Santuario de Chimayo
Photographs and a story about the history of the Santuario
An infrared photograph of the Santuario
2026 is the 210th anniversary of the construction of the Santuario in Chimayó. Following the photographs is a story I wrote about the history of the Santuario.
Santuario de Chimayo exterior
Sculpture of St. Francis outside Santuario de Chimayo
Candles inside Santuario de Chimayo
Interior of Santuario de Chimayo (above) and below taken with a Widelux F7 panoramic camera and Kodak infrared film (below)
Photos of loved-ones
Offerings left by pilgrims at Santuario de Chimayo
Cross and candles inside Santuario de Chimayo
Rosaries and candles outside Santuario de Chimayo
2026 is the 210th anniversary of the construction of the Santuario in Chimayó.
In 2016 I spoke with historian William Wroth about The Santuario’s history. Hw spoke about topics such as Native Americans in the area at the time of the construction, Guatemala’s connection with the Santuario, art (altar screens, doors and original confessional), the Catholic Church’s attempt to purchase it and the challenge to its popularity by a nearby chapel.
So, let’s delve into a few of Wroth’s topics, starting with the Santuario’s connection with Native Americans in the area and continuing with the Guatemala connection.
Pueblo Indians
“Turning to the Tewa Indians, this hill that is right outside the Santuario, right across the river, was called Tsi Mayoh, which is the source of Chimayó” Wroth said. “It was considered by people at Ohkay Owingeh and Santa Clara Pueblo as one of four sacred hills for these nearby pueblos. And they were said to be both dangerous places and places that served a protective function for the villages. Alfonso Ortiz, who is from Ohkay Owingeh, an anthropologist, in his book, ‘The Tewa World,’ goes into the significance of these hills in great detail, and Liz Kay, also, does in her book.”
According to Wroth, all accounts of the Santuario say that in ancient times, Tsi Mayoh, like the early sacred hills, was the place where smoke, fire and hot water were emitted, and was the home of a giant monster who periodically wrecked havoc on the people of the pueblos. But the Tewa war gods vanquished this monster and the fires were extinguished, the hot waters dried up leaving mud and sand. This is said to be the origin of the healing earth at the Santuario.
Guatemala
“The interesting thing about Our Lord of Esquipulas is that it comes from a town in
Guatamala where the earth is also considered to be healing,” Wroth said. “There is a white clay there that the pilgrims come and use to heal various ailments. Guatemala may seem to be a long way from Chimayó, but by 1800, devotion to Our Lord of Esquipulas was already widespread through Central and Northern Mexico. There were numerous churches throughout Mexico dedicated to him.”
Wroth continued, “Devotion to Our Lord of Esquipulas originated at an early colonial shrine in Guatemala where the earth itself was said to be effective in curing illnesses. This miraculous statue of Christ is attached to a ‘living’ cross, painted green and sprouting leaves and branches, symbolic of its healing and life-giving qualities. At both the shrine in Guatemala and at El Santuario, pilgrims come from distant places to be healed, and there has been much speculation concerning the way in which the devotion to the miraculous image and the healing earth of such an apparently remote shrine in Guatamala came to be transplanted to New Mexico.”
The devotion was spread through Mexico, also, by Franciscan friars. The question is, “How did this devotion come to Chimayo?”
“Most likely, the presiding Franciscan friar, Sebastian Alvaez, in Santa Cruz, or Bernardo Abeyta, who eventually built the Santuario, visited a shrine to Esquipulas in Mexico,” Wroth explained. “Abeyta was a merchant who traveled to Durango and probably elsewhere in Mexico for trade.”
Wroth wrote in an article for the Office of the State Historian including some early history of the area where the Santuario would eventually be built, “Following in a long tradition of miraculous shrines in Mexico and Spain, it is no doubt the most important Catholic pilgrimage center in the United States. As many as 300,000 pilgrims visit the shrine every year, approximately 30,000 during Holy Week alone. There is no formal founding date for the settlement of Chimayó, but Tewa Indians had long lived in the area before the Hispanic settlements were established. At least 33 prehistoric sites have been documented along the Santa Cruz River and its tributaries which include the Chimayó area. In 1695 Diego de Vargas attempted to re-settle Tewa-speaking Tano Indians at “Zimayo,” but they refused to take up this new settlement. After the Reconquest in 1696, the returning and newly arrived Hispanic families at Santa Cruz de la Cañada began to spread out along the river and its tributaries, and the lush area known as El Potrero (The Pasture), the future site of El Santuario, soon attracted settlers. The first formal community was nearby Plaza del Cerro (its chapel dedicated to San Buenaventura), which was established by 1751.
