In the Pyrenees region of southwest France during Roman times, there was a pagan temple dedicated to the gods of water. But it wasn’t until 1858 when something happened in Lourdes that would make the little stream near the grotto one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in the world.
A 14 year old girl named Bernadette was trying to decide how to cross the stream when she had the first of a series of visions of the Virgin Mary. In those visions she was told that the water had miraculous healing powers, and that a chapel should be built at Lourdes. Since that time, the Roman Catholic Church has officially acknowledged 67 Lourdes cures as miracles.
An estimated six million visitors come to Lourdes each year, and it is such a popular destination that the only city in France with more hotels is Paris.
About 5,000 miles west of Lourdes is another site associated with miraculous healing. The little adobe chapel of Santuario de Chimayo is located about 25 miles north of Santa Fe, and it receives 300,000 visitors per year, with most of them coming during Holy Week.
The chapel is built on a site that was known to Pueblo Indians long before the Spanish arrived in what is now New Mexico. They came to a spring that was renowned for its healing waters, said to relieve pain, heal wounds and renew vitality. The spring had dried up by the time the Spaniards came, but the healing power remained. The sandy soil where the spring used to be was applied to afflicted body parts, and ailments disappeared – pains stopped.
The chapel was first built in 1816, but it had been abandoned and was nearly ruined until, in 1958, Father Casimiro Roca took over the parish and oversaw its restoration. Today, visitors come to a small room called the sacristy. It has an earthen floor with a small hole known as el pocito, where they can scoop out some of the healing dirt.
Another adjacent room is filled with discarded canes, crutches, braces and wheelchairs, as well as letters of thanks from people who say they were cured miraculously by the healing earth of El Santuario de Chimayo.
Father Roca passed away in 2015, but his work, as well as his belief in miracles, is well remembered. He said that miracles “…are the work of the Good Lord, I always tell people that I have no faith in the dirt. I have faith in the Lord.”
The Chimayo church is just one of the stops on our “Journey to the Center of an Ancient World” small group tour of New Mexico October 20-24, 2022. Here are some of the other highlights…
- The awe-inspiring cliff dwellings of Pueblo Puye
- Chaco Culture National Historic Park
- The ancient and scenic UNESCO World Heritage Site of Taos Pueblo
- A walking tour featuring the culture and native heritage of Santa Fe
- The petroglyphs of Una Vida
- And more!
This New Mexico tour is a guaranteed departure, but we only have two spaces left so don’t delay!
CLICK HERE FOR NEW MEXICO TOUR DETAILS
Photo Credits:
El Santuario de Chimayo Entrance: BrettLewis88, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Santuario de Chimayo Prayer Room with discarded crutches and tesminonials: Marshall Henrie, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons