The Loretto Inn and Spa is one of the fancy downtown Santa Fe hotels.
Next to it is the Loretto Chapel where there is a mysterious staircase. Supposedly they needed a staircase to the choir loft when a carpenter mysteriously appeared. He built this winding staircase that apparently has no supports, and no one knows how it stands. The carpenter then mysteriously disappeared without being paid. John says that he had to have bent a continuous piece of wood. There is no vertical support from top to bottom to support the stair. Some people say that the carpenter was St. Joseph himself.
But what about that little support over on the side?
These are the people looking at the staircase ... (maybe we are looking in the wrong direction??)
I found this interesting, but was also intrigued by the rosary trees. (Have you ever seen such a thing?!) And the holy water that they sell in the gift shop. There is a lot of religiousity on display in Santa Fe. On the side of a government buildings there can be an image of the Virgin (of Guadalupe) and nobody thinks anything about it.
The rosary tree reminds me of the trees to which prayers written on paper are tied outside of Japanese shrines (or was it temples?).
ReplyDeleteYes, it helps for me to remember how these kinds of things are done in most all religious traditions.
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