The Holy Faith of Saint Francis

Not a great picture, but I just loved the outside of our B&B by night. Adobe and twinkly lights, just like I wanted!

 Title taken from the official actual name of the city we visited, The Royal Town of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis. Saint Francis images were everywhere, including in our suite. Isn't it cute? We had the option to light a kiva fire, but as it was QUITE warm enough, we declined. When Jon asked what I wanted to do, I just said, churches. I want to see churches. I have a real romantic attraction to old churches. So, we saw churches. First, the oldest church in the United States, San Miguel. We saw the original steps, built in 1610!                                                                                                           Below and to the left, you see the Loretto Chapel, commissioned by French nuns for a girls' school in the 1870s. To the right, for something completely different, an adobe hotel and spa.                                    It is the home of the miraculous staircase, so cunningly built that it didn't require a support beam.                                                                                                 Finally, we visited the Basilica Cathedral of Saint Francis, also 19th Century.                                                                                                     First, we stopped and admired the statue of Saint Kateri, the first native American saint ever canonized.
                                                                                                                                 All the saints on the altarpiece are New World saints. I wished I'd had longer to learn about St. Martin de Porres of Peru! It's nice to see Guadalupe looking as brown as she ought to look; too often she's whitewashed.                                                                                                                   I happened to have a dollar in my bag, and Miles said he'd like to light a prayer candle. He packed a lot of prayers into that candle. We prayed for Melissa, and for Papa (who went on a work trip today) and for our family, and for Miles' wrist to feel better, and and and... It's a bright candle, I think we're covered. :-)                                                                                                             Outside, one of MANY many statues of Saint Francis. He's really everywhere. If you like Adobe, turquoise, Saint Francis, and (New) Mexican food (and who doesn't??!), come to Santa Fe!                                                             Below: the Plaza. People from surrounding reservations sit all around the border and sell crafts.                                      As we were getting ready to say goodbye, we happened upon a military fort that had been turned into a park. It was almost a dead vertical, so a little bit tiring at 7199 feet, but the views were worth it. The landscape and buildings are just so lovely. One pleasant addition: because of all the groves of pine trees everywhere, we had a lot more birdsong than we're used to in Pueblo! On the road back, we stopped at Las Vegas, New Mexico, as our friends had recommended a restaurant. This mural depicting the history of the region caught my eye...                                     Charlie's is a two (fat!) thumbs up, by the way. Oh my. We felt we'd never feel hunger again. We brought baked goods and tortillas with us, because we couldn't not, Lent or no Lent. Below, my stuffed sopapilla and pozole. Thoroughly sublime. WOULD EAT AGAIN.

                                                               On the journey, we listened to and read along with Death Comes for the Archbishop, a novel by Willa Cather roughly based on the lives of two French priests in the newly formed diocese of New Mexico. It is much better than I'd expected! I think I expected Cather to be grimmer, somehow... but this is exquisite, and so lovingly depicts the region that it formed the perfect backdrop against which to travel through northern New Mexico. Several times Cather describes places we'd travelled through or seen. And, there are just so many lovely little stories and thoughtful observations. I will leave you with one favorite from the Bishop himself:                                                                                                                             “Where there is great love there are always miracles,' he said at length. 'One might almost say that an apparition is human vision corrected by divine love. I do not see you as you really are, Joseph; I see you through my affection for you. The Miracles of the Church seem to me to rest not so much upon faces or voices or healing power coming suddenly near to us from afar off, but upon our perceptions being made finer, so that for a moment our eyes can see and our ears can hear what is there about us always.”