On Good Friday 1810, a Penitente brother named Bernardo Abeyta saw light erupting from a hillside near the Santa Cruz River in this small northern New Mexico valley. Digging with his hands, he unearthed a large wooden crucifix of Nuestro Señor de Esquipulas — a devotion rooted in a Mayan healing-earth shrine in Guatemala. The crucifix was carried to the parish church in Santa Cruz three times; three times it returned to the place where it was found. By 1816, Abeyta had built an adobe sanctuary over the spot, and the earth itself — the tierra bendita that pilgrims still scoop from the pocito behind the altar — began drawing the sick, the desperate, and the faithful from across the territory.
Two centuries later, El Santuario de Chimayó receives more than 300,000 pilgrims annually, making it the most visited Catholic pilgrimage site in the United States. The shrine stands at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in a valley the Tewa people called Tsi-Mayoh, land they had revered for healing since at least the twelfth century. Spanish colonists arriving after the 1692 Reconquista recognized the indigenous belief in the soil's curative power and built upon it — literally. The Guatemalan Christ of Esquipulas, himself associated with sacred earth, provided the theological bridge between Tewa and Catholic traditions. What Bernardo Abeyta enshrined was not merely a crucifix but a convergence of cultures united by the conviction that God works healing through humble matter: dirt, wood, water, and the worn knees of those who come to pray.
The modern mass pilgrimage was revived in 1946 by survivors of the Bataan Death March — nearly 1,800 New Mexicans captured in the Philippines in 1942, of whom almost half died. Those who returned walked to Chimayó to mourn their dead and give thanks for their impossible survival. Their pilgrimage became a tradition that now brings 30,000 walking pilgrims to the Santuario on Good Friday alone, many carrying homemade crosses, photographs of the sick, and military dog tags. The ex-voto rooms overflow with abandoned crutches, braces, letters, and locks of hair — tangible evidence that faith in this place is not abstract theology but embodied hope, pressed into the earth and carried home in the hands.
📜 History & Spiritual Significance
The origins of Chimayó's sacred character predate Christianity by centuries. The Tewa people of the Ohkay Owingeh and surrounding pueblos inhabited the Santa Cruz Valley from at least the 1100s and believed that supernatural healing spirits dwelled in the earth where hot springs once flowed. When the springs dried up, the healing power was understood to remain in the soil itself. Spanish settlers arriving after Diego de Vargas's 1692 reconquest of New Mexico encountered this belief and, rather than suppressing it, absorbed it into the colonial Catholic framework. The Guatemalan devotion to the Cristo de Esquipulas — a dark-skinned crucifix venerated at a shrine in Esquipulas, Guatemala, built on a site where the Maya had long attributed healing properties to the local earth — provided an almost uncanny parallel. Both traditions held that God works healing through sacred ground.
Don Bernardo Abeyta, a prominent farmer and leader of the local chapter of the Hermanos de la Fraternidad Piadosa de Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno (the Penitente Brotherhood), petitioned ecclesiastical authorities in November 1813 for permission to build a chapel at the site where he had found the crucifix. The vicar general of the Diocese of Durango approved construction on February 8, 1814, and the larger adobe sanctuary was completed by 1816. The Abeyta family maintained private ownership of the Santuario for over a century, during which its reputation as a place of miraculous healing grew steadily through northern New Mexico and southern Colorado.
The Archdiocese of Santa Fe purchased the Santuario from the Abeyta heirs in 1929. In 1959, Father Casimiro Roca of the Congregación de la Sagrada Familia (Sons of the Holy Family), a religious congregation founded in Barcelona in 1864, became the first permanently assigned priest. The Sons of the Holy Family continue to administer the site today. The Santuario was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970, recognizing both its architectural significance as one of the finest surviving examples of Spanish Colonial adobe church construction and its extraordinary importance as a living pilgrimage tradition.
The pocito — the small, low-ceilinged room beyond the main altar where pilgrims scoop the tierra bendita — remains the spiritual heart of the shrine. The hole is said to refill continually despite the removal of hundreds of kilograms of earth each year. Pilgrims apply the dirt to afflicted parts of the body, dissolve it in water to drink, or carry it home to the sick. The adjacent testimonial room, lined floor to ceiling with abandoned crutches, leg braces, prayer notes, photographs, military medals, and milagros (small devotional charms), serves as the shrine's living archive of answered prayers — a room that grows more crowded every year and never stops testifying.
