The Pilgrimage Sanctuary of Chimayo

American Catholic History

Noelle & Tom Crowe

History, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Education

5 • 724 Ratings

🗓️ 9 April 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1810 a wooden cross was miraculously discovered in the hillside of the village of Chimayo in northern New Mexico. The area had been known by Pueblo Indians as a place where miraculous healings took place, and after the cross was found a chapel was built because pilgrims started coming to pray before the miraculous cross and seek healing from the "holy dirt." So many miraculous healings have been attributed to this location, and so many pilgrims come every year — it is the largest pilgrimage site in the U.S. — that Chimayo is known by some as the Lourdes of America.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to American Catholic History, brought to you by the support of listeners like you.
0:12.1	If you value this podcast, please follow us, give us good ratings, and please become a supporter at Americancatholichistory.org slash support.
0:21.1	I'm Newell Heister Crow.
0:22.3	And I'm Tom Crow.
0:23.5	Today we're talking about a place that, well, I can't believe I had never heard of before.
0:28.6	It's the site of the largest annual pilgrimage in the United States, El Santuario de Chimayo,
0:35.1	in northern New Mexico.
0:36.9	This is a site we both have visited on pilgrimage.
0:40.1	Yes, I've been there three times on pilgrimages, and I'm glad you were able to join on one of them.
0:45.3	Chimayo is included in our itinerary to Santa Fe and northern New Mexico, five days in the rugged,
0:51.1	haunting beauty of the high desert, with a lot of it spends in the very
0:54.6	historic city of Santa Fe. We've told a number of stories about the region, and we will tell
0:59.7	more. We'd love to get back there because it really is a beautiful place, and there is so
1:05.2	much Catholic history in northern New Mexico. There really is. Santa Fe itself has a number of oldest.
1:11.9	Santa Fe is the oldest city that is a U.S. state capital.
1:15.8	It has the oldest statue of the Blessed Mother in the U.S.
1:18.9	It has the oldest church in the U.S.
1:21.0	And right around the corner from that church is the oldest house in the U.S.
1:25.9	Because of all this antiquity,
1:30.6	the area really has a story to tell about how Catholicism and the native cultures sort of clashed and meshed over the last 400-plus years.
1:36.0	Today's story has a bit of both, plus a tremendous amount of modern devotion.
1:40.9	It's got all that.
	...

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