 The Rev. Virgil Cordano Cordano, 88, was taken to the emergency room Friday night with a temperature of 107 degrees, friends said. The Santa Barbara Mission priest was sick for a few months before the hospitalization, but had been well enough to have dinner with friends the night before. He had come down with a case of the shingles, which exasperated his vertigo, a condition that causes disorientation and imbalance. Workers at the Mission rushed him to the hospital with a fever.
Doctors determined that his kidneys had nearly completely shut down from an infection that went into his bloodstream.
“He told (the doctors) to do whatever they needed to do to save him,” said Alice McDonald, a close friend. “He says he has more to do here.”
Antibiotics calmed his fever, and Cordano is now recovering at the Mission Terrace Convalescent Home. He is expected to be there for about three weeks.
The Santa Barbara Mission no longer houses an infirmary for elderly priests in the Franciscan Order, so it is unclear what might happen if Cordano needs ongoing medical care.  The Santa Barbara Mission no longer houses an infirmary for elderly priests in the Franciscan Order, so it is unclear what might happen if Cordano needs ongoing medical care. Photo by Tom Schultz / SBN
Cordano is perhaps the most well-known figure in the city, easily recognizable by his long brown habit, dark glasses and small stature.
Cordano has had connections to Santa Barbara since 1939, when he moved here to attend Catholic high school at St. Anthony’s Seminary, a now-shuttered preparatory school for Franciscan priests.
He returned to the area for good in 1950, serving as seminary rector, parochial pastor, professor, author, Mission curator and pastor at the Mission.
Cordano has been a huge presence in the community at Fiesta events and public celebrations. He is known particularly for his work in promoting interfaith dialogue and understanding of all religious beliefs.
Cordano has a chair in Catholic Studies endowed in his honor at UCSB, and was the subject of a recent book by Mario Garcia, “Padre: The Spiritual Journey of Father Virgil Cordano.”
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