This Adventure Called Retirement

Santa Fe is the capital of New Mexico and also the highest elevation capital in the United States, sitting at 7,199 feet above sea level. Both Mary and I noticed a distinct light-headedness on Wednesday. Not surprisingly, at that elevation it seemed to be a very quiet city. The chapel of Loretto is located in downtown Santa Fe which is also the location of old town. The chapel did not open until 9am so we decided to get there shortly after opening since we planned to drive from Santa Fe to Phoenix that day, a seven hour drive. There was no traffic in the downtown area and street parking was plentiful. At 9:30 in the morning on a Wednesday it did not appear that any of the businesses, stores, or government buildings were even open. We had no trouble finding parking near the chapel.

Loretto Chapel is the first Catholic Church built in the gothic style west of the Mississippi river. In 1850 Bishop Jean Baptiste Lamy became the first bishop of the New Mexico territory and he sent out a plea to Catholic religious teaching orders to establish a school. The Sisters of Loretto agreed and sent six sisters to establish the Loretto Academy in 1853. By 1873 the sisters had the funds to build a chapel and highere the architect and builders of the nearby cathedral to have it built. As was typical for a small chapel, there were no stairs to the choir loft since most choirs when made up of men who would use ladders to access the loft. However, since the Loretto Academy was an all-girl school run by nuns the nuns desired a stairway. Unfortunately the architect died before he developed a solution and a standard staircase would have used up too much of the floor space and significantly reduced seating capacity. The nuns decided to pray a novena to Saint Joseph, patron saint of carpenters, for a solution. On the final day of the novena, a carpenter arrived at the chapel and agreed to build a staircase. Over six months he labored building the helical staircase of wood using only a hammer, saw, carpenter’s square, and water to shape the wood and without the use of nails (only wooden pegs hold it together).. Once completed, the carpenter disappeared without payment. The nuns, concerned that he may have left without paying a local hardware store for supplies inquired with all the local lumber stores only to learn that none of them had supplied materials. Furthermore it was discovered that the type of wood, a unique spruce, was not native to New Mexico and the exact source could not be determined. The spiral staircase has no center support and makes two full rotations with all the weight carried on the bottom step.

After the school closed in 1968 the chapel ceased to be used since the cathedral was one block away. It was de-consecrated and sold to a private party that agreed it was to beautiful to be demolished but instead turned it into a museum. It is still used today for weddings and other private venues suitable to it’s former status as a chapel. The stained glass windows were made in France, the altar and stations of the cross were imported from Italy.

We also visited the cathedral. I found it to be less impressive then the chapel, though beautiful in it’s own right. The notice at the entrance was humorous in it’s warning about the baptismal font. It also had an impressive reliquary with numerous relics on display.

After this visit, we drove through the mountains to Phoenix. Although it was April, the weather was quite cold and we drove through several snow showers on our way in both New Mexico and Arizona. So much for it being desert. In spite of the snow, it was a beautiful drive. We did see a huge backup on the freeway in the opposite direction that went for miles. Thankfully we were headed the other way. Several trains crossed these plains loaded with freight which contrasted with the endless line of trucks crowding the freeway which makes you wonder why the country has moved away from using trains to move freight rather than crowding the interstate with more and more trucks.

Notable on this trip has been the changing landscape from East to West. Just on this drive alone we moved from the mountains around Santa Fe to the vast open spaces of Arizona with seemingly endless skies. This is certainly a beautiful and diverse country!

We arrived in Phoenix with time to help our son-in-law, Richard, and daughter, Elizabeth, set up his displays in the gallery for his masters thesis photography exhibit which was scheduled to open on Friday.