Father Evelio Valencia García, was born in Neira, municipality of the department of Caldas, on 3 January 1923; and ordained priest on 11 June 1949 celebrates his diamond jubilee today. The Archdiocese of Manizales encouraged the faithful to join the celebrations for the anniversary of the 101-year-old priest.
“The Archdiocese of Manizales congratulates Father Evelio and thanks God for his life and his testimony of fidelity to God and the Church,” states the invitation to the celebrations by the priest.
“Father Evelio has exercised his priestly ministry in Chinchiná, Aránzazu, Agudas, La Cabaña, Pueblo Rico, in Manizales in the Nuestra Señora del Carmen Parish.”
The priest has also been chaplain of the University Institute, parish priest of Nuestra Señora de la Macarena in La Sultana, chaplain of the Santa Sofía Hospital and chaplain of Jardines de la Esperanza.
The Mass of thanksgiving for Fr. Evelio’s 75 years as a priest will be celebrated today at 3:00 pm in Villa Kempis, the town where the priest resides in a retirement home.
The Eucharist will be presided over by Mons. José Miguel Gómez Rodríguez, Archbishop of Manizales.
Father Evelio Valencia García comes from a family of four children, in which other long-lived people reached 90 – 95 years of age. He entered the Manizales Seminary at the age of 16; and he was ordained some time later, at 26 years of age.
In an interview given to the Colombian newspaper La Patria in 2022, when he turned 99, the priest said that he had no “secret” to his vitality and added: “I don’t know if it will be something hereditary, but I consider myself blessed by God.”
“Before I jogged, it was a religious thing for me, I went out every day, but since the ash began to fall from the Nevado del Ruiz Volcano that hobby came to that point. I have had very good health; I have controlled hypertension and they implanted a pacemaker, which is formidable because it allows me to live well, sleep well,” shared the Colombian priest.
When asked if he had any advice for priests, Father Evelio responded: “What is one going to say, neither about the Pope nor the bishop, because the bishop is the Pope in the archdiocese and one is always with that docility and simplicity with which he must act to flatter God”.
By then, the priest had been in the retirement home for 12 years and said that he did not need any help to do his things. “As a singular thing, during the 12 years at Villa Kempis, between 18 and 20 priests have died, almost all of them younger than me, only two were older,” he said.
Father Evelio also highlighted that “since it was said that Colombia was a secular state, many things have changed, even religious festivals give more importance to the mundane than to devotion, but even so, faith in God has not been lost.”