“By 1805 if not earlier, devotion to a miraculous Guatemalan image of Christ crucified known as Our Lord of Esquipulas (Nuestro Señor de Esquipulas) had become popular at El Potrero. In that year a child was christened with the name Juan de Esquipulas by Fray Sebastián Alvarez, the resident Franciscan friar at Santa Cruz de la Cañada. In 1813 Bernardo Abeyta (uncle of the child so christened) petitioned in the name of the residents of El Potrero to the same Fray Sebastián for permission to build a chapel dedicated to Our Lord of Esquipulas, who had already been honored since 1810 in a small chapel of the Abeyta family.
A portion of Abeyta’s petition reads, ““Bernardo Abeyta, resident of this village of Santa Cruz de la Cañada, and this plaza of El Potrero, has given voice and authority by the community of said plaza, to be their spokesman before your Reference to make this appeal in conformity with the law. As I am desirous on my part to render proper worship to our God and Redemptor in his title of Esquipulas, I’ve decided to build a chapel in the same district to have a place where residents can meet for the purpose of obtaining his mercy for all their needs.”
He went on to say, “In spite of our poverty, we earnestly intend to build with the decency due to the house of the Lord, with the goal that we may enjoy the good fortune of having mass.”
Upon receiving this letter, Fray Sebastián wrote in support of Abeyta’s petition in 1813 that people had been coming to Abeyta’s chapel for some time to “give praise to the sovereign Redeemer” and “to relieve their ailments.” He also stated the location and name of the new chapel “at the said plaza or Rancho del Potrero, which is called El Santuario de Esquipulas.” By 1816 the Potrero chapel was completed and its elegant carved door, still to be seen today, was made by carpenter Pedro Domíngez at the expense of Fray José Corea, the resident friar at Santa Cruz, who had succeeded Alvarez.”
It’s interesting to note, however, that in his letter of support, Fray Sebastián doesn’t mention the healing earth, which may reflect the tension between Native American and official Catholic world views.
The late Rev. Roca, who was at the Santuario for 50 years, is quoted by Enrique de la Madrid as saying, “It is not the earth, but faith in God and Jesus, which brings the miracles.”
Wroth commented on this by saying, “You have these dual views of healing, which are very closely related when you think about it at any depth.”
Abeyta is often depicted as building his own personal chapel. But the documents show that he was acting, not on his own initiative, but as spokesman for the community of El Potrero, which consisted of 19 families at that time.
From the beginning, it was considered by Fray Sebastián and authorities in Durango, as a public chapel where mass would be celebrated regularly.
Fray Sebastián noted that “El Potrero is nearly eight miles from Santa Cruz and the new chapel was needed to accommodate, not only the Potrero residents, but also five other plazas and ranches in the area, especially in the winter because of the heavy snows, frozen river and the long distance. “This chapel will be of much comfort to a parish of this villa because the Holy Eucarist for the sick (is often not given) because of the distance and bad road.”
From 1826 to 1839, it is clear the Santuario was considered as an officially sanctioned church.
Competition for attendance
“In the late 1850s, after the death of Bernardo Abeyta in 1856, another chapel dedicated to the Santo Niño de Atoche, was build in El Potrero by the Medina family. Serveriano Medina attributed his miraculous recovery from rheumatism to his devotion to the Santo Niño and built the chapel in his honor just northwest of the Santuario,” Wroth said.
Devotion to Santo Niño increased in importance after the building of this chapel.
“There is evidence that the Santo Nino superseded Our Lord of Esquipulas in popularity. The famous account of Maria Martinez’s pilgrimage to El Portrero in 1890, is mentioned as evidence since Martinez prayed to the Santo Niño, while also using the healing earth,” Wroth explained.
