Sad news out of Minnesota, with word that Fr. Tim Vakoc, a chaplain wounded in the Iraq war, has died:

Father Tim, as he was known, was the first military chaplain grievously wounded in the Iraq war. He was injured by a roadside bomb as he was returning from celebrating mass with troops on May 29, 2004, the day before the 12th anniversary of his ordination as a priest.

Many thought he would not survive the blast, which cost him an eye and severely damaged his brain. He was hospitalized for four months at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and while in a near-coma transferred to the Minneapolis Veterans Administration Medical Center in October 2004.

After numerous surgeries and life-threatening infections, he slowly started to recognize friends and family, and to communicate with a squeeze of the hand or a slight smile.

For more than two years, he was in what doctors called a “minimally responsive state.” Then, in the fall of 2006, he spoke for the first time in 2 1/2 years, raising his family’s hopes for an improbable recovery.

Tens of thousands of people followed his story around the world through his CaringBridge website. He also had dozens of regular visitors, many of whom came to pray with him.

Eventually Vakoc was moved to a nursing home, and used an electric wheelchair to make his way around. He was hospitalized on June 2, 2008, with an infection in the bloodstream.

Vakoc celebrated the 17th anniversary of his ordination on June 10, according to his CaringBridge site. He followed along in the prayer book and mouthed words.

“In addition, he is now able to sing a bit with the brothers,” the entry said. “His attention to the prayers and singing is a sign that his comprehension is deepening, and that he is picking up on more things happening around him.”

Vakoc (pronounced VAH-kitch), who grew up in Robbinsdale, entered St. Paul Seminary in 1987. He served as a parish priest in St. Anthony and Eagan before becoming an Army chaplain in 1996, and served extended tours of duty in Germany and Bosnia.

His family has described him as gregarious and adventurous, a devoted soldier who shipped out to Iraq shortly before his 44th birthday. He was promoted to major, and insisted on traveling to danger zones to pray with his fellow soldiers.

He was returning to base from one of those trips when the roadside bomb exploded near his Humvee.

You can read more, and find more pictures, at the link.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him…