The El Santuario de Chimayó in Chimayo, New Mexico, is a sacred piligrimmage site considered one of the most important Catholic shrines in the United States, sometimes called the “Lourdes of the Americas,” since dirt at the sanctuary  has a reputation for healing.

It is a National Historic Landmark in the United States,  part of the Old Spanish National Historic Trail and visited by about 300,000 people each year.

I was lucky enough to visit the shrine on Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008 while I was in New Mexico to attend a workshop at the Santa Fe Workshops.

I was reminded about my time in Chimayo when I saw an Associated Press story this morning (Good Friday, April 18, 2025.) that describes the piligrims who walk to the site on Good Friday.  AP reported “Easter week visitors file through an adobe archway and narrow indoor passages to find a crucified Nuestro Señor de Esquipulas at the main altar. According to local lore, the crucifix was found on the site in the early 1800s, a continent away from its analog at a basilica in the Guatemalan town of Esquipulas.”

As the US National Park Service site says

The Tewa Indians named Chimayo as “Tsi-Mayoh,” after one of four sacred hills above the valley, which lies directly behind El Santuario de Chimayo. The Pueblo Indians believed that they shared their land with supernatural beings. The natives thought the healing spirits were to be found in the form of hot springs, which ultimately dried up leaving the healing earth. The Pueblo and Tewa used the site of El Santuario de Chimayo for healing long before Spanish occupation.

Wikipedia adds before the Spaniards arrived, a hot spring that then flowed near the site was sacred to the Tewa  for its healing power

The chapel was built in1813, replacing a smaller one built in 1810.

The National Park service says

Devotion to Our Lord of Esquipulas originated at an early colonial shrine in Guatemala, at which the earth was said to be effective in curing illnesses. Franciscan friars spread commitment to this image of Christ crucified throughout Mexico and to New Mexico. The people of El Potrero passed on a series of legends concerning the apparition of Our Lord of Esquipulas from generation to generation in the Chimayo area. According to the most popular tradition, on the Holy Week night of Good Friday in 1810, Don Bernardo Abeyta, a member of the Penitentes, saw a light beaming out of one of the hills near the Santa Cruz River in Chimayo. He went to the spot and saw that the light was coming out of the ground. Digging with his bare hands, he found a Crucifix, which he immediately associated with Our Lord of Esquipulas. He left it there and a group of men went to notify the priest, Fray Sebastián Alvarez.

The priest set out for Chimayo and carried the Crucifix back to his church in Santa Cruz, placing it in the niche of the main altar. The next morning, the Crucifix was gone and found in its original location in Chimayo. This same process was repeated two more times, and the Crucifix always ended up back in its original location thus making it apparent that Our Lord of Esquipulas wanted to reside in Chimayo. Another legend claims that Don Bernardo Abeyta had a vision while plowing his fields that directed him to dig beneath his plow where he would find earth with great healing powers.

(Robin Rowland)

Santuario de Chimayo Official site