Overview
El Santuario de Chimayo was built in 1813 in the small community of El Potrero just outside of Chimayo. It was built in response to the discovery of a crucifix, Nuestro Señor de Esquipulas, in 1810 and subsequent miraculous occurrences. See top 15 Catholic shrines in the world.
El Santuario de Chimayo is one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the world. During Easter weekend, as many as 40,000 people journey to El Santuario, some traveling hundreds on miles on foot, some carrying crosses. See more Catholic Shrines and pilgrimages in North America.
Pilgrimages of the El Santuario de Chimayo
- The 100-Mile Pilgrimage for Vocations – Typically the first week of June.
- The Mother’s Day Pilgrimage – Typically the Saturday before Mother’s Day
- Youth Pilgrimage Against Drugs – Typically in the Spring.
- Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish Pilgrimage – Typically first Saturday of Lent
- Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis de Assisi Pilgrimage – The Saturday before Good Friday — typically late March or early April.
- Santa Maria de la Paz Parish Pilgrimage – The Saturday before Good Friday — typically late March or early April
- El Camino del Norte a Chimayó Pilgrimage
Click here to read more on pilgrimags in Chimayo: www.holychimayo.us/Pilgrim
El Pocito (the Little Well)
Visitors to El Santuario de Chimayo come from all over the world and represent many diverse religious and cultural beliefs. Many are pilgrims who walk long distances, sometimes barefoot, sometimes carrying large wooden crosses. Some visitors are Jews, Hindus, Muslims or Buddhists who come initially out of simple curiosity. Some are blessed with the belief that they are at a place of God that transcends those things which tend to separate us.
Nearly all who come to El Santuario de Chimayo visit “el Pocito” which is in a tiny, candle-lit sideroom off to the side of the altar.
Even the door to this room is tiny and most who enter must stoop. You must kneel to reach and scoop out the “tierra bendita” (sacred earth) which is in the tiny hole in the stone floor. Many apply it to places on their bodies corresponding to the wounds our Lord received during his crucifixion.
Some of the dirt is poured into bags and vials to be taken home. Many people believe that, rubbed on the body it can ease arthritis, paralysis, sore throat, sadness, and the pains of childbirth. Many believe it can cure cancer. Some also believe that a pinch thrown into the fire will avert or disperse a storm. Many of these beliefs are ancient.
El Santuario was built on ground believed sacred by Native Americans and it was built on the site where the crucifix of Nuestro Señor de Esquipulas was found buried in the soil and where the man who discovered the crucifix, Don Bernardo Abeyta, was cured of his affliction while digging in that soil.
Father Casimiro Roca
Born in Spain in 1918 and having suffered great hardship and loss during the Spanish Civil war, Father Casimiro Roca finally found peace in the mountains of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado; a match of man and land which has, surely, been made in heaven.
In the fifty plus years that Father Casimiro Roca has lived in northern New Mexico he has come to symbolize, more than any living person, the heart and soul of El Santuario de Chimayo. In fact, he is the person most responsible for taking a decaying and forgotten chapel and saving it. In so doing, he preserved an unspeakably precious jewel for future generations.
In the fifty years he has watched the tourists, pilgrims, and those in need of hope, who visit El Santuario each year grow from a small trickle to the tens of thousands who now make it their destination.
Let us remain close in the same prayer! May the Lord bless you abundantly!
Video
Pilgrimages
- The 100-Mile Pilgrimage for Vocations – Typically the first week of June.
- The Mother’s Day Pilgrimage – Typically the Saturday before Mother’s Day
- Youth Pilgrimage Against Drugs – Typically in the Spring.
- Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish Pilgrimage – Typically first Saturday of Lent
- Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis de Assisi Pilgrimage – The Saturday before Good Friday — typically late March or early April.
- Santa Maria de la Paz Parish Pilgrimage – The Saturday before Good Friday — typically late March or early April
- El Camino del Norte a Chimayó Pilgrimage
Click here to read more on pilgrimags in Chimayo: www.holychimayo.us/Pilgrim
El Pocito (the Little Well)
Visitors to El Santuario come from all over the world and represent many diverse religious and cultural beliefs. Many are pilgrims who walk long distances, sometimes barefoot, sometimes carrying large wooden crosses. Some visitors are Jews, Hindus, Muslims or Buddhists who come initially out of simple curiosity. Some are blessed with the belief that they are at a place of God that transcends those things which tend to separate us.
