For decades, other people in northern New Mexico have marked the Christian birthday party of Good Friday with a walking pilgrimage to the Shrine of Chimayó in the town of Chimayó, New Mexico.
Referring to themselves as Hispanics or New Mexicans, they have lived in the dominion for generations, and their origins can be traced back to the Spanish settlers who came to the dominion in the 17th and 18th centuries. New Mexican Catholicism evolved in the north of the Spanish Empire; the scarcity of priests led to the flourishing of many popular devotions in New Mexico, in addition to the pilgrimage to Chimayó.
Built in the early 19th century, the sanctuary is a small adobe brick church with a feature: in a small room adjacent to the church’s central worship space, there is a hole in the ground, the “pocito,” filled with sandy soil from the area.
For at least two hundred years, Catholics in New Mexico have used the soil of the well for its supposed miraculous healing qualities. They apply it to their aches and pains; They keep it in their prayers and, historically, have ingested it.
In 2015, I participated in the annual pilgrimage as part of the studies for my book “The Healing Power of the Shrine of Chimayó: The Miraculous Church of America. “The history of the shrine is not only a curiosity, but also a part of the transformative identity of the North American Catholic Church, which is on the verge of becoming predominantly Latino.
The strength of the well of land for Hispanic pilgrims is related to two photographs of Christ.
The first is a giant crucifix called the Lord of Esquipulas. Named after a famous and much older figure of the Guatemalan Christ, also known as the Lord of Esquipulas, the crucifix is at the center of the most common origin story. of the sacred ground of the sanctuary.
Legend has it that in 1810, a leader of the network and landowner of Chimayó, Bernardo Abeyta, witnessed the gentle coming of the ground in one of his fields. Upon examination, he found the crucifix partially buried in the ground. He dug it up and took it to the nearest church at the time, about thirteen miles away.
It is believed, however, that the crucifix returned on its own to the hollow of the Abeyta field. Faced with this signal, Abeyta implemented and granted permission to build a chapel around the hollow, today known as the Sanctuary of Chimayó.
The crucifix of the Lord of Esquipulas hangs in the altarpiece of the sanctuary, and the Archdiocese of Santa Fe has promoted the story of its miraculous provenance.
A second symbol of Christ, however, is by far the most popular among Spanish-speaking pilgrims. The Santo Niño de Atocha is a depiction of Jesus dressed as a medieval pilgrim and is popular in northern Mexico and the border region between the United States. A statue of the Santo Niño is installed in the sanctuary, in a room adjacent to the well.
For pilgrims, the stopover at the shrine includes a time of prayer before the Santo Niño, where they ask for healing and coverage for themselves, their children and other loved ones. They bring home the soil of the well as a reminder and vehicle. of Christ’s strength to answer their prayers.
Hispanic citizens from northern New Mexico and southern Colorado made pilgrimages to the shrine for healing purposes in the 19th century, but the great pilgrimage on foot during Holy Week, culminating on Good Friday, did not begin until after World War II.
Hundreds of members of the New Mexico Coastal Artillery had endured the Bataan Death March in 1942, in which thousands of American and Filipino prisoners of war were forced through the Imperial Japanese Army to walk miles across the Philippines. Many died of torture or exhaustion.
Upon returning home, the survivors of Nuevomexicano organized a walking pilgrimage to the shrine in 1946 to commemorate their suffering and mourn their lost comrades. This pilgrimage temporarily became an annual birthday party only for veterans, but also for Hispanic Catholics in general.
Today, thousands of visitors flock to the shrine throughout the year, but the Easter pilgrimage, the week before the Easter feast, is the highlight. Good Friday, the day Jesus was crucified and died, attracts about 30,000 people. pilgrims on foot, some come from as far away as Albuquerque, 90 miles away. Others opt for shorter routes, adding a popular 14km hike from the nearby town of Española.
The sanctuary’s popularity continues to grow with the number of Latin American Catholics in the United States.
The demographic shift within the U. S. Catholic Church toward a Latin American majority is underway. Timothy Matovina, a professor at the University of Notre Dame, writes in his e-book “Latino Catholicism: Transformation in America’s Largest Church,” that Latinos make up one-third of all U. S. Catholics and make up more than a portion of the U. S. Catholic population under the age of 25.
It also notes that due to the expansion of the Latino population, the proportion of Catholics in California and Texas has increased since 1990, while the proportion in Massachusetts and New York has decreased. This demographic shift means that devotional places, such as the shrine, which have Latin Catholic origins and immense popularity, can be expected to grow in importance.
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