One unexpected pleasure of our anniversary trip was our visit to El Santuario de Chimayo, a Roman Catholic church and a National Historic Landmark in the this tiny town thirty minutes from Santa Fe. Legend has it that during Holy Week in the early 1800’s, a friar saw a light shining on the hillside and dug up a crucifix there, a crucifix which mysteriously returned to the same spot three times after being removed. It was then decided to build a chapel for the crucifix at that very location. Nearly 300,000 visitors per year visit this “Lourdes of America” for its healing powers of the “holy dirt”-- to be taken from the hole in the ground in the small room adjoining the chapel’s nave. In the prayer room next to it, Mark and I saw the discarded crutches lining the walls and the hundreds of photographs of those healed or prayed for at Chimayo. It would have been very special to be here for a mass, but we enjoyed the peacefulness of this simple, holy place with the sound of its running creek and the sight of its surrounding mountains. And we will remember learning about Pope Francis’s visit here as a priest in our conversation with Father Jim Suntum in his office next to the chapel.
