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El Santuario de Chimayó
New Mexico’s pilgrimage church of healing earth
El Santuario de Chimayó is a small adobe church in the foothills of New Mexico's Sangre de Cristo Mountains and one of the most visited Catholic pilgrimage sites in the United States. According to local tradition, around 1810 Bernardo Abeyta, a member of a lay brotherhood, found a crucifix in the earth here, and a chapel dedicated to Our Lord of Esquipulas followed. The present church, with its twin bell towers and carved, painted altar screens, was finished by 1816.
Visitors come for the holy dirt. In a tiny side room, a round pit called el pocito holds earth believed to have healing powers, and the walls nearby are hung with crutches and notes left by those who say they were cured. The church quietly refills the pit from nearby hillsides, as much as 25 to 30 tons a year. Roughly 300,000 people come each year, and the biggest crowds arrive during Holy Week, when pilgrims walk for days from Santa Fe or from as far as Albuquerque, about 90 miles away.