This may simply reflect differences in Pueblo and Catholic practices.
Catholicism is a historical religion, that is, it tends to focus on the life of Jesus, with primary emphasis on his crucifixion. Puebloan observances are more closely associated to the natural world and the recurring cycles of life that the Santo Niño clearly represents.
“Another reason Our Lord of Esquipulas may seem to have been superseded by Santo Niño,” Wroth continues, “is that in 1890, the church pressured Bernardo Abeyta’s daughter, Carmen Abeyta de Chavez, to donate the Santuario to the church. When she refused, they stopped holding mass in the Santuario but continued to do so in the Santo Nino chapel.”
So the church possibly aided in the eclipsing of Our Lord of Esquipulas in popularity by Santo Nino.
Moving to 1929, de Chavez was considering selling some of the things of the church, including the original doors. The Santuario remained in the ownership of the descendants of Bernardo Abeyta until 1929 when the Spanish Colonial Arts Society in Santa Fe, headed by writer Mary Austin, artist Frank Applegate and architect/preservationist John Gaw Meem, purchased it from the family and donated it to the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.
Wroth says, “The reason saving this church was so important was that this is probably one of the top three treasures of Spanish Colonial religious art in New Mexico, Ranchos de Taos being another.”
Art – Altar Screens
The one at the front, the “real” altar screen, and the two on each side, in Spanish, are called Collateralles. One thing to note is the difference between the Mexican versions and the original Guatemalan. The Guatemalan was virtually black, but New Mexican altars are not so dark, usually flesh colored. The original one has vines growing around him. The New Mexico pieces have the cross painted green to indicate it’s a living cross and has shoots and branches coming off of it.
“The main altar I call the school of the Laguna Santero,” Wroth said. “We don’t know his real name but it’s named after the altar screen he did at Laguna Pueblo. It’s very similar in style to the side altar at Ranchos de Taos. If you look at the pillars that hold it together, the way they are designed and painted, and also the painted decorations… very, very similar to Ranchos de Taos. The side altar at Ranchos de Taos is also dedicated to Our Lord of Escupuedos and was done about 1816 to 1818. So it’s very close in style and time period.”
“Going on to the side screens,” Wroth continued. “The first screen on the right, it has been restored. It was originally done between 1826 to 1830. It’s very similar in style and form to the one in the Chapel of Nuestras Señora de San Juan de los Lagos in Talpa. And that particular chapel is dated 1828, so that gives us a good time period for that first altar screen. The far screen on the right is by Rafael Aragon. It could be as late as 1830s. The interesting thing about this to me is the top piece, where the Holy Spirit is a dove, is in a different style, much closer to earlier style, as is large for the altar screen.”
Wroth paused and then continued,
“At the very top, that piece came from somewhere else. It might have come from the main altar, but it’s too small for the main altar and too large for this, so we don’t know for sure where it came from.
“The two on the left side are attributed to Jose Aragon. And we know, due to research by Charlie Carrillo, that Jose and Rafael were actually brothers. So it’s not surprising that there was collaboration between the two brothers. They show characteristics of both santeros.”
If you look at the upper left painting of San Rafael, you can see how it looks like the background was painted first. And then along came Rafael and he was asked to paint the saint himself. Today we would say it was Photoshoped in. A combination of a background, and then later, the saint.
“The next altar screen, again, looks like a collaboration between the two brothers but has more obvious traits of Jose Aragon,” Wroth said. “If you look at Chapel of Nuestras Señora de San Juan de los Lagos in Talp, she’s in the upper right hand corner, and then a small retablo by Jose, and you see the treatment of the robe, that tubular treatment of the robe is very much a characteristic of Jose Aragon.”
The doors are from the original building date from 1816. They are inscribed by the carpenter, “Pedro Dominguez made this door through the devotion…” They are marvelous examples of Spanish Colonial woodworker from the early 19th century.”
