From The Archdiocese of Santa Fe Facebook:
We have been notified that Rev. Casimiro Roca-Toscas, S.F., former rector of the Santuario de Chimayo, N.M., died August 4, 2015. At the time, he was at home in the rectory at Holy Family Church, with his brother Sons of the Holy Family and caretaker, who have been helping him for several years. He had celebrated his ninety-seventh birthday eleven days earlier.
Fr. Roca was ordained in 1943, after thirty-three active years living in Spain and Italy, Fr. Roca came to Chimayo in 1954. For fifty-two of the next sixty years, he worked at restoring the Shrine, greeting pilgrims, hearing their confessions, and blessing their religious articles. He contributed to the Shrine becoming a Registered National Historic Landmark. Along the way, he founded Holy Family Parish in Chimayo, N.M. He also spent more than seven years serving Our Lady of Peace Parish in Greeley, Colorado.
A Wake service will be held at Holy Family Church in Chimayo on Tuesday, August 11, 2015 at 7:00 p.m., lead by Los Hermanos Penitentes.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Wednesday, August 12, 2015 at Holy Family Church in Chimayo at 11:00 a.m.
The interment of ashes will be held on Thursday, August 13, 2015 at Santa Cruz de la Cañada, Santa Cruz, N.M., at a time to be determined.
Please pray for the repose of the soul of Rev. Casimiro, and for his family, friends and the Sons of the Holy Family.
Frank Haley of KDAZ AM730 News Reported the story this way:
97 year old Rev. Cas-i-miro Roca-Tos-cas, , died this week after pastoring El Santuario de Chimayó for more than 50 years.
The Spanish-born priest is credited with transforming El Sanctuario de Chimayó from a tumbledown private chapel into a world-famous pilgrimage destination that attracts about 300,000 visitors a year.
Roca became the shrine’s first full-time pastor in 1954. In the following decades, Roca helped restore the shrine and became its public face, blessing visitors and their vehicles and hearing confessions.
His work contributed to the shrine’s becoming a registered National Historic Landmark in 1970.
God Bless the memory of Rev. Casimiro Roca-Toscas
