Getting Holy Dirt From Chimayo, New Mexico

A little church in New Mexico offers pilgrims (and writers) some big healing power.

Whether you’re a believer or non-believer, there’s something about the serenity of small churches that makes them inviting.

So it is with El Santuario de Chimayo, a small church located in Chimayo, New Mexico, between Taos and Santa Fe.

Founded in 1816 by Bernardo Abeyta and other residents of the then-separate village of El Portero, it was purchased by the Spanish Colonial Arts Society in 1929 and donated to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe.

With its thick adobe walls, two bell towers, and six-foot crucifix, the church is considered a prime example of Spanish colonial architecture. But it’s probably best known for the supposedly curative powers of the “holy dirt” that’s found in its sacristy.

Each year more than 30,000 Native Americans, Hispanics, and people of other cultures visit the church. Some come out of faith, some out of curiosity, but most come hoping to find miracle cures for their physical or emotional pains.

It has been reported that during Holy Week, pilgrims walk 30 miles from Santa Fe to get to the sanctuary; some even walk from Albuquerque, about 90 miles away.

The church has been compared to Lourdes, and the National Park Service has called it “one of the most important Catholic pilgrimage centers in the United States.” In 1970, it became a National Historic Landmark.

Just Off The High Road

Returning to Santa Fe from the High Road Art Tour in September, my husband and I took a short detour off Route 76 (the High Road) to see the sanctuary. Visitors were few, so we were able to take our time admiring the church with its colorful decorations and wooden devotional paintings, called retables.

A door at the left of the nave opens to a small prayer room, with an amazing number of discarded crutches lining the walls. Above them, the walls are covered with photos and letters from people testifying to the healing power of the holy dirt, which is found in an even smaller adjoining room.

The size of a walk-in closet, this room has a tiny well, called el pocito, dug into the ground and holding the fine soil.

I stepped inside to get a glimpse of el pocito. I hadn’t come to get some dirt, but on impulse, I decided to take some with me in case my achy knee worsened during the last days of our visit to New Mexico. I worried that if I knelt down to reach the well, I’d have trouble getting back up.

A few minutes later, a couple joined me. They had brought along an empty pill vial as a container and began digging up some to the soil to take home–the husband wanted it for his own knee injury. They were quite friendly, and the husband offered to collect some of the dirt for me.

I handed him the only receptacle I could find in my purse, a small plastic bag, which he filled with soil.

Taking The Holy Dirt Home

Back at home, I did some research on the holy dirt to find out about its properties.

The first thing I learned is that el pocito isn’t a bottomless well. It has to be refilled each day by church workers who collect the dirt from the nearby hillsides in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Visitors haul away an estimated 25 to 30 tons each year, either for themselves or for others unable to make it to Chimayo on their own.

A handout I’d picked up in the sanctuary offered clear instructions on applying the soil: “The Holy dirt is not to be eaten or to be drunk,” it read. It suggested some silent prayers to say as you rub the dirt over the part of your body in need of healing while invoking the name of Jesus.

Some visitors, however, apparently do decide to ingest it, sprinkling it on their food or in a beverage. And some claim to feel its effects merely from having it in their possession.

A TV show called Miracle Detectives analyzed the soil a couple of years ago and found that even the high levels of calcium carbonate (which might have a beneficial effect on heartburn) can’t explain the extraordinary healing properties of the holy dirt of Chimayo.

More likely, the skeptical detectives concluded, the curative effects–although hard to document–can be explained by the placebo effect or the “power of positive thinking.”

My knee, knock wood, hasn’t been giving me trouble since my visit. I have the baggie of holy dirt tucked away in my night table drawer just in case. But maybe it has already worked its magic.

How To Get Holy Dirt (if you can’t get there)

• An online form is available to obtain holy dirt from Chimayo (a donation is suggested). In addition, the same website offers holy dirt containers for sale. 

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[A version of this article was published in the Washington Post Sunday Travel Section on April 10, 2014]. It was reviewed and updated 7/25.

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 Other Scenes of the Old Village of Potrero in Chimayo, Site of the Holy Dirt

Scene from the 2025 Pilgrimage to Chimayo on YouTube

 

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If you’re interested in finding, out more about the holy dirt, watch the video from Miracle Detectives on YouTube:

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IF YOU GO

• El Santuario de Chimayo, a National Historic Landmark, is located on NM 76 (the High Road) in the town of Chimayo, New Mexico.

• The shrine is open daily from dawn to dusk. Mass takes place at 11:00 AM Monday through Saturday and at 10:30 AM and noon on Sunday.

• No photography is allowed inside the sanctuary.

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More Information about Chimayo

• New Mexico Department of Tourism
• National Park Service
• El Santuario de Chimayo and Archdiocese of Santa Fe websites or call 505-351-4889

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IF YOU GO

Holy Chimayo, 15 Santuario Drive, Chimayo, New Mexico 87522

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