Joseph Hu Ruoshan

Hu was born in Zhejiang Province and orphaned at age five.^[2]: 512 Hu was raised by Catholic missionaries.^[3]: 73

Hu joined the Congregation of the Mission (the Vincentians) at age twenty-five and was ordained at age twenty-eight.^[3]: 73 He taught philosophy and dogmatic theology at the Catholic seminary of Ningbo. He was a consulting theologian for the 1924 Plenary Council of Shanghai.^[3]: 73

In 1926, Hu and five other Chinese priests (Philippus Zhao Huaiyi, Simon Zhu Kaimin, Odoric Cheng Hede, Melchior Sun De-zhen, and Aloysius Chen Guodi) were consecrated in Rome and became the first Chinese Catholic Bishops in modern times.^[3]: 54 The Holy See framed these consecrations as an important moment for indigenizing the Catholic Church.^{[3]: 71–73} After leaving Rome, the new bishops toured Italy, France, Belgium, and Holland where crowds of local European Catholics greeted them.^[3]: 73

Hu was the Vicar Apostolic of Taizhou, later the diocese of Linhai.^[3]: 73

He died in 1962.^[2]: 512