The man responsible for ‘the Lourdes of America’
Remembering Father Casimiro Roca of El Santuario de Chimayo
The Annual Feast Day for El Santuario de Chimayo, specifically el Dia del Senor Cristo de Esquipulas, was on Jan. 15. We remember Father Casimiro Roca, the holy eminence of that world-famous spiritual pilgrimage destination who passed away on Tuesday Aug. 4, 2015. May he be granted eternal rest, in the perpetual light.
It is likely that many of the 300,000some people who each year seek the spiritual benefits and healing from the Santuario have not known of Father Roca, who for more than 50 years was the guiding and formative presence there. People may also not be aware that it was mainly through his unwavering devotion to that holy site that the Santuario is what it is today, the “Lourdes of America.”
Thankfully, the Santuario now continues well through the very excellent oversight and ministry of el Reverendo Julio Gonzales.
Father Roca was a rock and spiritual foundation of the Santuario, and was largely responsible for guarding and guiding the shrine’s widespread, growing fame as that destination where healing and spiritual grace abound.
And, as always, it is a confounding mystery how one individual, especially one who seemed so unassuming, could so masterfully employ the forces of human goodwill and of the natural and “supernatural” worlds to establish and increase that holy site.
Many people continue to comment through the years, “That man was and is a saint.” Father Roca would be the first to quell such a statement, saying only that he was just a simple priest trying to do the Lord’s work and that, in fact, it was always a lot of work; for example, he himself would be physically re-filling the “posito” with the blessed earth that is so sought after for its healing properties at the Santuario.
Yet, it is clear that the relationship between that site and that priest resulted in one of the most phenomenal spiritual pilgrimage sites in America and in the world, in our “modern” times.
It is true that, for many centuries, even long antedating the arrival of Spanish Catholic Christianity, the Native peoples knew about and visited the site. A hot thermal spring is said to have flowed near there at one time that was considered sacred in those earlier times, for its healing powers. It was known then as Tsi Mayoh, and it is now called Chimayo.
Healings have taken place there for a very long time. The hot spring waters might no longer flow there, but the earth is reputed to be charged with healing properties. Some draw an analogy between the earth of the Santuario and the use of earth by the Christ in some of his miraculous healings; and some use the earth as a medium of blessing prayer and as a symbol of life’s journey. And some have the earth applied to them in blessing for help in their transition from this world into the next.
Father Roca always credited the spiritual faith and desire of people to be closer to the Creator as being absolutely integral to the healings that do take place there. Father Roca was one, albeit probably the most influential, of a long line of holy men and women who have cared for the Santuario site, since pre-European times until the time of Don Bernardo Abeyta who, around 1810, found the famous Crucifijo of Jesus El Senor de Esquipulas, which is now set in the Church/ Iglesia at the Santuario.
In our day, the spiritual and healing power of El Santuario is known throughout the world, helping countless numbers of people. It was Father Roca who was moved by his own purposeful faith to rescue the site and enlist the aid of human and other forces to rebuild the site.
Northern New Mexico is known for the deep spiritual cultures of the Pueblos, and the carved Santos/Saints, dating back many centuries. In this land of the carved wooden Santos, Father Roca is considered to have been a living Santo del Norte.
We remember and thank him. And it is reasonable to postulate that he can be eminently considered worthy of the process toward true Sainthood in his beloved Church. He demonstrated heroic virtues as a servant
of God, which is the first step in that process.
And we thank Father Julio Gonzales, who sees to it that El Santuario is cared for so that El Santuario may continue to be
the spiritual healing center for El Norte.