Nearly all who come to El Santuario visit “el Pocito” which is in a tiny, candle-lit sideroom off to the side of the altar. Even the door to this room is tiny and most who enter must stoop. You must kneel to reach and scoop out the “tierra bendita” (sacred earth) which is in the tiny hole in the stone floor. Many apply it to places on their bodies corresponding to the wounds our Lord received during his crucifixion. Some of the dirt is poured into bags and vials to be taken home. Many people believe that, rubbed on the body it can ease arthritis, paralysis, sore throat, sadness, and the pains of childbirth. Many believe it can cure cancer. Some also believe that a pinch thrown into the fire will avert or disperse a storm. Many of these beliefs are ancient. El Santuario was built on ground believed sacred by Native Americans and it was built on the site where the crucifix of Nuestro Señor de Esquipulas was found buried in the soil and where the man who discovered the crucifix, Don Bernardo Abeyta, was cured of his affliction while digging in that soil.
Let us remain close in the same prayer! May the Lord bless you abundantly!
Albuquerque is the nearest city with a major airport. Chimayó is reachable from Santa Fe on good and scenic 2-lane roads. NM 76 east from Española or NM 503 northeast from Pojoaque will bring you to Chimayó. The NCRTD provides a free bus service on weekdays to Española, with connections to Santa Fe, Taos, and other communities in North Central New Mexico.
Let us remain close in the same prayer! May the Lord bless you abundantly!
Daily at 11:00 AM (Monday through Saturday) 10:30 AM and Noon (Sunday)
Let us remain close in the same prayer! May the Lord bless you abundantly!
9:00 AM to 10:15 AM and by appointment
Let us remain close in the same prayer! May the Lord bless you abundantly!
Let us remain close in the same prayer! May the Lord bless you abundantly!
Let us remain close in the same prayer! May the Lord bless you abundantly!
El Santuario de Chimayo was built in 1813 in the small community of El Potrero just outside of Chimayo. It was built in response to the discovery of a crucifix, Nuestro Señor de Esquipulas, in 1810 and subsequent miraculous occurrences. El Santuario de Chimayo is one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the world. During Easter weekend, as many as 40,000 people journey to El Santuario, some traveling hundreds on miles on foot, some carrying crosses.
Let us remain close in the same prayer! May the Lord bless you abundantly!
Sons of the Holy Family
When Fr. Roca was assigned to the parish of Santa Cruz de la Cañada, New Mexico, on July 4, 1954, he came as a member of the Sons of the Holy Family, a religious order founded in Barcelona, Spain, in 1864 by Saint Joseph Manyanet to serve families. The order had first come to Santa Cruz in 1920, at the invitation of Bishop Albert Daeger, Archbishop of Santa Fe, to minister to the Spanish-speaking population in the area.
At that time, the Santuario de Chimayo was a mission of the large mother parish of Santa Cruz, and was tended to by the priests who lived and served at Santa Cruz and its many missions. Later, in 1959, when Holy Family Parish in Chimayo was established, it continued to be served by the Sons of the Holy Family, as it is today. The Santuario remains a mission of Holy Family Parish, and is currently served by four Sons of the Holy Family: Fr. Julio Gonzalez, pastor; Fr. Jim Suntum, vicar; Fr. Ron Carrillo, vicar; and Fr. Casimiro Roca, vicar.
St. Joseph Manyanet y Vives (1833-1901, shown in the picture at left) was a Spanish priest from Catalonia, known widely as the “prophet of the family.” He founded two religious congregations—the Sons of the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary and Joseph (1864), and the Missionary Daughters of the Holy Family of Nazareth (1874). He was also a promoter of the Holy Family Temple in Barcelona, Spain. At his canonization in Rome on May 16, 2004, Pope John Paul II said: “The Gospel of the family, lived by Jesus in Nazareth together with Mary and Joseph, was the moving force of his pastoral charity and inspired his teaching.”