Maclovio Sanchez
Maclovio Sanchez, known all his life as Max, was born on 21 May 1931 at San Luis, Colorado. San Luis is the old Hispanic town in Costilla County, in the San Luis Valley. His parents were Estevan Sanchez and Emiliana, called Emily. He was baptized on 2 June 1931 at Most Precious Blood Parish in San Luis. His sister Erma was born there in 1934.
He grew up in Walsenburg, Colorado, the seat of Huerfano County. He graduated from St. Mary's High School there. He had three other sisters, Clorinda, Erla and Mary, and a brother and a sister who died before 2004.
From boyhood he wanted the religious life. "After school I went to the seminary in Antonito, Colo., and studied for two years," he said in 2010. "Then I was drafted and spent two years in the army and when I was discharged I found the desire wasn't there. Still I wanted to be involved somehow."
On 24 April 1954 he married Mary Frances Marquez at Holy Rosary Parish in Denver. Their son Martin was born about 1954, their daughter Debra in 1956 and their son Joshua James on 12 September 1962, all in Denver. The marriage lasted 65 years.
For his living, Max drove a warehouse truck for the Midwest Liquor Company, delivering to stores around Denver. By 2010 he described his work as supervisor at the Midwest Winery in Denver.
The family belonged to St. Joseph's Redemptorist Church in central Denver. When the archdiocese opened its program for permanent deacons, his pastor told him about it. A permanent deacon is an ordained Catholic minister who may be married. Deacons baptize, witness marriages, preach and serve the poor. Max talked it over with Mary Frances and entered the program. In March 1973 he was named, aged 41, to the second class of candidates. In 1974 Bishop Evans installed him and the rest of that class in the office of Reader, a step toward the diaconate.
On 22 March 1975 Archbishop James Casey ordained him a deacon at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver. His was only the second class of deacons ordained in the archdiocese. At his ordination he was 44, with a wife and three children. He said then that as a deacon he would work with the poor of his parish and the St. Vincent de Paul Society, and visit the sick at Denver General Hospital.
He was assigned to St. Joseph's and stayed there throughout his ministry. He prepared Spanish-speaking families for baptism and marriage. He assisted the priest at the Gardens of St. Elizabeth and was a part-time chaplain at Denver General Hospital. He served at the Westside Action Center. He said the most fulfilling part of the work was preaching in Spanish at missions around Denver. In March 1980 he and Deacon Filemon Gonzales led a week-long Spanish mission at All Saints Parish on the theme "Espiritualidad en Comunidad", spirituality in community.
He was also the spiritual director of the metro council of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, a Catholic charity that feeds and clothes the poor. In October 1979 he spoke at its conference on "Spirituality Formation and Our Vocation". He was president of its food bank, and vice chairman of the Coalition for the Westside Betterment.
In 1989 his son Martin was ordained a permanent deacon. Max called it a prayer come true. Father and son served together at Mass at St. Joseph's, and they were among the few father-and-son permanent deacons in the United States. "People came up and said they expected it to happen because his father is a deacon," Max said. "I said, 'No. That's the way it worked out. That's the way God wanted it to be.'"
His son Joshua died in Denver on 20 January 2007, aged 44, and was buried at Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery in Wheat Ridge.
Max retired from active ministry in 1993 but kept serving at St. Joseph's as long as his health allowed. The archdiocese marked his 25 years as a deacon in 2000 and his 30 years in 2005. In 2010 he counted 14 grandchildren and, in his words, "countless great-grandchildren."
"There are so many ways that you can give back in this ministry," he said. "In your community or your parish; it's just a matter of getting started."
Maclovio Sanchez died peacefully at Olathe, Kansas, on 30 April 2019, at the age of 87. "Deacon Max reached out into the peripheries and brought the lost back into the Church," said Deacon Joseph Donohoe, the archdiocese's director of deacon personnel.
Sources
If Maclovio Sanchez is in your family, start your own tree.
Researched October 2026. Cite: Heirology, "Maclovio Sanchez (1931-2019)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/maclovio-sanchez-1931-2019-2bca62.