Wroth concluded his lecture at the Chimayó Museum by saying, “The Santuario isn’t just an important history or artistic monument, its greater value is a center of social and communal in a larger sense. A miracle by definition transcends the conditions and habits of everyday life. The pilgrims that come to a miraculous shrine are seeking not only to better their physical health, but also to overcome their faults, to better themselves as human beings. One of the ways a pilgrimage does this is by erasing differences among people. Every kind of person is welcome at a shrine like the Santuario since all have similar intentions in going there. The shrine doesn’t have any specific political or social agenda, welcomes all comers as equals. In this way the Santuario has an impact on the world at large. It has a subtle influence that could, in itself, be called miraculous.”
In 2016 I spoke with historian William Wroth about The Santuario’s history. Hw spoke about topics such as Native Americans in the area at the time of the construction, Guatemala’s connection with the Santuario, art (altar screens, doors and original confessional), the Catholic Church’s attempt to purchase it and the challenge to its popularity by a nearby chapel.
So, let’s delve into a few of Wroth’s topics, starting with the Santuario’s connection with Native Americans in the area and continuing with the Guatemala connection.
Pueblo Indians
“Turning to the Tewa Indians, this hill that is right outside the Santuario, right across the river, was called Tsi Mayoh, which is the source of Chimayó” Wroth said. “It was considered by people at Ohkay Owingeh and Santa Clara Pueblo as one of four sacred hills for these nearby pueblos. And they were said to be both dangerous places and places that served a protective function for the villages. Alfonso Ortiz, who is from Ohkay Owingeh, an anthropologist, in his book, ‘The Tewa World,’ goes into the significance of these hills in great detail, and Liz Kay, also, does in her book.”
According to Wroth, all accounts of the Santuario say that in ancient times, Tsi Mayoh, like the early sacred hills, was the place where smoke, fire and hot water were emitted, and was the home of a giant monster who periodically wrecked havoc on the people of the pueblos. But the Tewa war gods vanquished this monster and the fires were extinguished, the hot waters dried up leaving mud and sand. This is said to be the origin of the healing earth at the Santuario.
Guatemala
“The interesting thing about Our Lord of Esquipulas is that it comes from a town in
Guatamala where the earth is also considered to be healing,” Wroth said. “There is a white clay there that the pilgrims come and use to heal various ailments. Guatemala may seem to be a long way from Chimayó, but by 1800, devotion to Our Lord of Esquipulas was already widespread through Central and Northern Mexico. There were numerous churches throughout Mexico dedicated to him.”
Wroth continued, “Devotion to Our Lord of Esquipulas originated at an early colonial shrine in Guatemala where the earth itself was said to be effective in curing illnesses. This miraculous statue of Christ is attached to a ‘living’ cross, painted green and sprouting leaves and branches, symbolic of its healing and life-giving qualities. At both the shrine in Guatemala and at El Santuario, pilgrims come from distant places to be healed, and there has been much speculation concerning the way in which the devotion to the miraculous image and the healing earth of such an apparently remote shrine in Guatamala came to be transplanted to New Mexico.”
The devotion was spread through Mexico, also, by Franciscan friars. The question is, “How did this devotion come to Chimayo?”
“Most likely, the presiding Franciscan friar, Sebastian Alvaez, in Santa Cruz, or Bernardo Abeyta, who eventually built the Santuario, visited a shrine to Esquipulas in Mexico,” Wroth explained. “Abeyta was a merchant who traveled to Durango and probably elsewhere in Mexico for trade.”
Wroth wrote in an article for the Office of the State Historian including some early history of the area where the Santuario would eventually be built, “Following in a long tradition of miraculous shrines in Mexico and Spain, it is no doubt the most important Catholic pilgrimage center in the United States. As many as 300,000 pilgrims visit the shrine every year, approximately 30,000 during Holy Week alone. There is no formal founding date for the settlement of Chimayó, but Tewa Indians had long lived in the area before the Hispanic settlements were established. At least 33 prehistoric sites have been documented along the Santa Cruz River and its tributaries which include the Chimayó area. In 1695 Diego de Vargas attempted to re-settle Tewa-speaking Tano Indians at “Zimayo,” but they refused to take up this new settlement. After the Reconquest in 1696, the returning and newly arrived Hispanic families at Santa Cruz de la Cañada began to spread out along the river and its tributaries, and the lush area known as El Potrero (The Pasture), the future site of El Santuario, soon attracted settlers. The first formal community was nearby Plaza del Cerro (its chapel dedicated to San Buenaventura), which was established by 1751.
