page_title: El Santuario de Chimayo
section_title: Current observances
hierarchical_section_title: El Santuario de Chimayo / Current observances
caption_attribution_description: English: El Santuario de Chimayo, 1 mile northwest of the Santa Cruz Reservoir Dam Chimayo This is an image of a place or building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America. Its reference number is 70000412
context_page_description: El Santuario de Chimayó is a Roman Catholic church in Chimayó, New Mexico, United States. This shrine, a National Historic Landmark, is famous for the story of its founding and as a contemporary pilgrimage site. It receives almost 300,000 visitors per year and has been called "no doubt the most important Catholic pilgrimage center in the United States."
context_section_description: Each year some 300,000 people from all over the world make pilgrimages to the Santuario de Chimayó during Holy Week, especially on Holy Thursday and Good Friday, some seeking blessings and some in fulfillment of a vow. Walking is traditional; some pilgrims walk from as far away as Albuquerque, about 90 miles (150 km).
  Many visitors to the church take a small amount of the "holy dirt", often in hopes of a miraculous cure for themselves or someone who could not make the trip.  Formerly, at least, they often ate the dirt.  (Likewise pilgrims to the original shrine of Esquipulas eat the supposedly curative clay found there.)  Now seekers of cures more commonly rub themselves with the dirt or simply keep it.  The Church replaces the dirt in the pocito from the nearby hillsides, sometimes more than once a day, for a total of about 25 or 30 tons a year.
  The Church takes no position on whether miracles have occurred at the Santuario.
  The feast of Our Lord of Esquipulas is celebrated on January 15 or on the Sunday nearest that date.  The feast of St. James the Great (Santiago) is celebrated on the fourth weekend of July.
caption: El Pocito room showing hole containing "holy dirt"
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "NIKON", "Image Model": "E4300", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "E4300v1.5", "Image DateTime": "2004:09:02 10:32:27", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "356", "Image CustomRendered": "Normal", "Image ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Auto", "Image DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "Image FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "38", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Image GainControl": "Low gain up", "Image Contrast": "Normal", "Image Saturation": "Normal", "Image Sharpness": "Hard", "Image SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1716", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4710", "EXIF ExposureTime": "2/9", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "223", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2004:09:02 10:32:27", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2004:09:02 10:32:27", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "8", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1536", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2048", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed"}