☩ Pilgrimage Sites in Chimayó
El Santuario de Chimayó
The main sanctuary is a single-nave adobe church built between 1813 and 1816, its thick earthen walls and hand-carved wooden vigas (ceiling beams) preserving the architectural vocabulary of Spanish Colonial New Mexico. The entrance through a walled courtyard opens into a nave oriented toward a carved wooden reredos (altar screen) attributed to the santero tradition of the early nineteenth century, housing the original Nuestro Señor de Esquipulas crucifix that Bernardo Abeyta unearthed in 1810. To the left of the altar, a low doorway leads to the pocito — the small room containing the hole of sacred earth where pilgrims kneel and scoop the tierra bendita with their hands. An adjacent room displays hundreds of ex-votos: crutches, braces, rosaries, photographs, letters, military dog tags, hospital bracelets, and handwritten petitions that together constitute the most powerful visual testimony of popular faith in any American shrine.
Behind the main church, an outdoor white marble statue of Nuestra Señora de La Vang was erected in 2011 by Vietnamese Catholics, honoring Our Lady's 1798 apparition to persecuted faithful in Vietnam. The statue draws Filipino and Vietnamese pilgrims and reflects the shrine's growing multicultural character — what began as a Hispano devotion on Tewa sacred ground now serves communities from across the Catholic world. The Santuario is open daily from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (extended hours during Holy Week), with Mass celebrated regularly and confessions available.
Capilla del Santo Niño de Atocha
Adjacent to the main Santuario, this small devotional chapel was built in 1856 by Severiano Medina in thanksgiving for his recovery from severe illness. The chapel houses a statue of the Santo Niño de Atocha — the Holy Child of Atocha, depicted as a young pilgrim carrying a gourd and staff, patron of travelers, prisoners, the sick, and those in mortal danger. In Hispanic Catholic folk tradition, the Child is believed to walk through the night helping the desperate, wearing out his shoes as he goes. Pilgrims leave baby shoes and children's footwear as offerings, and the interior is decorated with small shoes that cover walls and surround the altar, creating one of the most distinctive devotional environments in American Catholicism.
The chapel remained private Medina family property until 1992, when it was transferred to the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. The Santo Niño devotion has become at least as popular as the original Señor de Esquipulas veneration — many pilgrims, particularly those with sick children or family members in prison or military service, come primarily to petition the Holy Child. The Bataan veterans who revived the pilgrimage in 1946 found special resonance in a patron saint of prisoners and those in danger, and the military connection remains strong to this day.
Oratorio de San Buenaventura
A short walk from the Santuario, this early-nineteenth-century adobe chapel stands on the west side of the Plaza del Cerro — Chimayó's original fortified plaza, dating to approximately 1740 and considered one of the best-preserved Spanish Colonial plazas in the American Southwest. The oratorio was likely built by Pedro Ortega, son-in-law of Bernardo Abeyta, and its interior contains altar panels attributed to the renowned santero José Rafael Aragón, the same artist who painted the celebrated reredos in the Santuario itself. The Archdiocese of Santa Fe acquired the chapel in 1963, and it was restored in the 1990s with a new bell and altar screens.
The Plaza del Cerro surrounding the oratorio preserves the layout of a defensive Spanish Colonial settlement — a central plaza enclosed by connected adobe houses with shared walls forming a continuous fortification against Comanche and Apache raids. Walking from the Santuario to the oratorio takes pilgrims through the fabric of the village itself, past traditional weaving studios for which Chimayó is renowned, connecting the sacred and domestic worlds that have coexisted here for three centuries.
