Ep. 019: Ancient Churches in the City of Holy Faith
A visit to Santa Fe, New Mexico
In writing this episode, I have leaned heavily on one of the jewels of my collection of 3,000 or so books. I bought John L. Kessell's The Missions of New Mexico Since 1776 back in the early 90s for the princely sum of $45.00; one copy of this magisterial work is available on Amazon now for over four times that!
Three of the churches I discuss here--the Cathedral of St. Francis, the Castrense, and San Miguel--are well covered by Kessell; the other three--the Santuario de Guadalupe, Loretto Chapel, and Cristo Rey--are mentioned by Kessell only in passing for a rather peculiar reason.
Kessell's book is the follow-up to a document by one Fray Francisco Atanasio Dominguez, who wrote a report for the church authorities on the condition of New Mexico's missions in 1776. Kessell thus includes only those churches which Dominguez saw in that year. So the last three churches are too "new"--even though the Santuario was built sometime between 1795 and 1803!
(Dominguez, by the way, is remembered today in the name of the Dominguez-Escalante expedition, which--also in that banner year of 1776--sought an overland route from Santa Fe to the mission at Monterey in central California. The expedition returned to Santa Fe without reaching California, but some of the route they traversed became part of the "Old Spanish Trail" from Santa Fe to Los Angeles--actually, to the suburb of L.A. next to the one where I grew up. "Dominguez-Escalante" is also a National Conservation Area in western Colorado, named for these two intrepid explorers.)