Good Friday - Chimayo

Blessings to your hearts during this Holy Week. On Good Friday several of us at the Sangre Center joined hundreds of pilgrims on their journey to Santuario Chimayo. Some of the pilgrims walked from Albuquerque and Santa Fe covering 90-40 miles on your journeys. Some of us walked 11 miles to the chapel. It was a very meditative and prayerful experience walking with these pilgrims from all over the State of New Mexico. Many of the people here have been walking on this annual pilgrimage for over 30 years. Some of the students walked from Albuquerque and Santa Fe; one of the students told me that she left Santa Fe on Thursday night at 10:30pm. Here at the Center we walked from Sacred Heart Church in Nambe at 7:00am and reached Chimayo at 10am. After resting and walking around the chapel area we walked back to the van and went back to Sangre Center. One of the oldest Spanish settlements in the Southwest, Chimayo has been the site of pilgrimages and prayers for many years. The chapel was built in 1814, after a miraculous events surrounding the discovery of a crucifix according to church legends. On Good Friday in 1810 a religious brother saw light emanating from a hill near the Santa Cruz River. He walked to the the light and unearthed a huge crucifix. Later a chapel was built above the pocito or little well of dirt, where the crucifix was discovered. The wooden crucifix still occupies the altar in El Santuario de Chimayo. But it is the small well of dirt, located to the side of the altar, where pilgrims during Holy Week and throughout the year make their visit to gather dirt for "miracles that they are seeking in their lives." Many pilgrims make their personal journey to the "Lourdes of America" here at Chimayo.