🕯️ Annual Feast Days & Celebrations
Holy Week Pilgrimage — Good Friday (Moveable, March/April)
The largest Catholic pilgrimage in the United States. Pilgrims on foot converge on the Santuario from all directions across Holy Week, with the peak influx arriving in the pre-dawn hours of Good Friday. Approximately 30,000 walking pilgrims arrive on Good Friday alone, with total Holy Week attendance reaching 60,000. The tradition was formally revived in 1946 by survivors of the Bataan Death March who walked to honor their fallen comrades and give thanks. Pilgrims carry homemade crosses (some up to eight feet tall), rosary beads, photographs of the deceased, and military dog tags. The New Mexico Department of Transportation closes highway lanes on approach roads. Community members line the routes offering water and food. At the shrine, pilgrims venerate the crucifix, enter the pocito to collect tierra bendita, and leave ex-votos in the testimonial rooms.
Feast of Our Lord of Esquipulas — January 15
The feast honoring the original dedication of the Santuario. Members of the Penitente Brotherhood (Hermanos de la Morada) travel from their moradas across northern New Mexico and southern Colorado to participate in a solemn Mass and processions. Described as one of the most important fiestas in northern New Mexico, the celebration links the Santuario to the centuries-old lay confraternity that maintained the shrine before its transfer to the Archdiocese in 1929. The feast's deeply local character makes it a window into the living Hispano Catholic culture of the upper Rio Grande valley.
Feast of Santiago — Fourth Weekend of July
An annual summer fiesta with strong roots in colonial New Mexican Hispano culture. Celebrations include the traditional folk drama Los Moros y Los Cristianos — a theatrical re-enactment of the Reconquista brought to the New World by Spanish colonists and maintained in northern New Mexico for centuries. The Los Matachines ritual dance-drama may also be performed. Santiago (Saint James the Great) is patron of many northern New Mexican communities, and the Santuario's celebration forms part of a broader network of summer fiestas across the Española Valley.
🛏️ Where to Stay
Casa Escondida Bed & Breakfast (b&b) — Located in Chimayó village itself, less than 2 kilometers from the Santuario and within walking distance. This highly rated B&B offers garden rooms, free breakfast, private baths, and free WiFi. The closest proper accommodation to the pilgrimage site. casaescondida.com · Reserve this hotel
Rodeway Inn Española (hotel) — Budget chain hotel in Española, the nearest town to Chimayó at approximately 13 kilometers. Basic amenities including free parking and 24-hour front desk. A practical base for pilgrims needing affordable lodging near the Santuario. Reserve this hotel
Ocho Guesthouse & Weaver's Studio (guesthouse) — A unique guesthouse embedded in a traditional weaving studio between Española and Santa Fe, reflecting northern New Mexico's Hispano textile traditions. Culturally resonant for pilgrims visiting Chimayó, itself renowned for its weavers. Reserve this hotel
🚗 Getting There
By Air: Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) is the main gateway, located 145 kilometers south of Chimayó. From ABQ, rent a car and drive north on I-25 to US-285/US-84, then NM-503 to NM-76, approximately 90 minutes. Santa Fe Municipal Airport (SAF) handles limited regional and charter flights, 55 kilometers from Chimayó, approximately 40 minutes by car.
By Car: From Santa Fe, drive north on US-285/US-84 to Pojoaque, then turn right onto NM-503 and follow it to NM-76 at the Cundiyo junction. The Santuario is immediately visible on the right. Total distance 44 kilometers, approximately 40 minutes. From Taos, take NM-68 south to NM-76 west (the High Road to Taos traveled in reverse), approximately 80 kilometers and 75 minutes. The Santuario has a small free parking lot on Santuario Drive; arrive early on weekends and feast days. During Holy Week, roads near the Santuario are closed to traffic — use the park-and-ride shuttle instead.
By Bus: North Central Regional Transit District (NCRTD) operates fare-free Route 150 from the Española Transit Center to the Santuario (Monday through Friday). Connect from Santa Fe via fare-free Route 200 to the Española Transit Center, then transfer to Route 150. On Good Friday, the NCRTD operates special Route 151 Santuario Express from the Cities of Gold Casino park-and-ride in Pojoaque and the Benny Chavez Community Center in Española, running 7:00 AM to 2:00 PM.
