La Conquistadora

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 My name is La Conquistadora. I have had this name for 388 years, ever since I came to the Southwest with the Spanish pioneers who called themselves conquistadors. I am a small wooden statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, dressed in real clothes with an extensive wardrobe like a Spanish Queen of old. Every single year I have been in Santa Fe, I have been taken out in procession, and not a day has passed without someone beseeching the Mother of God for intercession in my presence. I currently reside in the Our Lady Chapel in the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis Assisi. I haven't always had such splendid surroundings. I was enclosed in a crate measuring 40 inches long by 24 inches wide and 22 inches deep and carted by an ox train from Mexico City to Santa Fe in 1625. Upon arriving in Santa Fe I was placed in my new home, the parish Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, which had mud floors and a leaking roof. In 1640 my church, called a shanty by the Franciscans, was razed and I was enthroned on the altar in the new and larger adobe church also entitled Our Lady of the Assumption. For a time there was peace and tranquility and a spirit of religious devotion took hold of the Spanish settlers. I also received visits from the nearby Pueblo Indians and the more distant Apaches who were very curious about me. The entire population of Santa Fe celebrated my presence on the feast of the Immaculate Conception when I was dressed in silk and gold braid and was taken out in procession as Our Lady's representation. In honor of her new feast day, both I and the parish Church became known as Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. In the ensuing years as  hostilities broke out between the Spanish settlers and surrounding Pueblo tribes, the Spanish visited me more often, usually to say the rosary, requesting the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary for the safety of their families. Hence I became known as Our Lady of the Rosary.  Prayers alone didn't suffice to quell the coming Pueblo uprising as mistrust had developed between the neighboring tribes and the Spanish, in large measure owing to Spanish politicians who continually exploited the tribes. On August 10, 1680 the Pueblo tribes and Apaches joined forces to attack the Spanish settlers across the territory. Many Friars and settlers perished. On August 15 Santa Fe was attacked and both San Miguel Mission and Our Lady of  Assumption Church were set afire. I was rescued by devotees and was taken to the fortress-like Palace of the Governors where the Spanish resisted the Pueblo onslaught for a full five days. Finally on August 21, the remaining Spanish settlers, friars and conquistadors decided to leave Santa Fe and travel south all the way back to Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission at El Paso del Norte. In 1684 the Spanish exiles from Santa Fe built a chapel - Our Lady of Conquest at San Lorenzo, a few miles down the Rio Grande river from El Paso and this became my home until 1692 when my new knight, Don Diego de Vargas, was sent from Madrid to lead the exiled Spanish back into the New Mexico territory. Don Diego de Vargas had an intense devotion to our Blessed Mother and he prayed before me daily for her intercession.. He was especially inured to my image likeness of Blessed Mary and appreciated the deep connection between myself and the original Spanish settlers of New Mexico. After gathering his forces and the exiled Spanish settlers at San Lorenzo and El Paso, Don Diego de Vargas brought me by wagon train back to Santa Fe in the summer of 1692. Before entering Santa Fe, Don Diego and his conquistadors offered prayers in my presence to the Blessed Virgin Mary for their safety and success. Surprisingly the Pueblo tribes offered little resistance, convinced by Don Diego de Vargas that they should welcome the image of our Blessed Mother, also their spiritual Mother, back to their lands. Indeed there was a large celebration of Spanish and Indians together when we arrived at the plaza in Santa Fe and the Friars erected a large white cross. I was placed in a small chapel in the Palace of the Governors and received almost daily visits from then Governor Don Diego de Vargas until his untimely death in 1704. Ten years later a large parish church was built on the east side of the plaza and was dedicated to St. Francis. Connecting with the north transept of this church, a chapel with intricately carved beams and corbels was built for me. Here at last I had my permanent throne where I sit today, although in 1850 a much larger cathedral church was built over and around the old Saint Francis church which was then disassembled with my chapel left intact and renamed the Our Lady Chapel, currently the most historic venue of the Cathedral. I sit here daily unless I am taken out in procession on Blessed Mary's feast days or when I'm escorted to the Rosario Chapel for viewing in celebration of Don Diego de Vargas's peaceful reentry into Santa Fe in 1692. I always await the prayers of the faithful and especially listen to those who truly believe in the Blessed Virgin Mary's assumption into heaven. I also fervently wish to help those who are desperate for God's mercy. I welcome all pilgrims to come and pray for the Blessed Mother's intercession with our Lord Jesus Christ on behalf of their intentions.
                                                                                                                                                              Click below for a video of La Conquistadora in procession.

