El Santuario de Chimayo - New Mexico
by Debra Martz
Title
El Santuario de Chimayo - New Mexico
Artist
Debra Martz
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
El Santuario de Chimayo - New Mexico by Debra Martz
North of Sante Fe, New Mexico is a very small community, Chimayo. This church has a long history of being known for healing. A small room on the side of the church has testimony to healing through pictures and objects such as crutches left that were no longer needed. At the back of this small room is a pit where one can collect a small amount of Holy Dirt.
El Santuario de Chimayo is a Roman Catholic, shrine, a National Historic Landmark, is famous for the story of its founding and as a contemporary pilgrimage site. It receives almost 300,000 visitors per year and has been called the most important Catholic pilgrimage center in the United States.
The legends, as found on Wikipedia, are.....
"Some say that before the Spaniards arrived, a hot spring that then flowed near the site was sacred to the Tewa Indians for its healing powers.
One version of the legend says that during Holy Week, Abeyta (or a friar) saw a light shining from the hillside and dug the crucifix up with his bare hands. He turned it over to Fr. Alvarez, who took it to the Santa Cruz church, but the crucifix mysteriously returned to the spot where Abeyta found it. After the third time this happened, �lvarez and Abeyta decided to build a chapel on the spot to house the crucifix.
Another version says Abeyta was watching his sheep and contemplating his blessings, though he was sick, when a vision of his patron saint, San Esquipula, beckoned to him. He went to the place where the saint had appeared and knelt; he was cured immediately. Other people also were cured there, and Abeyta built the chapel in thanks.
A third version says that the crucifix had belonged to a priest from Esquipulas who accompanied the first Spanish settlers in Chimayo. He was killed by Indians and buried in Chimayo. A flood of the Santa Cruz River (a small tributary of the Rio Grande) in the spring of 1810 uncovered the body and the crucifix. People who remembered the priest dedicated the shrine to the Christ of Esquipulas."
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January 16th, 2016
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