On Foot: The annual Holy Week pilgrimage draws 30,000+ walkers on Good Friday. Common starting points: Española (11 km, shortest route via NM-76), Santa Fe Plaza (44 km via US-285/US-84 and NM-503, the most popular overnight walk), Albuquerque (145 km, multi-day). During Holy Week, volunteer water and food stations line the routes, and law enforcement manages traffic. No formal waymarking outside Holy Week — walkers follow public roads year-round.
📚 Further Reading
Brett Hendrickson, The Healing Power of the Santuario de Chimayó: America's Miraculous Church — Scholarly history drawing on archival research and fieldwork, examining the site's Pueblo and Hispano Catholic origins, its transfer to the Archdiocese, and the modern pilgrimage. Winner of the 2018 Paul J. Foik Award for Best Book on Catholic History in the American Southwest.
Sam Howarth and Enrique R. Lamadrid, Pilgrimage to Chimayo: Contemporary Portrait of a Living Tradition — Black-and-white photographic documentary of the annual Easter week pilgrimage, accompanied by bilingual testimonials from pilgrims in Spanish and English.
Juan Javier Pescador, Crossing Borders with the Santo Niño de Atocha — Traces the historical origins and transformations of the Santo Niño de Atocha devotion from nineteenth-century Zacatecas along the Camino de Tierra Adentro to New Mexico and the broader US borderlands.
Michael P. Carroll, The Penitente Brotherhood: Patriarchy and Hispano-Catholicism in New Mexico — Sociological and historical study of the Penitente brotherhood, examining how the movement developed in response to colonial and early-American disruptions in New Mexico.
🔗 Useful Links
Santuario de Chimayó — Official Shrine Website — History, visiting hours, Mass schedules, and pilgrimage information maintained by the Sons of the Holy Family.
El Santuario de Chimayó — National Park Service — National Historic Landmark documentation covering the shrine's architectural and cultural significance.
El Santuario de Chimayó — New Mexico Tourism — Official state tourism listing with visitor information and regional context.
Archdiocese of Santa Fe — The metropolitan see administering the Santuario, with diocesan news and contact information.
High Road to Taos Scenic Byway — The designated scenic byway passing through Chimayó between Santa Fe and Taos, with driving information and points of interest.
🥾 Pilgrim Routes
Camino del Norte a Chimayó — A walking pilgrimage route running approximately 169 kilometers from San Luis, Colorado to the Santuario de Chimayó, passing through Taos Pueblo. The route takes seven days from San Luis. Most pilgrims walk the shorter 48-kilometer segment from Santa Fe, the primary starting point for the annual Holy Week pilgrimage. Documented by American Pilgrims on the Camino. Read more
100-Mile Pilgrimage for Vocations — An annual pilgrimage organized by the Archdiocese of Santa Fe since 1973, with five separate walking routes converging on the Santuario during the first week of June. Each route covers approximately 160 kilometers over seven days. Pilgrims sleep in parish halls along the way. Mass is celebrated by the Archbishop at the Santuario on the final Saturday. Two routes are women-only.
🧭 Nearby Pilgrimage Destinations
Allens Park (96 km) — Marian apparition site in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, where visions of Our Lady were reported beginning in the 1990s. Located in the foothills northwest of Boulder.
Oklahoma City (386 km) — National Shrine of the Infant Jesus of Prague in Oklahoma City, a center of devotion to the Infant of Prague in the American Great Plains.
Hulbert (432 km) — Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in the Ozark foothills of eastern Oklahoma where monks maintain the traditional monastic life and welcome pilgrims for retreat.
Tucson (462 km) — San Xavier del Bac Mission, the "White Dove of the Desert," a magnificently preserved eighteenth-century Spanish Colonial mission still serving the Tohono O'odham Nation.
San Antonio (489 km) — The San Antonio Missions, a UNESCO World Heritage Site comprising four eighteenth-century Spanish frontier missions along the San Antonio River, including the Alamo.
🪶 Closing Reflection
"I think of the steadfast faith of those mothers tending their sick children who, though perhaps barely familiar with the articles of the creed, cling to a rosary; or of all the hope poured into a candle lighted in a humble home with a prayer for help from Mary, or in the gaze of tender love directed to Christ crucified." — Pope Francis, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, §125 (2013)
