The Stairs From Santa Fe
Among many various stories about miracles this one is undoubtedly one of the most surprising. And it is like that because the evidence of possibly supernatural event reported in it is one of a kind. It’s neither a transformed Eucharist nor a weeping statue of Holy Mary but… Well, let’s not rush with the facts. Instead, let’s go to the United States. And more specifically — to the southwestern borderline of Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas.
Most people asked about New Mexico will likely associate this name with the city of Roswell and the UFO crash that allegedly occurred there in 1947. However, this state — known, among other things, for having the highest percentage of Hispanic population in the entire US — is a proud owner of another extraordinary thing; unlike flying saucers quite real and possible to be seen at any time. The thing is located in the state capital, Santa Fe, and more precisely — in the so-called Loretto Chapel which was once a Catholic church and now serves as a private museum and wedding chapel.
The majority of the visitors to this building are drawn to it for only one reason. And that reason is an unusual spiral staircase which leads to the chapel’s choir. Every year the stairs attract about a quarter of a million both the ordinary tourists who just want to see this awesome construction with their own eyes, and pilgrims who believe that it has a miraculous origin.
The stairs are indeed amazing. Not a single nail, screw or a drop of glue was used to create them. All of their elements are held together by square wooden pegs. What’s even more interesting, the extremely rare species of spruce from which they were made does not occur in New Mexico at all. It grows, however, in Alaska… almost four thousand miles away. Where did the builder of the stairs take it from? Or… how did he manage to transport it having, as eyewitnesses claim, only a donkey at his disposal? No one knows this. Neither did any of the timber suppliers who operated at the area at the time. The mysterious carpenter never came to any of them.
But even more astonishing is their shape which seems to openly mock the laws of physics. It’s a helix or, as some folks call it, a worm wheel which makes a double spin. The steps are mounted on special spiral rails made of multitude of small, precisely connected elements. This means that the entire structure should be relatively weak and quite susceptible to overloads. Especially that the stairs do not have any support, not even a pole around which they could wind.
And if you add the fact that there is no wall nearby for them to lean on, then for a purely rational point of view there is no possible way they could stand still. Especially that in over hundred years that had passed since they were built, hundreds or even thousands of feet have walked up and down these stairs. And often times it must’ve been few or maybe close to dozen people at the same time. It’s also worth mentioning that originally the stairs did not have any balustrade attached to them. It was delivered after ten years of use by another carpenter, this time known by name as Philip August Hesch. There’s no information that any accident has ever happened.
It’s also hard to ignore the symbolism hidden in the stairs from Santa Fe. First of all, the number of steps which is thirty-three — exactly, as tradition says, the age of Jesus when He was crucified. The same applies to the name of the city where this incredible but hundred-percent true story happened — in Spanish Santa Fe stands for Holy Faith.
But what exactly happened and how did it begin?
Let’s go back to 1852. That year loretan sisters from Kentucky came to Santa Fe by invitation from the archbishop of local diocese which was still in the process of organizing itself at the time. They intended to found their new monastery and run a school for girls. The majority of inhabitants of the diocesan territories were poor Mexicans and Native Americans so the nuns were primarily involved in helping them. They also begun to evangelize them and teach them to read and write. After twenty years they finally managed to finish building their dream monastery.
The only thing left to do was building the chapel. The bishop decided it should be modeled after the famous Paris Sainte-Chapelle, built in twelfth century by the then French king St. Louis with the intention of storing the relics of the crown of thorns and other items related to the Passion of Christ which were brought to Europe from one of the Crusades. In order to achieve that goal sisters hired an outstanding French architect Paul Mouly to design the chapel and supervise the building process. Mouly fulfilled his task perfectly. Construction works under his management took five years. Walls were made of carefully selected sandstone. For ceilings Mouly’s crew used volcanic stone. Also, beautiful ornate stain glass windows were brought from Paris.
Unfortunately, just before the work was completed, a tragedy occurred — Mouly was murdered. When sisters finally cooled down a little bit and began preparations for the bishop’s visit, it turned out that their brilliant architect has forgotten about one detail or simply didn’t have enough time to take care of it. And those were the stairs to the choir.
theoretically the matter seemed simple, but in reality it turned out to be practically impossible — at least for local architects and carpenters asked by sisters for help. Mouly arranged the interior of the temple in such a way that there simply was no room for any traditional stairs. Because of this the access to the choir was possible only via ladder. This solution didn’t seem very dignified, not to mention being dangerous. You could easily break your neck.