“By 1805 if not earlier, devotion to a miraculous Guatemalan image of Christ crucified known as Our Lord of Esquipulas (Nuestro Señor de Esquipulas) had become popular at El Potrero. In that year a child was christened with the name Juan de Esquipulas by Fray Sebastián Alvarez, the resident Franciscan friar at Santa Cruz de la Cañada. In 1813 Bernardo Abeyta (uncle of the child so christened) petitioned in the name of the residents of El Potrero to the same Fray Sebastián for permission to build a chapel dedicated to Our Lord of Esquipulas, who had already been honored since 1810 in a small chapel of the Abeyta family.
A portion of Abeyta’s petition reads, ““Bernardo Abeyta, resident of this village of Santa Cruz de la Cañada, and this plaza of El Potrero, has given voice and authority by the community of said plaza, to be their spokesman before your Reference to make this appeal in conformity with the law. As I am desirous on my part to render proper worship to our God and Redemptor in his title of Esquipulas, I’ve decided to build a chapel in the same district to have a place where residents can meet for the purpose of obtaining his mercy for all their needs.”
He went on to say, “In spite of our poverty, we earnestly intend to build with the decency due to the house of the Lord, with the goal that we may enjoy the good fortune of having mass.”
Upon receiving this letter, Fray Sebastián wrote in support of Abeyta’s petition in 1813 that people had been coming to Abeyta’s chapel for some time to “give praise to the sovereign Redeemer” and “to relieve their ailments.” He also stated the location and name of the new chapel “at the said plaza or Rancho del Potrero, which is called El Santuario de Esquipulas.” By 1816 the Potrero chapel was completed and its elegant carved door, still to be seen today, was made by carpenter Pedro Domíngez at the expense of Fray José Corea, the resident friar at Santa Cruz, who had succeeded Alvarez.”
It’s interesting to note, however, that in his letter of support, Fray Sebastián doesn’t mention the healing earth, which may reflect the tension between Native American and official Catholic world views.
The late Rev. Roca, who was at the Santuario for 50 years, is quoted by Enrique de la Madrid as saying, “It is not the earth, but faith in God and Jesus, which brings the miracles.”
Wroth commented on this by saying, “You have these dual views of healing, which are very closely related when you think about it at any depth.”
Abeyta is often depicted as building his own personal chapel. But the documents show that he was acting, not on his own initiative, but as spokesman for the community of El Potrero, which consisted of 19 families at that time.
From the beginning, it was considered by Fray Sebastián and authorities in Durango, as a public chapel where mass would be celebrated regularly.
Fray Sebastián noted that “El Potrero is nearly eight miles from Santa Cruz and the new chapel was needed to accommodate, not only the Potrero residents, but also five other plazas and ranches in the area, especially in the winter because of the heavy snows, frozen river and the long distance. “This chapel will be of much comfort to a parish of this villa because the Holy Eucarist for the sick (is often not given) because of the distance and bad road.”
From 1826 to 1839, it is clear the Santuario was considered as an officially sanctioned church.
Competition for attendance
“In the late 1850s, after the death of Bernardo Abeyta in 1856, another chapel dedicated to the Santo Niño de Atoche, was build in El Potrero by the Medina family. Serveriano Medina attributed his miraculous recovery from rheumatism to his devotion to the Santo Niño and built the chapel in his honor just northwest of the Santuario,” Wroth said.
Devotion to Santo Niño increased in importance after the building of this chapel.
“There is evidence that the Santo Nino superseded Our Lord of Esquipulas in popularity. The famous account of Maria Martinez’s pilgrimage to El Portrero in 1890, is mentioned as evidence since Martinez prayed to the Santo Niño, while also using the healing earth,” Wroth explained.
This may simply reflect differences in Pueblo and Catholic practices.
Catholicism is a historical religion, that is, it tends to focus on the life of Jesus, with primary emphasis on his crucifixion. Puebloan observances are more closely associated to the natural world and the recurring cycles of life that the Santo Niño clearly represents.
