MECCA, Calif. — There are no public memorials for Father Francisco Valdovinos, a beloved Catholic priest in this unincorporated Coachella Valley town who died of COVID-19 at 58.

The member of the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity arrived in 2018 to serve at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Guadalupe and immediately endeared himself to locals. The balding, burly, mustachioed Mexican immigrant pressed politicians to bring better services for his working-class congregation, and brought in literacy and legal classes on his own.

His homespun sermons packed the church every weekend, and the priest frequently visited the region’s agricultural fields with lunches for campesinos, many of whom hailed from his native Michoacán.