Bishop Joseph Ma Xuesheng was born on Sept. 16, 1923. He is a native of Zouping county in Shangdong. From 1939 to 1941, he studied at St. Joseph Minor Seminary at Zhoucun and he changed to study at Jinan Minor Seminary in 1942. Later in 1948, he studied at Hankou major seminary and he entered St. Joseph Major Seminary in Macau in 1949. He studied philosophy and theology in Beijing in 1950. He was ordained a priest in 1957 in Jinan. Later, he served local faithful in Zhoucun and in 1988 he was ordained coadjutor of Zhoucun and became Bishop of Zhoucun nine years later. The Vatican-approved bishop is in ill health. He died in 2013.