La Conquistadora - YouTube

► 5:34► 5:34

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXX-deNx4Rg‎

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Jun 24, 2009 - Uploaded by jedareynolds

 

Saint Francis Cathedral - Santa Fe

The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, located one block east of the Plaza, is the eminent architectural and historical landmark of Santa Fe. The Cathedral was the dream of Archbishop Jean Baptiste Lamy, the first Vicar of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, who arrived in Santa Fe in 1850 to discover that a small adobe mission church, La Parroquia, with a leaking roof and mud floors, was the mother church for the new archdiocese. Archbishop Lamy did all he could to raise funds for a Cathedral. He sold his horse carriage and furnishings from the Bishop's residence, convinced local merchants to contribute, obtained pledges from the Bishops of Cincinnati and St. Louis, established a tithe system for Catholics in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and returned to his native Southern France to collect donations. The cornerstone was laid in 1860 and the new cathedral was constructed around La Parroquia, so that Santa Fe residents would continue to have a church for worship. Work on the Cathedral slowly progressed in starts and fits as funding waxed and waned. Bishop Lamy oversaw most of the Cathedral construction but died in 1888 before completion and consecration of the Cathedral in 1895. Clearly the Cathedral bears his signature. It was designed in the Romanesque revival style popular in Lamy's Southern France. As such the cathedral features characteristic round arches separated by Corinthian columns and truncated square towers. The Cathedral was built from yellow limestone blocks quarried near the present site of Lamy, New Mexico. A keystone brick arch was constructed above the main entrance and contains a carved triangle with the Tetragrammaton in Hebrew. It was reported that Bishop Lamy recommended this carving in appreciation of financial contributions made by local Jewish merchants towards the building of the Cathedral. During the restoration in 1986, new bronze doors were created, each with ten large panels that portray intertwining civic and religious events in the history of the Catholic Church in Santa Fe. A 2005 addition to the upper facade of the cathedral is a small, round window featuring a dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit. The outside portico features statues of Saint Francis, the patron saint of the Archdiocese, Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American to be canonized, and of course Bishop Jean Baptiste Lamy, whose remains are buried in the crypt beneath the Cathedral floor.
Entering the Cathedral's nave, one's attention is immediately drawn to the floor to ceiling altar screen in the main sanctuary. This reredos, the work of the renowned iconographer, the Franciscan Brother Robert Bly, titled Saints of Americas, depicts 13 saints of North and South America, as well as Our Lady of Guadalupe. In the middle of the reredos is a nicho with a blue robed statue of Saint Francis of Assisi, which was carved in Mexico City in 1710. Also on display in the sanctuary are two large oil paintings that once graced La Parroquia. The Agony in the Garden and The Arrest of Jesus, proclaim our Lord's sacrifice. These are works of the renowned Mexican artist, Pascual Perez, which also date to 1710 and were brought to Santa Fe from Mexico City by ox-cart. Above the altar is the six foot San Damiano Cross, a replica of the crucifix in the Basilica in Assisi, where Saint Francis prayed and was inspired to restore the Church by serving the sick and the poor. Adorning the side walls of the Cathedral's nave are retablos (two dimensional paintings on wood) of the Stations of the Cross by the contemporary New Mexico artist, Maria Romero Cash. In Penitente style, the Stations are edged with painted red curtains that add drama to Christ's passion. In between the Stations are Bishop Lamy's French imported, stained glass windows illuminating the lives of the Apostles. The American made celestory windows overhead depict the coat of arms of the Archbishops of Santa Fe.
Passing through a transept from the main altar to the Our Lady Chapel, one encounters the oldest Marian statue in the Americas, entitled La Conquistadora, Our Lady of Conquering Love. The statue was carved from willow tree bark in Spain in the early sixteen hundreds then was brought by Franciscans to Our Lady of Assumption Chapel in Santa Fe in 1626. During the pueblo revolt in 1680 she was rescued from a fire that consumed the chapel and she was taken to Juarez, Mexico. She was returned to Santa Fe by the conquistador Don Diego de Vargas in 1692 when he convinced the Pueblo tribes to return Santa Fe back to the Spanish settlers. He attributed his success in reclaiming Santa Fe with minimal bloodshed to prayers made to the Blessed Mother and in 1710 he rebuilt Our Lady of Assumption Chapel for La Conquistadora . That chapel was subsequently incorporated into the present day Saint Francis Cathedral where La Conquistadora remains on display. Her costumes are changed by the liturgical season and feast days and she has a diverse wardrobe. She is the object of persistent devotion to our Blessed Mother. She was crowned Our Lady of Peace by Archbishop Sanchez in 1990.

