El Santuario de Chimayo

) The Santuario is on Juan Medina Drive in Chimayo. It is entered through a walled courtyard. Built of adobe with a bell tower on each side, Pointed caps on the towers and a metal pitched roof (blocking the clerestory) were added after 1917, probably in the 1920s. The "elegant" doors were carved by the 19th-century carpenter Pedro Domínguez. An unusual feature is two side-by-side rooms at the entrance forming a vestibule or narthex, once used for storage. The nave contains a crucifix representing Christ of Esquipulas, tall. Other notable folk-art decorations include five reredoses (the little well) contains a round pit, the source of "holy dirt" (tierra bendita) that is believed to have healing powers. An adjacent prayer room displays many ex-votos as well as photographs, discarded crutches, and other testimonials of those purportedly healed. ==History==

In the early 19th century, 19 families lived in what was then called El Potrero de Chimayó (potrero means pasture). members of the newly formed Spanish Colonial Arts Society bought the property and donated it to the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. In 2011, Vietnamese Catholics erected a statue of Our Lady of La Vang behind the Santuario in honor of refugees. In recent years, many Vietnamese and Filipino Catholics have made pilgrimage to the sanctuary to honor the site, which is significant for those of Asian descent. ==Annual observances==

Each year some 300,000 people from all over the world make pilgrimages to the Santuario de Chimayó during Holy Week, especially on Holy Thursday and Good Friday, some seeking blessings and some in fulfillment of a vow. Walking is traditional; some pilgrims walk from as far away as Albuquerque, about 90 miles (150 km). Many visitors to the church take a small amount of the "holy dirt", often in hopes of a miraculous cure for themselves or someone who could not make the trip. Formerly, at least, they often ate the dirt. (Likewise pilgrims to the original shrine of Esquipulas eat the supposedly curative clay found there.) Seekers of cures more commonly rub themselves with the dirt or simply keep it. The Church replaces the dirt in the pocito from the nearby hillsides, sometimes more than once a day, totalling up to 25 or 30 tons a year. The Church takes no position on whether miracles have occurred at the Santuario. The feast of Our Lord of Esquipulas is celebrated on January 15 or on the Sunday nearest that date. The feast of St. James the Great (Santiago) is celebrated on the fourth weekend of July. ==Legends==

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. saw a light shining from the hillside and dug the crucifix up with his bare hands. He turned it over to Fr. Álvarez, 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, Álvarez and Abeyta decided to build a chapel on the spot to house the crucifix. ==Skeptical reception==

In 2013 skeptical investigator Joe Nickell wrote that "claims made for holy dirt at Chimayo are unwarranted. Despite borrowed and contrived legends that the site is miraculous, the soil is actually an ordinary variety trucked in from elsewhere and merely blessed." Researcher Benjamin Radford reported finding little evidence to corroborate claims of miraculous cures in his 2014 book Mysterious New Mexico. ==Gallery==

File:El Santuario de Chimayo, New Mexico.jpg|From the front courtyard in February. File:El Santuario de Chimayo Entrance.jpg|Entrance way into the church courtyard. File:Santuario de Chimayo Prayer Room with discarded crutches and tesminonials.JPG|Prayer Room with discarded crutches and testiminonials File:San Francisco, Chimayo.jpg|Shrine to St. Francis of Assisi File:Inside El Santuario de Chimayo.JPG|Interior Pilgrimage, Good Friday, March 21, 2008 File:Chimayo pilgrims.jpg| File:Chimayo pilgrimage hilltop cross.jpg| File:Santuario de Chimayo Good Friday3.jpg| File:Santuario de Chimayo Good Friday1.jpg| File:Santuario de Chimayo Good Friday 2.jpg| ==See also==