In this situation despaired sisters could only pray. They decided they should turn to St. Joseph. Who if not him — also a carpenter during his earthly lifetime — could understand them better? And so, they initiated a novena addressed directly to him. According to their own report the last day of its celebration someone knocked on the monastery’s gate.
“He was a bearded, very poorly dressed old man” — Mother Magdalena, the Superior of the monastery, later said. “He was accompanied by a donkey carrying a toolbox on its back.”
“I’m a carpenter” — he said not even bothering to introduce himself. — “I heard about your troubles and I’m willing to solve them. I can build these stairs for you.”
Mother Magdalena paid close attention to the contents of the toolbox on donkey’s back.
“There were a couple hammers, some kind of weird-looking saw, a T-shaped measure of some sort and a chisel. Nothing more. No nails, glue, varnishes, brushes… just nothing.
The stranger made one condition: he didn’t want anyone to interfere with his work or even spy on him. He also needed no help. He locked the chapel for the whole time of his work. This continued for next several months during which nobody saw the man. He didn’t show up neither in the monastery nor in the city. Only sounds of sawing and tapping from within the chapel proved that he was still there on the job. However finally he stepped out of the building and announced that stairs were done. Mother Superior and her co-sisters went there as quickly as possible to check the effects of peculiar old man’s doings.
When they stepped inside, they saw exactly the same thing tourists coming to Santa Fe admire today.
“The sight was simply… breathtaking” — Mother Magdalena recalled later. “But that wasn’t the most surprising. When we wanted to pay him for the job, it turned out that he was gone. He just… vanished into the thin air. We asked everyone but nobody knew him. We even put an ad in a local newspaper. But there was no response. We even offered a reward for at least a piece of information about him. Nothing too. He simply dissolved as if he wasn’t here at all. The only thing that remained were these wonderful, elegant and very comfortable stairs which amazed every expert who examined them.
After weeks of fruitless search loretans reached the only conclusion that came to their minds: the mysterious carpenter must’ve been none other than St. Joseph himself. Earthly protector of Jesus came to the monastery in a form of a shaggy old man. This is why locals very quickly started calling the chapel stairs miraculous or the stairs of St. Joseph. And quite soon stairs became the destination of numerous pilgrimages.
So far the Church has not officially confirmed the miracle in Santa Fe. And what about the identity of a mysterious carpenter? Could it really be St. Joseph? Or maybe — which also seems quite probable — was it someone of flesh and blood but inspired by him ant sent as an answer to sisters prayers? Near the end of the twentieth century Mary-Jane Straw Cook, author of a book on Loretto Chapel In Santa Fe, suggested that perhaps the real builder of the stairs might’ve been a man named François-Jean Rochas — a French wizard of carpentry who lived in Santa Fe region at the time. The only problem is that back then Rochas was not even in his thirties yet.
Anyway, today the stairs are perceived as an example of outstanding woodwork. It’s been estimated that if someone wanted to manufacture their modern copy, he or she would have to hire six grandmasters of carpentry and at least one really high-class engineer. It would also be necessary to use extremely precise, maybe even laser-assisted measuring equipment, not to mention special tools for bending the wood at the right angle. And that wouldn’t guarantee success either.
The Santa Fe stairs are widely known as one of the most famous miracles attributed to Jesus’ earthly protector — a quiet, humble man for centuries set aside in a way. Maybe he really did appear in Santa Fe in person — after all history has recorded some of his revelations — or maybe he chose someone alive who he used as his tool — for example a big sinner who thus, having received instructions from a saint on how to make the stairs, could repent his guilt. We’ll probably never find out. However the fact is that Holy Mary’s husband still keeps many surprises.
Perhaps his real time is yet to come. His time as a teacher of stability and perseverance in our uncertain and unstable world. The stairs he created — no matter if with his own or someone else’s hands — symbolically connect Earth with Heaven. And their durability is probably the best guarantee that this path will never break down.
