Inside this gothic structure at the end of the Santa Fe Trail, is a staircase referred to as miraculous, inexplicable, and literally mind-blowing!
This structure has confounded architects, engineers and master craftsmen for over 130 years!
Built sometime between 1877 and 1881, the Staircase rests solely on its base and against the choir loft. The risers of the 33 steps are all of the same height. Many of the faithful believe that the steps represent the years of Jesus’ years on earth. Made of an extinct wood species, it was constructed with only square wooden pegs without glue or nails!
The history of the Loretto Chapel began when Bishop Jean Baptisite Lamy was appointed by the Church to the New Mexico Territory in 1850. Bishop Lamy, seeking to spread the faith and bring an educational system to this new territory. He began a letter writing campaign and plea for priests, brothers and nuns to preach and teach.
Bishop Lamy is said to have written, “I have 6000 Catholics and 300 Americans.”
The first acceptance of his general plea was from the Sisters of Loretto.
In 1852 the Sisters of Loretto responded to Lamy’s pleas by sending seven sisters who agreed to make this arduous journey to Santa Fe. Their trek was through St. Louis, then up the river to Independence, Mo. and then across the flat lands to the extreme and harsh high desert along the “Trail” to Santa Fe. Due to bad weather and the stresses of travel through Indian country, this small group was beset by a cholera epidemic, the Mother Superior died, another nun who was too ill to continue the journey returned to Kentucky.
The Sisters, that survived and persevered, arrived in Santa Fe in 1852 and opened the Academy of Our Lady of Light (Loretto) in 1853. An all girl school was started which grew from very small beginnings to a school of around 300 students. All this despite the challenges of the territory (smallpox, tuberculosis, leaky mud roofs and even a brush with the rowdy Confederate Texans during the Civil War).
The school was started in 1853 . The campus covered a square block with 10 buildings. Through tuition’s for schooling, donations, and $30,000 from the sisters own inheritances from their families, they built their school and chapel.
Jean Baptiste Lamy brought architect Antoine Mouly and his son Projectus Mouly from Paris, France to Santa Fe to be architect – builders for what is now St. Francis Basilica and the Loretto Chapel. During the first period of construction, and as an apparent afterthought, Archbishop Lamy advised and encouraged the sisters to utilize the father and son to design and build their dream chapel. The older Mouly had been involved in the renovation of in Paris, in the early 1800’s. Mouly was encouraged to design the Loretto Chapel after the Sainte Chapelle. Being the favorite chapel of the archbishop from his early days in Paris, France, the chapel would be built.
Property was purchased and in 1873 work began on the Loretto Chapel.
Undoubtedly influenced by the French clergy in Santa Fe, the Gothic Revival-style chapel was patterned after King Louis IX’s Sainte-Chapelle in Paris; a striking contrast to the adobe churches already in the area.
Stone for the Chapel was quarried from locations around Santa Fe including Cerro Colorado, about 20 miles from Santa Fe near the town of Lamy. Sidenote: if you take the train ride to Lamy, you will pass by the quarry. The sandstone for the walls and the porous volcanic stone used for the ceiling were hauled to town by wagon.
The ornate stained glass in the Loretto Chapel also made its journey to Santa Fe via boat, wagon and carrage.
Purchased in 1876 from the DuBois Studio in Paris, the glass was first sent from Paris to New Orleans by sailing ship and then by paddle boat to St. Louis, MO. where it was taken by covered wagon over the Old Santa Fe Trail to the Chapel. The stained glass was also a downsized version of the same glass work form the original Sainte Chapelle.
The Loretto Chapel was completed in 1878 and has since seen many additions and renovations such as the introduction of the Stations of the Cross, the Gothic altar and the frescos during the 1890s.
The Loretto Academy was closed in 1968, and the property was put up for sale. In 1971, Our Lady of Light Chapel was informally deconsecrated as a Catholic Chapel. Note, this is the time science would have access to the staircase, with in reason and limit, would discover that there is not one piece of metal throughout the staircase and would also determine the rarity of the wood used construct the staircase!
Loretto Chapel is now a private museum operated and maintained, in part, for the preservation of the Miraculous Staircase and the Chapel itself.
Two mysteries surround the spiral staircase in the Loretto Chapel: the identity of its builder and the physics of its construction.
When the Loretto Chapel was completed in 1878, there was no way to access the choir loft twenty-two feet above. Carpenters were called in to address the problem, but they all concluded access to the loft would have to be via ladder as a staircase would interfere with the interior space of the small Chapel.
Legend says that to find a solution to the seating problem, the Sisters of the Chapel made a 9 day novena to St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters. On the ninth and final day of prayer, a man appeared at the Chapel with a donkey and a toolbox looking for work. Legend goes that all he had in his tool box was a saw, hammer (mallet), and a T-square. They also noticed that he used a lot of water to soak the wood, which would explain the curvature of the wood. Some say that his name was Jose, (Joseph in Spanish, yet the nun’s didn’t put it together until much later, remember, they were from Kentucky and didn’t speak spanish!)
Legend continues that it took the carpenter 6 months to construct the elegant circular staircase. When he finished there were to sisters meditating in the chapel, who got the 1st viewing of his work. Excited with what they saw, the 3 sisters ran into the school looking for Mother Superior, while the carpenter packed up his tools. When all the sisters reached the chapel and were amazed at the awesome structure in front of them, Mother Superior asked to speak with the carpenter. Looking for him all over the chapel and school, the carpenter disappeared without pay or thanks.
After searching for the man (an ad even ran in the local newspaper) and finding no trace of him.
It had been concluded that it really was St. Joseph himself having come to answer the sisters’ prayers!
The stairway’s carpenter, whoever he was, built a magnificent structure. The design was innovative for the time and some of the design considerations still perplex experts today.
Over the years many have flocked to the Loretto Chapel to see the Miraculous Staircase, which has been the subject of many articles, TV specials, and movies including “Unsolved Mysteries” and the television movie titled “The Staircase.”
Since I was a child I have always had a special place in my heart for “sacred places” on earth and this is truly one of them.
I hope you enjoy this piece of amazing Santa Fe and Catholic history as much as I do!