In the novel," Death Comes For The Archbishop", Willa Cather describes the landscape of Santa Fe that must have greeted the new Bishop, Jean Baptiste Lamy in 1850 as he arrived on horseback after a long journey from his previous parish in Cincinnati, " As the wagons went forward and the sun sank lower, a sweep of red carnelian-coloured hills lying at the foot of the mountains came into view; they curved like two arms about a depression in the plain; in that depression was Santa Fe, at last! A thin, wavering adobe town...a green plaza... at one end a church with two earthen towers that rose high above the flatness. The long main street began at the church, the town seemed to flow from it like a stream from a spring. The church towers, and all the low adobe houses, were rose color in that light,-----a little darker  in tone than the amphitheatre of red hills behind; and periodically the plumes of poplars flashed like gracious accent marks, -----inclining and recovering themselves in the wind."
The young Bishop Lamy exalted in the beauty of Santa Fe, its mountains and sunsets, its oasis-like setting. He thanked God for his safe arrival in Santa Fe and he vowed to eventually build a cathedral that would pay homage to God's obvious majesty in the Southwest and to the persevering Christian faith of the Spanish who had settled here. It seems that he succeeded. The Cathedral stands like a religious portal to the Santa Fe forest and mountains. It is the Christian centerpiece from which the plaza and town descend toward the valley. The Cathedral's interior honors the Spanish Catholic Colonial era. It creates the lasting impression that this place was claimed for God -- a long time ago.

For a vimeo of Saint Francis Cathedral, click on 

St. Francis Cathedral, Santa Fe, New Mexico on Vimeo

► 1:14► 1:14

vimeo.com/12272075‎

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  For religious services at Saint Francis Cathedral, click on

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi: Welcome!

www.cbsfa.org/‎

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Spanish Art Market - Santa Fe

Santa Fe is well known for its homage to the arts with its museums, studios, opera, theatre and concerts. One of the main Santa Fe art attractions every summer is the Spanish Colonial Art Market, which was held on the last weekend of July 2013. The Spanish Art Market is held at the Santa Fe Plaza, one block west of Saint Francis Cathedral, and along the adjoining streets. It is the largest art sale of its kind in North America. It features over 300 vendors of traditional Spanish colonial art, with an emphasis on Catholic religious iconography. It is an art form that traces its roots back to the Spanish settlers of Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado some 300 years ago. Separated by geography, climate and hostile Native American tribes from their Catholic friars and neighbors, the Spanish settlers developed their own, unique religious art to help sustain their Christian faith. The original art was used to decorate their churches and moradas, and was displayed in community processions on particular Catholic religious feast days. Many of these feast days were in honor of Catholic saints, so much of the art work then as well as today falls under the category of santos, images of saints, either bultos, carved sculptures painted or unpainted or retablos, colorful wooden panels of saints. Artisans who do these art pieces are called santeros. Many contemporary santeros were taught their craft by older family members who in turn learned from their santero ancestors. In some families the santero art tradition dates back to the original settlers of the New Mexico territory. In addition to bultos and retablos, other notable art forms that have descended from the Spanish settlers of the New Mexico territory include paintings on buffalo or deer hide, colcha embroidery, straw applique, copper engraved panels, tin carvings, bone carvings, ironwork, hand made furniture and weaving. All of these art forms are on display by vendors at the Spanish Art Market. Indeed at the recent 2013 Spanish Art Market, the Blue Ribbon Best of Show selection was a painting on buffalo hide by Ramon Jose Lopez, entitled "In Un Sueno de Santa Fe, Agosto 1680".  Ramon Lopez's painting painstakingly depicts the Pueblo Indian Revolt of 1680 which drove the Spanish Conquistadors and Franciscan Friars back to Mexico. The tapestry reveals all the cruelty of war. Upon questioning, Mr. Lopez stated that he wanted to make a piece that would educate people as to what actually happened during the revolt - namely that a real war broke out between the Pueblo tribes and the first Spanish inhabitants of Santa Fe. The  tapestry is made of 4 buffalo hides stitched together with sinew and measures 8 by 16 feet. The paints are all derived from traditional New Mexico pigments. I thought the painting would best be displayed in the Historical Museum of New Mexico or at the Smithsonian but Mr. Lopez suggested that it may find its place hung in a New Mexico Catholic Mission Church. Ramon Jose Lopez's buffalo hide painting was just one of many art works at the Spanish Art Market that captured my attention. It was a delight discussing the art first hand with the various artists. I was impressed that many of the artists felt that their art had enriched their Catholic faith - had increased their reverence of Jesus Christ, Our Lady of Guadalupe and the saints. Catholic pilgrims interested in the rich Catholic culture of New Mexico should plan to visit the Spanish Colonial Art Market on the Plaza in Santa Fe during the last weekend in July each summer. Come and learn about our Southwestern Catholic heritage.