chimayo285_1
Image

So what do you want to see in New Mexico? asked my friend. For two days last October, I had been speaking at a meeting of Catholic foundation directors in Santa Fe. Now, for the first time in a few months, I had a free day. I would spend it with my friend Bill, a priest who works in New Mexico. Bill is stationed at a parish outside Taos, roughly 50 miles from the center of Santa Fe, where we stood.

Well, we saw the cathedral yesterday morning, I said. After his morning Mass, the archbishop gave us a tour. The impressive Romanesque structure was built in 1884 by the first bishop of Santa Fe, Bishop Jean-Baptiste Lamy, the redoubtable French cleric on whom Willa Cather based her novel Watch an audio slide show of Chimayo narrated by Fr. Jim Martin.

This article appears in February 25 2008.

The Rev. James Martin, S.J., is a Jesuit priest, author, editor at large at America and founder of Outreach.