, and to organize a variety of religious programs and organizations.

In March 1 929 Father T'ien joined the Society of the Divine Word. After two years of special study and training, he took the final vows on 7 February 1931. Upon his return to pastoral work in August 1932, he was assigned to a missio dependens comprised of Yangku, Shouchang, Ch'aoch'eng, Kuanhsien, and Fanhsien. It was designated an apostolic prefecture on 14 December 1932, and Father T'ien was appointed the apostolic prefect on 24 February 1933.

Father T'ien made his first journey outside China in February 1937, when he participated in the International Eucharistic Congress in Manila. The occasion for his second trip, in 1939, was a summons to be blessed personally by Pope Pius XII on the occasion of Father T'ien's appointment by the Curia Romana as apostolic vicar of Yangku. The Sino-Japanese war did not deter Father T'ien. He made his way through the Japanese lines to Shanghai and boarded a German liner bound for Europe, only to be turned back in mid-journey when war came to Europe. By changing ships, however, he finally reached Italy and the Vatican. He was consecrated a bishop by Pope Pius XII on 29 October 1939. After his return to China and three years of effective evangelism in Yangku, Bishop T'ien was appointed apostolic vicar of Tsingtao. On 24 December 1945 Pope Pius XII announced the appointment of Bishop T'ien to the college of cardinals, and on 18 February 1946 he became the first East Asian to be enthroned as a cardinal. China was designated a hierarchy of 20 sees on 11 April 1945, and Thomas Cardinal T'ien was named archbishop of Peiping.

Upon assuming his new duties on 29 June 1946, Cardinal T'ien promptly turned his attention to education. He urged young priests to undertake a period of university study and transformed a department at Fu-jen (Catholic) University in Peiping into St. Thomas College of Philosophy. He arranged for the schooling of young Catholic refugees, who swarmed into Peiping as the Communists advanced in north China. In the autumn of 1947 he founded the Keng-hsin Middle School, which was in fact a minor seminary. To improve the production and dissemination of Catholic literature, he established the Institutum St. Thomas as a publishing center and founded the Catholic Broadcasting Association. When an eye ailment forced him to seek medical treatment in Shanghai, Cardinal T'ien took what proved to be final leave of Peiping in June 1948. He went to the United States in the spring of 1949 and underwent medical treatment in Chicago. Before leaving China he was instrumental in sending ten young priests and more than twenty seminarians abroad to continue their studies.

Throughout the 1950's Cardinal T'ien lived in Chicago. In 1950 he made a trip to Rome for the issuing of the papal bull Munificentissemus Deus, which defined the dogma of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. At the urging of the National Government in Taiwan, he paid a visit to Taiwan in September-November 1957. The following year, he took part in the papal elections. In December 1959 Pope John XXIII appointed him apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Taipei. Cardinal T'ien arrived in Taiwan in March 1960 to assume his new duties.

Cardinal T'ien made his last trip to Rome in 1962, when he participated in the Second Vatican Council and in the election of Pope Paul VI. On 24 July 1967 he died at St. Martin de Porres Hospital in Chiayi, Taiwan, at the age of 76.