El Santuario de Chimayó is a Roman Catholic church in Chimayo, New Mexico, United States.

It receives almost 300,000 visitors per year[3][4] and has been called "no doubt the most important Catholic pilgrimage center in the United States.

[7] A small room called el pocito[9] (the little well) contains a round pit, the source of "holy dirt" (tierra bendita) that is believed to have healing powers.

On November 15, 1813, he wrote to Father Sebastián Álvarez, the parish priest of Santa Cruz de la Cañada, asking him to write to the Episcopal See of Durango for permission to build a bigger church in which the people of El Potrero could worship Jesus as he appeared at Esquipulas and could hear Mass.

[3] On February 8, 1814, Francisco Fernández Valentín, Vicar General of the Diocese of Durango, wrote back with permission.

[6] In 1929, when the owners were in financial trouble,[12] members of the newly formed Spanish Colonial Arts Society bought the property and donated it to the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.

[16][17][18][19] Many visitors to the church take a small amount of the "holy dirt", often in hopes of a miraculous cure for themselves or someone who could not make the trip.

[5][8] One version of the legend says that during Holy Week, Abeyta (or a friar)[20] saw a light shining from the hillside and dug the crucifix up with his bare hands.

[3] Another version says Abeyta was watching his sheep and contemplating his blessings, though he was sick, when a vision of his patron saint, San Esquipula [sic], beckoned to him.

A flood of the Santa Cruz River (a small tributary of the Rio Grande) in the spring of 1810 uncovered the body and the crucifix.

"[22] Researcher Benjamin Radford reported finding little evidence to corroborate claims of miraculous cures in his 2014 book Mysterious New Mexico.