CHIMAYO, N.M. (KRQE) – Crosses, rosary beads, images of religious figures, and photos of loved ones who have departed — those are some of the things people carried while visiting El Santuario de Chimayó on Good Friday.
Each year, hundreds of people visit the small church located in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of Chimayó, New Mexico, which some consider sacred. For some, a pilgrimage to the church is a tradition rooted in their family and Catholic faith. “To see all the people, it is a real joy in my heart to see a lot of people come to sacred this day, to keep it sacred. And to also thank him [Jesus] for dying on the cross for our sins,” said Daniel Espinoza of Hernandez, New Mexico.
While the church often draws in Catholics during the Easter weekend, anyone is welcome to visit throughout the year. If you visit on Good Friday, you’ll see large groups of people walking on both sides of the High Road to Taos to get to the religious site. This year, KRQE News 13 spoke to two individuals who made lengthy treks to El Santuario de Chimayó.
“I’ve never had the chance to do this, and I’m moving out of the state later in the year,” said Nathan Rubinfeld, who ran at least 30 miles from his home in Santa Fe. “I was dealing with some health issues earlier in the year. And so I thought that I wouldn’t be able to like run, let alone walk something like this again.”
Rubinfeld considers himself to be more spiritual than religious. He attributed the following sentiment to keeping him motivated on the trek: “I think just having a lot of gratitude for, you know, for my physical health and for, yeah, being where I am in space and life,” Rubinfeld explained.
The other individual KRQE News 13 spoke to was Santos Gordon from Placitas. He walked to the site from Buffalo Thunder Resort Casino, about 14 miles away. Gordon started his journey around 5:30 a.m. and arrived at the site around 11:30 a.m. “After the first hill, you think it’s going to be easy, and then it just gets harder and harder as you go through it. But honestly, [it’s] more of a spiritual journey because you just get so enlightened. I feel very at peace when I am walking here,” Gordon said.
Gordon said his main reason for visiting the site is his faith. “It’s about the sacrifice that Jesus made for all of us,” Gordon added.
To learn more about El Santuario de Chimayó, click here.
