The Sanctuary of Guadalupe de Santa Fe
The end of the Royal Road · Santa Fe, New Mexico · 1776-1796
The term of the Royal Way of Earth Inside
The Royal Road of Tierra Inentro was the longest route of the Spanish Empire in North America: 2,560 kilometres that linked Mexico City with Santa Fe of New Mexico through the Chihuahua Desert. The Franciscans who evangelized the South American built an adobe church between 1776 and 1796 at the point where the pilgrims and merchants arrived exhausted at the end of that road. They dedicated it to Our Lady of Guadalupe. With its adobe walls of almost one metre thick, it is today the oldest church in the United States dedicated to the Guadalupana, and one of the best preserved colonial religious monuments in the country.
La painting de José de Alcibar (1783)
One of the jewels that cherishes the sanctuary is a monumental painting by Our Lady of Guadalupe made in 1783 by the prestigious Novospian painter José de Alcíbar. It is the largest work dedicated to Guadalupana in the United States. The image, of high technical quality, represents the Virgin with the mantle crashed on the middle moon, surrounded by the angel and the rays of the sun, faithfully following the model of the Ayate of Juan Diego preserved in Mexico City. The presence of this painting highlights the spiritual and cultural link between the missions of the south-west and the Guadalupan tradition of colonial Mexico.
Four centuries of uninterrupted devotion
The 1680 Revolt People temporarily expelled the Spaniards and destroyed many missions from New Mexico, but devotion to Guadalupe survived among the settlers who returned from 1692. The shrine of Santa Fe has been through several restorations and changes of use over the centuries, but it remains an active place of prayer and pilgrimage, especially during the December 12 holiday, when the Hispanic communities of the south-west celebrate the Virgin of Tepeyac with processions, dances and evening of evening.
You who appeared to the humble John Diego
and whose image guided the missionaries to the north of the continent,
protect all the peoples of America under your cloak. Amen.