“Another reason Our Lord of Esquipulas may seem to have been superseded by Santo Niño,” Wroth continues, “is that in 1890, the church pressured Bernardo Abeyta’s daughter, Carmen Abeyta de Chavez, to donate the Santuario to the church. When she refused, they stopped holding mass in the Santuario but continued to do so in the Santo Nino chapel.”
So the church possibly aided in the eclipsing of Our Lord of Esquipulas in popularity by Santo Nino.
Moving to 1929, de Chavez was considering selling some of the things of the church, including the original doors. The Santuario remained in the ownership of the descendants of Bernardo Abeyta until 1929 when the Spanish Colonial Arts Society in Santa Fe, headed by writer Mary Austin, artist Frank Applegate and architect/preservationist John Gaw Meem, purchased it from the family and donated it to the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.
Wroth says, “The reason saving this church was so important was that this is probably one of the top three treasures of Spanish Colonial religious art in New Mexico, Ranchos de Taos being another.”
Art – Altar Screens
The one at the front, the “real” altar screen, and the two on each side, in Spanish, are called Collateralles. One thing to note is the difference between the Mexican versions and the original Guatemalan. The Guatemalan was virtually black, but New Mexican altars are not so dark, usually flesh colored. The original one has vines growing around him. The New Mexico pieces have the cross painted green to indicate it’s a living cross and has shoots and branches coming off of it.
“The main altar I call the school of the Laguna Santero,” Wroth said. “We don’t know his real name but it’s named after the altar screen he did at Laguna Pueblo. It’s very similar in style to the side altar at Ranchos de Taos. If you look at the pillars that hold it together, the way they are designed and painted, and also the painted decorations… very, very similar to Ranchos de Taos. The side altar at Ranchos de Taos is also dedicated to Our Lord of Escupuedos and was done about 1816 to 1818. So it’s very close in style and time period.”
“Going on to the side screens,” Wroth continued. “The first screen on the right, it has been restored. It was originally done between 1826 to 1830. It’s very similar in style and form to the one in the Chapel of Nuestras Señora de San Juan de los Lagos in Talpa. And that particular chapel is dated 1828, so that gives us a good time period for that first altar screen. The far screen on the right is by Rafael Aragon. It could be as late as 1830s. The interesting thing about this to me is the top piece, where the Holy Spirit is a dove, is in a different style, much closer to earlier style, as is large for the altar screen.”
Wroth paused and then continued,
“At the very top, that piece came from somewhere else. It might have come from the main altar, but it’s too small for the main altar and too large for this, so we don’t know for sure where it came from.
“The two on the left side are attributed to Jose Aragon. And we know, due to research by Charlie Carrillo, that Jose and Rafael were actually brothers. So it’s not surprising that there was collaboration between the two brothers. They show characteristics of both santeros.”
If you look at the upper left painting of San Rafael, you can see how it looks like the background was painted first. And then along came Rafael and he was asked to paint the saint himself. Today we would say it was Photoshoped in. A combination of a background, and then later, the saint.
“The next altar screen, again, looks like a collaboration between the two brothers but has more obvious traits of Jose Aragon,” Wroth said. “If you look at Chapel of Nuestras Señora de San Juan de los Lagos in Talp, she’s in the upper right hand corner, and then a small retablo by Jose, and you see the treatment of the robe, that tubular treatment of the robe is very much a characteristic of Jose Aragon.”
The doors are from the original building date from 1816. They are inscribed by the carpenter, “Pedro Dominguez made this door through the devotion…” They are marvelous examples of Spanish Colonial woodworker from the early 19th century.”
Wroth concluded his lecture at the Chimayó Museum by saying, “The Santuario isn’t just an important history or artistic monument, its greater value is a center of social and communal in a larger sense. A miracle by definition transcends the conditions and habits of everyday life. The pilgrims that come to a miraculous shrine are seeking not only to better their physical health, but also to overcome their faults, to better themselves as human beings. One of the ways a pilgrimage does this is by erasing differences among people. Every kind of person is welcome at a shrine like the Santuario since all have similar intentions in going there. The shrine doesn’t have any specific political or social agenda, welcomes all comers as equals. In this way the Santuario has an impact on the world at large. It has a subtle influence that could, in itself, be called miraculous.”
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