The Mysterious Staircase at Loretto Chapel
Text of emailed slideshow tells the story of a mysterious staircase at Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico and its miraculous construction by an unknown carpenter without the use of nails, glue, or central support
Description: Emailed slideshow (text only) [ View as slideshow ]
Circulating since: April 2007
Status: Partly true
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Email example contributed by Jack T., 19 April 2007:
| Subject: The Mysterious Staircase
City of Santa Fé, in New Mexico, USA. A mystery of over 130 years and attracting around 250 thousand visitors every year. Point of attention: Loretto Chapel. What makes this chapel different from all others is that the subject of the supposed miracle that took place in it, is a staircase. A chapel was constructed somewhere in 19th century. When it was ready, the nuns found that there was no staircase built to take them to the top level. They spent 9 days praying to St. Joseph, who was a carpenter. On the last day, a stranger knocked at their door and said he was a carpenter and could help them build the staircase. He constructed the staircase, all by himself, which was considered to be the pride of carpentery. None knew how the staircase could stand by itself as it did not have a central support. Then the carpenter did not use a single nail or glue to construct this staircase, and then disappeared without even waiting for his payment. There was a rumour in the city of Santa Fé, that the carpenter was St. Joseph himself ... ...sent by Jesus Christ to attend to the nuns' problem. Since then, the staircase was known to be called "miraculous" and turned out to be the site for pilgrimage. There are 3 mysteries in this case, says the spokesman of the chapel: the 1st mystery is that, until today, the identity of this man is not known. The second mystery -- all the architects, engineers and scientists say that they cannot understand how this staircase can balance without any central support. And the 3rd mystery -- from where did the wood come? They have checked and found out that the type of wood used to build the staircase does not exist in the entire region. There is another detail that has just increased the belief in the supposed miracle: The staircase has 33 steps, the age of Jesus Christ. |
