Sacred Heart Cathedral Pilgrimage to Santa Fe
- Very Rev. Derrek Scott
- Jul 7
- 3 min read
Our Lady of Peace
Pilgrims walking in Santa Fe
On Sunday, June 29, I joined twenty-eight parishioners of the Sacred Heart Cathedral to journey by charter bus to the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe. It was a pilgrimage of faith to celebrate the Jubilee year, but it was also an opportunity for us to celebrate with the people of Santa Fe a tradition that has been done for almost four hundred years.
The Procession of Our Lady of Peace (La Conquistadora) is a ritual of thanksgiving that began in 1692, when the Spanish governor of New Spain (present day New Mexico), Don Diego de Vargas reconquered Santa Fe. The reconquest of Santa Fe would end a 12-year revolt of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico. De Vargas had prayed for the intercession of the Virgin Mary under the title of La Conquistadora for a peaceful re-entry into Santa Fe. The Intercession was successful, and the territory of Santa Fe was regained without bloodshed. De Vargas promised to honor the Blessed Mother with an annual procession and fiesta.
The focal point of this annual procession is a 3-foot tall wooden statue that is over five hundred years old. It was brought to the New world by the early conquistadors of Spain and eventually ended up in Santa Fe. During the Pueblo revolt, the statue was safely moved to El Paso until the reconquest of Diego de la Vargas.
After a celebration of Mass by archbishop John Wester, archbishop of Santa Fe, the Sacred Heart Cathedral pilgrims and I witnessed the ritual of blessing and a procession to the Rosario chapel located about a mile and a half from the Basilica church. There the statue will reside for a novena of masses until it is returned to the Basilica the following Sunday. The procession was filled with songs honoring the Blessed Mother and the recitation of the Rosary. Despite the heat of the day and the long pilgrimage to the chapel, we joined the joyful celebration of the people of Santa Fe.
Our pilgrimage did not end with the procession to the Rosario chapel. We continued on to visit three other important pilgrimage sites: (1) Our Lady of Guadalupe, built in 1776 for a growing Santa Fe neighborhood along the Santa Fe river and the end of the Santa Fe Trail; (2) The San Miguel chapel, the oldest Catholic Church in the United States, believed to have been built between 1610 and 1628; and (3) The famous Loretto chapel, location of a miraculous staircase believed to have been built by St. Joseph
The pilgrimage to Santa Fe was a prayerful opportunity for all who participated. I am grateful for this opportunity to participate as a “pilgrim of hope” in this jubilee celebration.
By Very Rev. Derrek Scott, Vicar General
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