EXPLORING
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By Miguel Pérez
Part 20 of a series After visiting several churches in New Mexico, skipping el Santuario de Chimayó would be sacrilegious! After all, this is where miracles happen! Have you ever seen a church where people walk in with crutches and walk out without them? Well, apparently that's what happens here. You can see it in the numerous crutches they have left behind. That's why this place amid the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, is considered miraculous. It has a "Christ of Esquipulas" crucifix and a "Well of Dirt" believed to have healing powers. A designated a National Historic Landmark, with some 300,000 visitors per year, Chimayó is considered the most important Catholic pilgrimage site in the United States! It is the American version of a pilgrimage site in Esquipulas, Guatemala, where the soil and a unique crucifix with a blackened Jesus Christ — the "Lord of Esquipulas" — is also said to have healing powers. |
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While the body of Christ on the Chimayó crucifix has not been blackened, it is believed to be a rustic replica of the one in Guatemala. It was found at the site where the Santuario de Chimayó now stands and it rapidly began to draw pilgrims, just like the one in Guatemala.
According to church literature, "The well of dirt shows the place where the crucifix of the Lord of Esquipulas was found by Don Bernardo de la Encarnación Abeyta in 1810. Shortly thereafter, this place was converted into a place of prayer and began to be visited by persons who sought healing of their physical, emotional and spiritual suffering. Since then, many pilgrims and visitors have testified to finding consolation and peace within the adobe walls of this santuario." |
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The six-foot crucifix stands behind the Santuario's altar and the "well of dirt" is in an adjoining room where visitors take turns to draw sand from a hole in the ground called "el pocito." Those seeking a cure or divine blessings are known to rub themselves with the dirt as they pray. And so I poked two fingers into the sand, just as I do when I see a dish of holy water, and then rubbed the sign of the cross with the sand on my forehead. I became a little emotional as I gave thanks for the opportunity to make this trip. It felt good!
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To reenforce one's faith in the power of el pocito, another adjacent room is filled with discarded crutches, photographs, religious offerings, and written testimonials by people who say they were healed here.
The church refills el pocito with dirt from nearby hillsides, and although skeptical investigators say they have found no evidence to corroborate the claims of miraculous cures, this place still is a human-drawing magnet. People feel the need to come here! |
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As the story is told, the Lord of Esquipulas was already known to the people of the Chimayó area when Abeyta found the crucifix, because tales of the miraculous Guatemalan crucifix had already reached New Mexico, brought by Franciscan friars coming north from Central America.
Abeyta was a devout member of a religious order known as Los Penitentes. According to legend, on the night of Good Friday 1810 Abeyta was on his own land when he saw a light coming out of the ground and dug with his bare hands until he found the Crucifix. |
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Although it was taken to a nearby church in Santa Cruz, legend says the Crucifix kept disappearing from that church and reappearing at the spot where it was found. After this happened three times, Abeyta assumed that the cross wanted to remain in Chimayó and built a small chapel to house his great finding.
However, as more pilgrims came to see the New Mexican Lord of Esquipulas and a larger space was needed, he sought and received Catholic Church permission to build his own privately-owned Santuario to serve the Chimayó community. By 1816, he had replaced the original chapel with the current Spanish colonial style church built with three-foot-wide adobe walls that surround even the courtyard. |
To enlarge these images, click on them!
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Ownership of the Santuario remained in the Abeyta family until 1929, when it was purchased and restored by a group of area residents who then donated it to the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.
Although the area also became known as "El Potrero" (the pasture), after Spanish settlers began to arrive here in 1693, the name "Tsi-Mayoh" (Chimayó) is a Tewá Indian term meaning "superior flaking stone," referring to the mountain that stands behind the Santuario. Amazingly, the Chimayó Tewas believed in the healing powers of their soil long before the Spanish arrived! Their legends say there were hot streams with healing spirits here. When the streams dried up, they believed the soil beneath them retained their miraculous cures. In New Mexico, where many Native Americans are also Catholics, on Holy Week alone thousands of people of all races and ethnicities walk for miles to make pilgrimages from all over the state to the Santuario — sometimes carrying large crosses, as Christ did before his crucifixion. |
Three Cultures Monument
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Just outside the Santuario, there are several noteworthy statues, including Fr. Casimiro Roca, "The Pilgrims' Priest," who was the Santuario's pastor for 40 years; the "Three Cultures Monument," depicting a Native American, an American cowboy and a Hispanic vaquero under the benevolent image of the Virgin Mary as New Mexico's "Conquistadora," and a "Pilgrims Monument." (See photos).
"Come pilgrims, from the four corners of the earth," says the monument's inscription. "The Lord has invited us to walk to His shrine of love in Chimayó. Here we will find the "holy dirt" that strengthens us and purifies the faith that takes away our pain." |
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So now we are in northern New Mexico and for my next article, you might think I'm on my way to meet a Spanish woman. LOL After all, her name is Española. Stay tuned!
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To read other parts of this ongoing series, click: EXPLORING NEW MEXICO
