The late Auxiliary Bishop Agustin Roman, one of the spiritual leaders of South Florida’s Cuban exile community, left $60,000 in his will to the Matanzas diocese in Cuba, the Miami archdiocese said Monday.
Throughout his life, Roman, the first Cuban to be consecrated bishop in the United States, “generously supported the Church in Cuba ... and he now in death continues to support the Church in Cuba,” Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski said in a statement.
Wenski recalled that Roman, who died April 11 at the age of 83, was ordained in Matanzas in 1959.
Expelled from the island in 1961 by Fidel Castro’s regime, Roman eventually settled in Miami, where he supervised the construction of the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity, Cuba’s patroness.
“Once referred to as a hero for his successful efforts to quell a prison riot, Bishop Roman with humility would respond: ‘A bishop, a priest, is a servant, not a hero,’” the Miami archidiocese said.
The $60,000 that he left in his will to the Cuban diocese were delivered to Msgr. Manuel Cespedes, bishop of Matanzas.
