In Santa Fe

 Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Santa Fe.  It was a beautiful day, so, after we were checked in to our hotel, La Fonda On The Plaza, (one of my favorite hotels anywhere) Trish and I started out walking.

Our first destination, right behind the hotel, was the Sisters of Loretta Chapel to see the miraculous stairs.  When the chapel was built, starting in 1783, no one seemed to notice one thing missing from the architectural plans until the building was near completion.  The plans failed to include a way to get from the main floor to the choir balcony thirty feet or so up in the rear of the building. The only way the Sisters could get there was by ladder.

They prayed to Saint Joseph for a solution, and, a gray haired man arrived on a donkey volunteering to help.  His only tools were a saw, a square, and a hammer.  From mysteriously obtained wood he built a circular set of 33 stairs which ascended to the choir with no nails and no visible support.  He then disappeared and his identity remains unknown.

The stairs were scary to the Sisters, so, the stair rails seen today were added.  The construction is as mysterious as the carpenter himself.  Many of the Sisters believed it was built by Saint Joseph himself.